Wow, I am shocked by how bad my class was (Memoir with Janelle D). My teacher ends the classes 10-15 minutes early. Instead of trying to engage the dialogue or teach us something interesting or more broad, it's like, "Welp, no one has any more questions, see ya!!!" ... and she only wries 1-3 ACTUAL sentences of critique on each person's piece. The rest is her cutting and pasting long swaths of your own writing. The discussion is pretty boring generally and her often reading VERBATIC what was already written in the assignment handout, or having someone read the assignment out loud. We were told me were not allowed to talk to each other in the platform about our peer feedback so there is absolutely no community or culture to the class - no vibes at all. She also said she would grade our submissions the day or after they came in but she was always late so you barely had time to digest your critique before moving onto the next assignment. We paid $400 dollars for 5 hours of instruction (that would be the total since she cuts class early) and a few sentences of critique on all of our pieces. It really feels like maybe these teachers - or maybe this one - are there just as their side hustle to make some extra cash. Totally nuts. Also, instructor Janelle said she has never taught memoir before and has never written memoir before. Well, why are you teaching it then????? What the hell! I had another teacher who there was much more engaged so I know they are not all bad. But nonetheless, there is no oversight on how each teacher is doing, so it's just an expensive crapshoot knowing if you'll get a quality teacher. WS marketing is strong in SF and NYC so maybe they stay in business by getting a bunch of newbies who don't know better. PS - Gotham which is rated MUCH higher and only costs $50 more offers 3 hours of instruction over 10 weeks - so 30 hours for memoir vs 6 hours of instruction at 1 hour over 6 weeks - TAKE THAT IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! read more

My experiences with classes at The Writers Studio (TWS) over the last couple of years have been incredible. Susan Tatiner, Francesca Moroney, and Gail Ford are amazing teachers. I feel I've grown so much as a writer and in ways that I did not anticipate. The TWS classes' weekly exercises are firmly grounded in the craft of writing. Insightful feedback from teachers and other writers nurture growth and strengthen skills. The classes encourage experimentation and stretching beyond what I thought I might be able to accomplish as a writer. I've learned so much. I'm currently taking a class with Janelle Drumwright, who is also amazing, that covers approaches to being published in literary magazines. The insights shared are practical and will be so helpful on this writing journey. And quick shout out to the support staff (Liz, especially) who are also wonderful! Thank you to everyone at The Writers Studio! read more

Great and supportive teachers. Paid close attention to students. Lots of helpful suggestions.

I'm so grateful and so inspired by the online Level 1 Writers Studio class that I took recently. Special shout out for the amazing instructor, Wendall Tong, who set a supportive and inclusive tone, both matter-of-fact and exciting at the same time, and had all of us writing and commenting and sharing, without fear. Not an easy feat! Thank you Writers Studio and thank you Wendall! read more

Currently in one of their online courses and I love it so far. My instructor is great, class is fun, readings and classmates are very useful in my work. I strongly recommend! read more

The usefulness of the WS method is that it gets you reading a lot and writing a lot while thinking about narrative voice. The students and teachers are incredibly supportive. You get a real dialog about technique going, which is something I've found missing from other online classes. I've also been in online courses where you don't see the other student's work. That's one huge plus for the WS, you get to see and discuss how 8 or 10 other people handle a technique. The drawbacks for me are the pace and the emphasis on student critiques. There's a new exercise every week which gets to be too fast for me. It goes against popular wisdom, but student critiques are mostly useless, especially at such an early stage in the writing process (one week, 2 pages). I recommend the online classes, taking breaks between classes if the pace gets to be too much. Read as much student work as you have time for. Write as many completely candid critiques as you have time for (this is a learning opportunity for you). Then edit 2 or three for constructiveness and brevity and post those. Disregard the student critiques you receive. read more

