Masterclass: The Verdict

I promised in an earlier post (see 'Masterclass') that I’d follow up my experience with Masterclass, so here we go.

I’m always trying to improve my writing — whether it be through finding tips from pros, reading books, or coercing friends into giving feedback — but last October I took the plunge and dropped €200 on a subscription to Masterclass, the web-based learning service where one can take classes taught by prominent names in various industries.

In my last post, I related how I’d found the course by Margaret Atwood enjoyable but not that helpful. I’d also done David Baldacci’s course and found his far more structured, with better delivery and a more technical approach. So my views were a bit muddled. Since then, however, I’ve done every writing course they have, and I think I can help other writers curious about taking the plunge to make up their minds — because I’ve made up mine.

The verdict is basically this: At first, I honestly felt that the offerings on Masterclass weren’t worth the price. The courses seemed very hit and miss, they are all relatively short, and the homework is kind of ‘meh’.

Some of these opinions haven’t changed. But I can elaborate, and there are two upshots…

Firstly, yes, the courses are hit and miss. Some might be strangely structured and felt like the instructor simply sat down and babbled for a couple of hours, after which these rantings were cut and ‘ordered’ to try and make a coherent series of units. R.L. Stine’s course made me never want to write again, it made writing seem that inconsequential and pointless, and David Mamet's felt like he’d been coerced into giving a scathing, almost sarcastic review of the industry rather than a helpful guide to writing for stage, (also, the amount of time he spent sketching on a whiteboard while trying to explain the simple point: “You need complications in your plot,” was borderline ridiculous).

Others — notably those from Dan Brown, Joyce Carol Oates, Malcolm Gladwell, James Patterson and Aaron Sorkin — were the opposite. I could tell that a great deal of planning went into them, and their content and delivery were excellent. These courses made me feel I was actually learning, and their words still stick with me when I sit down to write.

For these courses alone, I think the price was worth it.

Then there’s the problem of the courses being short. At around 2.5 - 3 hours each, it’s true that all these instructors have their work cut out for them to compress a lot of knowledge into a short sitting and I do understand the challenge. But honestly, it all feels too compressed. They really just manage to squeeze in the basics, the surface-level tips, anecdotes and advice as each unit zips rapidly by, then BAM!, you're done. This is great for people with short attention spans, and it is nice to have things be concise but my hope is that in the future, Masterclass will add a ‘season 2’ to a lot of these courses. That would allow a deeper-dive and really allow these pros to give proper instruction.

That said, I have already noticed that a few new courses have popped up since I began my subscription and this is fantastic. So even if there is no ‘season 2’ for many of these courses, it means that new content from new artists and industry professionals will continue to come.

I have to admit: I’ve been content with my subscription. €200 is steep, but I personally feel I’ve gained enough interesting insights to justify it, not just on the writing process, but on the writing industry, the ins- and outs of publishing and even how to manage the promotional side of being a writer. Another way to look at it: I imagine that paying for a web-seminar from a bunch of pros during COVID would be much the same experience.

Bottom line: If you’ve been writing for years or you’re already published, you probably won’t glean much from Masterclass. But for the beginner or aspiring writer, this service provides both advice, encouragement and some valuable ‘aha!’s which might otherwise take a lot of time, trial and error to attain.

I hope this review has been helpful.

Jim