Creative and Business Writing Classes
I offer several writing courses through Chattanooga State’s Continuing Education program.
Creative Writing
Creative Writing for Absolute Beginners
A stress-free introduction to writing for anyone who has wanted to write but hasn’t known how or where to start. The class focuses on finding and using your own natural material, discovering what inspires you, creating your own ideal writing process, generating first drafts, and learning how to keep a writer’s notebook. You’ll learn the basics of writing memoir, fiction, and poetry.
$125
T Feb. 21 – March 13 6:00–8:30 p.m.
The Writing Habit
This class is for those who have either taken “Creative Writing for Absolute Beginners” or have experience with creative writing. The class provides more in-depth information on dialogue, structure, pacing, proportion, backstory, point of view, setting, editing, and more. Lots of hands-on exercises and discussions to strengthen your writing skills and plenty of tips to encourage your writing practice.
$145
T April 24 – May 29 6:00–8:00 p.m.
Strategies for Writing Memoir
We all have a story to tell, but writing memoir is more than just sitting down and writing our life stories. This class will focus on how we uncover memories and details from our past and how we translate these recollections into meaningful prose. We will read memoir excerpts, use writing exercises, learn about the craft of writing memoir, discover our voice, and learn the art of reflection. Whether you want to write a personal essay, a collection of stories, or even work on a book, this course will provide useful tools for current and ongoing writing projects.
Suggested books
An Old Friend from Far Away by Natalie Goldberg
Living to Tell the Tale by Jane Taylor McDonnell
$169
M Jan. 9 – 30 6:00–9:00 p.m.
T March 27 - April 17 6:00- 9:00 p.m.
Poetry For Life
Metrophobia is the fear of poetry. Many people believe poetry is only for specially-gifted writers, but poetry is about life. We are surrounded by it daily: in songs, plays, movies, on posters, artwork, and even on subway cars. This class will explore all the ways writing poetry enhances us: getting to know ourselves better, helping us be present and “see” the world around us, enlivening our prose writing, and enjoying the sheer pleasure it brings us. There will be lots of opportunities for poetry exercises to help us broadening our lives and perspectives with poetry.
$95
M May 14 – 28 6:00–8:30 p.m.
Business Writing Courses
High-Impact Business Writing
Want your documents to get noticed for all the right reasons? This course offers a review of common business writing grammar and punctuation problems, while focusing on writing for different business genres, improving summarizing and paraphrasing skills, and developing editing techniques. It emphasizes clarity and conciseness and allows time for direct application of the what is covered in class. Participants end up with skills for planning, writing, and editing professional documents.
$169
M April 9 – 30 6:00–8:30 p.m.
