This past year, I have been teaching an online fiction writing class for high schools at Homeschool Connections. It’s been a wonderful experience, and I’ve loved working with a fantastic group of writers and editors as we share what we know with eager youth. But this summer I got to do something even more exciting: I created my own curriculum and taught mini four-class workshops.
It was fun, scary, and a whole different ball game. My fiction classes during the school year were already designed. They matched what each teacher was teaching, matching the recorded versions online that other students may take. I didn’t need to create the curriculum, I didn’t need to find all the research. I just had to present the lessons and give my own experience and explanations for them. It was fun, but I didn’t need to do the heavy legwork of designing the class.
The summer workshops were all me. Once they were approved, including the general gist of the content I’d teach, I was on my own. I’ve been an editor for ten years and a voracious reader of the topics I was teaching, so it wasn’t new. But I wanted to provide sources for my knowledge, give examples my students would recognize (YA is so different now than when I was a teen), and create exercises and homework that would stretch their imaginations and help them understand the writing principles I was teaching.
It was a lot more work than I thought it would be, but it was extremely rewarding!
(And it seems like the students like my classes too!)
Writing Bootcamp: Creating Stories with Pets and Animals as the Heroes
My first summer workshop was for middle school students. We talked about writing animal heroes, like cats from Warriors and animal characters in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. We discussed giving them their own character arcs, creating a world they fit in, how the characters changed between being a main character or a human’s best friend. We also dove into basic writing principles, as for many it was their very first fiction writing class ever.
It was a blast. I worked one-on-one with eager students, and their creativity and love of story blew my mind. These kids loved to read, and they were absolutely eager to love writing, too. And I hope that I helped that passion bloom.
Fiction Writing Bootcamp: Creatures, Monsters, and Aliens — Oh My!
My second workshop was similar but aimed for high school students who had taken a literature class or writing class before, though I did have a few newbies who did great. We focused more on creatures, monsters, and aliens rather than just animal heroes, and I loved every minute of it.
I’m a huge fan of monsters. Halloween, ghost stories around the campfire, scary movies, monsters in horror, monsters in fantasy, monster romance. I gobble it up as fast as I can.
And it extends to creatures, too. It doesn’t have to be evil monsters. Any kind of supernatural being like fae, dragons, elves, orcs, everything. I love it all.
So teaching this class was a dream come true. I was working with students and talking about my favorite parts of fiction. We had an absolute blast.
As this course was for high school students, it was a bit more intense than my first workshop. I came up with readings for my students for after class and provided additional resources about writing from credible authors, editors, publishing sites, etc. I even put together character creation and worldbuilding guides for them to follow and flesh out their own creatures.
It’s been my favorite class to date, and I loved teaching the fiction classes in the spring and fall semesters. I really hope I can teach these courses again next summer, or maybe even create more fun ones for the future.
Are These Fiction Writing Classes Still Available?
They sure are! The recordings are available through Homeschool Connection’s recorded catalog, and I’m currently in the process of setting up a grading service for them. You can see a full list of my live and recorded classes available here.
