From the teacher of the Udemy bestselling course Rhetoric of Story. A new course for writers of all levels. PLEASE NOTE : this course is in development, with new talks added regularly. # Did you ever stay up until dawn reading a great book? Has your worldview ever been rocked by a powerful essay? Were you ever been left breathless by the words of a great novelist, playwright or poet? Have you ever wanted to tell your story to the world but just... could...not...find...the words?! In over a decade as a writing teacher, Damien Walter has helped thousands of students find their voice. Now he shares a new course to develop the foundational skills to build a powerful writing practice. What separates a good writer...from a great writer? Copywriter. Journalist. Professional blogger. Content creator. Or just plain "Writer". Whatever the role, great writing is one of the most in demand and highest rewarded skills in the new freelance economy. But delivering great, creative writing, on demand and to deadline, will test even a great writer to the limits. The writers who make it don't just have great skills. They have learned the most powerful heuristics. "Heuristic : any approach to problem solving that employs a practical method, not guaranteed to be perfect, but good enough to reach an immediate goal." Heuristics are mental shortcuts that ease the cognitive load of making a decision. After thousands of hours watching students struggle with complex, made-up "rules of writing", Damien came up with a better way. By learning and practicing these 11 essential heuristics, anyone can power-up their writing. From ambitious young writers to seasoned pros, practicing the essentials will raise you to the next level. Each heuristic is introduced in a simple talk with multiple examples. But the real work happens away from the screen. Practical exercises for you to complete in your own time teach and reinforce the 11 heuristics. The more you practice writing, the more powerful your writing practice becomes.

Everyone has a story to tell. Don't let yours be lost! Share your life story, or the story of family members with future generations. Children and grandchildren cherish the words we pass on to them and will return to them time and again. This course shows you how to create an exciting and engaging biography or autobiography to share with friends, family and the world. It begins by introducing you to what makes a great biography, including: Why Write Your Life Story? Biography or Autobiography? How to Write Your Story Journals, Blogs, Articles, Recordings, Stories and Novels Tailoring Your Story for Your Audience Do’s and Don’ts Then you'll choose the approach to organize your story: Fact or Fiction Chronological Organization Thematic Organization Anecdotal Organization You'll learn techniques for creating professional writing including: Plot vs. Story Story Structure Viewpoint and Tense Dialogue Settings The heart of the course is a series of writing prompts that will get you brainstorming and turn your ideas into reality. Following these suggestions, your life will take shape on the page, almost magically: Writing Prompts - Photos Writing Prompts - Conversations Writing Prompts - Q&A Writing Prompts - Ancestors Writing Prompts - Where Were You When...? Writing Prompts - Childhood Writing Prompts - Toys and Possessions Writing Prompts - Pets Writing Prompts - Growing Up Writing Prompts - Accomplishments Writing Prompts - Spirituality Writing Prompts - Holidays Writing Prompts - Romance Writing Prompts - The Black Moment Writing Prompts - Changes Writing Prompts - Children and Grandchildren Once your story is written, we'll look at the fun process of polishing and publishing your story: Writing Big Polishing Your Work Illustrations and Covers Copyrights and Permissions Finally, with your manuscript finished, we'll show you how to share it with the world: Getting Into Print E-books Marketing Next Steps In this lively and fun course, Steve Alcorn shows you how to achieve your dream. Step by step, you'll bring your story to life. Imagine the fun you and your family will have sharing these experiences! Whether you're a first time or experienced writer, Write Your Life Story will show you how to share your history with others. Enroll now!

Many writers have told me they have all the ideas, but don’t know how to put them together into a story plot. In this course, I will give you a step-by-step walkthrough of how to plan and structure a story, which you can use again and again to keep writing new, unique stories. Structure And Plot Your Own Story. Brainstorm ideas for new stories. Overcome writer's block. Learn how to structure a story. Improve finished stories. Use This Course as an Essential Tool in Your Writing Process. I designed this course to be a practical guide, rather than a simple list of techniques that may be difficult to understand or implement in your writing. This course can not only massively benefit those of you who are new to writing fiction, but also those who already have prior experience. Whether you are writing a new story, or developing a work-in-progress, this course is for you. While you begin to plan and write your own unique story, I will be working alongside you, giving you clear examples. You may be struggling with writer’s block, lacking confidence in your writing, or having issues with understanding how to plot out your story. Whatever it is, this course is guaranteed to get your creative juices flowing! Content and Overview. This course contains easy-to-follow videos explaining each step of what is usually a complex writing process, as well as downloadable summary documents for you to use as tools in future projects. It provides your creative ideas with a methodical structure to help you plan and outline a full story from the ground up. In this course, I will show you exactly what you need to include in your story plan, using your own ideas. You will then learn how to put all this information together into a coherent structure, ensuring that you reveal each story event in the correct order. Finally, you will have the opportunity to edit your ideas and plot them in a way that suits you. By the end of this course, you will have a complete story structure, which you can then use to write creatively without having to worry about the ‘rules’ of writing. This course lays the foundations of a story. If you would like to build on this to add more depth, for example by including elements of mystery or romance, then look out for my future courses!

