6 Resources for Writers During the Era of Social Distancing

From the Smithsonian

There's no doubt about it.  We are writers living in "interesting" times.  I'm almost ashamed to admit that when my first activity was cancelled last week, I did a little dance.  

Not that social distancing is working out as expected.  So far it means that my extroverts are clingy and crabby because they don't get to go anywhere. Me? I’m wondering where the social distance is.  It doesn’t help that I’ve got a huge Friday deadline.

But we might as well take advantage of being stuck at home.  If you are reading this, I’m going to assume that you’ve got online access. 

Free Books on Social Justice  

For the next two weeks, ten Haymarket e-books are available for free.  If you are interested in social justice, the books range from Ecosocialism by Michael Lowy to Disposable Domestics by Grace Chang.  You can see the whole list here.   

Classic Titles

Prefer a classic like Chaucer or Chekov or Chomsky?  Check out this list of 800 free ebooks at Open Culture. 

12 Museums with Virtual Tours.  Travel and Leisure has a post about video museum tours online.  Possibilities include the Guggenheim in NYC, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, Florence’s Uffizi Gallery.  Check out the full list here.  

Even More Museums.

MCN or the Museum Computer Network has a fantastic list of online resources.  Me? I’m looking forward to poking through the virtual Smithsonian and NASA.

MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) Learning. 

If you want to take a writing class, look here on WOW.  But if you want to learn about International Women’s Health and Human Rights, Understanding the Brain, or Science and Cooking, check out this 54 course list at Business Insider.  

More MOOCs.

Coursera is my go-to location for MOOCs.  I’ve taken classes on Egyptology, Ancient Rome, Astrobiology and evolution.  Check out the full list here.  

Critter Cams.

Maybe you don’t want to think that hard and you just want to gaze a pandas or whales. Travel and Leisure comes through once again with a post on zoos with live camera feeds. 

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’d like to meet this deadline.  I found a class I have to take and there are museums and books and animals that need my attention.

--SueBE

Sue Bradford Edwards' is the author of over 25 books for young readers.  To find out more about her writing, visit her blog, One Writer's Journey.  Sue is also the instructor for  Research: Prepping to Write Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults. The next session begins  May 4th, 2020. 

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3 comments books, cams, classes, MOOC, museums, online resources, Sue Bradford Edwards

Find a Class You Can Use

Signing up for Margo's class
was one of my better ideas.

I love taking classes. I average about 4 massive online open courses (MOOC) each year. I’ve studied dinosaurs, ancient Egypt, chemical astronomy, and even forensic anthropology. Perhaps the best class I’ve taken was one that required a payment.

I just finished Margo Dill’s School Visits and Author Talks for Children’s and YA Writers and Illustrators. Not only did I learn about the various types of talks and visits, I outlined a talk and developed a price structure. I even roughed out the brochure I need to use when approaching schools and libraries.

School visits are something I waffled about for years. First I couldn’t do them because of family commitments, but now? Figuring it out just felt overwhelming. Not anymore. Thanks to Margo, I have a game plan.

What do you need or want to do that you’ve been avoiding?

Maybe you want to develop your online presence and through it your platform. If that’s the case, you need to check out the WOW classes taught by Karen Cioffi, she even has a class called Build Your Author/Writer Platform. In this course, you learn why you need a web site as well as which pages are essential. There’s a section on WordPress for those of us who are interested in blogging.  

Speaking of blogging, Karen teaches Blogging Made Easy. This class is specifically on how to use your blog to build your platform. She discusses what makes a good post, popular post formats and even how to use SEO.

But what about those of us who need to learn about the writing process? Pop on over to the classes page and do a keyword search. You’ll find classes on picture book writing, novel writing, and ghost writing. There are numerous classes on writing essays and memoir. You can even take a class on middle grade and young adult novel writing. 

What did you say? You need something along the lines of writing support? I found classes on outlining, fitting writing into your busy day, and my class on research. Okay, I didn’t have to search for that one because I knew it was there.

I’m never going to quit taking MOOC classes, but I’ve also learned the value of taking a class that involves a tuition payment. Here are four reasons to consider signing up for such a class.

The class provides deadlines. For whatever reason, an external deadline gets most of us moving especially if there is a payment.

Money out of pocket creates accountability. If I’ve paid to do something, I don’t want to waste that money. I might let a free class slide or only put minimal effort into it. A class I paid for? I’d better get to work.

Questions answered add to knowledge gained. If you have a question about something, having a real, live instructor on hand is a great way to find a reliable answer. This is, of course, in addition to getting information you didn’t even know you needed.

Accomplishment equal energy. When you manage to accomplish something, especially when it is something you hadn’t managed to negotiate on your own, you come out of the class energized and ready to tackle not only what you’ve learned about but the next issue as well.

Give it some thought. What have you wanted to accomplish but failed to do? The right class may be all it takes to nudge you into making some progress.

--SueBE

To find out more about Sue Bradford Edwards' writing, visit her blog, One Writer's Journey.  Sue is also the instructor for  Research: Prepping to Write Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults. The next session begins  January 6th, 2020. 

