Explore Longform with Writing 201
Explore longform writing in our newest Blogging U. course, Writing 201: Beyond the Blog Post. The fun starts Monday, December 1 — learn more and register today!
We often think of blog posts as being just a few paragraphs long, or being a “less serious” kind of writing. Not so! In this challenge, we’ll focus on writing longform pieces that are equally at home on your blog or in a magazine. Whether you have trouble organizing your thoughts in longer pieces of writing or simply want to challenge yourself as a blogger, Writing 201: Beyond the Blog Post can help.
What is Writing 201: Beyond the Blog Post?
Writing 201: Beyond the Blog Post is a four-week course to help those beginning to explore longform writing (or who are frustrated with their past attempts). Each week, we’ll focus on a different kind of piece, working our way from interviews — one of the easiest ways to get started with longer pieces — through instructional pieces and opinion pieces, ending with a personal essay. It’s the product of a range of writers and editors, including the founders and editors at Longreads — folks who know a thing or two about high word counts.
The course doesn’t have “assignments.” Publish a draft on Monday, a work-in-progress on Thursday, a new post on Saturday, or even commentary on the writing process. Don’t publish at all, or submit your piece to an online magazine. What you publish and how is up to you.
For those who’ve never worked with other writers before or are scared to open your work up for feedback, don’t worry! We’re a friendly bunch, and we’ll offer tips on workshopping before getting started.
The most important part isn’t our advice, but the feedback you offer one another. As with all Blogging U. courses, you’ll have a private community space, the Commons, where we encourage you to workshop your writing. Workshopping is all about collaborative brainstorming: share excerpts from pieces you’re working on or links to your published pieces, ask focused questions, and provide critique. You offer specific, constructive feedback to others, and they do the same for you.
The nuts and bolts
- Writing 201: Beyond the Blog Post begins on Monday, December 1.
- New workshops are published at 12:00 AM GMT on Mondays. Each one helps you create a new longform piece of writing — interview, instructional, opinion, and personal essay/memoir. (And since you’ll get your final workshop on December 22, you can wrap up in time for the year-end holidays.)
- What “longform” means depends partly on you, but we use it to denote writing that’s 1500 words or more.
- There are no posting requirements; the emphasis is on exploring new forms and workshopping your material. Publish your work when and where you’d like.
- Participants will have a private community site, the Commons, for workshopping, chatting, and connecting with others. Daily Post and Longreads staff and WordPress.com Happiness Engineers will be on hand to answer questions and offer guidance.
- This course is completely free and open to bloggers and writers from any platform.
Note: this is not a course about blogging, it’s a focused writing workshop. If you’re interested in learning to blog or developing your existing blog, you’ll want to try our Blogging 101 and 201 courses — Blogging 101 will be back in January.
How to register
Want to join? Fill out the form below to register. You’ll receive an email before the course begins with instructions on how to access the Commons. Thanks for joining us!
Registration for this course is now closed. To learn about future Blogging U. courses, just follow The Daily Post!
- November 21, 2014
- Better Blogging, Community
WordPress.com News 
Michelle. Quick question. When you originally introduced they ‘longform’ tag, it wasn’t clear whether it should be ‘longform’ or ‘WPlongform’. And, although you didn’t set a word limit, it was then gauged at around 1000 or more.
Recently—ish, you WP introduced ‘longreads’. So what should those of us who often write 1000+, 1500+, and 2000+ actually tag our posts?
Because I think that would also be helpful for people who are wanting to learn how to create longer posts (without sending readers off to sleep).
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Sure thing — so yes, we had been using WPlongform, which we were defining as 1000+ words. Earlier in 2014, the Longreads team joined Automattic/WordPress.com, so rather than having two similar tags, we started moving toward longreads, which already has a large community of active readers and writers behind it.
On http://longreads.com, 1500 words is generally the cutoff, but for WordPress.com purposes, it’s fine to continue using 1000 as the basline.
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So how do we tag our long posts?
WPlongform or longreads?
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Longreads.
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Cheers Michelle
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Thanks for this opportunity. As a blogger, I try to limit my posts to under 700-800 words. But I would like to explore long form writing for certain topics, and I want to learn how to effectively communicate my arguments without boring the readers.
Looking forward to learn how to write long form content effectively.
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I am excited about this! Thank you for your time and education! Embrace your Greatness!
