Signup: Four Week Writing Course

Writing, as if For Life: Engaging the Challenge of Internal Exploration & Creative Expression

I’m happy to offer a writing course led by Robert Kehoe III, who I credit with teaching me several important lessons about writing, reading, and thinking. It costs $500 and starts Nov 18.

I’ve personally gone on a six-year journey from very little credentialed writing experience to a full-time income without paying for additional formal education beyond my undergraduate degree, completed in 2010. My decision to pursue writing full time began in 2014, but it took me over six years to be valued by the marketplace equivalently to the corporate job I left behind. On a separate but related track, my science fiction short story was recently named as an honorable mention in a reputable contest.

How then, did I learn? Mostly, I was paid to learn. This is still happening. I’m currently helping three separate authors, each experts and authorities in their fields, write their nonfiction books. I learn from the authors themselves, from my interaction with editors, from my own mistakes.

How did I get good enough to continue to be paid just a little more each time for more learning? Mostly, by not giving up. Even when I failed. Also, by not falling into the trap of paying for needless credentials. As a supplement to paid work, I read writing by friends and neighbors, offering my honest reactions, or write reviews of my weekly reading. I listen to readers.

Many people won’t agree with me on this self-guided approach. Better to get formal training. Better to get a credential that employers care about. Better to join various associations. I don’t necessarily have a quarrel with those avenues, though I would personally hesitate to universally offer those solutions. But nor did those paths appeal to me. My approach was tailored to my personality and the lifestyle I wanted. And yet, having said all this, it’s okay to pay others for help.

The one person I did pay was Robert, who coached me in 2019 for five months, and whose lessons continue to resonate as I take on new work, projects, and stories.

When the student is ready, the teacher appears.

Robert is leading this four week course. I’ll be assisting to make sure the key lessons I learned from him are offered to the twelve students as impressionably and as generously as they were shared with me. I imagine the twelve writers that participate will be better writers than I am, which has me greatly anticipating the chance to get to know them as people and as writers.

Learn more here.

Thanks for reading -Erik

Ps Should you have questions, reply to this email or send them to writer@hey.com and I’ll get back to you in 24 hours or less. My cell is 203-253-2274, if you’d prefer to text or call, though I may not immediately respond on that channel.