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
Nick O’Connell’s teaching in his Seattle writing class was of great help in improving my writing and editing skills. The personal essay I did for the class on my whitewater rapids trip was published in Newsweek’s “My Turn” column. He helped me clarify my language and eliminate excess verbiage. He also showed me how to craft a compelling lead paragraph, one that transports the reader into the landscape of the story from the first word.
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!
Nick O’Connell, founder of The Writer’s Workshop, helped me with the concept for my book, Colors of the West, published in 2017 by Mountaineers Books. We worked together for six months on one of the chapters. Nick gave me valuable assistance with four drafts, which he read with care, offering detailed suggestions for crafting a lively non-fiction narrative. My book would not have gotten off the ground without his insights and experience!
Nick O’Connell’s Seattle writing classes really opened up my eyes to using fictional techniques (dialogue, telling detail, characterization) in my nonfiction writing. Writing assignments I produced for Creative Nonfiction were later incorporated into Inside the Pike Place Market (1999). I highly recommend Nick’s classes to other writers looking for direction and inspiration.
The essay I wrote with your help is in this week’s issue of Newsweek. It is quite exciting – thanks for your help and encouragement in your online writing class. There is very little change from the original, so we must have done good!
Thanks to your guidance in the Seattle writing class, my head is spinning with oodles of ways to express myself using the personal essay style. I attended a conference for text and academic authoring in Minnesota a few weeks ago, where three of us actually composed a personal essay on napkins at a reception with a well-stocked bar. I credited you as my inspiration.
I can’t thank you enough for all that I learned from you about crafting a narrative, scene, and character portraits in your Seattle writing classes. Also, your tips for using strong verbs, rich descriptors, and setting up the framework for the book have proven invaluable. I could never have completed the book without the tools and skills you helped me acquire.
I really appreciate all of your great feedback in the online writing class, particularly the fact that you went through my writing very carefully. Although I learned a lot in the Writers Digest Fiction course it was mostly through my efforts – instructor feedback was usually limited to two or three sentences of general comments that were not particularly helpful. I will stick with you, Jessica Murphy and Scott Driscoll in the future.
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.