“Unlocking the Secrets of Short Story Craft: Can Joyce Carol Oates’ MasterClass Transform Your Writing?”
You also have the option to interact with other writers taking the class in the Hub and via comments on the videos.
Joyce Carol Oates’s MasterClass: The Good
There’s a lot to love about this class. These are the aspects that stood out for me:
- Tips for finding inspiration. I’ve read a lot about where to find story inspiration. I’ve even written articles on where to find it. Still, Oates had some interesting tips on where to get ideas, from confronting taboo to digging deep into inner pain. Kind of depressing, but also powerful.
- Workshops. And more workshops. This course is full of full-blown critique of short stories: famous ones, Oates’s, and two of her college students’. In fact, most of the lesson time is taken up by short story analysis.
- Application to all lengths. Oates’s tips don’t just apply to short stories, but to all lengths of fiction. While I was looking for something that was short story-specific, it was nice to not be so pigeon-holed.
- The assignments are awesome. The workbook is really where this class shines. There are a ton of assignments and I think they’re more help than the videos. They start out small, getting you thinking about the world differently and observing, and then they build into larger tasks.
- Revision-focused. While it’s not quite what I was looking for, Oates’s roundtable discussions with her students was incredibly interesting. It’s a great example of how the critique process is supposed to go.
The Not So Good: Why You May Want to Pass on Joyce Carol Oates’s MasterClass
Like any class, this isn’t for everyone. Here are a few reasons why you might want to skip this one:
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