Spring MTC Classes: Signups are Open!

After a successful and stimulating Basics of Screenwriting course this fall, I’m energized to teach again during the winter and spring terms in the Midlands Technical College continuing ed program. The Fiction Writing course returns first, and then immediately after, we go back into scriptwriting mode.

Fiction Writing will take a slightly different form this time: formerly a three-hour class held once a week for six frames, I’m trying a two-hour, twice-a-week format in the spring. Why? So as to make the individual classes a little less grueling for the students, many of whom work day jobs and then must sit hearing me jabber on for three information-packed hours. Too much of a good thing is still too much.

The risk, of course, is that the type of students who sign up for these evening continuing ed classes may find twice a week to be a burdensome commitment of time. If so, another tweak will be in order, but we’ll burn that bridge if and when we cross it.

Fiction Writing (18 hours):

01/21/2014 – 02/18/2014

T TH 07:00PM – 09:00PM

Basics of Screenwriting (12 hours):

02/19/2014 – 03/26/2014
W 07:00PM – 09:00PM

Both classes will meet in LB 106 at the main Beltline Campus of the college.

I’m also pleased to announce that in the late spring these courses will return for another round. These sections are also now open for signup.

Going forward, however, I’m trying a different name for Fiction Writing—nonfiction writers and memoirists seem to invariably appear on my class rolls, so with my experience writing that sort of material in addition to my fiction , I thought I’d tweak the course so as to make it more broadly inclusive and appealing to those very individuals.

Storytelling Workshop (18 hours)

05/01/2014 – 05/29/2014
T TH 07:00PM – 09:00PM

Basics of Screenwriting (12 hours)

05/21/2014 – 06/25/2014
W 07:00PM – 09:00PM

Same meeting place as before, Beltline Campus, LB 106.

I chose to have a slight  overlap this time on the two classes so that I’m able to finish and keep the rest of the summer free to write Novel 2014 (though with work on DIXIANA continuing into the new year, as well as screenplay ideas that I have in mind, I may push that project back to 2015).

So, with 2013 drawing to a close, aspiring writers may wish to take note of these course offerings to plan ahead for the new year. As always, I am honored and humbled by the students who show such interest not only in these fine arts, but in my ability to instruct and guide them toward their creative goals. See you in the classroom next year!