On Wednesday, at noon Central time, I’m opening registration for an online short story class.
Writing on the Fast Track
Think you never have time to write? Think again. I wrote my Hugo-nominated short story “Evil Robot Monkey” in ninety minutes. If you have ninety minutes, you can have a story — all it takes is understanding how to make every word work double-time. In this workshop, learn the same techniques she uses to create new fiction. Through exercises focusing on viewpoint, dialogue, and plot, you’ll learn how to let nothing go to waste. By the end of this eight week workshop, participants will be given a writing prompt and complete their own short story.
Classes will be taught via G+ on Wednesdays from May 1 – June 26th, with a week off June 12th. Each two-hour session runs from 7pm-9pm Central Time.
Each week, you will be given an assignment that builds on the previous week. Classwork will be uploaded to a shared Google Drive folder visible only to you and your classmates. The class will be divided between lecture and group critique. The class is capped at eight students, to create a class size that allows the most interaction, feedback and personal attention for each of you.
I did let people from the waiting list for my previous class have first crack at this, so as of this posting there are five seats available.
Class requirements: You need an interest in writing short stories, but you do not need to have written or published anything yet. You also must be able to use G+ Hangouts (Note: You don’t need a web camera, although they’re useful. The only real requirement is a G+ account, the internet and some speakers so you can hear us).
There will be homework, so expect to allot an additional two to four hours per week for reading, critique, or writing.
Mary’s Writing on the Fast Track class taught me how to plan and write a short story, culminating in writing a first draft of a new story in only 90 minutes. I’d definitely recommend it to other writers looking to write small stories in a short amount of time.
–Caleb Huitt
Okay, tempted. Very tempted.
To whoever out-clicked me: congratulations. I have no idea how you managed to click ‘register’ so fast. My screen refreshed *exactly* at noon, central time. But I ended up on the waiting list all the same.
Please know that if, for any reason, you can’t manage to find time to take advantage of your spot, I’ll be happy to take it off your hands.
I’m not sure that a bunch of people who can register for a course in under 3 seconds need a course on how to write faster. Sigh. Stuck on the waitlist with probably about a thousand other people.
Sorry guys 🙁
I promise only to work hard and make sure I don’t waste the opportunity… I’m so excited!
As for how I got in so fast, I’m going to — grudgingly — credit TicketMaster, and the many many click-fraught minutes trying to get in under the wire to see Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and so on. I am *very* well practiced.