James Patterson MasterClass Review (Worth 2023)

MasterClass is an online education platform that brings in experts in many fields to teach online courses on various subjects such as cooking, writing, filmmaking, acting, and more.

Today, however, we’ll talk about writing, with a special focus on the award-winning author and the writer of 19 consecutive NY Times best-selling books, James Patterson. He has prepared a Masterclass for aspiring writers looking for inspiration and industry insights.

James Patterson masterclass review is all about books and education about everything.

In the following article, we’ll present an overview of James Patterson’s Masterclass, the pros and cons, and who’s this class ideal for. Let’s begin!

Who is James Patterson

You might have heard the name James Patterson if you love reading novel books. 

He is one of the world’s best-selling authors and has written 147 novels since 1976, 144 of which are New York Times Best Sellers. He also holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the first author to sell one million Ebooks on Amazon. 

He’s an incredibly prolific writer. Some titles you may be familiar with are Maximum Ride, Alex Cross, The President is Missing, Honeymoon, and many more.

That said, James Patterson is one of the most eligible people to teach writing and certainly an author you might want to hear a thing or two from about the industry.

Overview of the Class

James Patterson Masterclass has 22 videos, ranging between 3 and 17 minutes long. In total, the class has about 4 hours of content. 

On top of that, you also get class workbooks, which sum up every lesson and offer different assignments and extra materials. You get notes containing the most significant points of each lesson. There’s also a community hub where you can join discussion boards with others who have also taken the course. 

Aside from those, you are also eligible to get access to office hours, where you can submit questions to James Patterson. Even if he doesn’t respond to your question, you get access to live recordings of him answering other people’s questions. So, one way or another, you’ll absolutely get access to helpful insights from the author.

Here’s what the lesson plan looks like:

1. Introduction
2. Passion + Habit
3. Raw Ideas
4. Plot
5. Research
6. Outlines: Part 1
7. Outlines: Part 2
8. Writer’s Block
9. Creating Characters
10. First Lines
11. Writing Dialogue
12. Building A Chapter
13. Writing Suspense
14. Ending The Book
15. Editing
16. Working With A Co-Author
17. Getting Published
18. Book Titles And Covers
19. Marketing The Patterson Way
20. Hollywood
21. Personal Story
22. Closing

Pros and Cons

Pros

Here are some advantages of taking James Patterson’s course on MasterClass.

• Actionable Advice

One of the most admirable things about this class is that it gives you practical and actionable advice. A big disappointment in many courses is that people only teach you how to write vaguely and expect you to figure it out. In this class, however, James Patterson is anything but vague. He tells you how to outline and walks you through his process. He also shows some of the outlines he used for his books and explains why they work and how he chose them.

• Broken down into easily digestible information

The class is suitable for people who prefer to learn by digesting small bits of information at a time. This course breaks down novel writing into manageable chunks. James doesn’t group items together but discusses them individually, which can be very helpful. 

• Lessons are well-rounded

Regarding the lesson plan, it’s safe to say that the lessons are well-rounded. James tries to cover everything you need to know about the writing process.

• Inspiration

In his Masterclass, James Patterson shares his wisdom on storytelling and how to keep a writer’s attention. He’s been successful at what he does and has been doing this for decades. Therefore, he has many insights about how to do it, where he failed, and how he succeeded. This might be a great inspiration for upcoming writers who need a little extra push.

Cons

Some of the course’s disadvantages include:

• Not enough detail

James Patterson provides many details, but there are times when his explanation isn’t enough. For example, he goes into great detail when explaining his outlining process but doesn’t go into as much detail when explaining things like drafting. 

• Meant for the intermediate and advanced writers

If you’re considering joining the James Patterson Masterclass with hopes that you’ll learn how to write a novel from scratch, this might not be a good idea for you. This course offers great insights and information but isn’t ideal for newbie authors.

• Some principles given are too common

If you rook other writing courses or have read different resources about becoming a professional writer, you might be disappointed. James teaches many principles, but most are not innovative, and chances are you’ve probably heard them from other authors and writers.

Who is This Class for

If you are or want to be a romance or a fantasy writer, this might not be the class for you.  Another thing to keep in mind is that this is not a class about learning how to write lyrically.

Also, this course won’t teach you how to write a best-seller by itself. To write a best-seller, you need to have some natural instincts. And those are required to be able to absorb all the information he’ll be sharing with his students.

At the end of the day, you’ll need to assess if you’re ready to chew all the wisdom and knowledge James puts into this class. If not, you can resort to having external basic training in writing before jumping here.

How Much Does the Class Cost

You may be wondering how much the James Patterson Masterclass costs.

Subscribing to the MasterClass platform gives you a year of access to all the lessons offered on the website, including James Patterson’s class.

There are three subscription options offered by MasterClass. The first is the solo plan which costs $180 per year and allows only one device to access the website. The second is the Duo Plan which allows two devices. Lastly, the Family Plan enables six devices for simultaneous use. 

What’s good about the duo and family plans is that they allow you to download all the video lessons and PDF workbooks for future reference. 

Users’ Experience 

Here’s what users have been saying online about James Patterson’s Masterclass. 

 “If you’ve not come across MasterClass before, it’s a very slick website that offers courses from some huge names in the world of writing (and in quite a few other fields too).” 

-Christopher Ferebee (Comment from Twitter)

I’m really enjoying the James Patterson Masterclass on writing. Good stuff!

-J Daniel (Comment from Twitter)

Ultimately, I think this class is good for beginners, and it’s good if you just want nuggets of wisdom. I did write down some nuggets of wisdom that I liked, such as “Hit the consumer in the face with a cream pie, then say something really smart. Stop them and sell them the cream pie being the book cover. So, you know, there’s an interesting mash-up of an advice that we’ve all heard before but put it into a nice condensed way.

-Kate Cavanaugh (Comment from Youtube)

Conclusion

Overall, James Patterson’s class is quite thorough and includes various principles and ideas presented in a concise and easy-to-follow way. As explained above, there are some drawbacks to the course; however, if you’re an aspiring writer or a huge fan of James Patterson who wants to know more about how he crafts masterpieces, this course will be entertaining and helpful.