FINDING YOUR VOICE AS A FEATURE WRITER
WITH RICHARD WARNICA, toronto star feature writer
Course Duration: July 8- September 2, 2026
Wednesdays, 5pm–7:15pm MST
Format: Online
Live attendance recommended; Recordings available for missed classes.
In this intensive writing course for intermediate and advanced journalists, you’ll learn the craftsmanship of reported features by writing or revising an original story under the mentorship of acclaimed Toronto Star journalist Richard Warnica. Through close reading, lectures, workshopping, and one-on-one feedback, he’ll show you how to seamlessly blend the tools of investigative journalism, essay writing, and narrative non-fiction — as well as the traditional reporting beats like science, politics, and justice — to produce memorable work.
The emphasis in this course is on practical and advanced techniques. You’ll study both the strong, simple storytelling basics and distinctive, advanced styles of contemporary feature writers, mining the works for tools you can borrow. You’ll discover how voice, rhythm, structure, and reporting can all be deployed to leave readers with an unforgettable story.
The class has two streams.
In Stream A, you’ll attend and participate in all seven classes but won’t have the opportunity to submit and receive feedback on your work. The goal is to leave motivated to push your writing into bigger, better, stronger and maybe even weirder places as you move forward in your career.
In Stream B, you’ll put that motivation straight to work by producing a promising longform feature story of up to 4,000 words with Richard’s expert guidance on the initial idea, a mid-semester check-in, and feedback on your final draft. The goal is to come out of this class with the best piece of feature-writing you’ve ever done.
Course Outline
Each class is divided into three parts. The first hour is typically a close read of a single narrative feature, the second a lecture on a specific aspect of feature writing.
After the main class, Stream B students will have the opportunity to workshop with their colleagues in small groups and one-on-one with Richard.
Class 1 (July 8) Conception: What makes a feature, or, in other words, separates a mere idea from an actual story? (Stream B: Pitches due before first class.)
Class 2 (July 15) Reporting for Advanced Feature Writing: Tools and tips for mining the details and knowledge you need to make your stories come alive. (Pitch feedback available after class)
Class 3 (July 22) Beginnings: Studying — and looking beyond — the anecdotal lede and nutgraph
Class 4 (July 29) The Spine: Linking together the disparate threads of your research through elegant and effective structure
Reading week/two week break - classes resume August 19, 2026
Class 5 (August 19) Advanced Writing Techniques: From sentence length to scene writing and beyond
Class 6 (August 26) Macro and Micro Editing: Revising your drafts for more effective language, voice and flow
Class 7 (September 2): The Essay in Reporting & Reporting in the Essay: A journey into the deepest depths of the feature form
Financial Support
If you’re a student in need of a supported rate, please fill out this application form. We might ask you for supporting documentation but won’t share any information outside of our admin team. Please note that there are only three (3) supported-rate spots available for each course.
We also provide the option to pay for the course in installments. Email your request to admin@haqstory.com and we’ll happily work with you to create a plan.
Capacity Policy
Space is limited to 30 students.
Richard Warnica is a feature writer at the Toronto Star. Known for his deep, sometimes obsessively, reported features, long and short, he’s covered the justice system, popular culture, health issues, the fall of Rob Ford, and the rise of Donald Trump. He was a 2010 Investigative Reporting Fellow at the Tyee Solutions Society, and the 2018-19 Webster/McConnell Fellow at Massey College, at the University of Toronto. He lives in Toronto with his wife and daughter.