Creative Writing Courses

[xfabba]

I harbour ambitions of being a writer, despite knowing very little about it and having no idea whether I would be any good at it. I thought I might try some sort of creative writing course to find out more. I was looking at the OU one and saw they had a beginners course called "Start writing fiction". Does anyone know whether this would be a good place to start? Or could you recommend any other course? I've got A level English Lit but other than that I know NOTHING about writing. I've got a couple of ideas for books.

[NotQuiteCockney]

First, you'll probably get better responses in the Creative Writing club or whatever it's called.

I did Start Writing Fiction last year, and really enjoyed it. The course materials are good, but they are online, so you don't really end up with much to keep iyswim.

Our group had a really good tutor, she worked hard, was very present and helpful. From discussion boards, I gather other groups were not necessarily as lucky, so it's a bit luck of the draw.

The calibre of the other students (who can provide a lot of feedback) wasn't great. A lot of them couldn't spell or follow basic instructions. Despite clear explanations, they often provided feedback of 'great I loved it', which is not actually useful or constructive.

I've since taken a short story course at City Lit, and enjoyed it a lot more, and found it more productive.

Are you in a city where you could take in-person courses?

[bessiebighead]

Is there anything on at the Arvon that takes your fancy.

If you're in London I recommend the courses at city lit.

[xfabba]

Thansk for the tip on Creative Writing Club - I thought there was something like that here but I couldn't find it, I'll give them a try too.

I live in Surrey and work in London so could easily (subject to childcare etc) do an in-person course. Do you think that might be better.

TBH the only reason I am thinking of going for an absolute beginner-type one is that I am worried I have forgotten a lot of the rules of grammar, tenses, perspectives etc since A level days - wondered if I should brush up a bit first before actually trying to write anything.

Would the City Lit one be a better place to start do you think?

[NotQuiteCockney]

Hmmm ... the OU course will give you quite a refresher on grammar, tenses and perspectives, and might be a gentler introduction. Look at the options at CityLit, and see what you can do, I guess. The course I did was a beginner one, well, it didn't require that you submit any work ahead of time, but the general quality of work was very good, I thought. I didn't see a lot of grammar or spelling issues - those I did see, were from people whose first language wasn't English.

[xfabba]

Thank you both, some good ideas there.

I am looking at the City Lit one "Ways into creative writing" as that seems like a suitable level for getting a feel for creative writing as a process. I would be looking at the course starting in April which would give me time to brush up on grammar and punctuation I guess. I am reasonably ok with spelling I think! I can dig out my copy of Eats, Shoots and Leaves I suppose ....

Which one did you do NQC if you don't mind me asking?

The more I think about it the more I think I would prefer an in-person course. A weeks residential one might be easier from the childcare perspective.

[hkz]

I did a really good evening course in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, based at one of LSE buildings off covent garden...its worth checking out thier prospectus

It consisted of a series of writing exercises and workshops over two terms. It was really constructive, lots of feed back and taught me a lot about structure...it focused on creative writing from a number of different angles too, poetry and fiction...

[MsG]

I did a good distance learning course on short story writing with London School of Journalism. Unfortunately, I didn't complete it precisely because it was all distance learning and I didn't get round to it. If you're organised and know you will get on with it without the pressure of going in to do a course, I would recommend that course I did - it was very good. The feedback was excellent and it was hard work, but I felt I learnt a lot.

[TwoIfBySea]

I didn't do the starter course but I did do A215 the OU creative writing course and it is the best thing I ever did. I would highly recommend it as the exercises they give, the textbook you get (don't get scared by the size!) will have you writing notebooks full of things and who knows where they will lead. Although it is a second level course and quite hard going in the amount of work you do it is so worthwhile if writing is where you want your life to go. At the end of the course there is discussion about finding an outlet for your work. You might find a talent for other things too, I thought I was crap at poetry until I did that course and I ended up writing some as part of my end of course assessment.

The online feedback as well as the tutorials/workshops are really good for getting the confidence in letting other people read your work.

I'm now doing A363 advanced creative writing and it is quite mentally draining but goes more into the script writing element of things.

Plus you are likely to get financial help to pay for the course if you are thinking of taking it on as a degree, I'm not sure if you intend on doing only one course.

[NotQuiteCockney]

At Citylit, I did a short story one - Wednesday mornings. I don't remember what it was called.

I wasn't tempted by A215 or similar, because I am not really interested in writing poetry, just prose.

One big difference between Citylit and OU - you actually get graded at OU, and you get formal feedback on your work from the tutor. Citylit doesn't work that way, which was a bit of a shock for me. (Birkbeck gives grades, I think.)