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I absolutely loved this class, the lectures and comments -- both by the teacher and students -- were great. In fact, an essay I wrote for class is being published in a magazine! -- Trish Cook
Dear Laurie, I've sold a piece, "The Blonde Leading The Blonde," to the Chicago Tribune, with syndication rights to Tribune Media Services. You wanted your students to let you know when/if we sold something after taking your class. Thank you for your encouragement and for helping me to "tighten up" the writing, tie endings to beginnings, take out
extraneous garbage even if I liked it, and stick to the point. -- Maggie Van Ostrand (Marge)
I found the class stimulating and most helpful. Laurie and my fellow participants gave very useful, important feedback. I'm planning to enroll in the follow-up personal essay course, which is the best expression I can think of to say how I felt about part one. For me, it was wonderful seeing Laurie's writer's mind at work. She gave me a great deal to think about in how I might deepen and make more interesting my own work. Excellent all around! -- Bob Fine
It was everything I'd hoped for and more. Laurie is a wonderful, supportive teacher. Just watching how she responded to other writers in the class was a help. She definitely went above and beyond the call of duty for us. -- Carol Pryor
The lessons were way better than I expected. I was worried they'd be the usual - describe your favorite childhood memory, your first kiss, the smell of your grandmother's house, etc. But they weren't like that at all! Lessons were full of real content and real substantive advice about getting to the "meat" of your story. Loved it! Laurie is a fabulous teacher - better than any I've ever had. She is extremely insightful, a most helpful editor and extremely nurturing as well. -- Kathy Rafferty
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Class content was excellent. Loved the diversity of our participants, arriving in our email boxes from all over the globe. The assignments were consistent with the course outline and were very valuable. Laurie was the BEST part. Her comments were always helpful. I found her input on my writing to be extremely valuable. I thought she did a great job of gently telling all of us when our writing had NOT hit the mark, when there was something there in the writing but it was not yet flushed out. Even though her comments were directly related to each person's writing, I felt she offered them in a way we all could learn from her feedback to each person's as well. -- Debra Marrs
I was very pleased with the teacher. Her critiques were the most valuable I've gotten in the four online classes I've taken with different orgs. She was thorough, prompt and always seemed to understand what I was trying to do. In fact, she was able to strip away the excess and help me understand what I was trying to do, when I often wasn't sure
myself. She was very supportive of my struggle to get pieces right, no matter how many drafts it took. You should pay her much more money. I paid $425 for the ten-week memoir class I'm taking now and it's not nearly as helpful. -- Lynn Duvall
I thoroughly enjoyed the Creative Non-fiction and Personal Essay class. Laurie's lectures were very valuable, and I truly benefitted from her constructive feedback. She motivated me to dig deeper into my pieces and write more freely. My thoughts have become more organized and focused as a a result of this experience. While I have a lot more work to do, it's
been a great springboard. The class got me really excited to write and write and write.
My classmates were very supportive and inspirational. Each one had a lot to offer, and I loved the diversity of styles and the fresh perspectives. I look forward to taking more classes. I appreciate the time and effort from both the instructor and my fellow students. It was well worth it! -- Nerissa Aschoff
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Lectures and assignments flowed very naturally in this class--each leading into the next, plenty of revision assignments, good tips & tidbits in the lectures....Laurie gave very nurturing, grounding feedback. Her responses always had a positive tone--but they also probed and asked--asked the writer to go deeper or further or to move into a new piece. She also asked what kind of feedback we wanted as writers--if we wanted it harder or not. I appreciated that. -- Amanda LeBrun
Nonfiction creative writing -- what a concept! I didn't know it, but most of my writing falls into this category. Take the story about when my daughter, then age four-and-a-half, had a double ear infection, and my mother's guilt attributed this to my lack of patience with her. Four years after it had been sitting in my 'to do' file badly needing revision, I took Laurie Wagner's class. In eighy short weeks, and many many free-writes and drafts of essays, I learned what makes a story like this tick, how to send out a query letter, and most importantly, what the hell did I want to say in the first place! My story, in its twelfth draft, became "Queen of the Bears" and was recently published in a women's magazine, Bloom (my first nonfiction piece!). Payment was a free copy of the magazine, but hey, you gotta start somewhere. Take Laurie's class -- you'll not only make some internaut friends, but you may learn how to polish and revise those drafts you've been sitting on so they can see the broad light of day -- publication. -- Jennifer Boire
The class was well-crafted and provided very useful advice.... Laurie was generous with her time, gave advice and constructive criticism in a most positive and upbeat way, and overall, was an outstanding instructor. -- John Johnson