Whether or not you want to influence people, persuade them to buy a product, inform them of a cause you care about, entertain clients, or simply become a better communicator and writer, this course sets the foundation by supplying the essential tools you need to revolutionize your purpose toward a specific audience. And actually produce results. You will learn the crucial components, in an easy to follow, step by step format, involved in understanding how to reach a specific audience with a well thought out purpose that produces actionable results. You will learn: Author Purpose Audience Mindset Context Awareness 21st century applications And more... You will be able to apply these tools toward: Sales Entrepreneurship Small Business/Big Business communications Customer Acquisition Lead Generation Engagement Brand Awareness Interpersonal Communication Leadership Marketing Digital Storytelling Personal Brand Awareness Public Speaking Blogging Journalism Novel Writing Problem Solving/Critical Thinking The Power of Influencing an Audience And much much more....

This course is designed for children 8-12 years of age who are interested in writing their own mysteries. National Board Certified elementary school teacher and award-winning author Steve Reifman will take young writers step-by-step from the beginning of the writing process to the end and help them craft stories that keep readers guessing and on the edge of their seats! It doesn’t matter whether students are already seasoned mystery writers or brand new to the genre. This course promises to take young writers to the next level. In the easy-to-follow videos and detailed handouts that comprise this course, Steve skillfully combines the wisdom accumulated throughout his 19 years as an educator with numerous examples from his book Chase Against Time to teach students about crimes, crime solvers, suspects, motives, clues, witnesses, alibis, red herrings, and all the other elements that make mysteries so much fun to read and write. What’s even better, students can learn at their own pace. While the course's twenty-nine videos focus on the same knowledge and skills that one might find in a more traditional 4-6 week writing class, the structure of this course enables students to work on their mysteries anytime, anywhere. Students can watch and pause the videos whenever they wish, re-watch videos as necessary, and complete the course as their schedule permits. In addition to teaching the knowledge and skills required to help children write their own mysteries, Steve focuses on higher purposes. He wants children to experience the same thrill of writing a mystery adventure that he had when he wrote Chase Against Time and its sequels. He also promotes valuable writing habits such as perseverance, pride, and paying attention to detail. Furthermore, he wants children to develop a passion for reading and writing, and he leads the course with these larger objectives in mind.

Do you have a great idea for a novel, short story, play or screenplay, but don't know how to get started? In this lively and fun course, Steve Alcorn shows you how to turn your idea into reality. Learn the basics of: Story Structure Character Development Viewpoint & Tense Writing Scenes Crafting Dialogue Manuscript Polishing Getting Published Beginning Writer's Workshop shows you how to become a professional author while having fun and learning the tricks of the publishing trade. It's a fun and exciting class for all aspiring writers!

Hello and welcome to this course on Journalistic Writing! Many people write. Novel authors do it. Secretaries do it. Journalists do it. But every text type is very different. Writing is way more than putting word after word to get a sentence. Different texts have different target groups and different purposes. A novel should entertain you. A business email should lead to a contract or to another form of business relationship. And a journalistic copy should inform you in a way that you are able to form a solid decision about an event or a situation. When it comes to journalism, there are even different kinds of copy types with different purposes and forms. Solid writing techniques are absolutely essential for professional journalists. And in this course, we will teach you everything you need to know about professional journalistic writing. First, we will cover all the basics. You’re going to learn the 5 Ws and 1 H-questions a journalistic copy has to cover, and you will learn what news values are. Second, you’re going to learn the different sections of a text. What is a lead? What are nutgraphs? And what are kickers? You will be able to answer that in detail. Then we’re talking about text composing. There are three composing methods: The Inverted Pyramid, the Hourglass, and the Five Block story form. In the third section of the course, you’re going to learn more about different purposes of texts, namely about news, features, and opinion writing. Then we will take a closer look at reporting and interviewing. Finally, we will talk about the differences you have to pay attention to when writing for print, online, radio, or TV. You see, there is a lot to know about journalistic copies, and professional writing required an in-depth knowledge about all this. See you in the course! The course is based on a script by Kathryn Quigley. Kathryn is an associate professor of journalism at Rowan University in New Jersey, United States. She earned her BA degree in Communications from Villanova University and her MA degree in Journalism from the University of Maryland. She worked as a reporter at daily newspapers in Philadelphia, North Carolina and Florida. She is a freelance writer and author of the textbook Introduction to News-Writing: The Real Scoop, published by Kendall-Hunt in 2012.

