Latest News
- There’s still room in my Spring Writing Classes and online writing classes. Sign up early to reserve your spot!
- Learn the secrets of the travel writing trade in my Travel, Food and Wine Writing Class in Burgundy (May, 2024).
- Take a look at my recent publications, All in a Spellbinding Ashland Weekend and All and Nothing: Inside Free Soloing, Baptism by Whitewater: Rafting the Salmon River.
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Writing Classes with The Writer’s Workshop
Narrative Writing Classes
Have a compelling story? Want to learn the craft of narrative writing? Dr. Nick O’Connell teaches time-honored principles with a relaxed style in a sequence of four enjoyable Seattle writing courses, from nut graph to structure, from lead to climax.
Travel Writing in Europe
This course uses all of an author’s skills—ranging from dramatic scenes, character sketches, concrete detail, point of view, and scene by scene construction—to compose compelling, engaging travel narratives.
Online Writing Classes
Have you always wanted to write but needing a refresher course on the nuts and bolts of creative writing? Would you like to extend and enhance your writing techniques? If so, these online writing classes will help you communicate clearly and effectively in email, reports, letters, essays as wells as learning the art and craft of fiction and nonfiction narrative.
Reviews from Past Students
Sometimes the most influential people have no idea of the impact they have on others. I just wanted you to know what a tremendous difference you have made to my writing life and to share the great news that an essay of mine will be published in a Seal Press anthology, Ask Me About My Divorce: Women Open Up About Moving On, that is scheduled for release in May 2009. Your kindness, your style, your generous sharing of your craft, your respect for everyone… it all had a deep impact on me and gave me the courage to write from my heart.
Nick, thanks so much for all your guidance and help: the classes, the feedback, and the positive attitude towards criticism all contributed to my successful book proposal. The structure of the class plus your positive spin on incorporating suggestions really altered my attitude. Given my lifetime history of a critical mother, that was some change!
About six years ago I took your Creative Nonfiction online writing class. I enjoyed it immensely and think I even learned something. Fast forward to October, 2006. The editorial board of the University of South Carolina Press met this afternoon. My proposal for a book called Longitude by Wire: Finding North America was on the agenda. At a little after two this afternoon I received this e-mail from the editor: “Project approved for publication. Congratulations.” Who would ever have thought I would get this far? Just amazing!
Nick, I am so grateful for the opportunity to take your summer nonfiction seminar through The Writer’s Workshop. It was the summer of 2008, and I was in the midst of making big changes in my professional life. The writing class proved to be the kick-off to my new path as a food and wine writer on the east coast. Now as wine columnist and a restaurant reviewer for the Boston Globe, I regularly use the techniques of narrative writing to bring readers into the action of a story and to create engaging scenes out of everyday moments. Thank you for fostering a supportive learning environment in your writing classes that played a key role in my development as a professional writer.
Nick’s great sense of humor, his keen eye for clean, compelling prose, and his years of practical writing experience make learning productive and entertaining. Nick successfully guided me through my first job as a newspaper reporter and has provided advice and mentoring since. He’s a great teacher for the beginning writer and a superb coach for the experienced professional.
Nick is one of the most approachable and helpful writing teachers I’ve ever met. He’s not just a good teacher, but a veteran writer himself, who knows all of the ins and outs of the business. I’d recommend his Seattle writing classes not only to the beginner, but also to established writers who are looking to improve and broaden their skill set.
Before taking Nick O’Connell’s Creative Nonfiction Seattle writing class, I sent stories off to editors with a sinking feeling in my stomach. I was nervous that I would be found out. The truth was I was winging it. I didn’t know how to write a nut graph or a compelling lead. From scenic leads to nut graphs and character development, I learned techniques that made my stories stand out. That’s how I landed my job as Associate Editor at San Francisco Downtown Magazine, only six months after taking Nick’s course. I was up against Brown and Oxford graduates–one of whom was on staff at Time Out magazine–but I was offered the job because my stories had strong themes, clear structures and, most importantly, kept the reader reading. Nick’s course gave me the confidence and, most importantly, the techniques I needed to bring my stories to life.
GUESS WHAT!!!! Equus has accepted my article! OK, so they are only paying me $50, but I really don’t care about that. Thank you so much for helping me, Nick. I have really enjoyed and benefited tremendously from working through the writing process with you in this online writing class. Your comments and assignments kept me inspired and enabled me to write an article I had been thinking about for a long time. I don’t think that I could have done this without you. This is amazing! Just wanted to share the news!
The Storms of Denali: Book Trailer with Nicholas O’Connell
Email or Call Today: (206) 284-7121
Have you always wanted to write but haven’t known where to start?
Have you written in the past but need a refresher? Are you an experienced author who wants to perfect and extend your technique?
We offer a wide variety of writing classes, including Seattle writing classes, travel writing classes and online writing classes to meet the needs of a wide range of writers. All of our instructors have extensive teaching and professional writing experience, allowing them to guide you through the sometimes bewildering world of newspaper, magazine and book publication. We provide expert, constructive criticism to help you master the art and craft of writing.
Meet your writing instructor Nicholas O’Connell
Hello & welcome!
Learn the secrets of narrative writing in my writing classes and:
I look forward to working with you!
Yours,
Nicholas O’Connell, M.F.A., Ph.D.
Send me an email
(206) 284-7121
Writing classes help writers tell compelling stories.
Reach a wide audience and satisfy some of your deepest yearnings for pattern, mystery, and coherence in your life.
Narrative writing allows for great scope and ambition, but it requires commitment to the habit of art to succeed. Our writing classes will help you develop your own habit of art, mastering the art and craft of narrative writing essential to creating fiction and nonfiction stories.
We teach Seattle writing classes, travel writing classes and a wide range of online writing classes.