If you’ve walked the streets of Manhattan, you’ve seen yellow boxes, looking very similar to newspaper boxes, marked “Gotham Writers’ Workshop” on the side with free course catalogs inside. Maybe you’ve been interested in taking one of their writing classes, but you didn’t have the time. Or maybe you saw their prices and couldn’t afford to take a class. As a result, that short story or magazine article you’ve always thought about writing never came to fruition.

Well, now you have no excuse—Gotham is offering 36 free one-hour writing classes next week, Tuesday and Wednesday, January 11 and 12. Topics range from writing poetry, memoirs, and children’s books to travel writing, article writing, even stand-up comedy writing. Most classes are in the evening, but some are during the day, and they’re located throughout various parts of Manhattan. For a listing of the classes and to enroll, you can access the entire list of Free Workshops. Pre-registration is required as classroom space is limited, so sign up soon! Not only will you get lots of good writing information and advice, but these one-hour sessions will introduce you to some of the Gotham faculty and give you a glimpse of how their classes work.

Gotham Writers’ Workshop is the leading private creative writing school in New York City as well as online. Founded in New York City in 1993 by two writers, Jeff Fligelman and David Grae, Gotham’s mission is to demystify the writing process through expert instruction and proven methods in a safe, creative learning environment. The school offers six-week and ten-week workshops on a variety of writing topics, and each class is taught by a professional writer and limited to 14 students. The workshops consist of lectures, in-class and take-home exercises, and submissions of longer works that are critiqued by the instructor as well as the rest of the class. If you can’t attend one of their workshops in the city, they offer classes online as well. In fact, their interactive online classes were selected as “Best of the Web” by Forbes. Gotham also offers private instruction, script and book doctoring services, and workshops for teens.

But before you take the plunge—both financially and time-wise—with one of their regular workshops, check out one of their free classes next week. If you can’t attend any of them, go to Gotham’s website at www.writingclasses.com or sign up for their free newsletter, which will not only inform you of any upcoming free classes but also share interesting tips, news, and articles all about the craft of writing.

So go ahead—make a belated New Year’s resolution to write that article, poem, or short story that you’ve always thought about. And take a free class at Gotham Writer’s Workshop to help get it written.