Intermediate Creative Writing Course
With Nikki Sheehan. Starting 16/03/2021You don’t have to be online at any particular time or day. Instead, the course is carried out through email correspondence, so you can read the notes whenever it suits you. There will be weekly notes and assignments over the course of six weeks. Your tutor will read each assignment and provide written feedback. You’ll find out more about how the online courses work here.
Note that this is a course for adults.
The online intermediate creative writing course will allow participants to explore specific writing techniques which help build a bridge between the beginner and the more experienced writer. The creative impulse is very much an element of this journey, it helps to maintain a healthy imaginative register. Each module will guide the participant towards producing a strong body of writing based around relevant exercises and prompts. Your tutor will also provide written feedback on those exercises.
1. The stories only you can tell. Writers are always asked, ‘Where do you get your ideas?’ In Week 1 you will answer this for yourself by exploring your own fascinations, feelings, fears and interests, and uncovering the stories and characters that are waiting to emerge.
2. Writing real people. We are all a complex mix of nature, nurture and chance, but as writers have a limited time in which to establish credible characters on the page. So, in Week 2 you will learn to use the archetypes from mythology and the classics in combination with modern psychology to develop stronger characters.
3. Whose line is it anyway? Sometimes we struggle with which of our protagonists we should focus on, and how to do this in the most compelling way. Whether you write short stories, flash fiction or longer works, in Week 3 you will deepen your understanding who says what, why and how.
4. Plotting with snowflakes and more. Whether you’re an instinctive writer or a plotter, the structure of your story is the backbone without which your story will sag. So, in Week 4, we will briefly cover plot basics before moving on to a practical guide to putting your knowledge into action in order to plot a longer piece of fiction.
5. Drowning in metaphor. Modern readers of commercial fiction are hungry for story, and description and metaphor has become sidelined. But putting the sensory and thematic aspects of a story into words is still a vital part of the author’s job. In Week 5 we will look at how to subtly bring alive the world of your story in a way that keeps your reader reading.
6. Kill your darlings. Do we really need all those words? Does that character have a good reason to be there? Is that scene doing enough? In Week 6 we look at editing, both on a word level and in terms of plot. We get to grips with choosing the right words, scenes and characters, and daring to delete the rest.
To find out more about how the online courses work, or if you have any further queries, you can check out our Frequently Asked Questions or email us at [email protected]
Our cancellation/refund policy may be viewed here.