Creative Writing Courses, your experiences please...

[Jedimastermama]

I’m currently looking at a course with The Writers Bureau. I like the flexible payment option which manageable for me right now.
I’m looking for something I can do for me. I have a toddler and 7 month old. They both a fairly good sleepers at night, so I thought this is something I can do at night.

Just wondering if anyone has done this course or considering this particular course.

I’d like to hear your experiences.

Thank you

I haven't done Writers' Bureau, but I'd recommend the FutureLearn free course, Start Writing Fiction. I've been writing on and off for years and it's always been something I wished I'd pursued more seriously. This course was a good starting point to work out how to move on with my writing. There is obviously less feedback than with a paid course, but there are a couple of sections of the course where you upload a paragraph or a short story and others on the course give feedback, which I found useful.

I got a place on the current Curtis Brown Creative three-month online novel writing course. We're 5 weeks in, and it's brilliant so far. A new theme/module each week, and we workshop three people's excerpts in the forum. Two personal tutorials with the tutor, of which I've had one so far. Super useful.

Seconding the Future Learn course. It really made me think about things differently, and the peer review was useful too.

You can still do this university-level course in Sweden via distance learning for free if you sign up before the end of the year (when the Brexit transition period ends).
edu.mah.se/en/Course/EN212A

Friend of mine did it and said it was brilliant - all in English and lots of international students.

Currently doing the future Learn course. The first reviewed exercise I did I was lucky to get 3 different reviews which helped me clarify a few things. The last one I only got one review which merely said they loved it. So it can be a bit hit and miss as to who bothers to respond and how. Having said that I've found it really helpful. And where I've wanted to pursue a study area further some googling quickly brings up other free resources. Too early for me to suggest any yet, I just have a lot of bookmarks and a very long to do list so far. But there's lots out there you can access for free.

Any of Penny Joelson's courses and workshops at City Lit are excellent. I understand they're online this term.

I know somebody who did the creative writing course you’re referring to and they detested it. It was something for them to do and didn’t find it in any way enjoyable and they found themselves no longer doing it as it was boring for them. Obviously different people will like different things, they did the payment plan and when they explained they weren’t enjoying the course they weren’t of any help and wouldn’t refund it.

What do you want to get out of the course? If it's just 'to get writing' then there will probably be cheaper local courses available. If it's a bit more academic then choose a course that counts towards a qualification. If it's for publication then something like the Curtis Brown course gets your work in front of the right people.

Be aware that this is a huge industry and there are a lot of organisations trying to part you from your cash...

In terms of my own experience, I did a year's course with the Open University (equivalent of a second year university course) and I loved it. Lots of my cohort have gone on to have publication success. But the best course I've done was a 'write a novel in a year' course which was a face to face, one day a month course - which made me accountable for actually producing pages.

(I have done other stuff with Futurelearn and liked that too, but I think it's part of the OU actually?)

Thank you all for your advice, very much appreciated.

I’ve been looking into Curtis Brown courses and the Future Learn courses.
I’m really not sure about the writers bureau to be honest. I have spoken with a couple people recently who did this course and they weren’t happy with it either.

There is so much out there. It can become a bit overwhelming.

I will look into other suggestions made here, thanks again

My Faber Academy course was brilliant, and I've had positive experiences with Jericho Writers.

I did a CB online course and it was bad. Very bad. The tutor seemed disengaged and did not keep up with reading student work. She clearly did not care about the course herself.

But I know others who had good experiences with CB. I think it depends on the tutor. You might get lucky, but it is a great deal of money to pay for that kind of gamble.

I did the 6 week CB course. It was about £400 I think?

It was OK, but all pre-recorded videos and most (all?) of the feedback was from other students, so very much the blind leading the blind and dependent on how good the 'cohort' you end up with is.

Just to clarify, I did the 6 month online Novel Writing course with CBC, and it cost about £2166. Since the tutor was disengaged and not giving real feedback, the only benefit was the feedback from the cohort. Not worth the £ for their pricier course.

I have talked to others who had good experiences with this course, but they had a different tutor.

@CalendulaSalve - did the tutor's name begin with A by any chance??

[quote CornflakeMum]@CalendulaSalve - did the tutor's name begin with A by any chance?? [/quote]
No, it began with L.

Ah, not the same one then! So there are at least two disengaged ones at CBC!

Hiya - I wanted to alert you to the programme I've set up called MumWrite. It's centred around mums so workshops are at evenings/weekends, there's a strong community, writing buddies, four workshops on different genres, writing prompts and feedback opportunities. I also run one-off workshops on different subjects. It'll be launching again on Dec 8th if you or anyone you know would like a non-judgemental, supoortive space for mums to write, guided by a published writer.

I hope you find a course that works for your regardless and happy writing!

Nikki

@CalendulaSalve which Faber course did you do?

Unimpressive that the CBC tutor was disengaged, was it Laura or Lisa? Did you complain?

Have you had any luck with publication following these courses?