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Classes
Ellen teaches fiction writing classes in the San Francisco Bay area and several international locations. Check here regularly for updated schedules, class openings, and registration information.
To receive periodic emails with information about Ellen's classes, send an email and ask to be added to her writing class email list.
Ellen also works one-on-one with writers. If you're looking for a book doctor or a writing coach, or if you'd like a critical evaluation of your manuscript, contact her by email.
Stanford Continuing Studies
Ellen will teach a Craft of Fiction class, focusing on plot and character, on Feb 2, 2013 and a Rewriting Intensive on April 27, 2013.
You must register through Stanford Continuing Studies.
Private Classes
Here's to a Creative (and Rule-bending) New Year
In this one day seminar we'll focus on pushing our writing in new directions. This will be a day of exploration and of discovery. I'll set up a series of in-class writing exercises, all focused on pushing you to find something new. A stronger voice? Braver characters? More exciting drama? It may be time to break the rules in 2013 -- let's try it on for size. We'll grapple with structure, character, style, plot. We'll blast through the boundaries of how we usually do things and explore new paths.
This class will work for those of you who are very experienced as well as for newbies. It's primarily a fiction class, but memoir writers will learn from this as well. You won't be bringing any writing to class -- we'll start with a blank slate and take it from there. You'll end the day with a good deal of new material, ready to make 2013 a productive, creative, rule-bending year.
Date: Saturday, Feb 9
Time: 9 - 4 with an hour break for lunch.
Cost: $200, lunch included
Location: my house in Los Altos Hills
to sign up: email me at ellen@ellensussman.com.
The Best American Short Story Seminars
We'll read the 2012 Best American Short Story collection, edited by Tom Perotta. The class meets for four Saturday mornings -- you can sign up for all four or just one, two or three. In each class we'll discuss five of the stories in the collection. The focus is on what we can learn as writers from these masters of the short story form.
Dates: TBA
Cost: $70 per session.
Location: my house in Los Altos Hills
Novel in a Year 2012-2013
I've decided to launch the Novel in a Year class in January -- so that those of you who are interested can commit to writing a novel or a memoir in 2012. How's that for a New Year's resolution!
I've been reading the novels and memoirs from my most recent class and I'm thrilled to see what they've produced in a year. I've taught this class for five years and I'm convinced this works. Here's what happens:
You begin this class with a vague notion of a novel or a memoir that you'd like to write. We meet six Saturday mornings during the course of the year. In those classes, I talk about each aspect of the process: pre-writing, developing characters, plot, voice and point of view, the problematic middle of a novel, endings, and rewriting. I don't read anything until you hand in your novel or memoir at the end of the year. This class is NOT a workshop -- you don't read other students' work and they don't read yours. This is a year for you to write a novel or memoir, to have a teacher and coach to guide you along the way, and to receive a thorough critique at the end of the year. I give you deadlines and I'm available to help you through the rough spots. I do a lot of cheering from the sidelines. And sometimes I pick up the whip as well.
The cost is high. The reason for this is mostly the full critique that you receive at the end of the year. I do a line-by-line read and hand back a critique that is usually a 5 - 6 page single spaced document. You'll also meet with me for a private consultation twice during the year, usually at the midpoint and definitely after you receive my critique. I will also offer my help with query letters when you're ready to find an agent, even if that's years after our class has ended.
So: the cost. It's $3500. Before you gasp, remember that it includes that critique. And you can pay on the installment plan.
For the first and last class I will serve lunch after class -- that's so the group gets a chance to know each other a bit -- and to celebrate our accomplishments at the end. I also assign a "writing buddy" to each member of the class. Some students have had great success with this concept -- I know of one team that still meets five years later. The writing buddies might choose to meet once a week to write at the same time, they might choose to read each other's work, they might choose just to check in with each other at the end of each week to account for their productivity. I try to match writing buddies who are looking for the same thing.
Class dates:
Jan 5
Mar 9
May 4
July 20
Sept 28
Dec 7
We meet from 9 am til noon, except for the first and last classes which will run til 1PM because they include lunch.
The rest of the year I'm available for consultation at any time, through email or phone calls. And of course, through the one on one in-person consultations.
If you have questions about this, please email me at ellen@ellensussman.com. I can also give you student testimonials -- I have plenty of those. Let me know as soon as possible.
What Ellen's Students Have to Say
“I was an English major and have an MFA in creative writing and after years of workshops, Ellen remains one of my all-time favorite teachers. She has a natural talent for motivating students to write, handling the group critique dynamic, and helping you shape and push a story forward. I always left her classes with a spark of inspiration.” — Lolly Winston, NY Times Bestsellers Good Grief and Happiness Sold Separately
“Why take one of Ellen Sussman's classes? Inspiration. Not enough? How about the kind of criticism that will enable you to find your own voice and move your writing from the pedestrian to the distinctive? You want still another reason? Well, then there's this: with the class comes membership in a writing fellowship that brings both shared excitement and terror. Go for it!” — Keith Raffel, Dot.Dead
“Ellen is a perfect combination of tough coach and head cheerleader. She teaches with deep understanding how a writer stuggles. While creating a warm and welcoming environment, she challenges you to find depth in your work you never knew you could achieve.” — Shelly King, Winner 26th Annual Palo Alto Weekly Short Fiction Contest, 2nd place winner of The Writer Short Story Contest
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