I have compiled a list of free online writing classes. Please let me know what you think of these courses as you complete them.

Introductory Writing Classes

• Introduction to Literature: In this introductory course, you will take learn about character development, imagery, poetic language, and more. [Western Kentucky University]
• What is Good Writing?: Learn what constitutes good writing and the importance of effective writing. [The Open University]
• Start Writing Fiction: Dive into character development, setting, genre, dialog, and more. [The Open University]

Creative Writing

• Poetry: Learn about the form and elements of poetry. [College of DuPage]
• Writing Challenges: Tackle a series of creative writing challenges. [Warwick University]
• The Creative Spark: Discover how to create your own creative process with this course. [MIT]
• Expository Writing: This course focuses on narration, critique, argument, and persuasion in autobiographical writing. [MIT]

Grammar & Language

• English Grammar in Context: Learn about the importance of grammar, features of speech, and more. [The Open University]
• Form and Uses of Language: Examine the different ways language can be used by studying the varied works of Siegfried Sassoon. [The Open University]
• The Syntax of Natural Language: Dive into the theories and technical aspects of grammar and language. [University of Pennsylvania]
• Introducing Representation: Learn how to use language as a way to convey thoughts. [The Open University]

Persuasive Writing

• Rhetoric: Learn the art and theory of persuasive writing. [MIT]
• Advanced Essay Workshop: Dive into an advanced study of rhetoric and prose style techniques. [MIT]
• Rhetorical and Critical Writing Assessment: Learn how to distinguish between fact, and fiction, and support a position. [Western Governors]

Copyright & Plagiarism

• Text as Property/Property as Text: Take a look at ownership, plagiarism, and lots of other moral and legal topics in writing. [Rice]

Social Writing

• Writing and Experience - Culture Shock! Writing, Editing, and Publishing in Cyberspace: Learn how to write for an online audience. [MIT]
• Writing and Experience: Learn how to write about differing social experiences. [MIT]

Jacob

There were a few common mistakes made in several of the poems submitted to the March 2009 Poetry Contest. Those entering the April 2009 Poetry Contest should take the following suggestions under advisement. These suggestions were derived from insights Lance Larsen*, a creative writing professor at Brigham Young University, shared with me.

• Chopping up prose does not create poetry.
• A poem should make or have a point. Yes, there is a layer of abstraction, but a poem should not be so abstract that is means nothing.
• Poetry should have tension and opposition.
• Make arguments through imagery and metaphors.
• Use fresh language and avoid clichés.
• Be concise. Poems should be composed with the fewest words possible.
• Use concrete examples that entice and elicit the senses.
• Link form and content in appropriate ways in both closed form and open form poems: rhyme, meter, stanza pattern, enjambed vs. end-stopped lines, alliteration, assonance, caesura, juxtaposition, syntax, diction, and other figurative patterns.

Jacob

*Lance Larsen received a Ph.D. Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston. He has taught creative writing and poetry courses at Brigham Young University since 1993.

It was not easy to select a winner for this poetry contest. During the two short weeks the contest was available we had over 70 poets sign up. The top 10 poems were read, reread, and argued over during the final round of judging. In the end we selected “Scimitar Wind” by Roberta Tracy (Review Fuse user rltracy) as the winner of our first poetry contest. Second place was “Options” by zymrgist and third place was “A Call” by mdeer.

Scimitar Wind

I would ride the scimitar wind
O’er simmering sea and sand
Hornpiping swells and swallows
To free a captive land.
I‘d stroke its long wild tresses
As it wove me through the trees
Slashing, slicing, piercing
Fighting as it frees.

I would ride the scimitar wind
And watch the blossoms swarm
Frenzied flying victims
Of dancing death by storm.
My tears would water petals
Lying too soon on the ground
Pristine indiscretions
Swept in a shapeless mound
~ Could great beginnings still bear fruit?
~ Would tendrils sprout from barren root?
I long to know but cannot say
Our prime is past; we must away.

I would grasp the scimitar wind
Honed down by reckless flight
Gain control of blade and soul
And stow it far from sight.
Unleashing it if lies and doubts
Make troubled times appear
Slashing, slicing, piercing
Penetrating fear.
Aiming true and steady
‘Til we reach the moment when
Forgiving and forgiven
We can begin again.

