Thank you for your interest in the interactive Lyrical Language Lab course!
Below you will find everything you need to know about the course. Be sure to read through the Course Content, Course Objectives, FAQ, and Testimonials. If you still have questions, contact me!
• 10 weeks
• 19 in-depth lessons
• 65+ hours of combined video feedback
• 2 dedicated teachers
• 1 small-group, in-person Zoom w/ Renée
How do you sign up?
Because of the personal attention and comprehensive feedback required, this course is offered only once or twice a year.
If you would like to be notified when the next sessions are planned, please join the mailing list below. It is the only way to find out about class offerings.
Note that by joining this list, you will also receive very occasional emails about my book releases, giveaways, and free tutorials.
Enrollment is on a first-come first-served basis.
Hello! I’m Renée LaTulippe, founder of The Lyrical Language Lab. As a fellow writer, I’ve taken many expensive online writing classes and I know how important it is to choose wisely. I encourage you to read the course description carefully to be sure that this is the right place for you.
If it is … then I can guarantee that the fully guided version of The Lyrical Language Lab is the most interactive writing course you will find online. Your teachers are with you every step of the way, not only giving you in-depth feedback on your assignments, but being available to answer all your questions in the private class forum, which is where a lot of the real learning happens. And because I keep class size small, you can be assured of getting all the personal attention you need.
That means that for ten weeks, you’ll practically have two private mentors walking you through the lessons and assignments and helping you apply those lessons to your WIPs.
and can be time consuming, but if you’re ready to learn everything there is to know about meter and poetic technique, and to take your writing to a new level, then this is the place for you. Just remember … you’ll need to come ready to work and willing to share your journey with your classmates!
My co-teachers and I love teaching and take your learning seriously. We can’t wait for the opportunity to work with you!
Renée
Hello! I’m Lou Piccolo. I’ve had the honour of co-teaching the Lyrical Language Lab with Renée and the pleasure of taking the class, too. When I signed up years ago, I was looking for a course to deepen my understanding of rhyme so I could better edit my clients who were writing rhyming picture books. But it didn’t take me long to understand that there was so much more to this course, in terms of writing craft, than simply learning about rhyme.
If you’re a person who is enthusiastic about learning something new, or a word nerd logophile who is in love with words and the beauty of a well-crafted sentence, you’ll enjoy the lessons, sure—but you’ll also find yourself actually looking forward to your homework.
The Lyrical Language Lab, with its in-depth lessons and warm community spirit, has a way of inspiring students to stretch themselves to become better writers more than any other writing class I’ve taught or taken. I’m warning you that, even if you’re not a logophile now, you most definitely will be by the end of the session (and you will be in excellent company)!
Lou
About Lou
Lou Piccolo is a developmental editor of children’s literature and the longtime teacher of the Editing Picture Books course at the Editorial Freelancers Association. She is also a poet and the author of many graded readers for the educational market, including Save the Titanic!, Da Vinci’s Stolen Legacy, Oona and the Wolf, and the forthcoming The Girl Who Fell from the Sky. Her poetry has been published in School Magazine, The Dirigible Balloon, and the anthology What Is Hope? A language learning expert based in France, Lou is the editor-in-chief of the magazines GO English and English Now, and the in-house writer for the magazine GO English Kids. She is the founder of the podcast MIDDLE GRADE MADE EASY(ER) and of the skills-based resource RHYME MADE EASY(er). You can learn more about Lou, her classes, and her editing services at her website or follow her on Instagram @Lou.Piccolo_editor.
Hi! I’m Suzy Levinson. Back in 2014, I made one of the best decisions of my writing career: to enroll in Renee’s Lyrical Language Lab course. This was after spending way too long clinging to the misperception that writing in rhyme was “probably easy,” winging it, then wondering why editors weren’t champing at the bit to publish my work!
Thanks to LLL, I finally learned the fundamentals and saw pretty dramatic results in my writing trajectory. My poems have been published in numerous anthologies and magazines, I’ve had two critically-acclaimed picture book–length poetry collections published—Dinos that Drive (Tundra Books) and Animals in Pants (Abrams)—and as of now, I have four more books (all in rhyme!) coming out soon. It’s been a dream.
Today, I have the honor of getting to co-teach this class and see other writers reap the benefits of Renee’s clear, in-depth lessons. Personally, I learn something new every time. I hope you’ll take the leap and join us!
Suzy
About Suzy
Suzy Levinson is an award-winning author of children’s books, including the picture book poetry collections Animals in Pants (Abrams) and Dinos that Drive (Tundra Books), plus several forthcoming titles. Her poems have been featured in numerous anthologies, including A World Full of Poems (DK Children), I Am a Jigsaw (Bloomsbury Education), and Shaping the World: 40 Historical Heroes in Verse (Macmillan), as well as in magazines, including Highlights and Cricket. Originally from Massachusetts, she now lives in New York. To learn more about Suzy’s work, please visit her website and follow her on Instagram @SuzyLevinson.
Hi, I’m Rebecca! I hate to brag, but when I started writing picture books in 2016, my rhyming skills were PERFECT. Then one day, someone read my story aloud and completely stumbled. She said (quite rudely): “Your meter is off!” Offended, I responded (having no clue what meter was): “No, it’s not! YOU’RE just reading it wrong!”
