There’s rather a lot going on in my life at the moment.
My partner and I have just moved house, so a lot of my possessions (including most of my books) are still in boxes and strewn in various locations about the new home.
There’s also been a change to my full-time job. I have moved departments so I’m working with a different bunch of people on a different project.
Far more relevant to my blog, however, is the small fact that my college course in Creative Writing will shortly be coming to an end, and I do feel a little sad about it if I’m honest.
There will be a gap in my life on Wednesday evenings when I would usually be driving to college to sit and discuss the finer points of writing. I shall miss our lively little bunch with all the variety of personalities and their contributions to the topics we have covered.
I have learnt a great deal during the short 10-week course, and I feel it would be a travesty to allow all that learning to go to waste.
So, the other day I decided to have a look at some of the courses on offer online to see if there was anything suitable. There is quite a bewildering selection available.
There are a number of freebies, even from reputable establishments such as the Open University. The OU has a free study arena named OpenLearn which offers modules to be studied in isolation rather than as part of a larger course. Unfortunately, nothing there really took my fancy but have a browse and see what you think: http://www.open.edu/openlearn/history-the-arts/culture/literature-and-creative-writing/creative-writing.
I have done a course from Writing Bliss before (see my previous post here) but I really want to go for something different, and preferably with some feedback, or at least some kind of interaction, rather than going it alone.
It seems this kind of service will have to paid for. (Who was I kidding that I’d get that kind of thing for free?!)
After a few days of perusing, I was down to a choice of two: The Writing Forge (http://writingforge.co.uk/moduleoutlines.asp) and the UK Writers’ College (http://www.ukwriterscollege.co.uk/shop.html). Then, out of the blue, my partner pointed me in the direction of the “Get Writing! Online Bootcamp” (http://www.urbanwritersretreat.co.uk/get-writing-online-bootcamp/) so I’ve decided to give that one a go.
According to the site it consist of small daily writing tasks, access to a private forum of fellow writers, access to online retreats (not sure yet how they’re going to work) and larger weekly exercises. By the end of the course, apparently, I should have completed a whole short story, which sounds great.
So, I’ve paid my dues and I’m really looking forward to it. In the meantime, I’ve decided to spend my Easter break reviewing some of my old material which I haven’t looked at in months. Standby for some posts about the joys of editing your own work…!
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