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Fiction – Short stories or novels

If you’ve never written fiction and/or have never taken a fiction class, then Junse Kim’s 5-week Intro to Fiction class is an excellent, solid introductory class that will give you the building blocks to start writing fiction. Or you can take the longer fiction workshop taught by Josh Mohr in San Francisco and Jamey Genna in Berkeley. The main difference between these two classes, other than length, is that Intro to Fiction is not a “workshopping” class, whereas th fiction workshop is. In Junse’s class, you will not bring in drafts of short stories to be shared or critiqued, as you will in Josh’s or Jamey’s class. Junse gives you short in-class exercises and/or short take-home assignments.

Longer 9-week “workshopping” classes (or our once-a-month, 6-month-long “continuation” classes)  are the best choice for anyone who falls within the range of “advanced-beginner” on up to the high end of “intermediate.” (Note: Every teacher sets up the “workshopping” format a little differently, depending on how many people are in the class, how long the stories are, how much time is allotted for critiquing each story, etc. Just remember that you CAN take these fiction workshops more than once and still get a lot out of them. Many students take them on an ongoing basis, bringing in different stories every session.)

If you want to work on a novel, and if you already know at least a few basics of fiction writing (you don’t have to be “advanced,” but you should know SOMETHING), I suggest taking Karen Bjorneby’s 5-week “Starting Your Novel” class, which includes workshopping. You can also work on your novel in a fiction workshop, although there may not be as much discussion focused specifically on novel writing.

If you are further along in your fiction writing (intermediate to advanced), another option is to take one of our “continuation” workshops. In these classes, it will be assumed that you are a more experienced writer, and that you will be farther along in the process (i.e. you’re bringing in work that has already been through at least a couple of drafts). The focus will be on practicing the skills required to edit and revise your own work (including restructuring and rewriting).

Personal essays, memoirs, experimental prose

Creative nonfiction is the category of writing that falls somewhere between pure fiction (fictional short stories, novels) and pure nonfiction (newspaper articles, non-narrative magazine features, and nonfiction books, i.e. how-to books, self-help books, biographies, etc.). Personal essays, memoirs and experimental, literary prose all fall into this category.

Personal essays and memoirs are similar genres, in that they’re about (or based on) your real life stories. The lines between these two genres are blurry at times, but there ARE differences. For one thing, personal essays tend to be shorter, self-contained, stand-alone pieces. They generally range anywhere from 500 to 15,000 words in length, and are published in mainstream magazines, newspaper columns, literary journals, anthologies and as collections. You can write a personal essay about something as small as why you love hot dogs, or as large as how you dealt with losing a sibling to AIDS. You can write a funny essay about how you hate the texture of pasta, or a pensive, meditative essay about the day your father died in a car wreck.

Memoirs, on the other hand – although they can also be short – are more likely to lead to book-length works that focus on one particular THEME from your personal life (i.e. your struggle with an addiction, your career as a surgeon, or your memories of being raised by parents who were also politicians). Or they may focus on one particular PERIOD in your life (i.e. the year you spent living on a beach in Thailand, or the first three years you worked as a kindergarten teacher, or the period when you fought breast cancer, or the decade when you worked as a circus performer).

Another difference between personal essays and memoirs is that memoirs tend to focus more on telling a story – on the narrative, the drama, the action – whereas personal essays, although they may contain big chunks of narrative, tend to be more reflective, more focused on making a point about an idea or opinion, or on talking about how you came to have a personal epiphany about some particular aspect of your life.

Magazine and newspaper pieces, nonfiction books, book proposals

This is a broad category and requires that you know the basics of good journalism (fact-gathering, researching, reporting, interviewing, pitching, meeting deadlines, etc.).

Also, just as you need to learn many specific elements of craft when writing fiction – ie. how to write effective dialogue, or develop compelling characters, or structure a captivating plot – you need to learn specific elements of craft when writing nonfiction – i.e. how to create a great hook, or select the right quote, or compose a dynamite query letter, or organize chapters of a book.

One of most enjoyable aspects of nonfiction writing is that there are many ways to develop “specialties” or niches as a freelancer. Many freelancers find one or two or three “niches” that they become “experts” in. Travel. Health. Food. Business. Beauty. Fashion. Home design. Parenting. Politics. Sports. Opinion pieces. Culture. Entertainment. Technology. Etc.

It’s impossible to cover all these niches in one general magazine writing class, even a 9-week class. That’s why we periodically offer one-day workshops, in addition to general magazine writing classes. and Constance Hale’s “writer’s crash course in fact gathering.” Each of these workshops focuses on a different “sub-genre” of freelance writing, such as food writing, travel writing, sports writing, or health and medical writing. For each of these categories, there are specific writing rules, tips, and guidelines, as well as specific markets that our teachers can turn you on to.

Movie screenplays, television scripts, video documentaries, stage plays, etc.

The Writing Salon regularly offers classes in screenwriting. We also occasionally offer playwriting, although this one is harder for us to fill. Call if you have questions about current offerings.

How to get your work out into the world (and maybe even get paid for it)

Whenever you take a craft-oriented class at the Writing Salon, you can ask questions about how to get your writing published. Your teacher will give you the short-version answers. But if you want more detailed instruction on how to market, promote and sell your work, you may want to take a class that focuses solely on the business end of writing.

I already know the ropes when it comes to marketing and publishing. Even so, whenever I sit in on one of our “how to get published” classes, I learn new things or am reminded of stuff I’ve forgotten. Like it or not (and most writers don’t like it), if you want to get your work published (and granted, not everyone does, and that’s fine), then you must approach writing as a business as well as an art and a craft.

Many writers sit around kvetching and whining because they don’t want to deal with the marketing/publishing end of writing. But you know what? It’s not rocket science. All it takes is some basic knowledge and lots of perseverance. So why not find out what you need to know, take charge, and experience the sense of personal power and satisfaction that comes from that. In the long run it’s easier and much less depressing!