Creative Non-Fiction Writing Specialization

Introduction

2m

Influences / Shaun Levin

In this lesson, you will explore the key influences that shape Shaun Levin work, focusing on single books, entire bodies of work, and writers' lives. You’ll learn how Jack Kerouac, Zora Neale Hurston, and Jamaica Kincaid impacted Levin approach to storytelling, voice, and simplicity.

4m

Influences / Tom Bromley

Now, you'll het to know the influences on Tom Bromley journey, including Nick Hornby, Raymond Carver, and Keith Richards, focusing on voice, simplicity, and relatable themes.

7m

Influences / Julia Bell

It's time for you to know the influences os Julia Bell! During this lesson, she talks about how writers like John Berger, Virginia Woolf, Deborah Levy, and artists like Teju Cole and Vivian Maier inspire her creative nonfiction. You’ll learn to observe the world, find decisive moments, and use photographs, walks, and personal experiences to shape powerful, reflective writing.

13m

Influences / Courtney Maum

Deep dive in the influences of Courtney Maum. You'll explore how storytelling exists everywhere—in film, music, comedy, and writing. You’ll examine influences like Martin Amis, Samantha Irby, and Mira Jacob, focusing on the role of humor in addressing serious topics. You’ll also learn how she balance candid honesty with an appreciation for life’s absurdity.

3m

Influences / Courtney Maum

To finish this unit, you'll explore how humor and candidness influence Courtney Maum engaging nonfiction. Drawing from works like David Rees’ How to Sharpen Pencils and Lori Gottlieb’s Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, you’ll learn how she balance utility, raw honesty, and humor to connect deeply with readers while respecting your subject.

6m

Materials

Choosing a certain pen, pencil and notebook can influence when you write and what you write about. In this lesson, I’ll talk about the writer’s tools and how experimenting with a variety of notebooks, pens, and pencils can increase the types of stories you write.

6m

Techniques to Write Everywhere

In this lesson, I’ll talk about the importance of starting to write right now and show you how to use what’s around you to dive into writing. The great thing about being a writer is that you don’t need much: just a pen and a piece of paper. I’ll also talk about the risks of thinking too much about writing, and how the best way to learn how to write is to write, and just keep writing.

12m

Techniques to Approach a Single Subject

There are many ways to tell the same story, but only one that will be engaging and challenging to you. Here we’ll look at some of the techniques and choices you have as a writer when approaching a story, and I’ll show you a few techniques to help you experiment and find the best way to tell your story. Using the few pieces of writing from Lesson 2, you’ll try out different techniques to tell a story.

17m

Techniques for Sketching with Words

Stories, like any work of art, are made, composed, and created. Here I’ll talk about approaching your story as an artistic creation, and demonstrate how to use great works of literature for “support.” I’ll show you how to look for echoes and repetitions between elements of your story so that it works as a well-constructed piece of writing.

11m

When You Get Stuck

There’s no such thing as writer’s block. In this lesson, I’ll talk about how to avoid being overly-critical about your writing, use books as loyal companions, and show you ways to go deeper into your writing process.

7m

How to Look at a Strawberry

This is the lesson that will teach you most of what you need to know as a writer: observe closely, strive to find the precise words for what you see and feel, and take the time to notice small details. Writing is art and art takes time!

13m

The History of Your Feet

In this lesson, we’ll look at how to expand your story, brainstorm through writing, and use the act of writing as a space to explore, remember, and invent.

7m

What’s More Important, the Facts or the Story?

I’ll talk about approaching “the bigger picture” of your story, and about the importance of choosing the right perspective from which to tell your story.

6m

Our Final Story

Now that we have a first draft of the final project, we’ll explore ways to shape a story into its final form. We’ll look at the importance of a dynamic beginning, and I’ll talk about how to connect the start and end of a story.

3m

Editing and Rewriting

With writing, as in life, you have choices! Your first draft is the beginning of a journey to finding the final form of your story. Sentences can be reshaped and rewritten. In this lesson, I’ll talk about editing your work.

9m

Share Your Work with the World

Share your work, build an audience, and discover what resonates with others. Here I’ll talk about different ways to get your work out into the world.

10m

Final Tips

Write about what you want to write. In this lesson, we’ll consider how your final project could be part of a much bigger body of work you can create. I’ll also talk about staying true to your vision and writing the kinds of stories you enjoy writing.

2m

What Is Life Writing?

First, I’ll discuss what life writing is and show some examples of excellent prose in the subject.

8m

Using Senses to Bring Emotions to Life

Here you'll look at the first of three ways to trigger memories and help bring life writing to life.

9m

Employing Music as a Trigger

In this lesson, I'll talk about how music can transport you back to different events and moments in your life.

8m

Objects and Small Details

During this lesson, I'll share with you a third way of kickstarting your ideas, using objects and small details as prompts.

9m

Rewriting Historical Events from Your Own Perspective

Now, I'll encourage you to think about putting yourself in the picture, starting with reframing famous events from your own perspective.

9m

Bringing in and Bringing Out the Emotions Even When It Hurts

In this lesson, I will discuss the challenges of writing from your own perspective and how to write with feeling and emotion.

8m

Creating a First Draft

You are about to begin your final writing project for the course. Are you ready?

9m

Research

I'll talk you about the research topic and how to use both to get the details right and add more information into your pieces.

8m

Structuring and Shaping Your Narrative

Now you’ve got your draft and fleshed out with research; you can start the process of tightening and editing the piece. In this lesson, you will look at doing so from a narrative perspective.

