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Creative Nonfiction 101 Level 1 (Online)

Step into the wide range offered by nonfiction writing in this immersive course. From memoir to travel writing, you will explore varied styles and topics while sharpening your craft through writing exercises and assignments. A guided tour through the world of creative nonfiction.

  • Beginner
  • 18 and older
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Start Dates (4) $379/person

  • Includes $25 Reg Fee
    Class accessible anytime within the session dates
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Class Description

Description

Creative Nonfiction 101 is a 6-week course that combines lectures with hands-on writing exercises, designed for beginners and anyone seeking to refresh their skills. You can access a detailed syllabus for this course further below.

Creative nonfiction draws from real-world experiences and uses the craft and vitality of fiction to shape truth into compelling stories. These narratives span every imaginable style and subject: from intimate schoolyard memories to international adventures in Nepal to explorations of the universe itself. Creative nonfiction appears across books, magazines, newspapers, websites, blogs, newsletters, and numerous other platforms.

This course provides an introduction to six major forms of creative nonfiction: memoir, personal essay, feature articles, profiles, reviews, and travel writing. You will learn what defines each form and how to write them effectively. This is a foundational survey, requiring no commitment to any particular project or specific nonfiction type.

If you want to discover the vast possibilities of nonfiction writing, this guided exploration is your starting point.

Course Details:

The 101-level courses do not include workshopping of student projects. However, students write essays and exercises that receive constructive feedback.

This course explores the primary forms of creative nonfiction and their corresponding techniques. Course components include:

  • Lectures
  • Writing exercises

Weekly Schedule:

  • Week 1: Memoir Examining meaningful aspects of your life, mining your memory for authentic material, and developing techniques for telling real-life stories.
  • Week 2: Personal Essay Discovering how any topic can become a personal essay, balancing the personal with the universal, and developing shape and voice in your writing.
  • Week 3: Feature Articles Mastering journalistic storytelling, understanding feature structure, and learning what makes features compelling and engaging.
  • Week 4: Profiles Selecting subjects to profile, conducting effective interviews, and learning how to bring a person to life on the page.
  • Week 5: Reviews Understanding the purpose of reviews, balancing facts with informed opinions, and writing for your target audience.
  • Week 6: Travel Writing Exploring travel articles and travel memoirs, and discovering what comes next in your nonfiction writing journey.

Important Note: Content and topics may vary among different course sections.

About Online Classes:

  • Online classes bring together students from across the globe to study at Gotham, New York City's premier writing school.
  • Classes run asynchronously, not in real time. You can participate whenever you choose, day or night, though classes progress week by week with specific milestones to achieve each week.
  • You can participate in online writing classes from anywhere with internet access. While most online students are in the United States, we welcome participants from nearly every country worldwide.
  • Technical support is available throughout the course.
  • Beyond the flexibility of time and location, you maintain complete records of all class materials, which you can print and preserve for future reference. Materials are provided in text and image formats, not video.

Refund Policy

All Classes (except One-day and Zoom Intensives and Write-Ins):

  • For a refund or credit, contact us three business days or more before your class starts. You can either choose to hold a full credit with us good for one year on other Gotham classes OR you can opt for a refund less a $25 administrative fee and your $25 registration fee ($50 total).
  • If you need to withdraw after your class has started (or two business days before it starts), you won’t receive a refund, but you’re welcome to a Gotham credit less the price of Week 1 and your $25 registration fee, but we need to hear from you three business days or more before Week 2 meets for that to happen. After that point, no credits are available.

One-day and Zoom Intensives:

  • You may reschedule a One-day or Zoom Intensive one time, if you notify us two business days before the class begins. After that first reschedule, there is a $25 rescheduling fee.
  • If you notify us three business days or more before your class begins, rescheduling is free. If you notify us less than three business days before your class begins, there is a $25 rescheduling fee. If you don’t notify us until after your class begins, we cannot reschedule you.
  • You may get a refund (minus a $50 fee) if you notify us three business days or more before your class begins.

Write-Ins:

  • If you withdraw 1 business day or more before it begins, you’re welcome to a full credit good for one year toward another Write-In. No refunds are available.
  • If you simply don’t show up and don’t notify us in advance, you forfeit your money.

A few more things:

  • Credits are valid for one year and cannot be changed into refunds down the road.
  • Simply not attending class or notifying the instructor does not mean you've officially withdrawn.
  • Some exceptions are made on a case-by-case basis for medical emergencies with a doctor's note.
  • Refunds take up to six weeks to process.

Please understand, we can't issue a refund after classes have started, even if you miss your first class. Similarly, we can't offer you a credit one day before your second class or after that. We understand that other obligations get in the way of attending class, but these policies allow us to get other interested writers into class early enough to have a good experience, and this allows us to offer our classes at a reasonable price.

Important Notes:

  • Students are allowed to join a class in the second week.
  • Only those who pay the tuition in full can be guaranteed a place in class.
  • Class dates and times may be subject to change. A substitute may be assigned or make-up classes added to the end of the term.
  • Auditing and the recording of classes are not allowed.
  • For all classes, students receive a record of payment and registration.
  • Gotham reserves the right to remove any student at our discretion.
  • Gotham does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sex, religion, disability, socioeconomic status, national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, age, or marital status.
  • Our courses are not intended to provide instruction that will result in the student's acquisition of occupational skills.

In any event where a customer wants to cancel their enrollment and is eligible for a full refund, a 5% processing fee will be deducted from the refund amount.

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Gotham Writers Workshop

Gotham Writers Workshop is a creative writing school in New York City and online that has been teaching students since 1993. They offer classes for both new and experienced writers, focusing on writing craft and providing a safe and structured environment for improvement.

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