Courses
Courses by Kristen include writing-specific courses available through Serious Writer Academy. She is also available to present these topics in person at conferences.
Serious Writer Academy Courses
Serious Writer Academy is designed to help writers and authors polish their craft and build their personal platforms. The academy’s faculty offer a variety of courses in the following categories: fiction, non-fiction, children’s, platform, and business. Whether you’re a beginner or wanting to take your writing to the next level, Serious Writer Academy courses can help you pursue and achieve your goals. Below are Kristen’s courses available at Serious Writer Academy.
Introduction to WordPress.com
For writers, our website is our central hub to help our audience find us and communicate with us. WordPress.com offers a beautiful and user-friendly solution to do just that! This module provides an overview of WordPress.com (and clarifies the difference between it and WordPress.org), breaks down account options, tours the admin dashboard and some popular features, teaches how and where we can incorporate our blog in WordPress, and explores several options for adding images and media to dress up our site. If you’re interesting in creating your own website, WordPress.com is a great place to start and offers a free or inexpensive do-it-yourself option.
Canva: Create Memes & More
You’ve probably seen the memes that writers share on social media—with stunning photography and personalized text. Maybe you don’t think you’re much of a designer, but the good news is that you don’t have to be! Canva has been called the “easiest to use design program” and offers both free and professional accounts. In this course, we’ll explore this online tool for designing memes, social media banners, and much more. If you want to streamline your online platform’s visuals or simply create inspiring or motivational images to share, this course is for you.
NEW! Introduction to Pinterest
Maybe you already have a personal Pinterest account, but did you know that Pinterest can help engage your readers? Well, it can! Pinterest can be a tool that helps identify what common interests you and your audience share, and as a side benefit, provides inspiration and organization for your blog. When Pinterest and blogging join forces, you can generate new content ideas. Plus, unlike other social media platforms, Pinterest is a search engine, which means your content won’t expire.
Note: The technical aspects of the blogging integration portion will apply to WordPress.com users. Other platforms may have similar integration options, but the examples given will be for WordPress.com.
New! The Hero’s Journey
The Hero’s Journey refers to the common elements that form most stories. Although the stages of the journey may vary depending on the genre, they remain present through all of literature. In this course, we break down those stages and view them as a roadmap for writing our own fiction. Whether you’re just starting a new project or ready to revise a newly completed one, this course will help you analyze your characters and plot to eliminate plot holes and tighten your storyline. Practical, hands-on activities throughout the stages encourage you to practice with your own work-in-progress.