Open University A215 Creative Writing...all the way. Ninety pounds a month, tho'. Gets you off your backside and maybe halfway through you'll have your feet and ready to fly, but it gets you in the environment, community, talking the talk. Web and couple of tutorials. Only crit would be little staid, knitting needle, by the end...but by comparison to here, competitive arena. (here's just perfect, just reeling after the first two stories in the humour submissions were both about poo, pfff)) What are you looking for? Just the novel? Or firing off short stories all that. Remember Bridport deadline is May and that's five thousand quid!!! atb.
I did the Open University short course on creative writing, and was impressed, although I dropped out when my son attempted suicide (I could probably have deferred but my mind was elsewhere). The two major things that I think the course did were: It got me out of my comfort zone, having to write about topics the course set instead of the same old ones I always chose for myself; and It gave me detailed professional (and peer) feedback on my writing. In combination, I reckon they were worth the money.
Sorry to hear about your son digtig. I've never been disappointed with the money I've spent with the Open University and I've done everything from astronomy, particle physics, law, psychology, history, geology, neuroscience - figured I might as well do something useful for a change Learning even if you discover you don't like doing it that way is never wasted. I'm hoping i'll gain a better grasp of commas if not from the course itself but someone else taking it.
Thanks; he's better now, though he still has issues. Nor have I, and I've done stuff from computing through philosophy to Mandarin Chinese. But the new funding arrangements and consequent price increases have put it put of my reach now. I suppose could nominate the one course that I've not yet used towards a degree as counting towards another named degree, and so get in under the transition arrangements, but basically it looks as if the party is over. If you want the degree qualification I would still wholeheartedly recommend the OU, but for "personal development" I think it is now priced out of the market.
I'm sorry Digitig. I think if you've always had that itch then OU is first stop. The hard part is step two, structuring your activity if you want to get your writing out there, finding audience, spreadsheets to show what's gone where and a support community somewhere for feedback and support. that's why I logged on here to take a look. It's all small steps in savvy. I've made a couple of beginner twit mistakes already. Radio script seems a fantastic way to go...if it's good enough you're on radio 4 and away! But the web, I dunno, smart sites cater for every taste. <reading your update. Mine was the last cheapy year. So it's out of reach now? That is a shame.
I'm waiting to see what the Scottish Government offers by way of course fees with the OU. I'm taking a scriptwriting course at the Art Centre near me I hope - they still haven't sent me details and it is only a month away.
Only crit would be little staid, knitting needle, by the end...but by comparison to here, competitive arena. - The course was a little old fashioned but not as old fashioned as this site can be (here's just perfect, just reeling after the first two stories in the humour submissions were both about poo, pfff)) - the site is really fine but the first two stories in the humour submissions were both about poo What are you looking for? Just the novel? Or firing off short stories all that. Are you wanting to write a novel or short stories ? Remember Bridport deadline is May and that's five thousand quid!!! short story competition. To answer the question I write Nano, flash, short, novella and novel length stories.
Vexx, Let me just offer you my experience and you can take from it what you will. For years I had cultivated an identity as a writer, both to myself and others, without getting a good deal of real writing down. I felt boxed in in my late 20s and went into an MFA program in creative writing thinking that it would light a fire under my ass and that I would leave there with a completed manuscript.... I won't say that the entire experience was a waste, far from it, but trust me on this: it is far better to spend the time and money on a course or a program when you are actively writing rather than trying to get inspired BY the course. It actually will just make you more anxious about your blockage. The cure for that block is not a course but to sit down and write ever day. Forget your novel for a few months and just write everyday and see what comes out. The students who got the most out of the workshops and the classes were the ones who showed up with active practices and had real work to submit already and were tweaking it. The thing is when it's your turn to submit...you still have to write something and submit it and it will now be read and judged by the group. Walking in without a daily practice is not recommended. I have a daily practice now and wouldn't trade that for ten graduate degrees...most of the people I went to school with don't write anymore and don't have published novels either...and I went to a pretty decent MFA program.
Point John, OU But some of the people are at the very bottom.. Real simple exercises set you up. 5 smells you love 5 tastes 5 sounds then take three of them to make a paragraph. Finish with little story incorporating ideas from the last stage. Tutor groups of 15 with your own blog facility and a student web cafe for the show-offs, ahem. 6 pieces over 9 months: 800-2000 words, fiction, life-writing, poetry, submission piece... Is very difficult for somebody to just get on with it. I think I read you right? I was one of those snarling 25 year old's once
...in which you're paying someone to impose deadlines on you...and that's fine. Like I said, I am NOT suggesting that Vexxx skip the class. I just was adding my experience with writing program's and classes. And in my experience...I didn't leave with my process nailed down and I didn't leave with a novel. I just had some deadlines imposed on me, was exposed to competition...and met some nice people....many of whom don't write anymore a few years on...the ones who do...were already writing everyday before the program. For me, it was when I dropped the identity of being a writer and just sat down and wrote everyday...no matter what came out, that things started to really flow. If writing is nothing but pain, blockage and self-flaggelation and imaginings of future glory...then I wouldn't want to bother and until I wrote through the identity piece of it, most of it was mental suffering mixed with an occasionally fleeced ego for a job well done. Writing is work now...but there's joy in it. I didn't find that joy in the writing program.
