Long Story Short School of Writing at CFU offers a multitude of great courses taught by highly qualified instructors. Whether you write for fun, school, business or with dreams of getting published, we have courses that will help advance your writing and your career!
Novel Building
with T.C. McMullen
This course will help you get started with your story from generating your idea into a strong novel backbone to writing the first chapter.
LSS2010 -Novel Building Part One - $158.00
Students will receive tip sheets along with personalized lessons and interaction through email with the instructor. This enables the instructor to comment directly on each student’s work file to better communicate the skills in each lesson. Those who complete the course will receive an ebook of writing tips.
This is an Online course and will be conducted via the internet as arranged by instructor after registration.
LSS2010A - Novel Building Part Two - $158.00
In this course, students will create passages of dialogue and of action, learn self editing skills and produce a strong synopsis. Each student will have at least one completed chapter for their book at the finish of this course. They will also have their storyline ready to be fleshed out and walk away with some knowledge of the publishing options available to novelists today.
This is an Online course and will be conducted via the internet as arranged by instructor after registration.
Fiction Without Fear or Using the “Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune”
with Perry Brass
You can be the writer that you want to be, but first you have to understand what good writing is: a discipline and an art form. Like dance, painting, or music, there are basic techniques you can use to get past your own fear of the blank page. This course will teach you to approach the mystery of words without anxiety, holding back, or reverting to bad writing habits. Brass will guide you through basic formats, with an emphasis on story structure and finding your own style and voice. You will recognize your problems and learn to edit yourself. With a background in journalism and editorial work, Perry Brass has been writing professionally for thirty years, and has developed his own techniques for finding the inner story and keeping it exciting. With major experience in New York publishing, he approaches students as a published author and a gentle, supportive guide.
LSS2011 - Fiction With Fear Part One - $158.00
You will submit to me either a story in progress or your ideas for a story that you are thinking about (incubating). We will discuss: 1) What kind of story interests you, and where do you want to go with it. 2)Three basic writing techniques that you can use: purely emotional, purely observational, and purely “objective”—the words are now talking to you. 3) More about point of view: Are you too close to the story or too far away? Finding a position that allows you to tell your story without interfering with it, and yet allowing your own passion for it to come out.
A three week course
Class Dates - Every Wednesday.
This is an Online course and will be conducted via the internet as arranged by instructor after registration.
LSS2011A - Fiction With Fear Part Two - $158.00
working through plot ideas, characters and how they work in the plot, and kick-starts that keep you from getting stuck.
1) Plot killers and plot makers. Good plots are rational and fairly easy to follow (unlike life), and yet filled with surprises and emotional pay offs (also, too often, unlike life—but when you look at it, you realize this is what life is about: surprises and emotional pays offs). So, how do you keep the cliches out of your plot, and yet not make it so crazy that no one can follow it? Remember the old rule in real estate: “Location, location, location!” We start with this, and go into what “locates” the plot in an interesting way. 2) Back to the beginning: your questions, problems, and ideas. How do you utilize what we’ve talked about? What basic approaches keep you from going stale, being afraid to start, and getting trapped in a place you can’t get out of?
A two week course
Class Dates: Every Wednesday
This is an Online course and will be conducted via the internet as arranged by instructor after registration.
Who IS That Person - Developing Four Dimensional Characters
with Dorry Pease
LSS2012 - Who is That Person - $158.00
The first week - Introduction to the class along with an assignment for each student to return to me three short story ideas along a specifically guided worksheet. Together we will determine the best of the ideas for a continuation of the story with an emphasis on the development of the character in the piece.
The second week -along with a character worksheet and a short lesson on developing a full physical back ground on the main character[s] in the story the student will write for review and critique the setting and an introduction to their character[s] for the beginning of the story.
The third week - will bring the student into the conflict of the story as he or she learns how to integrate and strengthen the main character through an evolving relationship with the other characters and with the plot of the story. I will review and critique each student individually as their story progresses. The character is fleshed out on the emotional and spiritual levels as he/she begins to come to grips with the problem that exists and the solution he/she must face.
The fourth week - the student will continue on to the climax and the ending of the story bringing a final and satisfying resolution to the plot as the character[s] uses the intellect along with the reasoning abilities of the characters. The student will see how the utilization of all four of these dimensions makes their character strong, real and universal to the reader.
The fifth week - the student will present to me a full story with characters that draw in and create an emotional response for the reader. I will do a full critique so that the student has a completed story ready for publication at the end of the class.
A Five Week Course
Class Dates: Every Wednesday
This is an Online course and will be conducted via the internet as arranged by instructor after registration.