Laurie is simply the best. No one is a better nurturer of writers than she. At the same time she gets right down to what's extraneous or needs improvement. LOVE HER! -- Nan Becklean
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Laurie Wagner is an extremely gifted teacher. Obviously, she's a fantastic human being too, with impressive interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate so clearly that it's almost unnerving. She's a sharp editor who delivers her critiques in a respectful, yet direct manner. I love her honesty and ability to cut through to the heart of my writing. She asks good questions too.... I'm pleased to once again be in a class lead by Laurie. I have no doubt that it was due to my participation in her class, her support and her direction, that resulted
in three of my essays being published over the past year. -- Jacqueline M. Massey
I thought the class was awesome. The lessons were relevent and assignments flexible. You could write whatever came to mind or stick to the itinerary and Laurie went with the flow of it to maximize learning. Laurie was great! She was able to delve into what you wanted to say but couldn't get your arms around. She made you think, organize, say it succinctly, clearly and get to the point. I also liked that she tailored her critiques to the personality of the student. I wanted blunt, tell me like it is feedback and she provided just that. She gave me what I needed to maximize my learning and growth and gave this same personalized attention to every student according to their needs. -- Cheri King
So many classes have teachers that dwell on the negative of writing - it's hard, even harder to publish, blah, blah. Laurie was the exact opposite. From the first session s he set a wonderful, open, risk-taking tone that offered much more opportunity to explored uncharted territory and most of all -- to have fun doing it. Why take this work on if it's
not going to be fun? Her feedback on pieces, mine and others in the group, was encouraging, supportive and helpful. She has a masterful blend of insight and compassion, asking the right questions so that the writer can see where their pieces need clarity. All with sensitivity that understands it's hard to hear something needs to change with our little darlings. Just great. A really unique talent. -- Kathy McDonald
Laurie was an absolute delight. I would take any class she teaches. She is knowledgeable, insightful, yet tactful in providing feedback. Highest rating A+++++++! -- Evette Long
This was my first writing class. Laurie's lessons were timely and appropriate, the assignments pertinent to the lessons. I can't say enough about her as a teacher. Her flexible approach allowed me to be the writer I really am, instead of fitting into someone's notion of who I should be -- that someone being me. Her love and encouragement match her sharp editing skills. She taught the rest of us not only about writing, but about offering helpful criticism and editing with clarity. I would recommend anything Laurie teaches. -- Jana Allday
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I have taken many writing classes -- at UCI; for five years at UCLA Extension writing class and at various senior centers and adult schools. I have also attended writing conferences -- in San Diego, San Jose, and Santa Fe, NM. Taking into account all these various sessions and hours spent, I must say that this class, and especially Laurie, have been the
most profitable, and by far the best. I was amazed at how much information she imparted to us, her personal concern for each one of us, and most importantly, the excellent critiquing she did. If I'd had instructors like her all along I might have had a book on the Times bestseller list by now -- oh well, it's a nice thought! Please be sure to
let her know how much I thought of her efforts and individual attention we received." -- Mary McIntosh
I found the class stimulating and most helpful. Laurie and my fellow participants gave very useful, important feedback. I'm planning to enroll in the follow-up personal essay course, which is the best expression I can think of to say how I felt about part 1. For me, it was wonderful seeing Laurie's writer's mind at work. She gave me a great deal to think about in how I might deepen and make more interesting my own work. Excellent all around! -- Bob Fine
I thoroughly enjoyed the Creative Nonfiction and Personal Essay class. Laurie's lectures were very valuable, and I truly benefitted from her constructive feedback. She motivated me to dig deeper into my pieces and write more freely. My thoughts have become more organized and focused as a result of this experience. While I have a lot more work to do, it's
been a great springboard. The class got me really excited to write and write and write. -- Nerissa Aschoff
Laurie is terrific -- dynamic, responsive, thoughtful, creative. She put a lot of work into the student critues, and her feedback was generally very perceptive and helpful. She was also very encouraging, and able to step in and set boundaries when they needed to be set with the group. I feel I have the basic tools to work with now. -- Mimi Ghez
Laurie was very organized in her presentation, and all of the assignments were meaningful learning tools. I felt that she was able to give us more than we expected, but just what we needed. She is an excellent teacher, and she reaches out in a way that touched each one of us. -- Carole Bumpus
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