College-Caliber Courses for Beginners … at a Fraction of the Price
Your Resource for Writing Your Life
Stages of The Writer's Life
With college costs at an all-time high, students with creative aspirations often find writing coursework impractical or indulgent. And many creative writing programs do not offer undergraduate courses in personal writing.
Other writers find themselves yearning to write much later in life—after experiences have led to wisdom and an inclination to pass this wisdom on. These writers know their personal stories are much more than memories. They are legacies to be passed on.
No matter where you may be in these stages of “the writer’s life,” you can benefit from a supportive classroom environment that offers structured, individualized learning.
While many other online writing services promise to help you learn about writing, or to maintain daily habits as you pursue ambitious projects, few can offer the depth and structure of college-level courses with personalized instruction to help you hone your craft.
Whether you are a novice writer or someone with dozens of notebooks stashed in a closet, these self-paced courses will meet you at your skill level and help you grow.
What Other Classes Offer ...
Creative writing workshops in a college environment focus on the “workshop” experience—with peers providing feedback who have as little knowledge of the genre as you do. Faculty members rarely have the time to focus on your individualized goals and needs. Given the course structure, they simply cannot consider individual stories or poems within the context of larger projects.
Creative writing courses in the online environment offer “gimmicky” ways to help you generate writing—with the default suggestions too often promoting clichéd writing and generic advice. Writing coaches and instructors may be willing to help shape a longer manuscript, but these services come with significant fees.
How These Courses Offer More
I have been a college writing professor for over 20 years. Now teaching through Mining for Meaning: The Writer’s Life, I aim to bring quality writing instruction to writers of all ages and backgrounds. In these thoughtfully-designed courses, you will receive detailed feedback and coaching to aid you through your writing process.
These classes don’t stop with first drafts, and they don’t jump straight into the polishing phase of editing, as in many other online classes and services. Instead, they offer personalized instruction to help you revise and expand your writing into fully-developed, professional-quality pieces.
These courses will also assist you in pursuing publication of your stories and poems. If you have ambitions to write a memoir or a book of poems, I can continue working with you beyond these courses to build your full manuscript and assess the best paths for publication.
About Me
I have a Ph.D. in American literature and have published my own poetry and creative nonfiction in numerous literary magazines, including The North American Review, Comstock Review, Valparaiso Poetry Review, Poetry Quarterly, and Paterson Literary Review. In teaching at both universities and community colleges for the last 20 years, I have worked with many different kinds of writers.
