Rudri Patel | Writers.com

These Fragments: From Journal Pages to Personal Essays

Elle | Community Manager — Thu, 16 May 2024 20:01:38 +0000

Your journal is a private space to write anything. You can open up and write with abandon—and, if you know how to harvest this raw creativity, your journal can be one of your best sources of material to develop into writing you share with others.

Whether you journal daily and would like to write personal essays, or wish to complement your writing practice with journaling, this course is for you! You’ll learn to use your journaling practice as a way to harness creativity, generate ideas, and find threads of inspiration for personal essays. You’ll also learn several different journaling styles, to find the right fit for both privately recording your life experiences and generating personal essay material.

We will use journaling as a method to develop personal essays, by understanding the fundamentals of conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, and endings. I will guide you through understanding the importance of a narrative arc in essay writing as a way to transform what you’ve written in your journal.

We’ll meet on Zoom every week for sharing and workshopping in a supportive environment. The workshop format will focus on being accessible, warm and friendly, with permission to work through journaling as a way to find your next essay idea or longer project.

This course will be generative. You will share essay assignments weekly for constructive feedback from the instructor and fellow students.

Who This Course is For:

Writers interested in learning how to develop a daily journaling practice or who already have one, and would like to transition the raw material and seeds of ideas from their journal pages and develop them into personal essays. Writers of all skill levels are welcome.

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals

In this course, you will:

Learn different methods of journaling to channel ideas for essays.
Dedicate specific time every day to journal writing without expectation of a particular goal.
Actively using the senses in journaling to create scenes in essays.
Learn how to take an existing journaling practice and transition those words into personal essays.
Create a more purposeful journaling practice that awakens creativity in drafting personal essays.

Writing Goals

In this course, you will:

Generate 5-15 pages each week through your daily journaling practice. These pages will serve as raw material and threads of new ideas to inspire a personal essay.
Develop and draft sections of your essays in 500-1000 word chunks each week.
Write two personal essays, or
Write one personal essay and revise based on instructor and peer feedback.

Zoom Schedule

We will meet as a group via Zoom on Tuesdays at 7 PM Eastern. Class will be approximately one hour.

Weekly Syllabus

Week 1: Overview and Learning Various Journaling Methods

Six Flash Essays in Six Weeks

Elle | Community Manager — Wed, 03 Apr 2024 15:03:29 +0000

The magic of the flash essay is that you can say a lot by only writing a little. In the flash essay, you get in, get out, and write your prose with efficiency and beauty. Join me in taking your striking sentences and creating a full narrative in under 1,000 words. As you become more adapt at the craft of flash, you will learn to generate material, build your structure, revise a piece, and target a publication in a matter of weeks. There is a generous market for these flash pieces, and writing short may help you generate material for longer work, too.

If you sometimes find yourself jotting notes on index cards, composing a few sentences in a journal, or writing vignettes penned on a napkin, learn to shape these snippets into your next flash essay. You’ll also learn to develop the small moments and details from your life into flash pieces.

This course is designed for writers who want to generate material for flash essays with varying word counts and styles, like micro, hermit crab, and short shorts. You will be surprised how satisfying it is to tell a story in less than 1,000 words!

You will generate material every week for six weeks. The final week will be focused on flash essay markets and how to submit. You will receive written feedback from me, as well as your peers, and we will do some live workshopping during class. The course will be conducted over Zoom with a lesson and an essay due every week.

Who This Course is For:

This course is for the writer who wants to dive into writing flash nonfiction, or for the intermediate writer who wants to explore additional flash forms.

Learning and Writing Goals

Learning Goals:

Learn the qualities of the flash essay format.
Experiment with flash essay word counts.
Determine how to tackle revisions in flash format.
Learn how to give constructive feedback to classmates and peers.
How to submit to literary journals who want flash essays.

Writing Goals:

Draft at least six new flash pieces with varying word lengths.
Revise at least three new flash pieces based on instructor/peer feedback.
Refine at least one or two flash pieces with an eye toward publication.

Zoom Schedule

Zoom sessions will be held on Wednesdays at 7:30 PM Eastern. Classes will be one hour to one hour and 15 minutes.

