Writing Classes
 

 

I’ve studied writing at the New School University; Vermont College; Antioch McGregor; with Shannon Gilligan at Coaching for Writers(sgilligan@madriver.com); with Kim Moritsugu at Humber College; and with many others at lots of places.  I’ve been taking writing classes for most of my life.  Some of them were outstanding. 

Sydney Offitt’s fiction writing class at New School University in New York is terrific.  He’s a marvelous teacher, and a truly fine person.  Another great writing class taught at The New School is Susan Cheever’s nonfiction course; she’s a superb writer and a fabulous teacher.  (She also teaches writing at Bennington.)  If you can’t attend her classes, read her books and her Newsday column.  (For a list of her books see http://www.susancheever.com.)

The New School used to have one-day Saturday writing programs, and I enjoyed them, including a class on suspense and, long ago, Renni Browne’s lectures on Self-Editing for Fiction Writers.  Unfortunately, they no longer offer those one-day workshops.  I wish they’d bring them back.

Some writing courses are not as much about writing skills as about encouraging people to write.  That kind of class can be valuable, if it’s what you want.  I enjoyed In A New York Minute, a six-session course at the 92nd Street Y in New York.

 
 

I took it as an exercise in ‘loosening up’; I’d been writing nonfiction for so long I wanted to try something to stimulate my imagination.  This little course was fun, and exactly what I needed at the time.

          What about on-line classes?  I’ve had problems with some of them, not with the faculty, but with the other students.  There’s typically no screening of students, so you encounter all levels of writing and education in a class, and some students have uninformed opinions they don’t hesitate to express.  For example, in an on-line class at Gotham Writer’s Workshop, where you post sections of your manuscript for classmates’ comments, a woman insisted that the Chanel suit one of my characters wore should be spelled ‘Channel.’  (I don’t object to anyone correcting my spelling, but those doing the correcting should make sure they’re right.)

Some distance learning courses require the student to send to the instructor a specific number of pages a month; two I know about require 45-50 pages a month.  Problems can arise if the instructor does not keep copies of earlier chapters; I’d advise students to insist that the instructor do so or you may find (as I did) the instructor telling you to put material in a chapter that had appeared earlier – and which she had forgotten – wasting everyone’s time.

          On the other hand, I found an on-line Vermont College class taught by Shawn Merwin useful.  Shawn’s a good teacher, and a good person, and there was only one other student in the class, so it was more efficient than other on-line courses I’ve taken.  (A big on-line course can be a nightmare, with everyone scrambling to express him or herself.)

Antioch Ohio has a distance learning program with an interesting approach: the student designs his/her own curriculum, and finds his/her own faculty.  I didn’t complete the program, but I learned a lot from the experience, because I tailored every class around books I was writing, or planned to write.

 I arranged courses on Mysteries Set in the Art World; Books and Films Set in the Business World; Mysteries Set in Closed Societies (schools, hospitals, etc.); and Golden Age Mysteries.   Since I also wanted to study technique, I set up courses on Creating Suspense; Authentic Settings; Character Development; and Writing Effective Dialogue.

I tried to identify the best books of the types I wanted to write, the best writers of dialogue, the most successful plotters, the most brilliant builders of suspense, and the most creative designers of settings.  While I studied and read and wrote, I investigated all the programs, associations, and books available to aspiring writers.  Some of those I found helpful are described below.