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2 comments classes, MOOC, taking a class, writing classes

Today I am Thankful: An Ode to Stan Lee

For my Thanksgiving Day blog post, I was going to write about "things for which this writer is grateful." And there are many including this amazing community.

But I’ve decided to focus on a writer whose work I admired – Stan Lee. If you only know Lee for his cameos in the Marvel movies, you may not know that he was first and foremost a writer. Before there were graphic novels there were comic magazines. By the 1950s Lee was writing a variety of comics including romance, Westerns, humor, science fiction, medieval adventure, horror, and suspense.

How does this impact us? When he got the chance to premier a line of superheroes, he introduced something never before seen, flawed heroes who were just a human as they were heroic. We employ this technique whenever we create a heroine who has a flaw.

Three years ago, my husband and I took the MOOC “The Rise of Superheroes and Their Impact on Pop Culture.” Led by the Smithsonian, it was offered through EdX and included guest lectures by Stan Lee. Yes, I saved every single one of those lectures. What impressed me most was his enthusiasm.

In Lee’s mind, comic magazines weren’t a lesser literary form. They reflected the values and sensibilities of the larger culture. They gave people a chance to explore the same themes found in novels and film. All that differed was the delivery. Writers who think they could whip up just anything for a comic magazine reader had another thing coming. “If you figure that ‘anything goes’ in a comic magazine, a study of any recent copy of Daredevil Comics or Bat Man will show you that a great deal of thought goes into every story; and there are plenty of gimmicks, sub-plots, human interest angles, and the other elements that go into the making of any type of good story, whether it be a comic strip or a novel.”

That quote comes from an article he wrote that appeared in Writer’s Digest in 1947. In “There’s Money in Comics!,” he gave a lot of writing advice that applies to all writers even today. Grab your reader from the start. Make sure your story has a logical flow from scene to scene. Your dialogue has to be solid and realistic. Don’t write down to your reader. Study your markets because what one finds exciting another will consider too fanciful.

Even today I’m grateful that I took the opportunity to study the evolution of the superhero. Have a written a superhero? Not yet but I am playing with an idea. Graphic novels fascinate me because I’ve seen how they pull young readers in as if by magic.

There are so many things that have influenced my writing. I hope that you too have the chance to learn from someone who makes you think about ways to improve your work and your world. To quote Stan Lee - Excelsior!*

--SueBE

*Ever upward.

To find out more about Sue Bradford Edwards' writing, visit her blog, One Writer's Journey.  Sue is also the instructor for Writing Nonfiction for Children and Young Adults. The next session begins January 14th, 2019.

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5 comments comic magazines, Comics, graphic novels, MOOC, Stan Lee

Back to School

It's that time -- the mass exodus of communities as the college students head back to campus. Listening to friends' tales of the traditional stuffing of the car with bedding, snacks, computers, microwaves and all the miscellaneous things that create life on campus I felt a little twinge for that time that feels like yesterday when I was the one heading back to campus. That feeling of jumping into the unknown with each new class. Wondering what the professor would be like, what we would learn, if it would be worth that 8 a.m. starting time (my major seemed to have a high percentage of professors who enjoyed early morning classes).

I've been toying with the idea of taking a class at my local college but not only is the cost prohibitive but the idea of fitting it into my already jam-packed schedule seemed like an impossibility. That's when I recalled hearing something about MOOCs (massive open online courses). Universities all over the world are placing some of their courses online. Online courses come in many forms. There are the truly free ones where you download videos of the class lectures to watch. This is a great way to dip your toe into MOOC learning. But there are also options that include payment for things like grading assignments or receiving a certificate of completion.

I began my search for online courses at Coursera and found a few great options in creative writing but, by its very nature, creative writing demands feedback so you might end up paying something for these classes. However MOOCs are a great way to do a little research into Medieval England, The Rolling Stones, epidemics or another topic that plays a part in your WIP. So if you want to do your research with the help of PhDs then MOOCs may be the place for you.

Although I did learn a lot from the two classes I checked out, I found that there was a second advantage to MOOC learning beyond the skills and knowledge. It gave me a jump start. Taking a class made me want to write more simply because I was devoting so much time to thinking about writing and World War II. So if you need a little inspiration and don't have a writing group or writer friends to turn to you might want to try a MOOC class to help you get your focus back.

Of course, for improving your actual writing skills I would chooses an interactive class such as the ones at the WOW classroom. Not all these instructors have a PhD but they have two things that count for a lot in our business -- experience and writing credits. Lots of classes are starting September 5 but the schedule has classes listed for through the spring. Why not find a class that can help you with your writing career?

Jodi M. Webb is writer living in Pennsylvania who also is a WOW blog tour manager. Her next tour will be Sugarland by Martha Conway, a novel that involves murder, Chicago and 1920s jazz clubs. Contact her at jodi@wow-womeonwriting.com if you're interested. You can find her blogging about books at Building Bookshelves. 

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4 comments MOOC, online classes, WOW online classes