Learn writing from me, in a new online course!
Enrolling students now for the Longform Lab cohort starting February 5.
Hi friends and happy New Year!
I’m starting off 2024 by launching a project that I’ve been working very hard on for the last six months: the Longform Lab. It’s a six-week online writing course for folks writing in any genre and medium, led by me!
I just finished teaching the soft-launch pilot round to make sure that I got all the kinks out before launching publicly, and I am honestly so blown away by the work that my students completed. One student, a podcast producer, developed and wrote a full five-episode series of a narrative podcast about her family’s history and how they came to America. Another student, a corporate businesswoman by day, finished a huge chunk of her essay collection about identity, womanhood, religion, and finding yourself, plus a pitch to go out to potential publishers. Finally, yet another student followed the curriculum in English but worked on a fictional story in his native language, about fighting for peace in a world wracked with war.
And that’s really what I wanted to accomplish with this class: a place where writers of fiction, nonfiction, books, magazine articles, documentary scripts, graphic novels and more could all join together and create a community to encourage each other along the way. All of the online writing classes I could find were only focused on one medium: a novel writing class, or a magazine writing class, etc. But as a multidisciplinary writer myself, I know that the basics of story structure and character and deeper meaning are consistent across genres and medium. And sometimes I don’t even know the best way to tell a story when I start out— should this idea be my next magazine article or a whole book or even a podcast? Here’s a place to ask those questions.
So, introducing the Longform Lab!
At the beginning of each of the six weeks, students get access to a full asynchronous curriculum including video lessons with slides, workbooks and worksheets, writing exercises and encouragement, and extra resources. They also get access to an online community where they can ask questions, share ideas, and learn from each other.
But that’s not all. I knew this course wouldn’t work without real, one-on-one mentorship and feedback. So for those six weeks, students also get unlimited email access to me personally. And boy did the pilot students take advantage of it! I loved hearing all their questions, reading through drafts, weighing in on thorny issues, and just providing general encouragement along the way.
But you don’t have to take my word for it— here’s Sam, a pilot round student, on what the class did for her:
Thanks, Sam!!
Given that I’ve designed this program to be so incredibly hands-on, I can only accept a few students for each cohort. That way, I can give them my full attention and support, ensuring they absolutely reach their writing goal in those six weeks. [It also means I’m charging tuition for the course, to cover not only my time but the tech that underpins the class including e-learning platform Thinkific, video hosting, a snazzy new website and email, and more. That said, I can definitely offer some partial or full scholarships for students that wouldn’t be able to attend otherwise.]
Okay! So! With that preamble out of the way, I’d love for you to check out the new website for the Longform Lab and consider either joining yourself or recommending to a friend. You can also follow the course’s instagram at @longformlab.
In other news, I have been (thankfully!) extremely busy with freelance work over the last few weeks. It feels like every couple days I’ve had a new story come out. Here are a few of my favorites, if you are interested:
For the Guardian, I wrote about a little-known queer uprising on New Year’s Day 1965 (or ‘San Francisco’s Stonewall’), AIDS activists concerns that we are “backsliding” in combating the epidemic, and the largely forgotten historic Black community of Weeksville, Brooklyn, among others.
For Ambrook Research, I wrote about how the farmhouse craze is making it harder for actual farmers to buy land, and on a lighter note, the movement to encourage farmers and agricultural workers to do yoga (and got the headline Om On The Range published, which was a triumph.)
And for leading journalism publication Poynter.org, I wrote about how extremist mass shootings in America are, in fact, right-wing terrorism and journalists should cover them as such.
And, still, I am working on my novel and hope to have some kind of news on that front soon!
That is all from me for now. Please do check out the Longform Lab and tell your friends!
Best,
Nora