Amherst Way with Jessica Cole

INSTRUCTOR: Jessica Cole

TIME: Tuesdays, 6:30–8:00 p.m. CST starting August 5

PRICE: $100 per month (discounts for multi month registrations)

LOCATION: Online via Zoom

LEVEL: All levels

Whether you’ve never taken a writing class before and want a safe and engaging space to begin, or you want to jumpstart a stalled project, troubleshoot with a trusted group working toward similar goals, be a part of a writing community, and/or co-create a writing practice with baked-in accountability, this class is for you.Too often, we try to make 180-degree changes. But even the smallest change in direction results in an entirely new destination. That is why this class—bedrocked by the Amherst Writers and Artists (AWA) method—is so effective: it supports us showing up for ourselves in small, sustainable ways as habits that result in big payoffs.

For those of you who have taken the class before, we’ve incorporated your feedback and upgraded it! Like a gym membership, we’ve expanded to multi sessions designed to keep us accountable to our goals and consistently part of a supportive community.

Inspired by a yearlong AWA course in which instructor Jessica Cole drafted a memoir, subscriptions can be used to begin chipping away at a book-length project by adding written pieces to it every week. We will share insights and troubleshoot issues that arise. You will get help sequencing and making connections in longer pieces from an instructor and group who are growing together. At any point in your writing journey, you’ll be privy to publishing advice and answers to questions about the literary ecosystem from your instructor, the co-founder of a local indie press.

Once a week, we'll gather over Zoom. Short craft lessons will be woven in, but the bulk of the class revolves around timed writing prompts as kick-starts. We only offer feedback to each other about what's working in each piece. The point here is to get out of our own ways, sidestep our perfectionist tendencies, get a quick shot of positive feedback, and keep going. The doing is the thing, and the doing of things is easier together.