The Writing Salon’s Online Self-Paced Class
The Writer’s Welcome Kit
“The Writer’s Welcome Kit is what I wished I’d had when starting out.”
-Paulette Perhach
If you want to commit to writing but you’re not sure where or how to begin, The Writer’s Welcome Kit provides the perfect entry point. Are you interested in the nuts and bolts of writing? Do you want to learn ways to boost confidence or to create a distraction-free environment? Are you curious about writing communities, workshopping, how and where to publish? You’ll find practical direction and guidance in the kit.
The key feature of The Writer’s Welcome Kit is its online coursebook, which is packed with lessons and exercises on the life, craft, practice, and business of writing. The kit also includes exclusive interviews with authors and extensive resources about literary journals, bookstores, and online writing tools. User-friendly templates will help you keep track of your ideas and sustain you through the process of sending out work for publication.
The objective of the kit is to give you a solid foundation to work from as you commit to your writing. As an added bonus, look out for pages in the online coursebook about The Writing Salon’s classes, services, and resources that will suit you best as you dive deeper into your writing.
$120.90 | $130 |
| member | non-member |
This Course Includes
ONLINE COURSEBOOK
Chapters include: How to Start, Your Writing Practice, Your Writer’s Craft, Your Writing Business, and Your Writing Life
INTERVIEWS
Advice from New York Times best-selling and award-winning authors such as Jess Walter, Peter Mountford, Claire Dederer, and Jane Wong
TEMPLATES
For editing stories, creating complex characters, and tracking story submissions. These templates mimic the documents professional writers develop over the course of their careers to maintain organization.
WRITING PROMPTS
Guide your freewriting sessions and freewrite in characters’ voices. These prompts are provocative enough to get you writing, and general enough to be reusable.
Hear From Our Students
- HR & Administration for a renewables company
How many classes have you taken at The Writing Salon? And which ones, as far as you remember?
Many! I started with Jenny Pritchett's You Should Write That Down! and then Kathleen McClung's Intro to Memoir class and have followed up with five or six sessions of Memoir Continuation. I've also taken several day classes: Jenny Pritchett's submissions class (can't remember the actual title), Dianne Jacob's Will Write For Food, Lisa Alpine's Travel Writing class. I'm currently in the Daily Write Round Robin with Kathy Garlick.
What are your most valuable lessons from your Writing Salon experience?
I've learned to trust myself more and take more risks in my writing. This thinking has seeped into other areas of my life.
How has The Writing Salon community impacted your personal and creative life?
I write every day now. Every day! I submitted to and won first place in memoir at the Soul Making Keats Writing Competition in 2015 and took third place and honorable mention in 2016. I have several pieces, both memoir and short story, that I plan to submit to several publications. The goal is to be published.
Describe The Writing Salon in one word.
Inspiring.
- Lawyer/Yoga Teacher
What are your most valuable lessons from your Writing Salon experience?
The classes I took at the Salon were my first exposure to workshop critique and participating in the creative process with other students. I felt as the sessions progressed, I read work (mine and others) more critically, saw areas for growth and clarity, and identified how to better help my peers by asking questions.
How has The Writing Salon community impacted your personal and creative life?
The community at the Salon during both workshops was inspiring and wonderfully supportive. I felt encouraged to find so many people who did not define themselves as writers per se being writers.
Are there classes and events that you’d like to see us run at The Writing Salon?
I love the reading series. Please keep them up! The offerings so far have been very exciting and I look forward to taking another class soon.
Describe The Writing Salon in one word.
Inspiring.
- Clinical Social Worker
What are your most valuable lessons from your Writing Salon experience?
There are many valuable lessons I’ve learned from the WS, depending on where I was in my own development as a writer. In the beginning, with memoir writing, I learned the importance of “voice” in my writing. How to tell a good story, and also how to trust the process of “free writing”, to let the story come out and shape it later. Years later with novel writing, I had to learn technical skills, including the impact of choosing what POV to write my characters in, as well as the challenge of managing the scope of making a leap to something as large as a novel.
How has The Writing Salon community impacted your personal and creative life?
The WS classes have provided a social place to bring the writing and meet other writers. Writing can be isolating and the WS classes provide some informal social support to give and receive encouragement, as well as an opportunity to learn from each other.
If applicable, how have you felt about the peer and instructor critiques that you have received at The Writing Salon? Please explain.
In the several novel writing classes I’ve taken at WS over the past couple of years, the critique of my instructor was critical to my writing learning curve. There are many ways to get lost in the process of writing a novel. I felt that the expert knowledge of the craft and the practice of novel writing I received, helped me to avoid several of the pitfalls. I also found the practice of positive, helpful weekly feedback, from an assigned writing partner in class, encouraging and sustaining.
Describe The Writing Salon in one word.
Inspiring.
- Writer
What steps did you take to become a committed writer?
I go to the cafe every day without my phone.
How has The Writing Salon community impacted your personal and creative life?
A great deal. I have made new friends, rebooted and re-invigorated my writing career.
If applicable, how have you felt about the peer and instructor critiques that you have received at The Writing Salon? Please explain.
Mostly quite positively! I had no idea what to expect, but I've found the quality of instruction and feedback to be quite high.
Describe The Writing Salon in one word.
Inspiring.
