WritersCollege - Course Catalog

COURSE NAME Click on the course name to go to the catalog page with the full description. You may register at the bottom of that page.	COURSE MINI-DESCRIPTIONS:	Teacher	Length	Cost
Article Writing	Have you ever wondered what it would be like to see your article and name appear in Cosmopolitan or Flair; Entrepreneur or Newsweek? The pride and joy is indescribable. And the pay, not bad! Learn how to become an accomplished article writer and pitch your work to magazines of your choice. It’s all in the writing, selling and presentation and this course will teach you step by step, how handle each one of them.	Usha Sliva	6 weeks	$180
Body-Build Your Story	Does your story bulge in the wrong places, lie flaccid when it should exude strength?	Patrika Vaughn	4 weeks	$120
Book Promotion	Even the best book won't sell unless people know it's available. Learn how to present your book for greater sales whether you have a publisher or are self-publishing.	Patrika Vaughn	6 weeks	$180
Book Promotion Through Talk Shows	There are 3,240 national and local talk shows in the U.S. every day, and 2.400 more in Canada and the U.K Talk show appearances give you credibility and widespread recognition. Authors who promote on talk shows usually make more money and have more fun than those who don't.	Patrika Vaughn	4 weeks	$120
Book Promotion Timetable Workshop	All authors, whether self-published or published by a publishing house, must take major responsibility for the promotion of their books. Learn what needs to happen and when each step should be taken.	Patrika Vaughn	6 weeks	$180
Book Reviews That Rock	When you read a book, you always have an opinion about it, don’t you? Well, why not turn that opinion into cash by writing book reviews? How do you get books to review and where are the best places to peddle your freelance reviews after you’ve written them?	Sandra Louden	4 weeks	$120
Children's Fiction	Children are a wonderful audience to write for. To a child, anything is possible. They will happily devour stories about talking animals, aliens from outer space, friendly ghosts and fantasy worlds over the rainbow, as well as contemporary stories about children like themselves.	Karen King	8 weeks	$240
Children's Magazines	This course will cover aspects of writing for children's magazines that are open to freelance writers, including short stories, features, comic strips, picture strip stories, features, puzzle and activity pages.	Karen King	6 weeks	$180
Children's Picture Books	Learn the basic skills of writing children's picture books, how to study the market and give your manuscript the professional touch. The course discusses how to create picture books characters, write strong but simple stories, write for different age groups, let the illustrations tell the story, and how to present your work to publishers.	Karen King	8 weeks	$240
Choosing Your Voice	Are you telling your stories in the most convincing, most dramatic voice?	Patrika Vaughn	4 weeks	$120
Creating Characters	Learn to make your characters live and breathe. Get inside their heads, know how they relate to one another. Write such full characters that their arms and legs stick out when you try to close the book!!! Learn their purpose in your plot. Learn who your characters are, and how they fit into your story. Receive tools for developing each character and learn how to turn them loose to write your story for you.	Jana Lynn Shellman	6 weeks	$180
Creating History	A place for historical and fantasy novelists to acquire or polish the skills needed for the writing that comes before and between the writing. Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to identify and categorize primary, secondary and third party resources, demonstrate how those differences effect their stories, and explain why each type of resource is necessary for the creation of fictional/fantasy worlds.	Peggy Ulman Bell	4 weeks	$120
Crime Novels and Short Stories	Crime fiction is by far the most popular genre you will see on library shelves (romance runs it a close second). This course is designed to guide you, the aspiring writer, through all the stages of writing a crime novel. ...At the end of six weeks, you will be well into your novel. More importantly, you will have the confidence that comes from knowing you are writing well.	John Paxton Sheriff	6 weeks	$180
Dialect Writing	Dialect is heard with the eyes.	Patrika Vaughn	8 weeks	$240
Dialogue	Dialogue is what makes your writing - fiction or non fiction - come alive for readers. Learn how to make dialogue work for you- to develop character, advance your plot, impart information, show conflict or tension, set the mood, and make readers part of the action.	Patrika Vaughn	6 weeks	$180
Editing for Writers	Self-editing is probably the most difficult part of writing. Fine tuning the manuscript, seeing the flaws, imagining how the words sound to the reader, and then garnering the courage to rework them is daunting. ... During this class, we’ll work on toning things down, tightening things up—a diet for your manuscript.	Cindy Davis	6 weeks	$180