Writing Fiction Express
with Lea Schizas
LSS2013 - Writing Fiction Express - $158.00
We will explore three important elements that make up a story: Beginning, Middle, and The End. By the end of this course, you will have completed a 1500 word short story, honed, tightened, edited and ready to submit to one of the publications, or one of your choice, supplied by the instructor in Lesson 4. Do you have a passion for dark and mysterious characters? Do you find yourself underneath the covers with every creak in the house? Do you dream about faraway planets? A little bit of Mother Goose in your bones? Mystery, Romance, Horror, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Children stories, it doesn’t matter. By the end of this intense four week course, you will have a complete 1500 word short story to submit to a publishing venue, one you have been yearning to write but needed a push in the right direction.
Lea Schizas will take you down the road to three important steps making up a complete story:
Lesson One: THE BEGINNING - We'll explore what makes for a captivating beginning. How to build your character to allow the reader to connect with them.
Lesson Two: THE MIDDLE- We'll strive to understand how obstacles/subplots strengthen a character's plight and prods the reader to continue the read.
Lesson Three: THE END - We'll finalize and analyze what makes for a satisfying ending.
Lesson Four: FINDING A PUBLISHER - How to research the right market for your story.
A Four Week Course
Start Date: Every Wednesday
Each student will receive a final comment on their work plus a publication venue to submit their story to by the instructor.
This is an Online course and will be conducted via the internet as arranged by instructor after registration.
Engage Readers' Emotions
with Patrika Vaughn
LSS2014 - Engage Readers' Emotions - $158.00
Remember how you fell in love with Rhett Butler? Remember how you cried at the end of some novels? How do you get readers of fiction to identify with your characters? How do you create empathy in non-fiction readers? Learn how to create an emotional experience for your readers -- one that will involve them with your story, article or book.
A Four Week Course
Start Dates - Every Friday
This is an Online course and will be conducted via the internet as arranged by instructor after registration.
So You Want to Write Flash Fiction
with Sharon Poppen
LSS 2015 - So You Want to Write Flash Fiction - $158.00
People write for all sorts of reasons - to make money; because their 8th grade teacher told them that they have talent, because almost everything they see, touch, smell, feel and/or taste stirs their imagination or maybe because you just have to? Yep, you’re a writer, a perceptive person who sits in an airport waiting room, reads faces and conjures up a vignette, story or a novel based on an imagination rich with creativity. But, don’t quit your day job just yet. If this describes you, you'll love this course. We'll cover grammar, genre, the "hook", conflict, resolution and more. You'll have a finished story after three sessions.
Lesson 1 - Why Do You Want to Write and What You Need to Know
Lesson 2 - Reacting to Critiques and Editing Your Work
Lesson 3 - Working with stories submitted and teacher's comments/critiques.
A Three Week Course
Start Date: Every Wednesday
This is an Online course and will be conducted via the internet as arranged by instructor after registration.
Power Writing
with Jane Bernard
LSS2016 - Power Writing - $129
For people who are blocked or who have writing they want to improve or develop, this course is unlocks the blocks and strips down the fluff to focus on creating a document that works. Bring your work and be prepared to make it shine. Focused on the 11 rules of re-writing this course will re-affirm your goals and strike gold with your purpose. It is not a grammar / punctuation course. Power writing will teach you to critique your work effectively in terms of organization, composition and completion of your project.
An e-book will accompany this course. Jane bases the course on her book, Warrior Mind.
Week One - Jane will present guidelines and answer questions from noon-1:30 PST on Saturday.
Week Two - Jane will critique and answer questions based on the work done during the week
Conducted workshop style via a message board. We will have assigned goals to achieve and students will post work for group critique. This will be an ongoing process during the week. With a re-write of the work done the 2nd week.
A Two Week Course
Start Date: Every Saturday, 12-1:30 pm EST
Conducted workshop style via a message board. We will have question and answer sessions on Saturday mornings from 9:30-11 PST and Jane will respond to all postings during the week.
Minimum 3 students
This is an Online course and will be conducted via the internet as arranged by instructor after registration.
Perry Brass’s writing students have called his work as a teacher “invaluable,” “warm,” “inspiring,” and “very helpful.”
“I've taken a number of online writing classes and for the most part, they've been beneficial. However, the fact that this class was small, we had nearly one-on-one mentoring from Lea.(I suspect she'd do this if it were a large writing class). She was honest in her feedback, pointing out strength and weaknesses in our writing, and willingly shared information, knowledge, and her own writing experiences. She made the classroom environment comfortable and personal. You've got a great teacher on staff. Keep her.”
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