One Small Thing by Jessica Barksdale Inclan

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Powell's Books

Taking a class online still raises the hackles of some.  Some's hackles raise, as it were, when one mentions the online classroom environment.

It's true, too, some of those hackles.  For instance, there isn't always a connection between teacher and student.  A few weeks ago, a student who took a six week online course last summer wrote me to ask for a letter of recommendation.  After teaching over 120 students since that student and having just met 120 additional students, I had no idea at all who this person was.

I wrote back, saying I could report a grade and that was about it.  The student smartly went on to a teacher who had actually seen her in the flesh.

So there is that anonymity.  And the class won't necessarily be a place of bonding and connection, though I have seen classes bond.  One novel writing class I taught broke some kind of "comment" record.  They couldn't stop talking to one another.  They parsed out every nuance of each other's work and shared recipes, too.  Sometimes, I actually had to write, "Class!  Class!  Please come to attention."

For novel writing, online is a great environment.  There you can post your work straight out and get feedback from me and from students.  By the time you leave the class, you will have the spine of your story, the beginning, middle, and end (but not all the middle parts).  You will have a clear idea of what to do when the class ends.  You will have a path toward finishing it.

My next novel one class starts April 7 and runs through June 9.  Please click here for more information.

Jessica