Essays and Personal Stories	This is a class for any writer who is motivated to write short pieces based on his or her personal experiences, explorations, dreams, longings, emotions, thoughts, and/or ideas. These pieces can be targeted to magazines or complied into a book.	Gloria Kempton	6 weeks	$180
Experimental Fiction Joining the Dialogue	If you enjoy the idea of pushing beyond the boundaries of ordinary fiction, this course will allow you to play, and to forge new directions in literature which remain compelling for the reader. You will also consider how you fit into the history and ongoing presentation of experimental fiction, delve into new parts of your psyche, and start looking at publication.	Tantra Bensko	6 weeks	$180
Gothic Writing	Gothic Novels are hot today. Several other genres popular today have descended from them too, including Horror and Gothic Romance. But what are Gothics? How do you write them? And how are Horror and Gothic Romance similar to them? How are they different? And how do you convert and incorporate Gothic forms into Horror and Dark Romance?	Ayn Hunt	6 weeks	$180
Grammar for Writers and Editors	Writing is communication: whatever else writing does, however beautiful it is, if it does not communicate, it does nothing. To communicate, the words need a structure that enables the writer to convey his or her ideas to the reader in a way the reader can understand. Grammar provides that structure.	Irene Davis	4 weeks	$120
Greeting Card Writing: Short, Doable, Profitable	Could you use extra money, writing in a field that's still largely untapped and undiscovered?	Sandra Louden	6 weeks	$180
Haiku and Zen Poetry	Learn the most important techniques in the composition of haiku and Zen poetry.	Daniel Delanu	4 weeks	$120
How-To Articles: Quick and Simple	Tap into the knowledge you already have inside your head from daily life and make money.	Mary Jo Rulnick	4 weeks	$120

Jump Start Your Novel	Focus on how to plan your novel before you start writing it to make it as effective and intriguing as possible. By the end of the seminar you will have a variety of tools to help you in the writing process from character and setting sketches to scene outlines to a complete plot roadmap.	Joe Nassise	6 weeks	$180
Magazine Articles	Learn how to write a standard nonfiction magazine article.	Stephen Morrill	6 weeks	$180
Magazine Query Letters	Learn to write a query letter that can attract the interest of an editor and clinch the sale.	Stephen Morrill	4 weeks	$120
Make 'Em Care!	How do you get readers of fiction to identify with your characters? How do you create empathy in nonfiction readers?	Patrika Vaughn	4 weeks	$120
Memoir Lane	Designed to help you write your memoir.	Michael & Jennifer Dearmin	4 weeks	$120
Mystery Novel	Beginning in the mid-1800s with Edgar Allen Poe’s dark tales, mysteries have increased in popularity over the years; today they’re one of the hottest markets in the fiction genre.	Cindy Davis	8 weeks	$240
Newspaper Feature Articles: Getting Human Interest Stories Into Print	Learn the basics of writing feature articles for newspapers. Learn what features articles are (or aren't), how to get ideas for them, what makes a good feature, interviewing tips, and the anatomy of a feature.	Elsie Walker	4 weeks	$120

Nonfiction Freelance Writing Business	The course is intended to teach you how to MARKET yourself and how to run the BUSINESS of nonfiction writing on a freelance basis.	Stephen Morrill	6 weeks	$180
Novel Notions for the Novelist	Novel Notions for the Novelist is a class that guarantees to enrich your writing efforts by means of creative visual, verbal, and hands-on activities. The lessons in the course provide helpful suggestions and practical advice to any writer who has faced the proverbial question, "Where do I go from here?" Whether your characters run into a brick wall, or you just run out of ideas, Novel Notions for the Novelist will get your creative juices running again.	Delphine Boswell	6 weeks	$180
Novel Writing	Some sage once said that everyone has a novel inside them. We all know that, but the problem is in getting it out, down on paper via the friendly computer, and then accepted by a publisher. ...And at the end of the course,...when your finished novel lands on your chosen publisher's desk they will know at once that they are reading work by a competent writer.	John Paxton Sheriff	6 weeks	$180
Openings that Hook Readers	Every opening, fiction or nonfiction, has three functions. Learn what they are, plus eight opening techniques for accomplishing them.	Patrika Vaughn	4 weeks	$120
Photography for Writers	Being able to take photos, or find photos, to accompany your writing can help sell the story, keep control over your work, and even earn you extra money.	Stephen Morrill	4 weeks	$120
