Welcome to Lesson 1!

Please watch the video, then complete the assignment (shown here) and introduce yourself in the discussion board. There is a workbook if you want to keep notes or write your thoughts about things talked about in the video. The project guideline is also available for download or viewing.

This course has assignments with most lessons, and I encourage you to do them so you'll get the full benefit of practice to apply what you're learning. To help with this, I recommend you bring in a friend to send your completed assignments to each week. Your friend doesn't have to read them, but they do need to be the sort to hold you accountable if you don't keep up. Writing is really a team effort--writers, readers, and helpers. Great writers don't write alone. Modern authors have teams of editors and beta-readers. Writers of yore, like Jane Austen, and still some writers today, read their work aloud chapter by chapter to their families. Accountability, and the humility to risk sharing your work, are important parts of being a writer, so search out a partner and get started!

Assignment

Part 1: Read the course rules and look over the schedule.

Part 2: Briefly introduce yourself in the discussion board. Tell us what state or country you are from, what you like to read, a few of your favorite books and movies, and one fun fact about yourself. 

Part 3: Just for fun: Write an introduction in first person from a character you wrote or a character you love. Imagine you are all sitting around a campfire and your character is there and must give an introduction. You can also post this in the discussion board, if you want.

Reading:

The main class projects are a book proposal for a “Beauty and the Beast" and a short story retelling (around 20,000 words in length). Retellings give a certain amount of structure, so the students aren’t starting from a blank slate. It can be a loose retelling, so even students who don’t like the story can create a work they are excited about. To get started, however, let’s read one of the most famous of the many, many “Beauty and the Beast” type fairytales. We'll talk more about the project along.

For now, read the Beaumont version of “Beauty and the Beast.” It’s short and can be found through Project Gutenberg here:

https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/7074/pg7074-images.html