Sample lesson
A HIRI lesson is not simply something to watch. You learn a focused writing skill, put it into practice, receive personalised feedback and use that guidance to improve.
This sample shows the rhythm students follow throughout the four-week course.
Learn with Shaanzae → Write → Personalised feedback → Progress
1 · Learn
Each lesson begins with Shaanzae teaching one clear creative-writing skill and showing why it matters before you put it into practice.
Focused teaching. One clear objective. No unnecessary theory.2 · Write
A guided task asks you to make deliberate choices. Your ideas, language and voice remain your own.
The goal is not to imitate. It is to make stronger choices for yourself.3 · Coach
HIRI's Coach looks closely at the writing you submitted — how well you applied the lesson, the choices you made, what is already working and what may be holding the piece back. Its feedback is shaped by Shaanzae's teaching methods, so the advice stays connected to the skill you have just learned.
It does not simply correct the piece. It helps you understand what to improve and why.4 · Improve
The purpose of feedback is not simply to improve one submission. It helps you recognise what stronger writing requires so you can apply that understanding again in the next lesson.
Each lesson contributes to the writer you are becoming.A sample teaching moment
One of the first shifts young writers learn is that stronger description does not come from adding more adjectives. It comes from noticing the right details.
Before
The room was old and frightening.
Look closer
Instead of naming the feeling, ask:
After
The door dragged across the floorboards as she pushed it open. A strip of wallpaper hung loose beside the window, moving slightly although the room was still.
The second version does not tell the reader to be uneasy. The details create the feeling.
HIRI teaches students to understand why that difference works — so they can make the choice themselves in new writing.
Now you write
Imagine a character entering a place they have never seen before.
Write 80–120 words describing the moment without directly using words such as scary, beautiful, exciting, strange or sad.
Instead, make the reader understand the atmosphere through specific details, movement, sound or the character's reaction.
What would you choose to make the reader notice first?
What feedback might focus on
What is working
You chose a physical detail instead of naming the emotion. The reader can experience the scene rather than being told how to feel.
What to push further
Look at the final sentence. Is every description creating the same atmosphere, or is one detail there only because it sounds descriptive?
What to try next
Choose one detail that reveals the character's physical reaction. That can deepen the scene without explaining the emotion directly.
HIRI feedback is designed to help the student make the next decision — not rewrite the piece for them.
Beyond one lesson
The Coach works with the writing in front of you. The Mentor looks across your development.
As you progress through HIRI, it brings together evidence from your lessons, feedback and reflection to identify patterns — where you are becoming stronger, where the same difficulty keeps appearing and what deserves your attention next.
The Mentor follows the same teaching principles that shape Shaanzae's lessons, so its advice remains part of one continuous learning approach rather than disconnected AI commentary.
Your next lesson is informed by the writer you are becoming, not treated as if HIRI has never seen your work before.
The aim is not simply to produce a better submission. It is to develop a better writer.
The teaching behind HIRI
HIRI keeps Shaanzae's teaching present beyond the video lesson.
The Coach examines how you applied the skill in your current writing.
The Mentor looks across your development and helps identify what to work on next.
Both are built around the teaching principles that shape Shaanzae's lessons.
Published author • PGCert in Teaching Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge
Human teaching, extended through intelligent personal support.
Ready to experience the full course?
HIRI gives you sixteen guided lessons, structured practice, personalised feedback and a Coach and Mentor that continue supporting your development from one lesson to the next.
