If you Google ‘chequered career’ you'll find Jules Older. He took his Ph.D. in clinical psychology, then counselled and taught impoverished students at Brooklyn College. In 1972 he and his young family took off for New Zealand where he designed the first behavioural science course in the world’s southernmost medical school. On returning to Vermont, he taught Human Behaviour to medical students by day, then Writing For Real to aspiring writers at night, both at the University of Vermont. Jules has published more than 25 children’s books, edited two ski magazines, and has been the ski blogger for the San Francisco Chronicle. He’s done regular on-air commentaries on Radio New Zealand, Australia’s ABC and National Public Radio’s Vermont Public Radio. His work has won awards in four countries. He and Effin Older make minimovies on http://www.YouTube.com/julesolder. They moved back to New Zealand in 2020.

For the Ockham Collective, Jules is again teaching Writing For Real, on Zoom, and, covid-permitting, in person.

Writing For Real

Writing For Real means writing for publication. But “writing for publication” means something very different today than it did only a dozen years ago. Then, it meant getting your words in print via books, magazines and newspapers, and to a lesser extent, online. The first three required going through an editor. Today, that editor is probably a social worker or selling vitamins online. Publication now includes ebooks and apps, blogs and videos … none of which require editorial consent.

In one or more of these formats — Gutenbergian and digital, alike — Writing For Real helps get your words and images read by others, not just by you and your cat.

Typically, the course covers print and online publication, adding videos to articles, dealing with rejection, finding outlets, travel journalism, and Tough Choices — a daily quiz based on real-world dilemmas writers face. Because it’s driven by student needs, the content changes every year. One constant remains — the course covers every kind of writing but one — no poetry, please.

For more information or to sign up for the course, click on the blue 'Enquire' button above.