• A writer gets words on the page.  Do you need help getting words on the page?  Do you sit at your keyboard and computer (or pen and paper) and nothing happens?  Word Production, Parts I and II are designed to help writers get words on the page. These sections include writing prompts.
• A writer knows good writing when he or she reads it – including his or her own writing.  Do you need help learning how to judge the worth of your words? Word Dissection and Word Worth are designed to help writers understand what makes for good writing.
• A writer knows how to structure a story.  Note that I did not say short story, novella, or novel.  Plot structure is the same, no matter the length.  Plot Structure is designed to help you understand how to structure your stories.
• A writer knows how to tell a story that people want to read.  There are different components to good writing – the best writing.
• A writer understands how to start writing a story.  In Getting Started, I show you how I started a young adult fiction novel.
• A writer knows where to find inspiration.  Maybe you need a little inspiration?
• A writer knows how to edit and revise his or her writing.  How do I edit and revise my writing?  In Editing and Revising, I show you how I would edit and revise my own writing from different points in my writing career (early writing and contemporary writing). The bulk of the course will be found in this section.  This is the most important part of the course.
• A writer has a broad understanding of history and culture.  This whole course is designed to help with that.  All of the components combined together should help to broaden your literary horizons (but not in an annoying pedantic way).

Overture: An orchestral piece of varying form and dimensions, forming the opening or introduction to an opera, oratorio, or other extended composition, and often containing themes from the body of the work or otherwise indicating the character of it.

So we start with a story.  My story.  Wait…pause for a moment.  Why am I using my own writing?  Well, for starters there is the matter of copyright.  I would love to use the writing of James Herriot or Robert Heinlein or Bruce Catton.  These are three of my favorite authors.  Other writers have moments of brilliance, but this triumvirate sets the bar for excellence.

There are brief snippets of their writing sprinkled throughout the course – enough to make a point, but not enough to distress copyright lawyers.

And while I can’t use large swaths their writing in this course, you can  – and should – indulge in what they have to offer.  I have included a reading list which can be found in the Resources section of the course.  In addition to the contents of this course, their words will help you to understand the craft of writing.

So why not Shakespeare or Poe or Melville?  Their writing is not bound by any copyright constraints.  Why?  Because they are not writing right now.  You are writing right now.  You should not be writing like someone from 100 years ago.  The language changes.  The society and culture changes.  But aren’t some writers…like Shakespeare, timeless?  Certainly, but are you going to pick up Hamlet and enjoy it?  No.  Not unless you make a considered  – and considerate – effort to understand the language and culture of his time.  You are part of this time.  You should use the voice of now.  Even some of Hemingway’s stuff makes reference to things that I do not understand.  So I’m not going to give you Hemingway, or Poe, or Melville.  For now, just know that if you are writing in today’s world, then you need to use the voice of today.  Language changes over time, thus you should write – and I will teach – in the voice of today’s world.

In this course, you are stuck with my words.  They should suffice.  Also, you will get the opportunity to read some of my earlier writing.

Your first task in this course is to read Something to Teach.  The book is about 23,000 words, so it should take an average reader a little over an hour to read.  I want you to read the whole thing.

Why?

Because I want you to experience the book as it is meant to be read.  In one sitting.  You don’t go to a movie theater and watch a movie in installments.  You sit down and experience the movie from start to finish.

If the book was longer, then I would recommend digesting it in chunks.  But this is not Tolstoy’s War and Peace.  It is Something to Teach.

In his essay The Philosophy of Composition, Edgar Allen Poe wrote the following: “If any literary work is too long to be read at one sitting, we must be content to dispense with the immensely important effect derivable from unity of impression—for, if two sittings be required, the affairs of the world interfere, and everything like totality is at once destroyed.”

It is worth nothing that Poe was primarily concerned with poetry, specifically his writing of the poem The Raven, however, I believe his words are relevant for my purposes.

Instruction.

Poe does go on to write, “…that a certain degree of duration is absolutely requisite for the production of any effect at all.”