I saved up for a whole year to take the Writers Studio Level 1 class. When I originally inquired about taking the course, the person who responded told me my instructor would take a look at my two self-published books and advise me on how to proceed further. This never happened, although I sent her PDFs of both books. When I finally was able to afford to enroll, I was able to view the previous iteration of the same class. What struck me was that only a fraction of the total number enrolled actually seemed to be participating. This was a warning sign that in retrospect I should have heeded. Afrter the first class, we were told that we could withdraw and ask for a refund after five days. This is way too short an interval to properly assess the course, so I decided to stick it out, despite some misgivings. Really, WS should allow students to withdraw anytime on a prorated basis, minus an admin fee perhaps. That would have been fair, especially since 18 people enrolled in the class @ US$435 each, which means WS made US$7830. Only about half of the registered number actually seemed to be participating in the assignments/Google meetups, and a few more disappeared over the eight weeks. I found the information shared in the classes rudimentary, and the critiques didn't interest me at all. I did enjoy the opportunity to write poems, a couple of which I plan to keep, but I didn't need to spend US$435 to do this. I also find the exclusive and rather obsessive emphasis on the persona method limiting and derivative, although not without interest. I would much rather have taken a course that introduced a variety of poetry writing techniques, including persona writing, but this does not seem to be the approach of WS. I stuck it out almost to the end, but didn't participate in the last one or two classes as I had already begun another poetry writing course which I like much better. It's longer, more informative, and more diverse. It cost me $30! I think the WS course is way overpriced for what they offer. read more

I'm at level three, and I think the method works because it's based on a cycle of reading and writing and focusing on tone and mood. It forces you get to the emotional core of a piece. It's also a great opportunity to read and critique the work of your fellow students and see how they have interpreted the assignment. While I generally don't find student critiques very useful, I learn a lot while writing them. Unfortunately, the assignment changes every week. So you don't have time to incorporate what you've learned into a piece while it's hot (of course, you can do that outside of the class but there's always another assignment on your heels). That's really my only criticism, I get tired of the pace. Sometimes it's just too fast for me to understand the technique or enjoy the process. read more

I am taking my second class of Level I. They recently changed their old policy requiring all people new to The Writers Studio to take Level I twice. Now, if you have taken post-graduate writing classes, you can start in Level II, which I would have preferred as I have a number of writing classes under my belt and feel I have a strong sense of my voice as a writer (I have other craft-related issues I need to work through). They are also allowing people to workshop longer pieces in the upper levels (III and IV) course which is new this year and which I think is important. At some point, I think we all want to move beyond workshopping 2-pages at a time. Given the recent changes, perhaps I will enjoy the Writers Studio more in its future incarnation than the current one. I appreciate any opportunity to receive direction, structure, and feedback. In Writers Studio classes you write two pages a week modeling your narrative voice after a published and often award-winning prose or poetry writer. So far, in the two classes I have taken, there has been a lack of diversity in the writers featured. Personally, I don't find the method has worked particularly well for me. I would rather have the opportunity to receive instruction and feedback on my own work--in my own voice and my own style. The feedback you receive, depending on the instructor, is often rigidly focused on whether you achieved the persona narrator of the author of the week and not on the content or quality of what you have written outside of its relationship to the work you are trying to emulate. All that said, I do think this is a good place to start if you are brand new to fiction. Also, the people who take the classes seem to be committed and serious. The majority of people in my classes have been solid writers--some very good--and attentive readers. There is not much of an opportunity, at least in the Level 1 class, to form community with writers. People are typically coming to class from work and run home the minute class ends. It isn't exactly a salon. read more

I agree with previous critiques -- the *only* tool they use is to give you a two-page excerpt from a published piece and you are to imitate the persona-narrator voice in a piece of your own. If your work takes off in an unanticipated direction, no matter how creative or incredible it ends up being, your work is critiqued off the map because you didn't stick with the exact same narrator-persona voice as the model piece, or perhaps you didn't follow her or his style exactly. This kind of critique kills creativity. In class I listened to some really fantastic pieces that took the narrator-persona exercise as a starting point and then developed into something far more fascinating than an imitation exercise. These students are reamed by the teacher! There are so many way in to writing, to use one tool exclusively, a tool that does not produce work that is much good -- I am an English teacher and I would never force my students to conform in this way. As the class continues (I am only still taking it because the refund policy sucks and the class does force me to write), I witness students developing into run of the mill boring writers. There are a few of us who rebel and refuse to be limited by the strictures of the same assignment every week. We pay for it during class with the teacher's critique, but other students in class are much more generous and supportive. I do not recommend these classes even for beginning writers as it will kill any creativity beginners might otherwise have been able to tap into. Ugh! read more

