Masterclass

getting started

For a while now, I’ve been eyeing the ads for Masterclas.com. On Facebook, it shows where several of my friends and two family members have “liked” it. Masterclass offers video lectures on a broad range of subjects, from business to health to art, and what I’m most interested in: writing.

Traditional educators don’t give the lectures; they’re by people who have proven successful in their field. Two that caught my eye were Margaret Atwood and David Mammet. Both are writers I’ve studied before, particularly Mammet, whose use of dialogue has fascinated me for something like twenty-five years now. They also offer courses by Amy Tann, Salman Rushdie, David Sedaris, Joyce Carol Oates, Dan Brown, and more.

I’m particularly interested in taking courses from writers I also read, and they offer several of them. This includes people like Steve Martin, who is a brilliant writer, even though that’s not what he’s famous for. I think I will start with Neil Gaiman, who offers nineteen lectures for a total of almost five hours.

If I’m going to be a real writer, a writer people want to read, I need to sharpen my skills as much as possible on a practical level. I feel like listening to writers whose work interests me as a reader is an excellent way to do that. I also especially need to do things that build confidence in my work. Right now, it’s far too easy for me to work for several hours on something and, before it’s finished, give up on it because I don’t feel like my effort was worth it. Maybe having more tools in my kit will help me push through in those moments when I doubt myself.

Membership is fifteen dollars a month, allowing me to watch the courses on my computer and phone. That’s about the price of lunch somewhere. I’ve always enjoyed taking classes. This won’t be as stimulating as attending an in-person class, but it’s considerably less expensive, and I get to work on it on my schedule.