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Sound really interesting. Are there any plans to have another run of the course for those us who are unable to make those dates.
The Science Geek
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Yes, we re-run all the Blogging U. courses; this will likely be offered again in the first few months of 2015.
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I am in.. looking 4ward to the same.
Thanks to the team!
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This is absolutely awesome! thank you guys for such an interesting and helpful idea!
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“…including the founders and editors at Longreads — folks who know a thing or two about high word counts.”
I keep thinking these people should be called “Longfellows!”
Sounds like an exciting course.
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Wonderful idea! Two questions. Can we use compositions as blogposts before or after comments have been received? Are post-comment edits expected? Trying to figure out if we have the time for this.
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Nothing is “expected” — all the Blogging U. courses we offer are just meant to off you support, resources, and guidance. You can use them however you’d like. There are no participation requirements.
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I would like to register for the course coming up in Jan. please.
Greg.
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Sure thing — just fill out the form embedded right in the post you’re commenting on!
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I love that you are focusing on longform writing 😀 I do interviews on my blog http://www.readaninterview.com – nothing else, only interviews – and I love the fact that this otherwise hard-to-digest style is getting more and more attention. People don’t have the attention span to read long posts unless they look for exactly that, ot the subject is very engaging.
Since I only do interviews I won’t participate in the course, but I wish everyone who does good luck 😀
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I could not take your survey but would like to join.
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You have two options — either delete the “s” in the “https” of the link, view the post on a laptop instead of with a phone/in an email, and the form should be there. The “s” in the “https” can trigger a security warning in some browsers.
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I’m definitely interested. Is there a syllabus?
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Not a published one, but I can tell you that the four weeks will cover:
1. An interview
2. An instructional piece
3. An opinion piece
4. Personal essay/memoir
Hope that helps!
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While I’m buried in writing “assignments” right now, Michelle, it’s exciting to see you covering longform. I submit posts to Longreads on a regular basis; it’s my niche, for sure. Looking forward to seeing what you do with this!
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Great Idea.
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it is only me again. I haven’t yet received the email confirming my registration…was i supposed to? shall I register again? let me know! thank you :))
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There’s no automated confirmation; you’ll get a welcome email just before the course starts.
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perfect! now I know! thank you
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Very excited for this opportunity
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Thanks for this! I usually only have posts that are 300-500 words long.
John
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I’d like to register
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Longreads just seem to be where most of my posts end up, which probably has a lot to say about just how long-winded I am. I’ll be looking forward to the start of this course with great anticipation. Thanks for having me.
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I’d love to join however I don’t seem to be able to sign up –
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You have two options — either delete the “s” in the “https” of the link, view the post on a laptop instead of with a phone/in an email, and the form should be there. The “s” in the “https” can trigger a security warning in some browsers.
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The link doesn’t work for me. Can someone help please
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You have two options — either delete the “s” in the “https” of the link, view the post on a laptop instead of with a phone/in an email, and the form should be there. The “s” in the “https” can trigger a security warning in some browsers.
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I see no form below, the story of my on-line life. Like to sign up. is this the form below?
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Are you using a phone or tablet? That may be the culprit — if you can, try from a computer. Let me know!
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I tried to register for this course, but got an “error” message instead of the application. Where your message said “fill out the form below” the only that appeared was “view poll.” When I clicked on that I was told “your connection is not private.” I’m wondering why.
Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 17:39:14 +0000 To: shazrek@hotmail.com
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You have two options — either delete the “s” in the “https” of the link, view the post on a laptop instead of with a phone/in an email, and the form should be there. The “s” in the “https” can trigger a security warning in some browsers.
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A registration form was not there where it was promised.
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If you’re looking on a phone or tablet, you may have to try from a computer. If you’re still not able to see it, let me know. Thanks!
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The form was not there. Is this a legitimate offer?
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The form may not appear if you’re viewing on a phone or tablet — give it a try next time you’re at a computer. Thanks!
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Happy to be part of it. Hoping to learn to improve.
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🙂 Gosh if I had the time, I am sure I could learn a thing or two from this course… 🙂 I have shared on our SGC facebook page though for any budding writer’s… Have a fabulous day…:)
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Thanks for sharing it! We’ll have other writing courses coming up in the new year; maybe one of them will work for you 🙂
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What a wonderful idea! I loo forward to jumping in and learning lots and becoming a better writer in the process! 🙂
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