Recently, I paid $69 CDN for the BBC Maestro Course: Harlan Coben – Writing Thrillers. Since it involved a Black Friday discount of 40%, I didn’t pay the regular price, but even if I had paid the full price, it would have been worth it.

As soon as I saw Harlen Coben’s name on a course, I was interested. The first novel by Harlan that I read was The Stranger, which was adapted for a drama series by Netflix and they were both excellent. As far as credentials go, visit his website, http://www.harlancoben.com and look up his name on the Internet Movie Database http://www.imdb.com, because there’s no room to list all his accomplishments in a single blog.

Although you could listen to all course lessons in one sitting, they are divided into ten to twenty minute segments on each topic, which makes it convenient for anyone with a busy schedule.

The course material is beneficial for both beginning writers and experienced scribes who want to want to think deeply about their craft. Even though most of the videos consist of Harlan sitting in a chair, talking, I didn’t find the material boring; I was inspired to start writing again, something I’ve been procrastinating about for far too long.

Jack Canfield has said about his book, The Success Principles, “the principles always work, if you apply the principles.” The same can be said about the material in Harlan Coben’s BBC Maestro course, if you take his advice seriously and apply it to your writing, your writing will improve. Although the course description is Writing Thrillers, the material covers all the key aspects of writing a novel, and would also be useful for writing science fiction, or any genre that involves drama.

As for myself: Over the last three weeks, two of my short stories have been accepted for publication by literary journals, and one of my screenplays made the quarterfinals of the Final Draft/Big Break screenwriting competition.

Copyright © 2024 by J. Paul Cooper