An inspiring, practical course designed to help you find inspiration and make your writing more engaging and lively.
1 starting date
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Starting date:
- Duration: 10 weeks
- Time: to
- Fees: £360 (no VAT)
- Occurs: Monday
- Location: Online
- Booking deadline:
- 6 places leftBook now for 28th April start
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Testimonials
An Approach to Creative Writing Course overview
This course is also offered as an intensive one-week summer school.
On this introduction to creative writing online short course you will learn the key elements of fiction writing, particularly in relation to short stories and novels. Subjects covered include structure, characterisation, dialogue, point of view, narrative voice, style and how to develop, sustain and end a story.
You will also learn how to support your practice as a writer and how to revise and edit your own work.
This creative writing course is ideal preparation for our Short Story Writing and Novel Writing and Longer Works courses.
Who is it for?
This creative writing course is aimed at beginners with no experience of creative writing, our Approach to Creative Writing classes will provide inspiration and guidance on how to begin to write creatively.
Find out more about our Creative writing and publishing courses
Timetable
See starting dates for available formats.
City St George's Short Courses follow the academic year, delivering courses over three terms:
- Autumn - October
- Spring - January
- Summer - April
Benefits
- Led by a professional writer
- Flexible online teaching
- Awarded a free City St George's, University of London certificate
What will I learn?
Over the course of 10 weekly evening classes on the Approach to Creative Writing short course, you will learn:
- How to find inspiration for your writing;
- How to structure, develop and end a story;
- How to create characters, write convincing dialogue and use different narrative voices and points of view;
- How to ensure your writing is lucid and vivid;
- How to assess, revise and edit your work.
Assessment and certificates
Informal assessment will take place through group discussion, class room activities, and questions and answers sessions as guided by your tutor.
You will be awarded an official City St George's, University of London certificate if you attend above 70 per cent of the classes, however, our short courses are not formally accredited.
Eligibility
No prior knowledge needed.
English requirements
Applicants must be proficient in written and spoken English.
Recommended reading
This reading material is entirely optional, but are books the tutor has found useful as a writer.
- Bird by Bird, Anne Lammot, Anchor 2007
- Steering the Craft, Ursula Le Guin, Mariner Books 2015
- The Voice that Thunders, Alan Garner, Vintage
- The Well of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde, Hodder
- Short Circuits (revised edition), Vanessa Gebbie (ed), Salt 2013
- Into The Woods: How Stories Work and Why We Tell Them, John Yorke, Penguin Books 2013
Tutor
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Emily Pedder
Emily has worked as a writer, developmental editor and creative writing lecturer for over twenty years. Her short stories have been published in various literary anthologies and magazines and she has won several awards for her writing including a Royal Literary Fund award, and a Commonwealth short story prize. Emily is a founding editor of Matter, an annual literary anthology, and co-founder of the Novel Studio, on which she taught for many years and now course directs. She is a firm believer in the importance of mentoring emerging writers and works extensively with novelists both at City St George's and through her editorial consultancy www.thebookedit.co.uk.
