Getting Started in Creative Writing

(EGL 278 W)

Do you have a voice inside that calls out to write? Is it now time to share your story, pursue that book idea, or put down tales and observations on paper? Or have you been writing for a while and now you are ready to share your work with others? This online course will offer you a safe and supportive environment for getting started in creative writing. We will begin with four weeks of short writing exercises designed to build your confidence and develop your tool kit as a writer. These exercises will focus on character, setting, tone, sensory descriptions, and plot arcs. Over the next four weeks, you will experiment by writing one piece in each genre: fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and drama. We will end the course with the revision of one piece and practice sending work out for publication. Through this course, you will discover your own voice as a writer and realize what kind of writing is right for you. With the collegial review of work in progress through weekly online postings, you will come to see your unique strengths as a writer and be inspired by the other writers in the course. So take the plunge into creative writing and honor that voice inside.

For more information about The Online Writer's Studio, please visit our FAQs.

Alyssa O'Brien, Lecturer, Stanford Introductory Studies

Alyssa O’Brien has co-authored seven books on writing and taught courses in creative writing, visual and cultural rhetoric, and oral communication. For the past three years, she has directed the Cross-Cultural Rhetoric Project, using technology to connect students across the world. O’Brien writes poetry and creative nonfiction, participates in two writers’ groups, and has been a faculty leader at the Stanford Sierra Camp Alumni Creative Writing retreat. She received the Phi Beta Kappa award for Outstanding Teaching in 2006.