Just for Precious in Canada about James Patterson's Masterclass

but also fo anyone else who has tried to post a comment here. My comments section seems to be broken. Precious, I read your question about the James Paatterson masterclass and wrote a long reply and that was deleted too. How. Very. Annoying.
For those of you just joining us...
The question was--is it worth it?
I said YES and here's why.

But first a disclaimer. I was paid to take the class as a beta tester. It was a lot of fun and I went in to it, rather skeptical.  On the one hand...the chance to learn secrets from JAMES PATTERSON!!!!! was really tempting. On the other hand, while I really like his Women's Murder Club and Alex Cross books, I'm not a fan of his Maximum Ride series.
but I came out of the class with an enormous respect for him.  And a whole new way of thinking about my own writing.
Specifically, I'm rethinking outlines. I don't do them and I think that I'd write faster and longer (in terms of page length) if I did.
There are excerpts from the class posted on YouTube, so you can get an idea of what you're getting. It really does feel like you're taking a class from a smart, snarky, sometimes a little cranky writer who REALLY KNOWS WHAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT.
And he's not really cranky. He's just not going to let you get away with any lame excuses.
Don't have time to write? Yes you do. (I'm a freelancer and I work really long days and I often work 7 days a week. The way I find time to write?  I don't watch TV. Except for GAME OF THRONES and AGENTS OF SHIELD and TRUE DETECTIVE. And since those shows never overlap, I basically watch less than an hour a week of television.
the class is $90 and it's divvied up into a number of "lessons" so it works out to less than $10 apiece. that's a chunk of change when paid all at once but if you're someone who regularly buys a couple of Starbucks a day, you're going through that much in caffeine in a week.
The class is tax deductible if you're filing schedule C.
And it also gives you access to the Masterclass FB group, which is a very warm and welcoming community. With a JP book club.
So think about it--the class costs about the same thing as six movies--less if you buy popcorn.