Write Now! 10 Online Classes

We take stock. We look ahead. We make plans. In this new year, have you a thirst to improve your writing? Start now!

The selection of online writing courses seems to expand daily. Now dozens of respected organizations offer quality classes.

Here are 10 to Consider*:

The Writers Studio
Offering beginner to advanced workshops in fiction and poetry. Classes are 10 weeks, with an emphasis on "encouraging students to try on voices and attempt a variety of narrative techniques as a way of discovering their own material and personal voices."  Now offering free Craft Class podcast.

WoodSprings Institute
University-level literary instruction, offering workshops in poetry, short story, novel, creative non-fiction, and memoir. Also: manuscript mentoring and MFA prep courses.

UCLA Extension Writers' Program
A pioneer in online offerings, UCLA has 175 beginning to advanced-level online courses in fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, writing for the youth market, feature film writing and television writing. Classes are typically 10-weeks, though some 6-week and 12-week options are available.

Stanford Continuing Studies
The Writer's Studio offers approximately 20 courses every quarter in the principal genres of creative writing— novel, short story, poetry, creative nonfiction, and screenwriting. All writing levels welcome.

MOOC - Massive Open Online Course
It's the Year of the MOOC, according to the New York Times.  The world of free, online, university-level courses is growing, from Coursera to Udacity and dozens more. Classes skew to science and technology with writing classes in short supply but that may change, and quickly. In fact, the number of MOOCs has become so unwieldy that outside websites have popped up to sort and rate courses and providers, see knollop and coursetalk.

The Loft Literary Center
Classes for adult and youth, online and on-site, all writing genres. Serves beginning, intermediate and advanced writers. Scholarships available.

Lisa Romeo's I Should Be Writing! Boot Camp
Led by no-nonsense nonfiction writer Lisa Romeo, this popular tough-love class helps turn the stuck, blocked, and rutted into happily producing writers. The six-week course is open to both new and seasoned writers.

Gotham Writers' Workshop
With more than 7,000 students annually, this New York-based organization is one of the most popular writing resources. Their interactive classes have been named Best of the Web by Forbes magazine. Six and 10 week workshops available in seemingly every genre.

Chicago School of Poetics
Offering online classes fostering innovative poetics. Students use visual web conferencing, desktop sharing, and collaborative whiteboards. The school offers "an alternative to, and a community beyond, the Creative Writing MFA."

Cambridge Writers' Workshop
Offering creative writing courses and literary salons in a variety of genres, including translation and manuscript prep. Classes run six to 10 weeks.

Have you taken a class from any of these organizations? Did you love it? hate it? Would you take another? I'd love to hear your experience!

*This is NOT a sponsored list. No compensation has been offered, considered or received.

Thankful Thursday: Plenty

In a post-holiday haze, I'm bumping into books and magazines, stumbling over journals and papers, and sinking into stories and poems. I am surrounded by plenty, sated and grateful.

It's Thankful Thursday, a weekly pause of gratitude for people, places and things that bring joy. What are you thankful for today?

I Did It!

Jessica Hagy

The jig is up. In the waning light of 2012, and before I walk into the fog of New Year promise, I'm taking stock and admitting that: 

1. I'm not going to write every day.

2. I'm not going to lose 10 pounds.

3. I won't run daily, give up sugar, or grow nicer, kinder, and more patient.

As the new year nears I dread those well intentioned, high-octaned, and, ultimately, short-lived resolutions to live more! do more! be more! Can we just jump ahead to March when all those commitments are distant (and, admit it, painful) memories?

This year, instead of resolutions, I'm doing the I Did It list. This brilliant idea is the work of writer Lisa Romeo, who says: "It's my small act of defiance against all the emotionally upsetting lists we humans tend to mentally make as the year draws to a close: the one that ticks off the things we failed to do all year. . . As writers we tend to see our writing year as a finite lot of things not yet achieved instead of a valuable step along an infinitely curvy road. Give yourself a break. Please."

I like her style. I'm starting my Did It list now.

How about you? Did you take a class? teach a class? write a poem? start a novel? join a writing group? Write it down! You might be surprised and heartened by all you've accomplished.

Thankful Thursday: All Your Nothings

and may all your nothings, too, hold something up and sing.

— Michael Blumenthal
from And the Cantilevered Inference Shall Hold the Day

In this last week of the year. In this season of illumination, when everything lights and shines against deep winter, dark night. In this time of reflection, hope and, yes, hints of sorrow and sometimes regret, this poem arrives. And gratitude swells for words that fit just right.

Read the full poem here.

 It's Thankful Thursday, a weekly pause to appreciate the people, places and things that bring joy. What are you thankful for today?

White-Out, Black-Out, Erase

A brief affair

Light on details

we’re obliged to ask

questions, talk about

nothing much.

Against this fictional utopia,

hope is a slow burn.

In the dark, tales

are engineered.

- Drew Myron

Every writer has a special trick to get the mind stirrin' and words flowin'. My go-to is the erasure poem. Out of words and inspiration? Just pick up any print material and start scratching. By mining words that are not my own, new combinations appear and fresh ideas follow. For me, the erasure poem is a way to kick my head and hands into the writing groove. Some are keepers, most are not. But the process is always fun.

For great erasure inspiration, see:

Mary Ruefle (white-out erasure books)

Austin Kleon (newspaper black-out poems)

Lawrence Sutin (text and collage erasure books)

What's your trick? Have you tried an erasure poem? How do you kickstart your writing mind?