Creative Writing Course – Week #1.
I started a 25 week creative writing course run at the university where I work, and last night was the first night. My intention is to post a blog after each weekly session – we'll see if I can deliver them or not!
The aim of the course is to develop the first three chapters and the synopsis of a novel, as well as deconstructing the novel and demystifying the writing process. This course, 'Creative Writing: Novel writing', is co-taught by a writer of several published novels and short stories, and a Film & Media Studies/Creative Writing lecturer, so between them they seem to have the knowledge and experience to run a very rewarding course.
I've been to a writing course before at the university, but this one is a lot more substantial than the previous one. That was little more than a group of people meeting to discuss books and writing, and while it was interesting, it was not very productive. Also, the guy running the course would say stuff like:
'Dickens, you say? I'll have to check him out, he sounds interesting…'
(OK, I'm exaggerating slightly there, but he did say something like that about a household name writer whom he had never heard of). Another gem was:
'…after 10 years of writing (and not being published) I've recently discovered that characters are really important when trying to write a novel…'
A writing course run by a guy who never reads books is definitely one to avoid.
The people attending the course seemed to be a 50/50 mix of those that had written a novel or short stories (like myself) and those that wanted to embark on it after years of false starts.
The first session was mostly introductions and talking about our writing backgrounds and what we hoped to get from the course. We also talked about the books we'd read recently and our impressions of them.
We were even set homework, a task to be completed for next week with a view to discussing the ideas we had developed from the week before. I'm a little ahead of the game here in this respect, in that the first 8 week term is going to be focused on creating the opening chapter of a novel, and I have already written the first four of my new novel. I'll be spending the time revisiting what I already have, rather than trying to build from scratch, but I'm sure it will all be a valuable exercise.
I really enjoyed the first class, so I look forward to the rest. One of the best things about attending things like this is listening to what other people have to say about books and writers, as well as hearing their work. You also get feedback from a variety of people, which is invaluable, as having your work exposed to a range of readers gives you access to critique you wouldn't otherwise get.
The course will provide feedback and assessment from the tutors, and all work is marked and eventually assessed for grading and certification, so all in all it's a professionally run course with what I hope will be a productive outcome.
Next week I'll post a round-up of the week's class, and let you know how I got on with the task set this week.
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