Latest News
- There’s still room in my Summer 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
Just last week I received call from an editor at Tate Publishing who told me that a book I’ve written about caring for my mother has been accepted for publication. What a surprise! One of the reasons I took your online writing class was to gain more skills to complete this book, so my dream has finally come true.
This is just to let you know that I have been published in Northwest Lawyer magazine! I was inspired to publish by the class. I would not have thought to submit an article without your encouragement. I have more confidence now, thanks to your classes.
I’m a 2007 Writer’s Workshop alum writing to thank you. I no longer live in the Seattle area, but recently received notification that I am a Fellowship Award Recipient to the Professional Wine Writers Symposium at Meadowood Napa Valley in February 2017. Thank you for the direction your workshop provided all those years ago, which guided me to my true North. While not easy, I found the courage to pursue what I love – writing – and in doing so, to find my voice.
Nick’s writing Seattle writing classes have been critical for me to get started as a professional writer. He teaches an excellent mix of craft and marketing–both of which are essential for successful writing. He taught me how to write a gripping lead, set the scene, and finish in a way that brings the piece full circle. On the marketing side, Nick willingly shares his own strategies for breaking into publications. I found his tips about querying editors, as well as his market insights, invaluable and have used them successfully in publishing my first essay–a story about my first car. I’m grateful for his encouragement of my career in writing. In the fall, I will study Creative Nonfiction at the University of Idaho’s MFA program. I’ll also be TA’ing and hope to model my teaching style on his!
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.
I have taken Professor O’Connell’s Creative Nonfiction online travel writing class via email from France. The study of writing techniques, related readings and feedback from the assignments is very effective. In fact, I have already been hired to write articles regularly for The Riviera Times!
Thanks to what I learned from you and Scott Driscoll, I was lucky enough to become an intern at Seattle Magazine, then a freelance writer, and now I’m the Research Editor for Seattle Magazine, Seattle Business Monthly, and Northwest Home & Garden. I really appreciated your feedback and suggestions. This is a long overdue thank you.
I wanted to write and share with you how much your non-fiction creative writing class meant to me. With zero professional writing background, I absorbed as much as I could from your class. Here’s just a smattering of what I learned: the huge importance of an engaging opening; the use of verbs to create action and move the reader along; create tension in the reader and set them up for the solution; use action-oriented scenes. And much more.
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.