I would like to thank Lance Larsen*, a creative writing professor at Brigham Young University, for his guidance in judging the poetry submitted to this competition. I will share some of Dr. Larsen’s insights about poetry on Wednesday in order to assist those entering the April 2009 poetry contest.

Jacob

*Lance Larsen received a Ph.D. Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston. He has taught creative writing and poetry courses at Brigham Young University since 1993.

On this blog, we talk a lot about what constitutes a good critique and how to give one (well, what do you expect? We’re a site that facilitates critiques ). This week there was a great article over at Writer’s Digest titled “How To Choose a Critique Club.” The article brings up some great points we’ve touched on here at the Fuse Blog, but the author also brings up some great new thoughts about how to give a good critique and how to choose a positive and productive critique group.

Here’s a brief excerpt from my favorite part:

When the tables turn and I’m critiquing another writer’s work, especially a first draft, I ask myself: Where do I sense the most energy? If something stops me in my tracks, I note where I feel most engaged. I aim to give the writer my subjective experience of being in the world he created on the page. Where is this world unnecessarily blurry or bewildering? Where do I feel this world fully alive? When I’m bored, I foster my curious self and ask questions, assuming my boredom is where the writer may have been hiding.

Talking to others about their work can teach you the valuable skill of being able to talk to yourself about your own material.

I recommend giving the full version a read. If you do, come back and tell us how you think Review Fuse is doing as a Critique Club. Would you say our community provides a productive and positive experience as described in the article? If not, how we can improve? Many of our current features are a direct result of customer feedback emails, blog comments, or things we’ve read in the suggestion box.

- Clark

Do you believe writers block is real or an apparition? Doctors and authors who believe in writers block agree the most common causes are depression, anxiety, and not dedicating enough time to the creative process.

Writers block clearly stands out amongst mental conundrums. When I was a software engineer no one seemed to care how long a complex program could perplexed me. As a supervisor I am occasionally stumped for months regarding serious personnel issues and still no one seems to care. Doctors are not lining up to study perplex programmers or stumped supervisors and no one seems interested in writing endless volumes of literature about these conditions. Why does writers block stand out so vividly amongst its peers?

Jacob

We have enjoyed the poetry submissions from the March contest so much that we have decided to host another poetry competition in April.

*See all of our writing contests

Purpose: Have fun, enjoy the competition, and become a better poet by participating in our peer critique process for this contest.

Who Can Enter: This contest is open to all poets. All submissions must be posted and assigned critiques completed by April 18, 2009. Poems must be 50 lines or fewer. You may post additional poems to this site for critique, but only one poem will be eligible for this contest.

Subject Matter: You choose. The poem should adhere to our content policy.

Prizes: The winner of this contest will receive $50.

How to Enter: It’s pretty easy

1. Create a free account or sign in for existing members.
2. Upload your poem; make sure you select “April Poetry Contest” as the category.
3. Submit your poem for peer critique.
4. Complete your assigned reviews, this is discussed more below.

Decisions: There will be 3 rounds of judging.

1. Authors from the Review Fuse staff will select the 10 best poems for Round 2.
2. Of these 10 poems, Review Fuse management will select the 5 authors who gave the most detailed and well thought out critiques of their peer’s poetry for Round 3.
3. The winner will then be selected by 3 creative writing and poetry professors.

• Find out more about what our judges think great poetry is.

Entry Fee: There are no entry fees or purchases of any kind required to enter and win the contest. After you submit your poem to the contest you will be required to complete assigned critiques of other poets (4 for free members and 3 for premium members). You will receive 3 critiques of your poem in return. Those who do not complete their critiques will not be eligible to win the contest.

Rights: All poems remain the sole property of the author. After we have selected the winner we will seek permission from the author to publish the winning poem on our blog. The author is under no obligation to allow this.

Notification: The prize winner will be notified by email on April 25, 2009. We will announce the prize winner on our blog on April 27, 2009.

Since our mantra at Review Fuse is “Igniting Creativity,” I always try and keep my eye out for book and articles about creativity. Recently, I’ve been reading Uncommon Genius, a great book by Denise Shekerjian in which she attempts to trace the creative impulse by interviewing forty winners of the MacArthur Award. If you’re not familiar with this award, it makes for a pretty good story in itself—basically, the award is a cash sum given to people who “show exceptional merit and promise for continued and enhanced creative work.”

