Top 5 free resources to improve your writing now
Right now, here in Melbourne, we are in our second lockdown – and it’s one of the strictest lockdowns in the western world. We are confined to a 5 kilometre radius from home, maximum one hour of exercise a day and an 8pm curfew.
So while my world has been downsized, I’ve been trying to upsize on new skills. I’ve done short-lived dabbling in pottery, growing houseplants, knitting, playing table tennis and my kids have been teaching me how to make TikToks. But I've also been using quarantine to learn more about the craft of writing.
Here’s five free resources I’ve been tapping into during these ISO days to help develop my writing. Think of this as a free university course any writer can join, anytime:
1. The University of Iowa is one of the most well known writers workshops in the world with famous alumni including Raymond Carver, Philip Roth and Flannery O’Connor. Luckily for us, elsewhere in the world, they’ve made a series of MOOC courses available for free online.
I started with the How writers write poetry courses (I and II) – which are excellent introductions to writing poetry for beginners.
Check out this lecture by Danny Khalastchi, Director, Magid Center for Undergraduate Writing, he talks about figurative language and imagery and introduces rhyme schemes and form in poetry. Even if you’re a fiction writer, there’s a lot you can learn from Khalastchi about how to lift your prose to become more lyrical.
There are also two excellent courses for fiction writers. They cover topics such as character, plot, voice, setting and how to revise:
How writers write fiction I
How writers write fiction II
2. The Invisible College is a BBC podcast where Cathy FitzGerald has gone through radio and audio archives and compiled creative writing advice from such greats as Ray Bradbury, Aldous Huxley, Allen Ginsberg and Virgina Woolf. Each ‘class’ is around ten minutes long and covers topics such as ‘Sell your heart’, ‘Get better acquainted with words’, ‘Creating characters’ and ‘Routines and Rituals’.
3. Also from the University of Iowa, The Writing University's Eleventh Hour podcast series features recordings by renowned writers and poets presented during the University of Iowa's Iowa Summer Writing Festival. This is a fabulous opportunity to hear from leading writers who give considered lectures on topics such as how to write better dialogue, the art of humour writing, how to come up with a good title and the poet as collector.
My absolute favourite, which I’ve listened to again and again, is Episode 120: Revising Like a Hack - Screenwriting ‘Rules’ as a Guide for Rewrites - Kerry Howley. If there’s one resource you check out from this list – this should be the one!! Listen and keep a pen and paper handy to take notes.
Howley gives excellent tips on how to revise your novel for one thing at a time and explains screenwriting hacks such as the ticking clock and all is lost and all is gained moments. I haven’t been able to watch a film or Netflix show without considering it through a ‘Howley’ lens since. This may just be the best 38 minutes you spend to improve plot and tension in your work
4. Kurt Vonnegut wrote a masters thesis on the shape of stories. You can watch a 17 minute lecture where he demonstrates the common patterns he's identified in stories.
After seeing this, I’ve started creating retrospective outlines of my stories and graphing where the high and low points take place and whether I need to change the shape of my story. This is a really easy visual technique to improve tension and plot and to help create a more satisfactory ending for readers.
5. The Paris Review podcast . Oh my goodness, where do I even start with this? But after all the heavy-duty learning you would have been doing from my other tips, it’s time to sit back and be inspired.
The Paris Review podcast features stories and poetry from past issues, along with audio interviews, unusual fragments and unlikely pairings of singers or actors reading short stories and poetry. This podcast is stunningly produced and will introduce you to writers you’ll feel you should already know.
Episode 15 is one of my favourites: Salman Rushdie reads an apologetic letter written by Dylan Thomas to his editor; poet Sharon Olds identifies 'The Solution' to America’s problems; Alexandra Kleeman reads her haunting story 'Fairy Tale'; and singer/songwriter Devendra Banhart reads the little-known legend of 'The Woe Shirt', as written by Paulé Bártón.
