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Pen on Fire: 10-Week Workshop (Self-Paced)

Unlock the power of your pen and conquer your writing obstacles with Gotham Writers Workshop's transformative course. Gain techniques and insights to ignite your writing and soar through your projects with confidence and finesse. Join a supportive community of like-minded writers and unleash your creative potential.

  • Beginner
  • 18 and older
  • $464
  • Online Classroom
  • 47 hours & 30 minutes over 2 sessions

Start Dates (1)

  • $464
  • Online Classroom
  • 47 hours & 30 minutes over 2 sessions
  • Includes $25 Reg Fee
    Class accessible anytime within the session dates
  • Includes $25 Reg Fee
    Class accessible anytime within the session dates
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  • Tue, Sep 10 at 12:00am - 11:45pm
  • Tue, Nov 19 at 12:00am - 11:45pm
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Class Description

Description

What you'll learn in this writing class:

The dream of a writer is to write like his or her pen is on fire. To burn through pages with confidence and finesse. But we often put all kinds of obstacles in our own path, slowing us down and robbing us of the freedom we need.

Perhaps you’re stuck with starting a project, or unhappy with your progress, or you need inspiration to put some gas in your tank, or you want to stretch some under-used muscles. Or you want the support of a teacher and like-minded writers.

This course provides techniques and tricks and insights that help you push past your worst internal roadblocks, so you can fly through your writing on a daily basis.

Notes
This is a cross-genre course, applicable to any kind of prose writing.

This course introduces you to techniques and tricks and insights that help you surmount obstacles to your writing path. 

Course components:

  • Lectures
  • Writing exercises
  • Workshopping of student projects (each student presenting work two times)

Pen on Fire is for beginners or anyone who wants to brush up on the fundamentals. 

Course Syllabus

Confidence: Letting go of disclaimers. Finding compassion for yourself. The differences between freewriting vs. journaling and the benefits of each.

Rituals: Finding what works for you. Identifying your strengths. Visiting with your work.

Playing to your strengths: Choosing the right genre. Throat clearing, vamping, and prevaricating. Breaking through resistance to tell the story you want to tell.

Obstacle of the Self: Getting out of your own way. What are the obstacles you most frequently impose on yourself? Discovering them, developing tactics to get rid of them, and preventing new ones from appearing.

The Inside Story: Whose story is it, anyway? Who is the narrator? Who is driving the action? Paring away all distractions and focusing on who is telling this story.

The Finer Points of Revision: Where to start when you feel lost. Things to keep an eye out for. Creating a plot board.

Where are you going? Where have you been?: How your past influences your thinking about your work. Setting goals. Using compassion and poetry to grow your writing.

Marketplace Madness: To publish or not to publish? Putting yourself out there. Surviving the business of writing with your psyche intact.

No MFA Needed Here: What are the elements of an MFA program that could help you grow your writing? Finding them in your community and your life. Connecting to the literary world.

Persevering: Handling rejection. Minimizing rejection. Techniques for persistence and perseverance.


Important:

  • Schedule posted is the Start and End date of the class. You may access the class at any time, day or night, within the schedule provided. Please see Online Class Delivery for more details.
  • Registrants will receive email instructions and information on how to access the online classroom.

Remote Learning

This course is available for "remote" learning and will be available to anyone with access to an internet device with a microphone (this includes most models of computers, tablets). Classes will take place with a "Live" instructor at the date/times listed below.

Upon registration, the instructor will send along additional information about how to log-on and participate in the class.

Refund Policy

All Classes (except One-day and Zoom Intensives and Write-Ins):

  • For a refund or credit, contact us three business days or more before your class starts. You can either choose to hold a full credit with us good for one year on other Gotham classes OR you can opt for a refund less a $25 administrative fee and your $25 registration fee ($50 total).
  • If you need to withdraw after your class has started (or two business days before it starts), you won’t receive a refund, but you’re welcome to a Gotham credit less the price of Week 1 and your $25 registration fee, but we need to hear from you three business days or more before Week 2 meets for that to happen. After that point, no credits are available.

One-day and Zoom Intensives:

  • You may reschedule a One-day or Zoom Intensive one time, if you notify us two business days before the class begins. After that first reschedule, there is a $25 rescheduling fee.
  • If you notify us three business days or more before your class begins, rescheduling is free. If you notify us less than three business days before your class begins, there is a $25 rescheduling fee. If you don’t notify us until after your class begins, we cannot reschedule you.
  • You may get a refund (minus a $50 fee) if you notify us three business days or more before your class begins.

Write-Ins:

  • If you withdraw 1 business day or more before it begins, you’re welcome to a full credit good for one year toward another Write-In. No refunds are available.
  • If you simply don’t show up and don’t notify us in advance, you forfeit your money.

A few more things:

  • Credits are valid for one year and cannot be changed into refunds down the road.
  • Simply not attending class or notifying the instructor does not mean you've officially withdrawn.
  • Some exceptions are made on a case-by-case basis for medical emergencies with a doctor's note.
  • Refunds take up to six weeks to process.

Please understand, we can't issue a refund after classes have started, even if you miss your first class. Similarly, we can't offer you a credit one day before your second class or after that. We understand that other obligations get in the way of attending class, but these policies allow us to get other interested writers into class early enough to have a good experience, and this allows us to offer our classes at a reasonable price.

Important Notes:

  • Students are allowed to join a class in the second week.
  • Only those who pay the tuition in full can be guaranteed a place in class.
  • Class dates and times may be subject to change. A substitute may be assigned or make-up classes added to the end of the term.
  • Auditing and the recording of classes are not allowed.
  • For all classes, students receive a record of payment and registration.
  • Gotham reserves the right to remove any student at our discretion.
  • Gotham does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, disability, socioeconomic status, national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, age, or marital status.
  • Our courses are not intended to provide instruction that will result in the student's acquisition of occupational skills.

In any event where a customer wants to cancel their enrollment and is eligible for a full refund, a 5% processing fee will be deducted from the refund amount.

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Gotham Writers Workshop

Gotham Writers Workshop is a creative home in New
York City and Online where writers develop their craft and come together in the
spirit of discovery and fellowship. We’ve been teaching creative writing to
students since 1993.




We believe that everyone has a story to tell.
Indeed, many stories. Keep your...

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