Weekly Syllabus

Week 1: Flash as a Form

Writing About Family

Sean Glatch — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 13:54:51 +0000

Writing About Family is for essay writers at all writing levels, genres, and backgrounds, who are looking to explore how to write about family relationships. All personal essays require characters, narrative arc, and an understanding of exploring a conflict that clearly conveys what is at stake for the writer and reader. However, writing about family is often complicated. What is the truth and how do we write about it if the relationship is still part of our lives? Where do we draw boundaries when writing about family? And how do you we authentically write about family with ethics and legal ramifications in mind?

This course covers essay fundamentals, and focuses on generating new writing: students will write approximately six essays and have the chance to revise two pieces. In addition to writing a significant amount of new material, students will receive personalized feedback with tailored resources and further readings to help them learn while they write. Students will come away at least one (maybe two polished essays) that will be ready for submission to an essay outlet.

Learning and Writing Goals:

Generative writing course – Students will write at least two to three essays (and also be able to revise one (maybe more) essays for publication.
Editor Feedback – Students will receive editor feedback on each piece submitted.
Peer Feedback – Peers will comment on at least three essays submitted by other students.
Publication process – Students will receive information and outlets for submission.

Course Objectives:

Learn the elements of a personal essay.
Identify a strong beginning, narrative arc, and satisfactory ending.
How do you write about relationships that are ongoing?
What is writing the “truth” as you navigate these relationships?
What is the ethics of writing about family?
What are some of the legal implications when writing about family?
Students will generate 5 – 6 essays, Will have the opportunity to revise two essays.

Zoom Component

The course’s weekly Zoom meetings will take place on Tuesdays at 7:00 PM Eastern time. Meetings will be one hour to 90 minutes in length.

Syllabus:

Week 1: Introductions/Elements of Personal Essay/Brainstorming Techniques on Writing about Family

*Private Class | Writing Our Grief: How to Channel Loss into Creative Expression

Sean Glatch — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 16:53:40 +0000

Sometimes dealing with grief on our own can feel like we’re alone. Writing about loss, death, sadness, and grief can feel intimidating because we’re excavating our deepest vulnerabilities, and this means confronting buried emotions. It might be difficult to process the wide range of emotions that accompany loss—everything from sadness to anger to relief. However, finding a place to allow these feelings to land can be liberating—not only for one’s writing, but also cathartic personally.

In this personal essay course, we will learn how to tell the stories that impact us the most through creative writing about grief, pain, and loss. The objective of this course is to mine our feelings of loss and try to capture them onto the page. This course will give participants the permission and tools to become more comfortable about writing death and loss. Through the course of eight weeks, we will read other writers and their essays on the subject of loss, death, and grief, and delve into the stories that individual participants would like to explore.

Students will receive feedback on short writing exercises based on prompts, as well as the chance to workshop an essay with the instructor during the class. Participants will leave this class learning how to tackle death, loss, grief in the space of a personal essay. Students will learn how to make the personal universal. There will be also class discussion on the materials. Students will receive extensive feedback on two essays during the 8-week period.

I highly suggest this class, so much so, I’m gifting it to a friend. Don’t hesitate. Take this class!
—Linda Ragsdale

Weekly Zoom Meeting Schedule

TBD

Creative Writing About Grief: Course Syllabus

Week 1: Welcome and Introductions/Why write nonfiction essays stemming from loss or tragedy?

*Private Class | Using Bullet Journaling to Achieve Writing Goals

Sean Glatch — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 16:53:38 +0000

Do you want to meet all of your writing goals in 2021? This is possible, but you must be organized and write down your goals. In this 3-week class, students will learn basic elements of a bullet journal, how to structure your bullet journal, and how to stay on track with your writing goals.

Learning objectives for students

To learn the basic elements of a bullet journal
To utilize bullet journaling to meet key writing goals
To learn layouts that are beneficial to staying on track with writing goals

Instructional Materials

Through weekly meetings via Zoom, students will share their writing goals, bullet journaling layouts, and how they intend to be more productive in their process.

Weekly Zoom Meeting Schedule

TBD

I learned so much in Rudri’s class, not just about bullet journaling but about setting goals and establishing habits that nurture and sustain the writing life.
—Daisy Florin

Course Outline

Week 1

*Private Class | From Pitch to Publication: Writing Narrative Journalism

Sean Glatch — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 16:53:35 +0000

Learn all you need to start pitching, landing, and writing reported essays and features.