Thas nice writing John. Truth be told I found the process frustrating. Bursting in all bright eyed and full of ideas right on the edge looking for pals to wrestle words with and met with cat, rabbit appreciation and fairytales. I'm surely not the first mind to want to subvert a little and as ever felt a little excluded. But hey I'm still standing and waffling away part two, huh, anticipating that Mark Twain reference I picked up about chopping wood. He gives you three years. Currently working on fanbase of four.
Thanks for the replies everyone, sorry for the delayed response, have just moved to London and been organising everything. Now I'm ready on starting to write again (fuck this writer's block ) Oo and glad to know that Open Uni is actually really good here, may try out a course there while I have free time, get bored too easily, so learning something interesting or the creative writing course itself could be a good idea. Ok RE: John, shouldn't be so opposed to the idea of self-teaching with literature I guess, but I'll probably invest in one writing course to try it out anyway so maybe start with literature myself first.. Let me ask: what's the best book/resource for learning how to write a novel in a structured way like some of these novel writing courses (particularly like the Writer's Digest "Focus on the Novel" course)? I do have the basic plot of the novel, outlined the storyline and the setting/characters, just can't work out how to approach it page-by-page -- challenging! Definitely need some guidance..
The OU uses "Creative Writing: A Workbook with Readings", edited by Linda Anderson, for its level 2 course. I think it's very good on the page-by-page stuff. Most of the structure stuff is aimed at the short story, which is simpler than structuring a novel (writing a short story isn't simpler -- it has its own challenges) but might give you some help. The complexity of structuring an entire novel is presumably a level 3 matter :0
Has anyone one attended the boot camp? I'm thinking of going this year, if not only for the two day class. If you have gone what was it like and would you suggest it? Z
Hello all, I have been writing for a while and many of my friends and family luff my works. I had to take a creative writing class at school as part of my Digital Film and Video major and something strange happened. Every time I got in front of the class to reveal my works, I got the deer in headlights blank faced stare from everyone, including the instructor. When she asked for input or critique from my class mates they had none and neither did she. I received a D in the class. I am wondering if my stories and other ideas are so far off the chart that they are mind boggling or that I mixed too many genres. My take is life is not just one kind of genre in itself so I incorporate all.(Science Fiction, Drama, Comedy, Politics, and a little bit of Romance and conspiracy theory). But when someone reads them, they love it. I am confused!!! SHOULD I narrow them down or just hope everyone will catch up with my way of thinking?
My take is life is not just one kind of genre in itself so I incorporate all.(Science Fiction, Drama, Comedy, Politics, and a little bit of Romance and conspiracy theory). that's sounds like what i'm doing right now. I'm not quite sure i understand what you need help with, but if people love reading your stuff, and your only problem is communicating them orally to people maybe, you could read something about log lines or hook lines. This should help you condence your story ideas in only one line making them much more accessable and less scared deer face inducing.
Obviously genres will overlap, but it's important to know where your funamental story lies. If I'm writing a psychological thriller it might also sound like a murder mystery but at the end I need to make sure I keep the reader's involved in my character's head and the thought process they're experiencing in the different situation they face...not just 'who did it.' Likewise, in a society of instant satifcation, most readers aren't going to have the patients for a story that tries to cover the whole spectrem of life. The romance might be interested but is it really needed in the story? The sister of the main character having an abortion might add a bit to the character's beliefs but if those beliefs aren't important to establish in the story don't waste the paper. Stay objective and leave all the sidebar stories for the collector's edition. Edit: Also, you can always overrule your instructor's grade by going to their boss, the dean, and have them overlook the work in comparison to the assignment. In a writing class I took the teacher was a hardcore femanist and always managed to slip in her own little personal objective in with the lessons. So one day I decided to write an anti-women's rights paper to counter her "women are always being underminded my men" speeches. She gave me a solid F on the assignment. I took my paper and the assignment requirements to the Dean and he had the grade corrected to a B. So if you think you were wrongfully graded take it up with a higher authority. Can't be afraid to ask what you did wrong.
Ahhh...eureka! LOL! I may need to do some major rewrites then. But, that is the fun of writing. How do I know what to keep in since people who have read them like them as they are? Of course, they are not giving me any critiques either so I am in the wind.
Yes I realized that little insight after I left for a bit. I am just really bad at pitching the story. I need a book or something to guide me hmmm..
Maybe when you are able to - you should post some of your work on here for critique and see what the forum members make of it.
Yes, don't jump into any conclusions before you actually receive some constructive criticism. Mixing genre is fine as long as you make me believe in whatever you have written.
Also post what the actual assignment was. While your writing may have been good, you may not have, in the eyes of your instructor, followed the requirements of the assignment. Plenty of great writers have received poor grades for not following instructions.
Too many possible problems to suggest a solution. For all we know, you may have written brilliantly but tanked on presentation before a group.
