Tag: writing tips

April 9, 2019

Learning Writing from the Masters: Pros and Cons of MasterClass.com

This year I was given an incredible birthday gift – a year’s subscription to MasterClass.com – and I wanted to tell you about it because I think there are many others who’d appreciate and benefit from these classes as well. MasterClass is a website that features video classes taught by celebrity experts in their fields, and the big names are really the draw. It’s not every day that you have an opportunity to learn about writing from Neil Gaiman or acting from Natalie Portman! Thus far I’ve focused on my subject of interest, the writing classes.

So what can you learn from the masters about their craft? A lot, I’ve found! This month I’ll share my breakdown of how MasterClass works, what you do and don’t get from it, and a taste of what I’ve learned from the writing classes so far.

How MasterClass Works

When you sign up for MasterClass.com, you can purchase either a single class for $90 / €70 or a year’s All-Access Pass for $180 / €150, which includes access to every class on the website. The All-Access Pass is a good deal if you’re interested in more than one of the classes, as it allows access to a wide range of content on your own time.

Each class features about 20 videos from the expert in question. They take the form of condensed mini-lectures of 10 to 30 minutes or so, focused on a particular topic and divided into subtopics. Catchy music breezes you in and out of each segment. Each class has an accompanying workbook that summarizes key points from each video and offer supplementary exercises. The classes also include “office hours” where you can post your responses to these exercises, and instructors provide video feedback to selected students, as well as a community hub.

Pros and Cons

MasterClass is a wonderful way to learn from professionals who are or have been foremost in their fields. When you have instructors like Margaret Atwood, Judy Blume, and Dan Brown, their resumes speak for themselves. Students get to learn their philosophies and techniques – to see how these authors created their successful books and learn about the ups and downs of their careers.

Practical know-how is blended with heartfelt wisdom. The great thing I’ve discovered so far is that both of these vary from writer to writer. Listen to a few of the classes and they’ll start repeating key points, but also contradict each other at times! For instance, Judy Blume begins with character while Dan Brown begins with setting. R. L. Stine begins his class with by saying that, in contrast to the popular advice to write from your heart, he’s written many books and not a single one from the heart. You’ll take what works for you from each instructor and apply it as it fits, and there’s a wonderful sense of liberation in realizing this. The teachers thus far have all been animated, genuine, and encouraging. I get the sense that they believe in their students and want to see them succeed.

The videos are well made, with good production quality and visual touches (Neil Gaiman showing pages from one of his comics, Margaret Atwood demonstrating point of view through moving around boxes and staplers). The format is easy to work into the day – you can easily listen to a video, say, on a lunch break or train commute. Everything goes at your own pace, so you can take the classes as quickly or slowly as you like. For self-directed learners, and those who learn well through online interaction, MasterClass might be as good of a fit for you as it is for me.

MasterClass is not going to be for everyone. It’s not a substitute for the hands-on nature of an in-person writing group or workshop. If you’ve taken writing classes before, some of the content will be repetitive. Because the classes are so different, and the writers have diverse approaches, you’ll find that some will speak to you more than others. You’ll want to have the time to devote to digging in, learning, and really applying their teachings to your own writing, so some amount of “free time” for this is required. Some of you may be interested in taking classes on other topics, but there’s such a range (from politics to cooking to composing…) that you’re likely not going to take them all, or be interested in everything on offer. The workbooks vary in the intensity of their supplementary teachings and homework. Some feel more like outlines of the class, while others, such as Neil Gaiman’s, offer extensive reading lists and wonderful in-depth exercises to apply what you’re learning. If you’re committed to it, I believe that MasterClass and its teachings will improve your writing. I’ve found new insights and inspiration to revise the manuscript I’m working on.

If you’re reading this and thinking that MasterClass sounds like your thing, you can check it out here. Happy writing!

March 1, 2018

What I Learned – and Wish I’d Learned – in Creative Writing Grad School

There are debates in the writing world about the value of studying creative writing, and whether it’s beneficial or detrimental for honing your writing skills. I spent two years in a graduate Creative Writing program. Having gone on to write and edit professionally, there are skills I’m glad to have learned in class and others I’ve learned out in the “real world.” While programs, classes, and teachers vary, here’s my breakdown of what I personally learned in school vs. the lessons that came later, some of which I wish had been covered in the curriculum.

How to experiment vs. how to connect with readers

Graduate school did a fantastic job of opening my eyes to the different types of writing out there. By meeting practicing writers, I saw just how many genres and styles one could pursue, how many niches a writer could find for their own style and interests to shine. In classes, we were encouraged to try out different styles and voices. Writing exercises pushed our boundaries and deepened our abilities. We also analyzed a wide range of books in class. In this experimental climate, I could see that many different kinds of writing had value.

One thing that wasn’t at all stressed, though, was writing commercially. We were seen as artists, developing our abilities in an art form. Any considerations of marketing were left out, and so, in large part, were considerations of the readers – ironic in that I was hoping first and foremost for my words to connect with them. The elements that make writing “click” with people are often the same ones that make it sell, and I’ve been doing my best to learn them since graduating. Emotional resonance, concept appeal, and getting readers to turn pages are skills that transcend writing style and experimentation. I wish school had talked about them more.

How to write deeply vs. prolifically

“Write every day,” one of my professors told me, “even if it’s just a line in a notebook. If you’re writing a novel, it should be the first thing you think about when you wake up and the last thing you think about before you go to sleep.” I followed her advice, keeping notepads handy at all times. I learned how to be absorbed in a project and open to inspiration.

