Creative Writing Courses - Helpful? Not helpful?

[Grimbear]

I'm thinking about doing a creative writing course but the ones I've seen are ranging from expensive to being unaffordable (for me anyway) so I don't want to waste my money on something that I will a) hate b) won't help.

Someone I know went on one and said it was full of retired women in their 70's who all were writing memoirs. I don't want to be stuck in a room for hours listening to people's childhood memories from the 40's. It would be hellish and has no bearing on what I want to write.

How do I make sure, before I commit, that the course I choose is relevant? Who here has been on a course and what did you think of it? I expect it's pretty hard to get a refund if you go to one session and decide you won't go again.

 

[Abernovo]

I've never done a creative writing course, Grimbear, but I suspect they're like most academic courses. Before you sign up you should be able to go and speak to the course co-ordinators to discuss your aims and see if the course caters to that. You can discuss your fear of pensioners' reminiscences as well.

 

[Grimbear]

I've never done a creative writing course, Grimbear, but I suspect they're like most academic courses. Before you sign up you should be able to go and speak to the course co-ordinators to discuss your aims and see if the course caters to that. You can discuss your fear of pensioners' reminiscences as well.

I could try. But the only thing I could afford would be an evening class type of course. I've heard of residential courses, weekend courses, and there is a Creative Writing MA at Cardiff University, but these are kind of out of my reach unless my situation changes drastically.

I looked last year, and there were several courses listed, but the council here have cut them back this year and now there are only 3 evening courses listed. Two of them are actually listed as being about writing memoirs, and the ones that have been discontinued from last year were the general creative writing ones. There's only one general course left - while they've kept the biographical ones - which kind of signals to me that this is what most people round here are interested in!

Maybe I should move somewhere else.

I'll try, like you say, to contact the provider, and find out more.

 

[The Judge]

Er... you're doing a Creative Writing Course, Grimbear -- it's called being a member of Chrons!!

Seriously, what do you think you will get out of a dozen or more evening classes that you can't pick up here? What is it you think is lacking? What do you want help with?

 

[prizzley]

How do I make sure, before I commit, that the course I choose is relevant? Who here has been on a course and what did you think of it? I expect it's pretty hard to get a refund if you go to one session and decide you won't go again.

I did an NEC course which covered a lot of options and was extremely helpful as it enabled me to try things I hadn't considered AND provided 1-to-1 criticism. Check it out
http://www.nec.ac.uk/colleges/product?product_id=1116&category_id=5383

Have you checked whether your local library runs courses? You may have to be more specific than Creative Writing, for example Short Story Writing. The Novel Writing one I did asked for payment at the end of the first session. So you could bail out then, having only paid for one class. And historically, local authority run classes were good at refunds if you decided it wasn't for you.

 

[Grimbear]

Er... you're doing a Creative Writing Course, Grimbear -- it's called being a member of Chrons!!

Seriously, what do you think you will get out of a dozen or more evening classes that you can't pick up here? What is it you think is lacking? What do you want help with?

Yep - being a member of chrons is very helpful But on creative writing courses they give you assignments and things and I think this would make me try things I hadn't before. Expand my writing and so on.

I did an NEC course which covered a lot of options and was extremely helpful as it enabled me to try things I hadn't considered AND provided 1-to-1 criticism. Check it out
http://www.nec.ac.uk/colleges/produc...tegory_id=5383

Thanks Prizzley - that does look good - and is well within my price range - I'll seriously think about doing that.

 

[Glitch]

Have you tried the Workshop part of this forum. I believe Vertigo started a group where people all learn together from the same book and crit each others work.

 

[MemoryTale]

I've been on short creative writing courses, and while it's true that 90% of the people there are retired women writing memoirs (no exageration), I still found it very helpful. There was something about going to a lesson that kickfired the creative juices, and I've written some of my best stuff either during or just after a lesson.

 

[Fishbowl Helmet]

If you're looking for a course on format or a type of writing you've never done before, say learning screenwriting, then yes, a course can be really helpful. If you're wanting it to be a kick in the pants to just write, I'd say it's never worth it.

Any course you take is going to have people in it who bore you and "waste your time". That's the nature of these things. But they've put their money down too and have just as much right to ask questions and write what interests them as you do. If you can't see that or don't want to have the patience to suffer through others with dissimilar interests, then skip it.