Turns out, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I had no idea that there are RULES that, when followed, make it impossible for someone to “read it wrong,” nor did I know any of the incredible poetic techniques that would, if implemented, make my work much, much stronger.
Eventually, I wised up and enrolled in the Lyrical Language Lab’s full interactive course. I can honestly say that the class was a gamechanger for my career. I’ve since sold 18 rhyming picture books (so far!) to 11 different publishers, and my poems have appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies.
No question, there is a LOT to learn, but the Lyrical Language Lab breaks everything down in digestible chunks with great examples, making it easy (and fun!). The personalized feedback and attention you’ll receive, not to mention the community you’ll build with fellow writers, is unparalleled. I can’t wait to teach all I know and cheer you on as you navigate your poetic journey! Let’s do this!
Rebecca
About Rebecca
Rebecca Gardyn Levington is an award-winning children’s book author, poet, and journalist with a particular penchant for penning both playful and poignant picture books and poems – primarily in rhyme. She is the author of 18 books for children, including Finding Forgiveness, Whatever Comes Tomorrow, Afikoman, Where’d You Go?, Some Days I’m the Wind, and Brainstorm! Rebecca’s poems and articles have appeared in numerous anthologies, newspapers, and magazines. She lives with her family in Summit, NJ. Find out more and sign up for Rebecca’s monthly newsletter at her website.
COURSE OBJECTIVESWHO IS THIS CLASS FOR?WHAT YOU RECEIVEThis course consists of 20 lessons delivered over 10 weeks. There are no live classes, so the format is pretty flexible. On Mondays and Thursdays, lessons are delivered via email and are online (on a web page with a password). Students have a couple days to post their assignments in the private forum, according to the class schedule (which you receive upon registration). Most lessons have an assignment. On Mondays and Thursdays, teachers post their recorded video feedback on the previous lesson’s assignment. We do two rounds of feedback for most assignments — one for the first draft and one for the revision. Students are encouraged to shoot for the first round, but life happens, so if you don’t post in time for round 1, we will pick it up on round 2. Students are also encouraged to leave feedback for each other in the forum.
The answer depends on what kind of writing you would like to do and where you are in your development as a writer.
If you are interested in writing poetry for children, meaning collections of individual, free-standing poems, then this class is a good fit. It will give you a strong foundation in the four major meters, poetic techniques, and free verse.
If you are interested in writing rhyming or prose picture books and you are just beginning your writing journey, I would suggest first taking Making Picture Book Magic with Susanna Leonard Hill. It is the best class out there for people who are just approaching the art of the picture book, and it is very affordable. I consider Lyrical Language Lab a second step after learning how to actually write a picture book.
If you have been working on your writing craft for a long while — whether for picture books, middle grade, YA, or poetry — and are ready to take it to the next level, then this class is a good fit for you. It works great for anyone looking to hone their meter & rhyme skills and learn more about language-level topics and techniques that will enhance prose, free verse, and rhyming texts. It’s also really good for honing revision skills.
Many of the lesson assignments include an additional “apply this concept to your work in progress (WIP)” exercise, and many past students have used the class to work on various aspects of a specific WIP. For example, many students will work on small portions of their WIPs for the assignments and then post those in the forum.
So while the class is not about developing PB/MG/YA stories, and the teachers do not give feedback on complete manuscripts, the lessons and exercises are designed to help you hone and polish what you have. It’s important to remember that this is a language-level course, so we are looking at the nitty-gritties of making your writing musical and engaging rather than at the big-picture concepts of plot, story arc, character development, and so on … even if, in the process of feedback, those things are often touched upon.
How much time you spend on the assignments is up to you. Some people really just do the requested stanza or piece of prose, and some go further. Historically, students have said that each lesson takes about 30-60 minutes to read and process. The writing time will vary based on many factors, including the nature of the assignment, how quickly or slowly you tend to write, how much you write, and whether you decide to do revisions.
This is an online-only course. All lessons are delivered and consumed digitally, and all communication and feedback takes place in the online class forum.
The only in-person lessons are small-group Zooms with Renée. These are scheduled after a session begins and are based on student availability.
The video feedback is a major feature of this course. Using video instead of written feedback allows us to give students MORE feedback (and more in-depth) in a shorter period of time. Students might be intimidated at hearing their work read aloud at first, but we believe it is essential to the concepts of the course and to our development as lyrical writers.
Each session has a class calendar that shows when lessons are delivered, when assignments are due, and when video feedback will be posted. For each assignment, teachers do two passes of video feedback. Feedback #1 is for the first draft of an assignment; Feedback #2 is for revisions of that assignment OR for late assignments.
Students are split into two groups. Teachers alternate groups so that each student receives feedback equally from each teacher over the entire course.
Video feedback links are posted in the forum and can be watched there or on our private YouTube channel.
Absolutely! We encourage students to read and give feedback on the work of their classmates in the forum. Students often give each other terrific advice, and spirited (but respectful) discussions usually lead to greater understanding by all involved. Generally, a consensus emerges from the group over what works and where there are bits that need improvement. And if you have a question, a classmate who’s a bit further along the path might have the answer. We encourage these great discussions!