Something else to consider is this: Musicians will sight read a piece of music the first time they see the score.  Actors will do a cold read of a script the first time they are given the script.  What all of these things have in common is that they give the writer, musician, and actor a general feel for the work.

I want you to read the entire book – from start to finish.  Without stopping (if possible).  I want you to immerse yourself in the words.  The experience.  In order to get a general feel for my writing.

Throw yourself into the words in the same manner that you threw yourself into Tchaikovsky’s music.

The most important reason for having you read the entire book is this: you need to get in the habit of reading something again and again.  That is what an editor does.  That is what I do.  I read my writing again and again and again – until it sounds right.  I trust my ears.

Something to Teach will also provide a framework for some of the instruction found in this course, so you need to be familiar with the text.

Having said all of that, I don’t want you to think about anything in particular as you read.  Sometimes teachers will ask students to read a text “with purpose”.  There will be a pre-reading question or some other nonsense to help them “focus their attention”.  This is not how we should ask students to read fiction.  It’s not how I read fiction.  I am not going to ask you to read the book with any other purpose aside from simply enjoying the story.

Your task is simply to read Something to Teach.

Click on the cover below to access the downloadable PDF.

When you are finished, return to the here to continue.

You also have to understand that teaching a course is different than writing.  Writing is a creative act.  Not necessarily an intellectual one.

There is a tendency to over-intellectualize teaching and instruction.  That is not my goal.  In fact, it is quite the opposite.  I want you to understand general ideas and principles of good writing.  And then I want you to write.  A lot.  If you are going to get better at the craft of writing, then you need to practice your craft.  That means you need to write.

________

I want you writing/working with pen and paper.  Look at the course title: Pen & Paper.  These are the tools of a writer.

For learning, I want you to use pen and paper.  For writing, I want you to use whatever tools that best suit your needs for getting words on the page.  When I am trying to get words on the page, I am most successful when I use pen and paper.  However, I also use keyboard and computer as well as voice notes.  I get more words on the page (exponentially) when using pen and paper. Certainly, I can type faster than I can write by hand, but the thoughts flow more easily with pen in hand.  If I am sitting at a keyboard, then thoughts come in fits and starts, like a hiccuoughing engine.  There is rarely any flow.

Do you have trouble getting words on the page?  Or do you need to build good writing habits?

I like to approach being a writer like being a musician.  A musician picks up his or her instrument every single day and practices.  A writer should pick up his or her pen every day and put it to paper.  This section of the course provides new and experienced writers with writing prompts (single word prompts) to help you practice getting words on the page. The purpose of these writing exercises is to help you learn to get words on the page…without hesitation.

The purpose of these writing exercises is to help you practice the skills you learned in Word Production, Part I.  I want you to be able to write – without hesitation and without thinking – in response to more specific writing prompts.  Your task is to read a quote and a scene from a story, and then use these to write what happens next in the story.

In this section of the course, you will find a series of quotations from famous people.

These are exercises in word dissection.  Consider each quote.  Your task is to paraphrase the quote (i.e., put it in your own words).  Use a dictionary and/or thesaurus, as necessary.

The immediate aim is to have you dissect, and hopefully appreciate, some famous quotations.  A secondary, and perhaps more important aim, is to expose you to history and culture.  A good writer should have a broad understanding of both. 

These exercises are intended for both beginning and more experienced writers.  For beginning writers, these exercises will help you to see how the very best writers used language to express their thoughts.  For more experienced writers, I give you these quotations so that you can savor their richness.

This is also a precursor to being able to properly evaluate the worth of your own writing (editing and revising).  You have to know what someone is trying to say in order to judge how well he or she said it.

I will use the information in the PDF and post it here as well.  Copy the infromation in both spots.  Makes for easier access.  Tell students that they can find it in both places.

This is the list of authors and books that I recommend people read.

Lessons in writing instruction are meant for students who have completed all components of this course. That is why this information is listed at the end of the course.

To find out more, click on the link to go to Lessons.