Just sit a moment and think of what you want out of the course and look for it elsewhere. Basic mechanics, grammar books and online research. Writing a particular style or subgenre, buy a writing book. Workshop experience, find a face to face workshop or an active online community. General advice on writing SF, there are dozens of great books out there. An excuse to write, you're better served by scheduling your own writing time as you can write what you want.

Classes are a wonderful experience if you go with the right kind of attitude and outlook. From your post I'd guess you're going to be better served by not taking classes.

 

[C. A. Mitchell]

What about a local writing group instead? There are many where I live (although I'm too scared to attend!), and it seems they work on things every week, then bring them for comments etc. Do a quick google and see what comes up... As for general writing advice, I think you can get everything from the internet/experience/these forums

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

A writers group can be a tremendous help, but you have to be careful there, too, and not end up in a group where everyone (not just retirees) is writing memoirs, or novels that are thinly disguised biography. Fortunately, there are a lot of writing groups (and don't discount groups that meet online) that are geared toward genre writing.

If you want assignments that force you to try new things, you can look around the Workshop here, and if you don't find the sort of exercises you are looking for, you might start a thread and see if others want to participate.

 

[Grimbear]

If you want assignments that force you to try new things, you can look around the Workshop here, and if you don't find the sort of exercises you are looking for, you might start a thread and see if others want to participate.

Ok - might do that

If you're looking for a course on format or a type of writing you've never done before, say learning screenwriting, then yes, a course can be really helpful. If you're wanting it to be a kick in the pants to just write, I'd say it's never worth it.

That's sort of it. I want to try new things - not necessarily to write novels in a whole new style, but to improve generally.

 

[Glitch]

There is of course the 75/300 word challenges.

 

[Galacticdefender]

Most creative writing workshops/classes I have been to are populated mainly by emotional teenage girls who like to write "emo poetry" if you know what I mean. I tend to avoid such things.

 

[Jake Reynolds]

I treat these with a fair amount of disdain, to be honest. In Stephen King's On Writing (which, if you haven't read, will give you more than any course ever could), he echoes similar sentiment. Unfortunately, there's no 'quick' way to become a writer. All you can do is write, write and write some more. That isn't to say that you won't pick up pointers, and have a valuable forum to have your work critiqued, but I just always think of a room filled with bored people who are there to learn how to instantly write the next 50 Shades of Dire Mediocrity instead of how to actually be writers.

You'll do better with what the Chrons has to offer, read On Writing and download the whole archive of Writing Excuses. You'll get much more out of that.

 

[prizzley]

One of the advantages of a local writers' group or a writing class, is that you can't hide. You have to become used to reading your work to others. For would-be-published writers, who will have to market their work, I'd say that's a great first step.

 

[Jake Reynolds]

Well, writer's groups are a different kettle of dragons entirely. If you can find a good group (one where everyone is involved for the right reasons), go for it.

 

[Montero]

Never been on a writing course myself.

Two slightly contradictory suggestions - which might be too expensive .

1. Do a search for published sff authors offering a course. (Does occasionally happen.)

2. Get a piece of your writing to as good as you can make it (assuming start of a novel here) and pay John Jarrold to critique and edit it. He certainly used to do editing on part books (the first part). Haven't been past him in a couple of years but it is educational.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I did a postal writing course about fifteen years ago
, the writers bureau one, it was ok did what it said on the tin but was nowhere near as informative as the chrons.

I also am part of a writing group, a virtual one given the lack of sff writers where I am, and find it incredibly useful not just in terms of my owm work but in seeing what works in others. But I think it does need a commitment from all and a basis in honesty and support.

I also got a developmental edit done recently (from Teresa edgerton rather than John jarrold in my case although I have read one by him and it was very interesting and i cribbed from it and found it was incredibly useful not just for that book but for others, in terms of both picking up trends for improvement in my writing and as an encouraging process.

 

[Ursa major]

One of the advantages of a local writers' group or a writing class, is that you can't hide. You have to become used to reading your work to others. For would-be-published writers, who will have to market their work, I'd say that's a great first step.

There may be the added embarrassment of meeting your readers face to face, but text put on a writing forum, such as the Chrons's Critique sub-forum, can be seen by anyone with an Internet connection.

How daunting is that? (And yet lots of us have put work there. Even me.)