Graduate Essay: “The Unexpected Delights of Odyssey Online” by Niti Patel

Niti Patel is a graduate of the 2026 Odyssey Online class “All the World’s a Page” and will be a participant in the 2026 Your Personal Odyssey workshop with the support of The Walter and Kattie Metcalf Singing Spider Scholarship.

If she’s not curled up on the couch with a good book, she’s exploring the wilderness in search of the most beautiful scenery in the world.

The Unexpected Delights of Odyssey Online

By the time I started All The World’s a Page, I had read every Odyssey blog post and listened to every Odyssey-related interview online. I expected a well-run, informative class, and that is exactly what I got. If you are considering applying to Odyssey Online, there is plenty out there that tells you what to expect.

So in this blog post, I’m going to go over five things that I did NOT expect from Odyssey Online, even from all my research, that I found extremely valuable!

1. Methods of deliberately improving writing

Here’s how I wrote prior to Odyssey Online:

• Aimed to write 2,000 words per day.
• Revised based on gut instincts. If I read my work and thought, I would stop reading if these were words in an actual book, I rewrote until I thought, Okay, my words don’t suck. Literally, this was my whole plan.

But here’s how we improved our skills in class:

• Took the broad idea of applying acting techniques to fiction and broke it down into individual methods like action objectives, personalization, and more.
• Went into detail about exactly what each method was.
• Learned ways of identifying these methods and adding them to our work.
• Reviewed weak and strong examples of each method.
• Applied this knowledge via targeted exercises such as identifying each method in various readings and revising existing work to incorporate new methods.
• Critiqued classmates’ work, noting which methods were strong and which could be improved.

This way of learning reshaped my writing and revision process so that I work more deliberately instead of simply writing a bunch of junk words and calling it a day.

2. The value of critiques

I had never given or received critiques before and had this vague idea of people bellowing through a foghorn that my work sucked while I nodded dutifully because being a writer meant accepting feedback. But I wasn’t overly fussed because I didn’t truly realize how impactful critiques could be.

Then, as a pre-class assignment, we read a fourteen-page document called How to Critique and Respond To Critiques, which laid out all the reasons to view critiques as a gift. Once I got into the right mindset, I loved being critiqued! Have you ever read your work and thought, Something’s off but I can’t tell what? Or in my case, as a late-night writer, I reread my work and fell asleep. Was it because I was revising at 3AM? Or does this story suck? With critiques, someone simply tells you where they got bored and what they liked! It’s brilliant, and if you can get your work critiqued before you submit it to publishers, consider yourself lucky!

3. Community

I didn’t have a writing community before this class, so I didn’t realize what I was missing. It was lovely to meet so many people who earnestly loved writing and wanted to get better. Being surrounded by other writers, all with different strengths, upped my own game faster than bumbling around on my own.

Additionally, when I saw what other writers were doing, I saw what was possible for myself. A classmate who was published in a variety of short story magazines? I could submit my work there too. Someone else with a grueling day job who still found time to write? It meant I could do so too.

It doesn’t end with the class either. Afterward, you get access to a Discord for Odyssey class graduates and weekly Zoom writing sessions. My classmates and I still critique each other’s work too. I never expected any of these things, but it has been wonderful to be part of this community.

4. Random other tidbits

Even when I wasn’t trying to, I absorbed other bits of knowledge from the small talk before classes or while lurking in the Discord. Things like the names of other writing groups and podcasts, or ways of using ladybug larvae to kill aphids. Er, that’s not writing-related, but a fun thing I learned in a Zoom writing session.

I couldn’t believe I had been writing alone in my basement for years when all these other ways to improve were out there! I soaked it all up like a sponge and recommend you do too!

5. The Odyssey ethos

In Odyssey Online, I was surrounded by what I call the Odyssey ethos. The feeling that everyone was trying to improve, and everyone could improve. All feedback was delivered with kindness. If I didn’t understand a concept, that was fine, not everything was going to work for me and maybe another way of thinking about it would help.

When I told other writers in a Zoom session that I applied to another advanced workshop but didn’t expect to get in, they immediately told me not to self-reject. Being exposed to this way of thinking week after week has helped me get out of my own way, and it even changed the language I use with myself. Instead of thinking, I’m not ready, I’ll think, I’ll throw my hat into the ring. Instead of I’m not good at this, it’s I’m willing to learn. This helped my writing, and even bled into other areas of my life, where I found myself trying new things instead of doubting my abilities.

I hope this sheds some more light on what you can expect from an Odyssey Online class! If you are on the fence, don’t self-reject, just apply!

The application deadline for the upcoming 2027 Odyssey Online classes is December 15, 2026. Visit the Odyssey Online Classes page for more information.

To receive posts from the Odyssey Blog via email, subscribe below. For additional information about Odyssey Writing Workshops, including the latest news on upcoming programs and special events, you can also sign up for our newsletter.