You Could Be a Best-Selling Novelist — With a Little Help From James Patterson and MasterClass

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For almost a year, online learning site MasterClass has allowed ordinary mortals to learn from legends. Now it wants to give its students the chance to become legends themselves.

Launched last May, MasterClass’s goal (in the words of co-founder David Rogier) is to “democratize access to genius.” So today anyone can sign up with MasterClass to learn how Serena Williams delivers that blistering 128 mph serve — from Serena herself. They can master method acting with Dustin Hoffman, learn the art of performance from Usher, or uncork the secrets of cranking out potboiler mysteries from James Patterson. Still to come: classes with Kevin Spacey, Christina Aguilera, and photographer Annie Leibovitz.

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What does MasterClass charge for all this expertise? 90 bucks for an entire 3- to 5-hour video course. Are they out of their friggin’ minds? Possibly. But it gets even crazier:

Patterson — who churns out New York Times bestsellers the way McDonald’s cranks out Quarter Pounders — is offering to co-author a novel with one of his MasterClass students, potentially giving some lucky scribe a considerable leg up on the road to literary Valhalla.

A novel idea

Patterson starts his course by saying, “Hello, I’m Stephen King.” (Mr. King is famously not a Patterson fan.) He then spends a few minutes talking about the importance of a strong opening line.

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Patterson’s beautifully shot videos are broken into 22 lessons, each from 3 to 14 minutes long, covering such topics as how to generate ideas, create characters, craft a plot, write dialog, and overcome writer’s block. Each is accompanied by downloadable class summaries and worksheets and is followed by discussions in the comments section with fellow students.

You can replay videos as often as you like, or start a course and then come back to it months later. (MasterClass offers “lifetime access” to the course materials — though whose lifetime lasts longer, yours or the site’s, remains to be seen.)

Veterans of writing classes will recognize most of this as standard fare. The differences here are a) you can take the class from anywhere, b) you’re being taught by a guy who’s written 76 best selling novels (no, that’s not a typo), and c) he’s offering to write the next one with you, if he thinks you’re good enough.

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That process is pretty simple: Sign up for Patterson’s class. Submit a “book hook,” story summary, and sample chapter before March 22. Pray.

Ten semifinalists will pocket $1,000 and move on. Three finalists take home $2,500 and get to outline their book idea. Patterson then selects one lucky winner in late May and offers to co-author his next best-selling novel with them. Fame and fortune ensue.

What could be simpler?

You may have already won

It’s a brilliant concept. Even if you have no intention of ever sweating out a plot line, swinging a racket, or taking the stage, just watching these people talk about their craft and fantasizing about being one of them is worth the 90 bucks.

MasterClass’s founders won’t reveal how many people have taken their courses (more than 30,000 is all they will say) or how much of a cut the geniuses take from each enrollment. But the level of talent they’ve attracted is impressive — and they’ve got a long wish-list for future instructors.

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“Every time we sign up another big name, it gets a little easier,” Rogier says.

But the most surprising thing, says co-founder Aaron Rasmussen, is the online community that has spontaneously sprung up around these courses.

“After we launched with Dustin, we began seeing these random Facebook groups pop up — Dustin Hoffman Master Class LA chapter. These students would get together every month and read lines with each other. Then there was one in New York, then Chicago, Vancouver, Melbourne. That’s something we never anticipated.”

Now MasterClass could be on the verge of creating a few new geniuses of its own.

Now read this:

When not working on his future best-selling novel (publication date 2027), Dan Tynan hangs out on Twitter.