In an interview with Poet and MacArthur Fellow, Douglas Crase, he talked about inspiration. Since it was something I’d mused about in a previous post, the paragraphs really jumped out at me. He said:

Inspiration is a funny concept, and I think it gets in the way sometimes more than it does any good. If you think of those moments when you were really writing well and turning out something you are really happy with and that you’re not ashamed to look at for the rest of your life, often you think it’s inspiration because you don’t know exactly how it got there. You look at it and think, This is so much better than I could possibly do. I must have been inspired.

But if you then think back to that moment and try to reconstruct in your mind how the moment was contrived, how it was arranged, and what the conditions were for that so-called inspiration to happen, is seems to me that you can try to reproduce those conditions.  And if you reproduce those conditions it seems to me you have increased the probability that the ‘inspiration’ will visit again just as certain chemicals combine under some conditions and not under others. Providing those same conditions increases the probability that you’re going to get the combustion, the combination, the fertilization. An event just might take place.

Crase then describes how he practiced this with his poem, “Cuylerville” by going to the place and just sitting and looking around for a long time. Then he found a song that reminded him of the place and made a tape that repeated the same song over and over to listen to.

Of course Crase is not the only one to talk of certain conditions affecting his ability to write. In On Writing by Stephen King (which we’ve mentioned here before), he talked of a proper writing space “with a door you can close.” He also mentioned that he works to loud music—AC/DC, Metallica, and Guns N’ Roses—and that he thought it important to adhere to a schedule.

And there are many more examples: During the 1920’s many writers and artists believed you had to live in Paris to be inspired. Truman Capote said he did his best work in hotel rooms. Kipling required a specific, obsidian black ink.  Dickens turned his bed north, believing that magnetic forces enabled his creativity. Kant wrote in bed at the same time every day staring at a tower out his window. When trees started to block the view, he had them cut down. French novelist and playwright Honoré de Balzac required copious amounts of coffee to work. And Beethoven stimulated his mind to write music by pouring ice-cold water over his head.

So what about you? Have you thought of the conditions that bring about your best work? One of my best times is late at night when everyone else is asleep. I put on my comfortable headphones and listen to some classical music or sometimes “The World’s Greatest” by R. Kelly—I know it’s corny and I really don’t like R. Kelly, but for some reason this song just gets me in a positive mood. I often start by reading my most recent feedback from Review Fuse, then I close all other programs and start typing.

Share what works for you in the comments. Do you have “inspiring” conditions? Make sure to use them to do your best work.

I read some really bad dialogue yesterday. Actually, I read it five times and still couldn’t figure out who was talking. In honor of this terrible dialog I have constructed my own rotten dialog. This bad dialog comes from a dinnertime conversation a few stupid cave trolls recently had. If you could have watched these trolls have this conversation the dialog would be meaningful and easy to follow, but without the visual, you will probably have to guess at who is talking.

“Why didn’t you let us eat her?” “Now she has run away and we have nothing to eat!” “Just eat your club” “You’ll eat what I tell you to eat.” “Why don’t you try to make me eat my club?” “Shut up.” “Stop fighting and let’s find a tasty fawn or ram to boil.”

Can you flesh out this bad dialog and turn it into good dialog? Please post your good dialog solution as a comment. It will be fun to read each other’s examples and see how many ways this bad dialog was interpreted.

Jacob

Readers are fickle friends who often act like the urchins who draw a mustache on a picture of a pretty model or add horns to a photo of the Pope as they interpret our metaphors literally or try to extrapolate deep meaning from a simple fact. W. H. Auden described the author/reader relationship a bit more eloquently, “In relation to a writer, most readers believe in the Double Standard: they may be unfaithful to him as often as they like, but he must never, never be unfaithful to them.”

How can we hope to gain faithfulness from such an unpredictable audience?

Keep the audience guessing. Rarely, if ever, let the reader guess the right answer. Plan a story with sharp turns your audience never sees coming. Let your readers speculate about what will happen but don’t allow them to be right. During the climax, when your reader is certain he “knows” what is going to happen, end with a twist that both surprises the reader and feels natural. If you can get your audience to say “Wow, I didn’t expect that, but it makes perfect sense” then you will turn their whorish ways into faithfulness.

Jacob