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Complete List of Writers.com Classes
Writing and Publishing Magazine Articles (8 weeks)
Magazine writing requires a much more specialized approach to form than writing a book. Articles fall into a number of categories, but the most popular are the feature story, interview, review, essay, and first-person account. But they have one thing in common--almost no magazine piece for any respectable publication gets published without first going through a process of proposal, discussion, submission, and revision.
The course will be run like a multi-faceted, wide-ranging publication of which I am the editor-in-chief and the course-members (subscribers) make up the Editorial Board. You will propose articles to me and I will suggest why your ideas do or don't work, how to shape them into workable ideas, and how to come up with different approaches to the same subject matter that will appeal to different kinds of publications. You will then write the article to specifications we've agreed on, and submit it to me and the Editorial Board composed of your peers. I will "edit" the article by suggesting ways to revise and improve it--everything from grammatical and stylistic tips to a complete restructuring. You may go through several re-writes en route to a workable piece--and an understanding of how the process works. We will also discuss how to approach editors, how to track down subjects for your stories, and other
technical aspects of the magazine writing craft.
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Sacred Journaling (8 weeks)
Journaling can be a free-flowing expression of your inner feelings, thoughts, and intuitive insights. It seems so simple, yet many of us get caught up in feeling self-conscious or anxious, or simply at a loss how to begin and keep going. In this class, we approach journaling as a combination of creative writing and spiritual practice. Because the process often seems so open-ended that you don't know where to begin, we'll work with specific guidance and techniques to inspire you even when you seem to be blank.
Our explorations will cover the specific art of dream journaling, comprising basic instructions about lucid dreaming, and learning helpful keys to remember and record your dreams -- even if you think you "don't dream." Because dreams are a direct communication from your unconscious mind, learning to keep a dream journal will help open you to the unconscious while also generating material for your journal. That's only part of the process, however. Although journaling is an essentially private practice, you can gain support from others who may be encountering some of the same challenges you face in making journal writing a daily practice.
Best-selling author and writing coach Peter Occhiogrosso will inspire you to start journaling regularly, showing you how to make the process accessible, enjoyable, and yet spiritually profound. He has taught Sacred Journaling at Caroline Myss's CMED Institute (2003-2009), and will be giving a full-day workshop at The Open Center in New York on April 28, 2012.
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How to Write and Publish Spiritual Books (8 weeks)
You may have an important spiritual book inside you that you want to get out to the world. Yet, you may feel overwhelmed by the prospect of completing a manuscript and getting it published. After writing and coauthoring 20 books for major publishers, Peter Occhiogrosso has developed a simple way to translate your book ideas into a proposal format that will appeal to agents and editors. Whether you want to find a commercial publisher, self-publish, or just structure a readable manuscript for yourself, family, or clients, this workshop shows you how.
Spiritual is a remarkably broad category in today's market, encompassing books about health and healing; environmentalism and activism; self-help and psychology; mystical experience, channeled wisdom, the law of attraction; and all the world's religious traditions. You will be able to share your writing with the group and get expert feedback and guidance from your teacher. You will even learn some basic breathing exercises and other spiritual practices to help you access the deepest levels of your creativity and insight. As you learn to create a professional proposal, you will receive guidance on writing an Agent Query Letter, as well as surfing the Net to locate appropriate agents, editors, and publishers. You will also learn the pros and cons of self-publishing via print on demand and e-book technology. Ultimately, you come away with the tools you need to create a professional proposal or manuscript outline.
This workshop is open to writers at all levels of experience, including those who have been published and those who hope to be.
Class Outline
Week 1: We'll begin by brainstorming your book idea and how you'd like to implement it. The kinds of real-world questions that an agent or editor might ask about the specifics of your concept will help you narrow and focus your book on a whole new level.
Week 2: Once we've whittled down what you actually want to write about, you will learn how to condense your Concept into just a few short statements. A series of simple deep breathing exercises will help to calm your body and allow your mind to function with greater ease and clarity.
Week 3: Once you have ironed out your principal theme, you can begin to build the structure of your book around it. You'll start by the writing an Overview, a two-page elaboration of your initial concept.
Week 4: We'll discuss the difference between a Table of Contents, a Chapter Outline, and Chapter Summaries - three practical, incremental steps to creating an overall structure for your book.
Week 5: Along with structure, you'll learn how to describe your book to agents and editors in terms of competing titles in the marketplace, and ideas for building your author platform, identity, and promotional strategy.
Week 6: Most editors and agents want to see at least one Sample Chapter. Here you'll get some pointers on how to select the best candidates for a sample (hint: it's probably not the first chapter!), and some overall tips on what to include.
Week 7: The marketplace is changing rapidly, both in commercial publishing and self-publishing. Print on demand an e-book technology offer enormous potential, but also numerous pitfalls that you'll need to be aware of.
Week 8: Once you have a viable structure for your book, you can begin to write it at your own pace. But at the same time, you can be searching for the right agent to help you find a commercial publisher. You'll learn all about how agents work, what fees they should and shouldn't charge, and how to write an Agent Query Letter that will help you land the agent you want.
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