Poetry Advanced Workshop	An intensive, eight week poetry workshop in which we'll be dealing with poetry written in prescribed forms as well as open form "free verse" poetry, and the prose poem	Paul Haenel	8 weeks	$240
Poetry Fundamentals	This course teaches approaches, understandings, and paths to attitudes that allow us to better learn what might unlock the poetry that's in all of us.	Paul Haenel	6 weeks	$180
Promotional Writing	Learn the basics of writing promotional materials for businesses and professionals including press releases, flyers, slogans/mottos, sales letters, brochures, three piece mailer, layout/graphics, marketing, and pricing.	Michael & Jennifer Dearmin	6 weeks	$180
Quizzes That Sizzle	No, we’re not talking about boring school tests or those nasty “pop quizzes” we all hated. These are the quizzes in magazines and in the Sunday section of your newspaper most of us can’t resist taking. They are fast to write—and fun to take. The two main types of quizzes – lifestyle and “fast factual” will be covered.	Sandra Louden	4 weeks	$120
Researching and Interviewing	Learn to to find information, locate and interview experts, learn how to apply the rules of rigorous scholarship to your findings, and learn how to stay out of legal trouble while doing all this.	Stephen Morrill	4 weeks	$120
Romance Novel Writing	Learn everything from coming up with a story idea to preparing a completed manuscript for sale in this popular genre.	Brenda Hiatt Barber	6 weeks	$180
Seniors Do Write!	An introductory course for mature students who want to explore their writing potential. We will fuel the fire already smoldering within your own life experiences.	Michael & Jennifer Dearmin	6 weeks	$180
Seven Common Writing Problems and How to Solve Them	Something not working in your fiction or nonfiction? Here's your chance to examine the seven most common problems that keep a manuscript from being publishable.	Patrika Vaughn	8 weeks	$240
Shadow Writing	Are you curious about writer’s block (a myth), the dreams, longings, cravings, obsessions, and needs that distract you from your writing because of the strength of their grip? Do you suspect that there are depths that you can’t quite reach in your writing for fear of turning up something unpleasant? In this class, we will turn toward these things. Step on the accelerator and move into one of the darkest places you’ve ever been as a writer—your own unconscious.	Gloria Kempton	6 weeks	$180
Speech Writing	Adding speechwriting skills to your writer's toolkit can make you more marketable. Public relations firms, businesses, local government officials, nonprofit organizations, etc., need people with this skill.	Elsie Walker	4 weeks	$120
Stalking the Markets	Avoid rejections. Learn how to target the best markets for everything you write.	Patrika Vaughn	4 weeks	$120
Start Here	What you need to know before you write to help you write like a pro from Day One. Dump your fears; get control of your writing. Here are the steps to help you build a solid foundation for everything you write.	Patrika Vaughn	6 weeks	$180
Stop Talking About It; Just Write	This highly motivational and inspirational course is designed for writers of all levels and all genres. You will be encouraged to work through any blocks that are holding you back or slowing down your writing.	Susan Farewell	6 weeks	$180
Striptease Writing (Show, Don't Tell)	Good writing reveals rather than explains. Learn to get out of the way and let readers experience the episodes, events and people you're writing about.	Patrika Vaughn	4 weeks	$120
Technical Writing	Learn the mechanics of user guide writing and get you a feel for the field of technical writing.	Elsie Walker	4 weeks	$120
Technical Writing Workshop	This workshop is for students who have already taken the course, *Technical Writing*.	Elsie Walker	4 weeks	$120
The Writer in You	Nobody was born writing; all of us had to learn. This course will explore some of the more effective methods of communication through the written word. All that is asked of you is that you try.	Michael & Jennifer Dearmin	6 weeks	$180
Travel Writing	For writers (or want-to-be) writers who are interested in writing and selling articles about travel. Nuts and bolts information, as well as inspirational and motivational techniques for making it all happen.	Susan Farewell	6 weeks	$150
Writing for Fun and Profit	For "prepublished" writers. Students will focus on a variety of writing techniques, journaling processes, writing, editing and marketing strategies and will apply them to either a work in progress, or will develop a new project.	Alyce M. Skelton	6 weeks	$180
Writing Through Loss	Explore a variety of writing techniques to help deal with losses of all kinds. Journaling as well as other eclectic writing strategies will help you access creative energy, work through the grieving and tap into joy.	Alyce M. Skelton	6 weeks	$180
zzz	More courses coming soon

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