Negative emotions and life stresses are one of the Three Key Elements that create Writer's Block. While we may want to write, often if our system is processing or dealing with emotions then this is difficult. Created by psychologist Luke La Vie, this course assists anyone writing in any field - academic, legal, research or creative. The training examines the seven major problems that negative emotions cause for our writing. We also implement and fine-tune specific proven solutions to eliminate the writer's block that can result from these problems. Specifically, you will learn: What Writer's Block is, how it is related to changes in brain processing and why it can affect anyone at any time Seven problems that are related to negative emotions that create writer's block Too upset to write Can’t properly focus Regular, daily life stresses i.e. a rough day at work Big, critical stressors i.e. relationship break-up, job loss, death Distraction Lack of ideas Feelings of stress Every lecture in the course has practical exercises that ensure you learn powerful solutions. The result? You will be able to write freely and easily again. Your instructor, Luke La Vie, has over a decade's experience working as a psychologist and assisting people. You will be able to ask questions and will be well-supported with any concerns.

Children's books are fun to read, and delightful to write. Share yours with a child, grandchild or the public, by discovering the way to write compelling children's literature in the exciting, hands-on course. Whether your goal is a picture book, storybook, middle reader or young adult novel, this course provides all the tools you need to succeed. You'll discover the joys of all these different children's genres: Picture Books Concept Books Storybooks Emergent Readers First Chapter Books Middle Readers Young Adult Novels The course introduces you to great fiction and nonfiction children's books for all ages. Step by step, you'll learn and practice: What Makes Great Children's Literature The Difference Between Story and Plot Dramatic Elements for Great Fiction Character Building Tips for Polishing Your Work Once you've created your book, you'll learn how to: Find a publisher or agent Capitalize on the lucrative world of self-publishing Market your book for fun and profit! In addition to the lessons, the course offers extensive supplemental materials, including reference lists of great children's books in all categories, and more than a hundred links to web resources vital to any children's author. Whether this is your first children's book or you're an experienced author looking for new techniques, Writing for Children has what you need to get your idea published. Enroll now!

This is a superior way to write non-fiction books. My name is Ian Stables, author of more than fifty Kindle books. Since I discovered this method, writing books has been so much easier and quicker. In fact, you can do more than just write books with this process. You can use it to write anything , articles, essays, Kindle book descriptions, Udemy course descriptions, blog posts, emails, and even business reports. It's that versatile. I taught this to a university student. She said it was a breakthrough for her. She found writing her essay far easier. Please note : For non-fiction writers. ============================== Student review Nothing  pleases me more than a book that seems to answer each and every  question I have in mind, and no other book does it better than this  book.  I felt as though Ian was speaking directly to my unspoken  concerns.  From  the unbelievably  great pre-introduction, which  completely captivated  my interest, all the way through the T of C, I  was fascinated and entirely educated. Now that I have finished  this course, I can only heap more praise on the instructor:  he knows  precisely what he wants his students to know and exactly how they can do  it if they follow his instructions. Yes, Ian, I know your  students and your readers love the way you  show the way.  You   certainly have a layer of fans that you can count on to keep looking for  anything (book or course) you do. Thank you so much. - Lillian ============================== I used to write my books using the traditional approach. I'd pick my subject and create a list of topics. Then I'd start to write. This often involved a lot of head scratching. I used to run into road blocks many times, wondering what to write next and how to word it. Plus, the long editing process at the end was long and arduous. To top it all, the book was not as successful as I'd hoped. So I began to read everything I could find on the subject of writing. I spent many hours reading books, taking online courses, and watching Youtube videos. I found some really good ideas. However, the real game-changer was when I made some amazing discoveries of my own. They literally transformed how I wrote books. With this new process, writing books became much easier, faster, and more enjoyable. There was no more long editing process. What's more, I began to produce books I knew a lot of readers wanted. Here are some advantages of this process: - Writing will be a lot easier, faster, and even more enjoyable. - No writer's block. You will always know what to write. The words just flow. - You'll be able to edit out every error in your book. (My highly effective three step editing method.) - Write a book introduction that compels readers to want your book. Enroll in this course and let me transform the way you write books. Please note : For non-fiction writers.