6m

Line Editing

Let's see some ways of tightening the piece still further, on a line by line level.

8m

How to Give and Receive Feedback

In this lesson, you’ll look at the art of giving good feedback: what works, what doesn’t, and how to take those comments to work forwards.

7m

Taking Further: Thoughts on Building Towards a Memoir

Finally, if you've enjoyed writing this short piece of Life Writing, I'll offer suggestions for those interested in writing and developing a longer manuscript.

5m

Paying Attention

In this lesson, we'll consider the importance of paying attention to the world and do some exercises which will help you to develop observational and descriptive skills.

8m

Developing Your Voice

A key stepping stone to your success as a writer is finding your voice. I will guide you through some exercises that will help you to identify and extend your own unique way of writing.

10m

Working with Memory

Let's build on the observation exercises from the previous lessons! I will encourage you to think about how memory works, how we remember, and the ways in which we write from memory.

11m

The Situation and the Story

Building on what you've learned about detail, memory, and the unreliability of memory, we'll move on and consider how to structure a piece. I will explain how to distinguish the situation and the story.

7m

Structuring Stories

Drawing on what we've covered previously with memory and story development, it's time to think about how to structure what you're writing! You will learn the science of storytelling.

12m

What Makes a Good Story?

This lesson picks up from the previous lesson and considers how I wrote my piece The Night Owl, which you can download from the Additional Resources section if you'd like to have a read! Learning from example is a great way to familiarise yourself with the art of storytelling.

8m

Gathering Your Knowledge and Research

Now that you know the theory behind writing a good story, the next step is to start gathering together your material. I will help you to think about what you know and what you need to know and delve into how I did my research for my piece, The Night Owl.

9m

The Voice of the Piece

In this lesson, I will discuss the importance of finding the voice of your piece and the ways in which non-fiction differs from fiction.

17m

Making a Scene

We will now explore the art of making something active and alive in prose, borrowing techniques from fiction. How can you bring your story into the moment so that the narrative can move forward in the reader's mind?

9m

Refining the Ending

How can you finish your piece to bring the story to a strong close? In this lesson, we will consider how an ending implies meaning for all the things which have gone before it.

9m

Different Approaches to Editing

In this lesson, I will review the different ways in which you can edit your pieces and consider how layout, design, and word choice can affect the way we read. You will also discover how this can contribute to how and what we can say.

20m

Planning and Developing a Longer Project

How can you apply the skills you've learned to much bigger endeavours? In this lesson, we'll consider how to develop something from a short piece into a longer project.

12m

Taking Your Work Forward

Well done. You now have the knowledge and skills to write successful creative non-fiction. But how do you get your work out there? In this lesson, we'll look at the market for short personal essays and consider the next steps for your projects.

17m

Conquering Fear and Guilt

Here I will provide three essential steps you should consider before starting to write.

5m

What Memoir Is and Does

I will show you the different types of autobiographical writing so that you have a clear vision of where your work could fit.

4m

Deciding What Will Make It Into Your Story

Sometimes it is hard to decide what parts of your non-fiction work you should leave out. Here I will give you some tips to make this process easier.

8m

Voice: What Is It and How to Find Yours?

Finding the right voice for your project is another important element to consider. I like to divide voice into several categories which help me find the right one for each work.

8m

Plot, Sub-Plot and the Double Timeline

We will now focus on the plot and sub-plot, two elements every good book should have, and on how to identify them.

6m

The Three-Act Story Structure

Here we will take a look at this classic but effective story-telling tool.

6m

Putting It All Together!

In this lesson, I’m going to walk you through how I wrote a difficult personal essay about a miscarriage using the tools we have learned together: the creation of a double timeline and a three-act story structure.

12m

Accountability

Here I talk about the importance of scheduling some time of your day exclusively for writing and I'll give you some tips on how I manage to do it.

2m

Generating “Buzz” Around Your Story

Social media is a great tool to make your book known, so it's important that you leverage their full potential to reach a wider audience.

4m

Giving Yourself Permission to Write

It is not unusual to feel that you are not entitled or professional enough to tell a certain story. Here you will learn that trying to overcome that thought is a key element of the writing process.

3m

What Is a Book Proposal and How Does It Work?

In this lesson, we’re going to learn what a book proposal is and what it should include.

7m

The Two-Step Chapter: Summary Approach

Now, you’ll see my special two-step approach to chapter summary writing that will make your book proposal easy, enjoyable, and selling for your reader.

8m

Establishing Your “Hook”

I will show you how to communicate what makes your book special and how to pitch yourself as the author. This is called your book’s “hook.”

5m

Understanding Platform

In this lesson,we’re going to talk about what “platform” is and use a worksheet to analyze our own.

10m

How to Write an Overview

Now, we are going to see how to write the “overview” portion of your book proposal.

10m

Determining Comp Titles

It's time for you to learn what “comp titles” are and walk through how you can find the book titles that are comparative to the one you want to write.

7m

Writing Your Bio and Marketing Plan

We’ll talk about how to write a marketing plan and incorporate your personal bio to support that plan.

20m

Best Practices for Submission

In this lesson, we are going to see the best practices for preparing our book proposals to meet the larger world.

5m

How to Find an Agent and/or Editors

Let me show you how we can find the right agents and editors for our projects.

8m

Strengthening Your Platform

In this lesson, we’ll talk about how we can strengthen the areas of our platform that need a little help.

9m

What to Do with “No”

Lastly, we'll talk about what happens if we’re not getting the responses we’d hoped for during the submission period.

9m