Writing classes can be very helpful in honing your craft. I have found that the more specific the topic of the class, the more I get out of it.

Writer U
I’ve taken several classes through WriterU. Hands down, I think WriterU is the best resource of writing classes online. Most of the classes I’ve taken have been taught by Mary Buckham, who as far as I’m concerned is a Writing Guru and walks on water. Some of the classes I’ve taken with her are:

The Hero’s Journey
In this class you’ll plot your whole novel out using the Hero’s Journey template as laid out in Christopher Vogler’s book, “The Hero’s Journey.” This is derived from the philosophies of Joseph Campbell. This is a wonderful class in which you’ll examine your character’s and story’s arc in depth and come out with effective tools to plot a book.

Pacing
This class focuses on pace and how to avoid The Sagging Middle. Not only will you focus on the pace of the entire book as a whole, you’ll also look at pacing within a scene, a paragraph and a sentence.

Synopsis & Query
I absolutely credit this class with landing me my agent. When you have to lay out a synopsis of your book, you really learn where the strong and weak parts of your story are. That’s part of what this class focuses on.


Other non-Mary classes I’ve taken through WriterU:

Defeating Self-Defeating Behaviors with Margie Lawson
This class motivates you to change all the negativity in your life into positivity, to turn procrastination into productivity and to challenge yourself into real change. It takes a strong commitment to make an effective change in this class so be sure that you are ready for that when you sign up for this class. If you are ready, this class will give you some real tools to help you along the path to change.

Plotting Through Motivation with Laurie Schnebly Campbell
This class focuses on plotting a novel using the motivation of your main characters. By the end of the class you’ll have a skeleton of your plot. This class is especially useful if you have a great premise but are having a hard time fleshing out your characters and/or plot, which is the situation I was in when I took it.

Many local RWA chapters also give classes, both online and in person. For the online classes, you don’t need to be a member of RWA to take them.

For those of you who are New York-based, The Writer’s Studio also has classes, though they are fairly expensive. You’ll need to go through a Basics class to get to the more advanced levels. In the Basics classes, you tend to do week-by-week assignments instead of working on a WIP (work-in-progress). But the good thing about a class like this is it gets you writing at least one night every week, and if you’re deep in a WIP it will give you a little break from it, which is sometimes vitally important.

Lastly, if you take a class and you feel like you didn’t get ANYTHING out of it, don’t be too shy to ask for your money back. Many of the WriterU classes have a money-back guarantee. You shouldn’t have to pay for something that doesn’t give back.