COURSE CATALOG at WritersCollege.com

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Last updated on
 27 June, 2008


Seminar and Course Catalog

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Our one-week SEMINARS offer instant gratification at a low price.

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Seminars and Courses start the Monday after you register unless you request otherwise. Read our Registration Policy for details.

Extended courses last twice as long. There is NO additional material. They are provided for students who want two weeks for each assignment. Not all teachers offer extended course options.-

SEMINAR NAME


Click on the seminar name to go to the catalog page with the full description. You may register at the bottom of that page.

SEMINAR MINI-DESCRIPTIONS:

Note that there is no drop period or refund for seminars.

 Teacher Length Cost

Book Reviews That Rock
(The 1-week seminar. Scroll down for the full course.)

Finding Books To Review And Places To Sell Them

When you read a book, you always have an opinion about it, don’t you? 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? As part of the unique KISS series (Keep It Short, Sweetie!), this one-session seminar will whet your reading—and writing—appetite and answer some basic questions about the world of book reviewing.

Sandra Louden 1 Week $36

Cooking up a Cookbook
(A 1-week seminar)

 Have you walked by the bookstore shelves loaded with cookbooks and said, “I could write one.”? Do you have numerous old-world recipes you’d like to pass along to family members? Maybe you have quick fix entrees that would be great for bachelors, working moms or college kids? Whatever type of cookbook you’d like to write, this crash course guides you through the writing process with step-by-step instructions and provides tips for publishing it, too. So, if you’re thinking about the mound of recipes in your kitchen, sign up for this one-day seminar today because yes, you can write a cookbook. Mary Jo Rulnick 1 Week $36
Eulogies
(NEW!)
(A 1-week seminar)		 Writing one good eulogy can get you through a time of bereavement looking to the rest of your family like a knight in shining armor. Writing eulogies as a business can be a profitable sideline. This seminar is intended for both the person needing to speak at Uncle Fred's funeral day after tomorrow and for the person writing eulogies on a regular basis for other families. Sandra Louden 1 Week $36

Quizzes That Sizzle
(The 1-week seminar. Scroll down for the full course.)

 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   1 Week    $36   

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
Be Your Own Literary Agent 

Learn the steps needed to sell and promote your book (and yourself) to publishers with little or no cost to you! Beginning with the basics of promoting yourself, this course shows you how to write media releases, develop your own media kit, and explore other ways to get the word out!

Dorothy and Sandy Zjawin

6 weeks
$150
Body-Build Your Story

Does your story bulge in the wrong places, lie flaccid when it should exude strength?
Patrika Vaughn

4 weeks
$100
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
$150
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
$150

Book Reviews

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
$100
Choosing Your Voice Are you telling your stories in the most convincing, most dramatic voice?
Patrika Vaughn
4 weeks
$100
Creating Characters Write such full characters that their arms and legs stick out when you try to close the book!
Jana Lynn Shellman
6 weeks
$150
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
$100
Dialect Writing Dialect is heard with the eyes.
Patrika Vaughn
8 weeks
$200
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
$150
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
$150
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
$150

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
$100
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
$150
Haiku and Zen Poetry Learn the most important techniques in the composition of haiku and Zen poetry.
Daniel Delanu
4 weeks
$100
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
$100
How-To Books

Have knowledge to share? Use it to write a How-To book! Writing about your interest or expertise is one of the easiest ways to get published.
Dorothy Zjawin
6 weeks
$150
Jump Start Your Novel
(NEW!)
 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
$150
Magazine Articles

Learn how to write a standard nonfiction magazine article. 
Stephen Morrill
6 weeks
$150
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
$100
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
$100
Memoir Lane Designed to help you write your memoir.
Michael & Jennifer Dearmin
4 weeks
$100
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
$200
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
$100
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
$150
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
$100

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
$100
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
$200
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
$150
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
$150
Quizzes That Sizzle (the 4-week course)
 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 $100
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
$100
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
$150

Screenplay Writing
Before You Fade In: Structuring & Outlining Your Screenplay

Learn to navigate the important pre-writing work of organizing the story of their potential screenplay into the time-tested structure almost all screenplays follow.

Beth Danesco
6 weeks
$150
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
$150
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
$200

Short Stories

Short fiction is unlike longer fiction in more ways than length. This course will help you understand the basic structure of the short story, how to develop your own style when writing one, and the importance and process of revision.
Jan Sparkman
4 weeks
$100

Small Press and

Self-Publishing

An overview of the booming small press and self-publishing industries, and how you may secure your place in it.
Patricia J. Bell
6 weeks
$150
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
$100
Stalking the Markets Avoid rejections. Learn how to target the best markets for everything you write.
Patrika Vaughn
4 weeks
$100
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
$150
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
$150

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
$100
Technical Writing Learn the mechanics of user guide writing and get you a feel for the field of technical writing.
Elsie Walker
4 weeks
$100
Technical Writing Workshop This workshop is for students who have already taken the course, Technical Writing.
Elsie Walker
4 weeks
$100
The Isolated Writer Are you an isolated writer because of location, physical disabilities, young children or another reason? This class teaches how to turn this to your advantage.
Joy Rothke
4 weeks
$100
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
$150
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
$150
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
$150
zzz More courses coming soon      

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