Is there a compelling story you want to tell about other people? Would you like to highlight an organization or someone who is doing compelling work? Is there a local angle that is a national trend? Do you want to highlight an important subject with experts and others weighing in? Are you personally interested in a subject, but don’t want to divulge details about yourself? Writing a reported essay or feature can give you the permission to pursue compelling stories, explore interesting angles, and craft pieces that include experts and opinions of others, without having to reveal personal details about your backstory.

Through this 8-week class, students will learn the difference between a topic and a story, how to pitch a reported essay or feature, the basics of a strong hook/lede, elements of a nut graph, finding the right sources, interviewing experts, copy editing/fact checking, identifying potential markets for your piece, and putting together the finishing touches of a reported essay or feature.

Learning Objectives for Students

To understand the difference between a topic and a story
To identify a compelling character for the narrative
To learn how to pitch a reported piece/feature
To create an inverted pyramid structure for piece
To effectively find and interview sources
To find potential markets for your piece

Rudri is knowledgeable, articulate, and experienced in all things writing and publishing. Her kindness and expertise make working with her a delight.
—Susan Pohlman

Instructional Materials

The course will be taught by examples of pitches and reported pieces. Weekly meetings will occur via Zoom to discuss the lesson’s elements, weekly writing assignments, and discuss questions/feedback.

Weekly Zoom Meeting Schedule

TBD

From Pitch to Publication: Class Outline

Week 1: Is this a topic or a story?

*Private Class | Write Your World: Express Your Creativity through Article Writing, Blogging, and Essays

Sean Glatch — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 16:53:34 +0000

In this six-week class, we will learn to unearth our best creative selves in writing articles, blogging, and essays. Are you stuck on where to start? How do you achieve your best creative self in your prose no matter what you’re writing?

Course Objectives

To learn how to distinguish between article writing, blogging and essays
To effectively write an article
How do you pitch an article
To effectively write a blog
Is blogging still relevant?
To effectively learn how to write an essay
How do you pitch essays?

Rudri provides exceptional content and resources, and goes above and beyond to provide one-on-one mentoring and feedback.
—Aphrodite Knoop

Weekly Zoom Meeting Schedule

TBD

Course Syllabus

Week 1

Writing Our Grief: How to Channel Loss into Creative Expression

Frederick Meyer — Sat, 17 Sep 2022 23:38:28 +0000

I highly suggest this class, so much so, I’m gifting it to a friend. Don’t hesitate. Take this class!
—Linda Ragsdale

Weekly Zoom Meeting Schedule

The course’s weekly Zoom meetings will take place on Wednesdays at 7:30 PM Eastern time. Meetings will be one hour to 90 minutes in length.

Creative Writing About Grief: Course Syllabus

Week 1: Welcome and Introductions/Why write nonfiction essays stemming from loss or tragedy?

Using Bullet Journaling to Achieve Writing Goals

Frederick Meyer — Sat, 17 Sep 2022 23:38:28 +0000

Learning objectives for students

To learn the basic elements of a bullet journal
To utilize bullet journaling to meet key writing goals
To learn layouts that are beneficial to staying on track with writing goals

Instructional Materials

Through weekly meetings via Zoom, students will share their writing goals, bullet journaling layouts, and how they intend to be more productive in their process.

Weekly Zoom Meeting Schedule

The course’s weekly Zoom meetings will take place on Mondays at 7 PM Eastern time. Meetings will be one hour to 90 minutes in length.

I learned so much in Rudri’s class, not just about bullet journaling but about setting goals and establishing habits that nurture and sustain the writing life.
—Daisy Florin

Course Outline

Week 1

From Pitch to Publication: Writing Narrative Journalism

Frederick Meyer — Sat, 17 Sep 2022 23:38:28 +0000

Learn all you need to start pitching, landing, and writing reported essays and features.

Learning Objectives for Students

To understand the difference between a topic and a story
To identify a compelling character for the narrative
To learn how to pitch a reported piece/feature
To create an inverted pyramid structure for piece
To effectively find and interview sources
To find potential markets for your piece

Rudri is knowledgeable, articulate, and experienced in all things writing and publishing. Her kindness and expertise make working with her a delight.
—Susan Pohlman