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Whether you want to write your novel, perfect your screenplay, or craft your memoir, Writer’s Digest University can help you get your writing career underway. Our expert instructors will provide advice, specific instruction, real-world experience, expertise, and the motivation and drive to help you achieve your goals.
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Our writing online workshops cover every aspect of writing, from how to get started all the way to getting your writing published. Writer’s Digest University features writing classes online for every skill level of writer and our professional instructors are dedicated to helping you achieve your writing goals.
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More About WDUDon't know where to get started? Â
These featured events and courses are starting soon!Â
How Comedy Works
April 10
There are lots of classes about writing funny; this one is about what funny is – its mechanics, its principles. This webinar has no direct instruction but rather takes a deep dive into the comedy principles which are, in fact, the basic principles of every art form: tension and resolution, pattern disruption, misdirection and surprise. And we’ll see how these principles achieve their effects by looking at examples ranging from Buster Keaton to Richard Pryor to Amy Schumer. Â
Agent One-on-One: First 10 Pages Boot Camp
April 10 - 13
As many writers know, agents and editors won't give your work more than ten pages or so to make an impact. If you haven't got them hooked by then, it's a safe bet you won't be asked for more material. Make sure you've got the kind of opening they're looking for! You'll learn what keeps an agent reading, what are the most common mistakes that make them stop, and the steps you need to take to correct them. The best part is that you'll be working directly with an agent, who will provide feedback specific to your work.
Build a Better, More Profitable Editing or Coaching Business
April 17Â
Many writers, especially those with a decent track record of publication, supplement their income with freelance editing or coaching on the side. However, writers can easily subvert their efforts by being overly generic and expressing openness to every possible type of project. The key to success as a freelance editor is, in fact, to go narrow. Writers can develop a more successful freelance editing business by being more focused and strategic with the three Ps: positioning, packaging, and pricing. Learn more.Â
Prepping Your Screenplay to Win Competitions Intensive
April 10 - 17
Winning or placing in a screenplay competition is a great way to propel your writing career forward. Since the major writing competitions all receive thousands of entries, it’s crucial to make yours stand out. Many contests hire readers (script analysts) to first score the submissions and they choose which ones will advance to the judges. This course will teach you specific ways to drastically increase the readability of your pages, make your dialogue and description sing, and improve the clarity and structure of your script so you can have a better shot at advancing to the next round.
Writing Scary Stories: A Short Story Primer on Horror
April 17 - June 12
Do you like scary stories? Having trouble writing them? This four-week class will make sure you have the basics of short story telling down, and then show you how to use that pairing between terror and horror to immerse your readers in atmosphere, mood, tone, setting, and depth. It will also help you to understand the genre in greater detail—what’s selling now, the various subgenres, and how hybrid fiction can open up a wider range of markets for you. From an author, editor, teacher, and publisher who has been a Bram Stoker (twice) and Shirley Jackson finalist, this isn’t just theory, it’s execution, experience, and passion.
Novel Writing Toolkit
April 4 -Â June 12
Writing a novel can be a long and arduous process. It takes time. It's not like a short story where you might be able to crank it out in a single sitting. A novel can takes weeks, months, or even years of work. How can you maintain your momentum, enthusiasm, and thoughts all moving in the same direction over the course of that entire time? For me, I've found building a tool kit for each book is what gets me through those difficult scenes, unforeseen transitions, and soggy middles. This class will take you through the methods of building that tool kit and get you ready to build your novel.
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