This school is not for everyone. But when it works, it really works. The basic idea is that first and foremost, writers need to pay attention to the voice or narrator they create. And everything comes from that. There are weekly exercises that try different personalities, or craft techniques, week after week. Some people love this - it's exciting and freeing for them (it was for me) and others really, really don't. If you stick around and move up in the levels, they teach you more about other aspects of writing and you have a chance every semester to bring in a longer piece. read more

After several years of taking courses at The Writers Studio, I have on several occasions recommended it to friends who are seeking a disciplined approach to developing (or, in my case, building from scratch) their craft for literary fiction or, if they prefer, poetry. Here's what, in my opinion, the school impressed most on me: (a) the importance of the narrative persona; (b) the technique of distinguishing mood and tone; (c) the ability to deconstruct a piece of prose and see the author's underlying framework; (d) various techniques for establishing distance between you and your fiction so that you can write your fiction without always bursting in tears about your painful childhood or your relationship with your mama or papa. Here's what The Writers Studio is not: (a) a place to learn how to come up with stories; (b) a place to have people eagerly read whatever it is you wrote that is also completely unrelated to the exercise due that week; (c) a place to read and learn about The Great Writers of the Last Five Hundred Years; (d) a replacement for all your efforts to write under your own power. One significant plus that needs to be emphasized. Many of the instructors were once students there. Many of the instructors remain students (in the master class). Many of the instructors remain instructors for quite some time. So they will have followed your development and have a greater understanding of your process than I suspect the instructors at some of the other assembly-line writing classes available in the city would have. read more

I signed up for my first WS online class because I wanted my writing to connect emotionally with readers, and that is the skill WS sells. I am about to enter the Level IV online class. Apart from the reasons discussed below, I have stuck with WS for this length of time primarily because it keeps me writing. The class consists of weekly exercises for ten weeks, critiquing the work of classmates, and a weekly one-hour online chat. At higher levels, you're also expected to read published works and sign up for separately, and listen to, a weekly podcast about the published work or works on which the exercise for the week is based. The weekly exercises are an easy commitment, only two pages a week, and the critiques need only be a paragraph or two on the exercises of 2-3 classmates per week. This is a much less onerous commitment than a workshop that expects you to bring in a full story, critique the full stories of others, do reading assignments and exercises as well. As others have mentioned, WS has a method and that is what they teach. Obviously, I've gotten something out of the WS method or I wouldn't have stuck with it. But if you are looking for a workshop that lets you put up anything you want for critique, WS is not that workshop. I believe I have learned the WS method over the last 7 sessions -- which involves creating persona narrators using the techniques used in the weekly published reading, a focus on mood and tone, and trusting the process. However, I'm not sure that learning this method has (so far) enabled me to translate the method into emotionally connected work, at least in a predictable way, which is my goal. I am also struggling with how to make the transition from using the method in exercises to using it in my own work. In Level IV I am told, students no longer do a set exercise, they design their own from the reading. I am looking forward to that freedom. I am hoping to get that "a-hah" moment where I understand how to use the method in my own work and to enable reliably repeatable emotionally connected writing. If not, then at least I'll have had the discipline of writing two pages a week enforced on me, learned a new and interesting way of looking at narrators, and become focused on mood and tone in my work, all of which I find valuable additions to my writing toolbox. I did not give five stars for one simple reason: there is a certain rigidity to the approach, while at the same time what feels like an unwillingness to answer questions about the approach or questions outside the approach. These comments do not apply to all teachers -- I've only had three, and as with any place I've hit it off with some on a personal level better than with others. But there's a general vibe that questions about your work outside this method are not supported. More significantly, questions about the method are also hard to get answered by the instructors. I understand that writing is an art rather than a science, but still, I would hope there would be some pointers that could be generalized about this method to help those who genuinely want to learn, rather than simply throwing the question out to the class, all of whom are in the same boat as the questioner. Also, so far there has been no discussion of some important storytelling elements except in the context of persona narrator, mood and tone. Plot, characterization, theme, pacing, etc. are all discussed only in this context and not in and of themselves. I hope to see broader discussion of such elements in the upper levels where students are expected to have the basics of the method down. The online program doesn't encourage out of class contact among writers. Most of my other writing schools have done so -- with the teachers available outside of class to consult with writing groups, etc. Some of the teachers are quite generous and will answer emails outside of class, others seem to have been told that if they don't set a hard line with students they'll be taken advantage of -- rather than encouraging the give and take between students and teachers, as well as students and other students outside of class that academic programs offer. One last thought. I had a number of traditional workshops under my belt when I started, so I can't speak to the experience of someone starting their training in craft at WS. I do wonder whether if I had not had the foundation I have, I would have got as much out of the WS method. read more