While depth was part of my education, no one talked about how to write prolifically or how to keep producing. There was no education about word counts or incentive to keep going outside of the thesis and classes. I also didn’t learn about outlining methods, which would have been helpful for the fiction I was writing. My instructors, of course, were part-time rather than full-time writers. If we’d had guest speakers in to talk about the discipline of writing full time and offer tips, or activities to instill discipline and practice along the lines of NaNoWriMo, how much that could have helped us learn about being productive, working writers.

How to critique and edit vs. how to market

The workshop format of our creative writing classes was useful in teaching us how to give and take critique. We went over classmates’ writing with a fine-toothed comb, learning to identify what they had done well and where they could improve. When receiving feedback, we discovered through experience how to incorporate consensus about what wasn’t working into revisions. We learned which critiques to take into account and which were off the mark for what we were hoping to achieve. I learned a good number of editing skills both through self-editing based on these critiques and through working with literary magazines on editing and acquisition.

By the end of my studies, professors said my work was “publishable,” but how exactly would I accomplish that? I left the program with very little idea. I recommend that anyone teaching creative writing talk their students at least a little through the business side of things, demystifying the submission process, query letters, agents, publication, and what the market is like.

There’s a lot I learned from my time in grad school about pursuing writing as an art. Since then, I’ve discovered how much it’s also a business, and how much I still have to learn. While studying creative writing can be the right learning opportunity for some, it’s not for everyone, and a lot of the craft’s practical lessons aren’t necessarily covered in the course curriculum. I recommend that anyone who’s interested in a writing career self-educate about readership, productivity strategies, and marketing. This part might come after writing a draft, as it favors strategy over artistry, but it’s important to look into if you want your writing to reach people and make its mark on the world.

February 1, 2018

Writing and Publication: A Nonlinear Path

In 2016, I’d given up on getting a publishing deal.

I’d been writing for most of my life. As a teenager, I’d self-published two poetry books (in the day before digital publishing, when self-publishing meant going to Kwik Kopy to get paper books printed) as fundraisers for charity. I went on to study Creative Writing in graduate school and complete a novel as my thesis. I had poetry, short story, and children’s book manuscripts ready to send out, a track record of literary publication, and old projects sitting in my Dropbox. I was bound and determined to have a career.

So the submissions and query letters went out, and the rejections came rolling in. The next five years brought two close calls: after many no’s, one publisher accepted my children’s book, only to have the line of books they’d accepted it for fold. A new small press was interested in my short stories, but the press ended up not getting off the ground. I tried to freelance and occasionally shopped around old pieces, but my heart was no longer in it. I dreamed often about having a great idea for a novel, but my real-life attempts never made it past chapter 1. The energy had drained from my writing attempts, and I worked in abortive fits and starts. Was my lifelong dream of writing books a false hope? Despite my love of stories and the positive feedback I’d received in my early life about my way with words, I wondered, not for the first time, if I’d been cut out for this at all.

Meanwhile, I focused on studying and then teaching the Enneagram personality system. My co-teacher Kacie and I decided to create a little ebook about personality types at work as a freebie connected to our mailing list. I brought out my editing and design skills to shape bits of our previous writing into a coherent whole, and added Decoding Personality in the Workplace to my email signature. I also continued to edit books on a freelance basis, and one day, one of these publishers asked: “We’re looking for an Enneagram book, and I see you’ve written one. Would you be interested in doing one for us?” And in 2017, Kacie and I got to hold The Modern Enneagram, the published book I’d given up on, in our hands.

There’s more than one path to being published, and the journey can be long and hard. Here are some strategies to weather its ups and downs.

1. Be persistent.

Rejection is a fact of publishing. A quick Google search will yield lists of rejection letters, hilarious in hindsight, for best-selling novels, and Stephen King collected enough of the suckers to hang them on his wall. From my experience on the other side of the acquisitions desk, I can attest that a lot of good writing, for reasons related to fit, space, and chance, just doesn’t make the cut. Those same pieces might find a perfect home elsewhere. Keep submitting, and if the editor takes the time to give constructive feedback, read it carefully. Sometimes they just don’t get your story, but at other times they’ve identified flaws that will improve your writing if corrected.

Also, while many publishers and publications simply don’t respond to submissions they choose not to publish, if the venue doesn’t specify this, don’t be afraid to follow up if you haven’t heard back. Last summer, I sent a fantasy story to an online magazine and heard nothing in response. I assumed they just didn’t like my story, then discovered that another submitter had received a prompt reply. My follow-up email led to the publication of “Count Three Stones,” and a piece I’d loved writing finally found a home.

2. Be open to different doorways in.

If one approach isn’t working, consider another. I just heard a great story from a Scottish literary agent about a writer of paranormal police procedurals. Despite the quality of his work, he was repeatedly turned down by traditional publishers because there was “no market” for his books. This agent encouraged him to self-publish, and the popularity of his unconventional mysteries proved the publishers wrong.

If you’re committed to getting your work out there, be open to trying different avenues for publication (including self-publishing), different genres, and new approaches. Experiment and see where it lands you.

3. Take breaks when needed.

If you feel exhausted and disheartened from the submission-rejection cycle, sometimes the best thing to do is to take a break from the whole game. Step away from your favorite manuscript. Let go of the projects you’re invested in if they’ve been driving you crazy. Later, you can return to them with fresh eyes, able to revise when needed, take a new submission approach, or start something new and exciting. Remember that “not now” doesn’t mean “not ever.” Publication is a non-linear process, so be open for its cycles of ebb and flow, and expect the unexpected!