Writing the Wave is an organic approach to writing that will jump-start your creative process and free the writer inside you—even if you’re just starting or have been struggling for years—by working with both your creative and analytical mind.
Writing the Wave is perfect for you if:
- You have never written at all but would love to try;
- You have tons of great ideas but don’t know what to do with them;
- You know that you want to write but aren’t sure what you want to write;
- You feel what you’re writing now could be more or better or different;
- Your well has run dry and you’re just plain blocked.
Writing the Wave offers easy to follow, step-by-step writing exercises to break down the creative process into basic parts. With each new assignment, you will produce a new piece of writing and acquire a writing technique you will use again and again. By the end of the course, you will face the blank page with confidence and excitement rather than fear and doubt.
Writing the Wave consists of four six-week parts you can take in any order, at any time.
- Part One: Work with breakthrough concepts such as imaginative layering (the basic building block of all creative writing) and explore your unique voice with burgeoning confidence.
- Part Two: Learn how to write more effectively using a unique cluster of left brain problem-solving skills to organize and structure your first drafts.
- Part Three: Apply revision techniques to make your writing more expressive and powerful.
- Part Four: Explore advanced techniques that make writing powerful and memorable.
Created by Center Founder Elizabeth Ayres, Writing the Wave is our foundational course for anyone who wants to give writing a try, or who has tried but wants to accomplish more.
And if you want even more writing practice, try The Writer's Eye, a self-guided "second step" course designed to help you notice and convey sensory details to enhance your writing in any genre.
Become more attuned to the world around you and produce more evocative writing through The Writer's Eye is designed to help you become more attuned to the world around you so that you can produce more evocative writing. You will
- Provide short responses to assigned readings, thereby developing your critical thinking skills (because good readers make better writers);
- Craft stories, poems, or personal essays in response to a given week’s theme;
- Apply weekly prompts to new or existing projects; and
- Use the course structure to cultivate a regular writing practice that fits your life, even after class ends.
The Writer's Eye consists of five six-week parts you can take in any order, at any time. You will work on writing with
- Greater depth, because when you write from the place where you’re most yourself, you’re writing from the place where you’re connected with everyone else;
- Greater command of language, because words are your medium and your message; and
- Greater understanding of how memorable writing achieves its impact.
Created by Center Founder Elizabeth Ayres, The Writer's Eye is the next step to becoming a more observant and authentic writer.