Any novelist knows the hardest part of writing is sitting down in the chair and working out your creative muscle by practicing your craft every day. It is not the most brilliant-minded people who become published, but rather those who tone their writing through regular word workouts. This class will support students in creating a writing routine by providing prompts and inspiration on a daily basis, Monday-Friday, for three weeks - the same amount of time it takes to form a habit - in an online setting. From “Once upon a time,” through the major plot line of a story, this is the perfect course for those students looking to enroll in our Novel Writing Program, or simply for those looking for a creative way to spend their slower summer months. Students will gain access to the online classroom on June 14th and will be able to submit pages through July 3rd.
Each morning a new writing prompt will be posted for students in the online classroom. Students will work in their own time to write pieces inspired by the daily prompt and will post in the online classroom by the end of each day. Students are welcome to post the pages they wrote or they may choose to simply update the class on their writing for the day. The intention of this course is to foster a love of writing and to take the beginning steps of drafting a novel. As such this will be a low-stress, high-inspiration environment and while students will be encouraged to share their work they should feel no pressure to do so. This course is priced lower than our other Teen Writers Institute classes as there will be no formal lectures and it will be run with a simplified format of daily writing exercises for students to engage in and share with a community of peers. Please note that while the instructor will regularly write quick notes of encouragement to students, there will be no formal extensive feedback in the basic package for this course. Students may purchase an add on to submit up to 2500 words for detailed instructor feedback after the first week of the course.
TWI Online uses a mix of Flex classes and Live classes. Flex classes allow students to work on class materials in their own time over the course of TWI through Moodle, our Learning Management System. Students will gain access to the online classrooms via Moodle, our Learning Management System, the Friday before each class begins so that they can explore navigating the site, but teachers will not begin posting content until the first day of class for each course.
Live classes include 1 hour of synchronous teaching in addition to daily lectures and writing activities posted in Moodle. These meetings will be recorded and made available to any student who was unable to attend within 24 hours of each class. On days that the class does not meet via zoom content will be posted to the virtual classroom for students to work through at their own pace.
*Note that Once Upon A Novel is a Flex class and will not include any live instruction nor zoom meetings. The 12pm time is simply to indicate that students should try to log in to our Moodle classroom by 12pm each day whenever possible in order to complete the daily writing tasks.
Tuition discounts available for financial need. Please check online for details.