I stopped going after a few classes. There was never a time to work on pieces to improve them. Waste of money

I would agree with the above two reviews. They have a method which is fine as "a" tool, but they use it as their only tool. Peers of mine have taken several classes there and continue as pretty ordinary, unimaginative writers. Many of the teachers are minimally published and few -- if any -- have graduate degrees which wouldn't be a deal breaker if they were cultivated thinkers and writers anyway. Don't waste your time and writing. read more

I've taken a variety of non-degree-granting writing classes over the years. The Writers Studio was the very best, with dedicated teachers who were once students in the same classes. The prices are fair and installment plans are offered. Back in NYC, I finished Levels 1 & 2, and took one full session of Level 3. They encourage you to 'try on' different narrators using brief examples from short stories and novels - this workshop style cleared away a lot of the creative insecurities I had. Why didn't I continue? At a certain point, I just felt I 'got' it and didn't need to keep hashing through the weekly exercises. Also, they require you to take each level a few times before moving on to the next one, which can get expensive and feel a bit redundant after a while. But, with all of that said, the community aspect remains, as I've stayed in contact with a few students and we continue to exchange our work years later. And the teachers I most connected with have been kind enough to write recommendations for artist residencies. This place is great. Highly recommend for writers who know they wanna write but struggle with the process. read more

I have been working with The Writers Studio since 2009. I see the school as a creative laboratory. The techniques we learn from examining narrators provide 'tools' to carve our own material. It's a methodology of learning from the masters. In the classes, I am encouraged to take risks, to try something different, to risk failure, to push myself from the known to the unknown. This is why I continue to attend year after year---because I continue to learn and evolve, and that is exciting. read more

The Writers Studio was a great discovery for me. I was looking for a community of writers and strong teachers as well as a new way to approach writing poetry after a long hiatus from regular writing. I found all three. The teachers are friendly and dedicated and will push you to critique your own work. The method of creating a persona narrator helped me understand voice, mood and tone in my own work. The atmosphere is collegial and safe. Best of all, many great poets and fiction writers come to the craft class to read their work and answer questions about craft and process. I highly recommend taking a class. read more

If you are serious about improving your creative writing skills, this is by far the poorest program available in New York metropolitan area to do attend. Far better choices are Gotham or the 92nd Street Y writers' programs. Writer's Studio was started by a little known writer who claims to have overcome dyslexia, which is nice but he did not become a successful writer of literary fiction. Unlike other programs, there is no requirement that the faculty actually have ever published anything. Rather, they merely have attended several levels in this idiosyncratic and somewhat anti-intellectual method of teaching writing. Hence, the teachers themselves are not successful writers and are rather poor teachers. Many of the courses are offered in the facilities of the Writer's Studio's business partner, a decrepit private school in Greenwich Village that has a receptionist at the front door who glowers at students as they come in and is given to bizarre bursts of temper. Inside, students sit at tiny chairs meant for first grade students. So it is a basically unpleasant and worthless experience. At the prices charged, it is quite exploitative. There are much better choices. read more