Writing about writing courses
Tomorrow night, I’m starting a four week writing workshop, organised by the London literary project, Spread the Word. With an MA in creative writing under my belt as well as several undergraduate papers and a number of evening classes, I guess you could say I’m a bit of a writing workshop junkie.
However, I know that not all writers feel the same way about the usefulness of such workshops – which leads me to this week’s writing about writing question…
Writing about writing, Week #7
What’s your opinion of writing courses? Do they offer anything to writers? Is writing something that you think can be taught?
If you’ve answered this question in your blog, please leave a link to the entry in the comments box below. Alternatively you can write/paste your answer directly in the comments box.
I think writing courses are great, given three provisos.
1. The quality of the teacher.
2. The quality of the classmates and the teacher’s ability to facilitate useful group discussions.*
3. Whether you are using the class to help your writing or as a means to procrastinate about actually doing any writing. It’s only useful if you write as well.
* If it’s a good group then you could use that as the nucleus of a critique group and meet more regularly - a lot of writers swear by this.
I’ve done an Arvon Foundation course in non-fiction writing and I’m keen to do a fiction course next year. A whole week away in the countryside with focused attention on writing is very conducive to creative flow and a good learning experience.