on Fiction University:

Many years ago, I took as many MOOC (Massive Online) writing and poetry classes as I could handle. Iowa University in particular offered excellent fiction writing classes. The class content was top-notch, the world-wide audience that exchanged critiques was full of interesting people, and it was all free! I still stay in touch with people I met there.

One of the things that I struggled with at first was writing with constraints. There was always a maximum word count and a time constraint. Sometimes there was a topical constraint. It wasn’t until I got some writing experience under my belt that I realized how much all of that helped me. Even working on this post has brought some “aha” moments when I remember the way those classes started my writing journey.