CReative writing courses?

[Ezzie29]

First off, sorry I'm sure this has been asked before but mumsnet isn't playing well on my phone today for me to look. I've been debating about doing a course for ages, I know really you can read books on writing for free and get feedback from writing groups but I think I would benefit from something a bit more formal.
Does anyone have any recommendations? Obviously I'm looking for one where I actually have to interact with a tutor. There's so many courses out there tho and they're not cheap, I want to try and get it right!

I'm doing an evening class through my local adult education centre. It's £120 ish per term, so £11 for each 2 hour session. My tutor is brilliant- we have a group of 12. She gives us some exercises to do, then we do our homework in the week based on these exercises which are based around a theme or a particular writing skill, e.g. dialogue. Then the last hour is spent in reading out and critiquing each other's work. I'm really enjoying it. I'm never stuck for ideas and my writing has got much better.
I suppose it really depends on how good your tutor is though.

I also tried a writing group and this is much better.

I would love to do a writing course in person but the one that that is offered here is daytime only. So annoying!

I did a course with the Open University.
Obviously you don't get a lot of face to face interaction with your tutor or peers.
But you do have a structured programme, regular assignments, feedback, online discussions etc..
I did it to make up the modules on my law degree, thinking it would be easier than law (It isn't! )
But you can just as well take it as a stand alone course.

I've done short (10 week) online courses with both York Uni's Continuing education dept - they call themselves Lifelong Learning, and also Oxford's Conted dept, where I'm on my second course atm. I can recommend both for their set-up - writing exercises which you post to a forum - and other participants critique/comment (in a very light way), and assignments - which get marked by the tutor, with detailed feedback.

Holly Lisle does a free three-week flash fiction course over here: hollyswritingclasses.com/index.php?page=free-flash-fiction-class

It's a gateway to her other courses, naturally, but I found it quite fun.

Whereabouts are you?

I quite like the look of that oxford one. Replied to this the other day and just realised it never posted!

I realised I didn't give proper details either. I'm looking to do a distance learning course as that's my only option. Max budget is about 350 which I know isn't loads considering how much some courses are. I definitely want one that has interaction and feedback and work to submit otherwise I won't ever do it!

Will look at that Holly Lisle one later this evening.

Yes the Oxford ones are within your budget. I have looked at Strathclyde's Lifelong Learning online courses in the past and they have been quite a bit cheaper www.strath.ac.uk/studywithus/centreforlifelonglearning/onlinecourses/onlinecreativewriting/

They're not showing prices at the moment, presumably because they've not opened them for booking, for the autumn yet. I know nothing about how good they are.

There are a lot of courses around that are run by commercial set-ups and they seem more expensive than the university ones, or they are shorter.

Hope you can find one that suits you Ezzie29