“Fiction is actually one of the best ways for finding truth,” Amy Tan says. If you’re looking to uncover the truth in your own writing—and make it even more authentic and emotionally impactful—her MasterClass might be exactly what you need. In this Amy Tan MasterClass Review, I’m sharing my honest thoughts about the course and whether I think it will help you bring your characters and stories to life.

I’d just like to start by saying that some of the links below are affiliate links. However, this has not influenced any of my opinions of the class.

Who is Amy Tan?

Amy Tan is a bestselling and award-winning author, perhaps best known for her novel The Joy Luck Club, which was adapted into a Hollywood film in 1993. Originally a freelance business writer, Tan pivoted to fiction writing in her 30s and released her debut novel in 1989. She is now internationally renowned for her honesty, bravery, empathy, and lyrical prose.

In this MasterClass, Tan helps writers tap into their memories and emotions so that they, too, can harness the truth in their stories.

What is MasterClass?

MasterClass is an online learning platform that offers self-paced courses made up of short video lessons on a variety of different topics. Each class has a different instructor who has proven themselves a master in their field.

A MasterClass membership gives you access to all the classes on the platform, with courses on a wide range of subjects, including business, music, science, and creative writing. New classes are added each month, so you'll always have a new skill to learn.  

Notable writing MasterClass instructors include literary giants James Patterson, Neil Gaiman, N. K. Jemisin, and David Mamet (you can check out our reviews on these writing classes by clicking on each of the names).

There are three annual pricing plans you can choose from: Standard, which comes to $10/month; Plus, which comes to $15/month; and Premium, which comes to $25/month.

Plus membership is a great middle ground of the three plans: With this membership, two devices can watch MasterClasses at the same time, and you can download lessons for offline viewing, which makes watching your courses even more convenient.

It's important to note, however, that MasterClass bills annually, so while Plus membership may have an advertised “monthly price” of $15, you'll receive an annual subscription and will be billed for the entire year at once.

MasterClass offers a 30-day satisfaction guarantee, though, so if you're not happy with the classes, you can cancel your plan within this time-frame.

What does Amy Tan’s MasterClass include?

There are fourteen video lessons in Amy Tan's’s MasterClass, totaling just over three hours.

1.  Meet Your Instructor: Amy Tan
2. Finding Your Writing Voice
3. Memory, Truth and Imagination
4. Research and Observation
5. Beginning Your Story
6. Narrative Point of View
7. Character Development
8. Choosing the Right Words
9. The Revision Process
10. Writing Companions
11. Writer’s Block
12. Behind the Scenes: The Joy Luck Club Movie
13. Amy’s Rejection Letters
14. How to End Your Story

Each lesson is under 25 minutes long, making it easy to fit them into a busy day (or in-between writing sessions!).

Want to learn more about Amy Tan's MasterClass? Check it out here.

What I loved about Amy Tan’s Class

Using personal stories to create an emotional connection

Amy Tan draws on her life experiences and relationships to write nuanced, relatable, and unforgettable characters and stories. As such, many of her lessons focus on harnessing real emotions and memories to create writing that feels more honest and authentic. She emphasises the importance of observation, keeping a “beginner’s mind” that is open to discovery, and developing your own voice.

Tan goes into detail about how to develop your voice in lesson two, explaining that your voice is shaped by everything that’s happened to you until now, your beliefs, your thoughts—essentially, everything that makes you you. Your distinct and unique voice affects the stories you’ll tell and how you’ll tell them, and it was so interesting to dive into this.

Humans are incredibly complex, and spending time observing and reflecting will definitely help writers of all genres create more realistic and authentic characters, as well as write more nuanced stories.

Tan also covers topics such as research, point of view, and even provides tips and encouragement for writer's block. I found these lessons extremely valuable, particularly her advice on choosing the right words and perspective for your story.

And though writing can be an intensively personal thing, her advice on separating yourself from your art is something all writers need to learn. Constructive criticism can hurt, but it's important to remember that it's not a personal attack, and will make your story stronger. I know, easier said than done! But it was certainly reassuring when Amy showed us her rejection letters and criticisms she's received about her work.

Journaling

Journaling is an important part of Amy Tan’s writing process. She believes journaling is another way to express and discover yourself—and ultimately, become a better writer—and I was definitely inspired to start journaling myself afterwards.

Workbook

The course includes a beautifully-presented PDF guide you can download and refer to long after the class is over. This guide includes bonus material, such as character studies from two other authors about modern Chinese experiences.

I loved flipping through this guide, and learnt a lot from the extras included in it.

The Joy Luck Club Movie

Finally, I really enjoyed hearing about how The Joy Luck Club was adapted into a major Hollywood film. Tan worked on the movie as a co-producer and co-screenwriter, which gives her fascinating insight on the film's production.

What Didn’t Work as Well for Me

Since many of Amy Tan's lessons focus on using real emotions and memories, some of the exercises do too. In one exercise, for example, she asks you to look at the extremes of your life—the difficult moments that forced you to survive. And while she emphasizes that you shouldn’t dig into anything that might cause you emotional distress or trigger PTSD, some writers might not feel comfortable engaging with this level of vulnerability (or find it helpful for their writing).

In addition, some lessons cannot be completed right then and there. The exercise in lesson seven is about observing people you do and don't know, and includes writing down, after meeting someone new, what you think you know about that person now.

While you could use your imagination to do this exercise immediately, in order to get the most out of it, you would need to wait to do it. I would have personally preferred to be able to do all the lessons straightaway, but this was a minor quibble and is, of course, subjective.

Key Takeaways

I really enjoyed learning Amy Tan's process, history, and advice on how to make my writing more meaningful. She is an excellent writer, with incredible emotional resilience and industry knowledge. I loved learning more about her and her work, and I feel like my writing will become stronger thanks to her course.

While there are lessons some people might find emotionally challenging, I do think this class would benefit many writers—particularly memoirists and those wishing to dive deeper into human nature and the world around them.

Ready to take Amy Tan's MasterClass? Sign up here.

Have you taken Amy Tan's MasterClass? What did you think? Let us know in the comments.