Creative Writing course

Week 1: Outline of the course:

This is for hobby writers, so it’s going to be fairly relaxed and calm, and will give an introduction to writing fiction.

Week 2: Openings:

How to begin your story so that the readers are brought straight into the action and are committed to it.

Week 3: Protagonist:

What makes a good protagonist, keeping the protagonist central, making this your hero’s story.

Week 4: Setting:

How to build a world – time and place, making it real. Showing and not telling – probably the trickiest thing for writers.

Week 5: Point of View:

Centering your story in your protagonist’s point of view, so that readers feel as if they are living the story.

Week 6: Language:

How the language you use affects the readers’ experience.

Week 7: Dialogue

How much dialogue to use for different purposes. How the language used in dialogue opens out character. How to balance dialogue and narrative.

Week 8: Narrative:

How to narrate dynamically, in the language of your story and setting, with action dominating information.

Week 9: Meetings:

How you introduce characters, so that their meeting goes to the core of the story.

Week 10: Closing:

How to find the point of climax and resolution of a story, and having brought that about, lead the reader through a denouement.