My 10 week advanced non-fiction course in the Writers’ Program at UCLA Extension begins tomorrow and I’m going to post part of it every week on this blog. I’ve been teaching the course forever so I decided to come up with new subjects/themes for each week to keep the course fresh not only for me but also for returning students. In the blog post I’ll include reading suggestions and writing exercises.The goal of the course is to write/revise chapters of a memoir or to write two new essays.

What I won’t be posting though is the best part – the workshop. (You have to show up in person to get that.) In workshop every week six students bring in writing to read aloud – up to ten minutes – and then get feedback from their classmates and me. You learn a lot by hearing others critique work, and critiquing it yourself. And it gives me the opportunity to teach by example.

The main focus for this spring course is for students to create a writing practice that’ll continue after the class is over so they can keep going with their personal essays or memoir. The first class will be about spending the next ten weeks making your writing into a practice.

I’ll post the first class later this week.

Meanwhile: Do you have a writing practice? A specific time when you sit down to write? Or are you struggling to fit writing into your life? Please leave a comment.  I’d love to hear from you.