Tragedy + Time: How to Make the Heavy Stuff Light on the Page

Learn from author Tawny Lara, whose signature wit combines mental health and humor. She wrote a book about sober sex called Dry Humping—so she knows how to make difficult subject matter fizzy  without making it flimsy. Dig into the gritty, glorious, complicated parts of yourself, then build boundaries so you know what belongs in public… and what stays locked in the Notes app forever.

This six-week generative workshop is for writers who’ve lived through some shit and are ready to shape it into stories. Building on the idea that time creates perspective, you’ll learn how to write about grief, addiction, mental health, and messy human experiences with clarity, restraint, voice, and levity—without minimizing their weight.

Through guided prompts, craft lessons, and real-world publishing insight, you’ll explore how to give difficult material enough shape, space, and perspective for a reader to access it. We’ll look at how lightness can come through humor, yes, but also through restraint, clarity, timing, tenderness, surprise, and the simple act of not telling everything at once. You’ll practice balancing vulnerability with control, developing narrative distance, and turning personal chaos into compelling work that resonates beyond your own experience.

This is a generative, homework-having, page-sharing, feedback-giving situation. Come prepared to write a lot, read a lot, share pages, and help each other turn the hard stuff into good writing.

Who This Course is For

This course is for writers who want to shape difficult, messy, or deeply personal experiences into readable work with voice, structure, humor, and boundaries. Come ready to write, share, revise, and figure out what belongs on the page versus what should stay between you, your therapist, and the Notes app.

Zoom Schedule

We will meet on Zoom each week on Wednesdays from 1:00-3:00 PM Eastern time. 

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

In this course, you will learn how to:

• Use time, distance, and perspective to transform raw experience into clear, shaped personal narrative.
• Write about grief, addiction, mental health, and messy life experiences with honesty, restraint, and emotional truth.
• Identify the difference between meaningful vulnerability and oversharing, building boundaries that protect both you and the work.
• Use humor, voice, and tonal contrast to bring levity to difficult material without minimizing its weight.
• Develope a stronger sense of what belongs on the page, what may need to stay private, and how to make those choices with intention.

Writing Goals

By the end of this course, you will:

• Draft new personal writing from guided prompts designed to create distance, clarity, and narrative momentum.
• Revise at least one piece with attention to boundaries, structure, voice, humor, and reader impact.
• Shape personal material into a more readable essay or story with a clearer beginning, middle, and end.
• Leave with a personal essay, story, pitch, or project direction that can continue developing beyond the course.

Weekly Syllabus

Week 1: Going the Distance

If you’re still mid-spiral, we’re not publishing that. Yet. Week one establishes the time, place, and voice you’re writing from, and how to create just enough space to actually tell the story with clarity.
In class: Prompts that help you zoom out without dissociating
Homework: Draft something with perspective (not just vibes) + submit to the class + read each others’ work

Week 2: Boundaries Are Essential

Not everything belongs on the page. This week we get clear on what’s yours to share, what’s yours to keep, and how to write honestly about the tough stuff.
In class: Boundary-setting, strategic withholding, and “maybe don’t name him” energy + feedback on writing
Homework: Revise with intention (aka: cut the parts that feel like a cry for help) + submit to the class + read each others’ work

Week 3: Who Cares?

Your story matters to you. Now let’s make it land for someone else.
We’ll find the meaning, a timely angle, and TL;DR of what you’re actually saying
In class: Prompts that drag out the deeper themes of your writing
Homework: Add a clear “so what” to your draft + submit to the class + read each others’ work

Week 4: You’re Allowed to Laugh At That

We’ll play with humor, voice, and tonal contrast so your piece doesn’t give your reader secondary trauma
In class: Experiments in levity, timing, and saying something dark with a straight face
Homework: Rewrite a section with intentional voice and humor + submit to the class + read each others’ work

Week 5: Make It Make Sense: Structure, Outlines, and Meaning

Time to turn your beautiful chaos into something readable. We’ll shape your draft into an essay with a beginning, middle, and end—without sanding off your edge.
In class: Structure help, editing prompts, “what can go” conversations
Homework: Submit another draft for feedback + read each others’ work

Week 6: What’s Next: Pitching Your Work

We’ll workshop, refine, and talk about the steps to getting your work out there: publishing, pitching, and podcasting, and more.

 In class: Thoughtful feedback + real talk about where this could go

Click the Enroll Now button below, enter your details on the Checkout page,
and reserve your spot in the course.

$445.00 Original price was: $445.00.$380.00Current price is: $380.00.Enroll Now