Unbound: Teen Creative Writing happens in either a span of 4 weeks (NYC, Zoom), or 6 weeks (NYC, Zoom, Online). The course includes a mixture of lectures and exercises. It’s open to students age 13-17. Farther down, you can view a syllabus for this course.
Unleash your creativity as a writer, while learning the tricks of the trade. You have the freedom to write what you want (prose fiction or nonfiction), but you also gain the discipline of writing craft.
There are no grades, no exams, no wrong answers—just creative writing. Each class is taught by a teacher adept at helping young writers discover and develop their unique voices. The idea is to explore—see with a writer’s eyes, spark ideas to life, gain confidence, and experiment with both fiction and nonfiction.
Better writers produce stronger college applications, and an extracurricular writing class is an impressive addition to any profile. When you know how to express yourself well with words, you’ve got a special power.
This course lets you explore fiction and types of creative nonfiction, and the techniques that go with them. Course components:
- Lectures
- Writing exercises
Online classes
- Week 1
- OIL: The importance of having fun with writing. Exploration of the cornerstones of creative writing—observation, imagination, language.
- Week 2
- Show and Tell: Understanding the difference between showing and telling. Techniques for showing—sensory, specificity, scenes.
- Week 3
- Individuality: The power of a journal. Writing what you know. Writing what you want to know. Finding your individual voice.
- Week 4
- Fiction: The types and forms of fiction. Where to find fiction ideas. The basics of creating a story—characters, plot, point of view.
- Week 5
- Nonfiction: Exploration of three types of creative nonfiction writing—memoir, personal essays, narrative nonfiction. Where to find nonfiction ideas.
- Week 6
- Getting Better: Good habits. Battling the blank page. Revision. Reading as a writer. Reasons to write.
Note: Content may vary among individual classes.
About
- The Online classes bring students from all over the globe to Gotham—New York City’s most famous writing school.
- The Online classes happen asynchronously—not in “real time.” You can participate in class any time, day or night, but the classes advance week-by-week, and certain things should be accomplished within that week-long session.
- You can take an Online writing class from anywhere, as long as you have an internet connection. The majority of our Online students are located in the U.S. but we also draw students from practically every country in the world.
- Tech support will be available.
- Aside from the convenience of time and location, you have a record of everything that transpires in class, which you can print out and keep for future reference. (The material is text and image, not video.)
