Creative Writing

Study Creative Writing.  Learn to write from the start to the end of your stories.  

This course has been designed to help you:

• Become a more confident, skilful, creative writer.
• Improve your writing skills and help stimulate ideas.
• Learn to write for books, novels, short stories, plays, etc.
• Learn to place yourself in an unexpected situation.

It is suitable for many different people and levels of experience, for example:

• Authors already experienced in other writing styles
• Marketing executives wanting to expand their skills
• Hobby authors 
• Writers wanting further support with writing approaches

This course will provide you with guidance on all aspects of creative writing, from establishing a theme to producing the completed work. Don't just dream about it, make creative writing a reality and enrol now!

Lesson Structure

There are 10 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction
   • What is creative writing, What’s different about creative writing, Information and creativity, Creative genres, Forms of Writing, Form, Structure, Purpose, Creative Writing resources, What is needed for success, The business of writing, Getting published, Self-publishing, Vanity publishing, Terminology.
2. Basic Creative Writing Skills
   • Words and their proper use, Types of language, Informative language, Persuasive, Imaginative, Literal, Figurative, Formal, Colloquial language, Parts of language (nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, plurals, possessive nouns & pronouns, gender, adjectives, articles); Common grammatical errors (fragmented sentences, run on sentences, comma splices, dangling modifiers). Run on sentences, irregular verbs, Whom or who, Pronouns and Antecedents, Punctuation, Creating and critiquing, Generating ideas, Developing ideas, Narrative theory, Storyline, Narrative structure, Settings or scenes, Mood or atmosphere, Time, Voice, Point of view, Creative reading.
3. Concise and Clarity
   • Making things clear, Slice of life fiction, Conciseness and Succinctness, Understanding ambiguity, Causes of ambiguity, Doubt and ambiguity, Hinge points and ambiguity, Defamiliarization.
4. Planning What You Write
   • Writing routine, Establishing a theme, Organising ideas, Paragraphing, Writing a synopsis, Titles, Developing objectives.
5. Writing Fiction
   • Elements, Clues, Signs, Common errors, Scope or Range, Theme problems, Authenticity problems, Tone problems.
6. Writing Non-fiction
   • Creative non-fiction, scope, Developing ideas, Narration, Story line, Deduction, Induction, Classical Development, Chronological development, Analogy, Cause and effect, Classification, Comparison and contrast, Definition, Analysis, Developing a profile, Interviews.
7. Newspaper Writing
   • What to write, Scope, News values, Writing guidelines, Regular columns, Fillers.
8. Writing for Magazines
   • Scope of magazine writing, What publishers want, Magazine articles, Travel writing, Writing for public relations, Selling your work.
9. Writing Books
   • Themes, Consistency, Believability, Variety, Getting started, Getting a contract, Book publishing, Non-fiction books, Fact finding.
10. Special Project
    • Organising a portfolio to sell yourself.

Aims

• Describe elements and forms of creative writing.
• Develop skills that will help you generate, evaluate and communicate ideas. Discuss the functions of clear writing, and the art of revealing and concealing in writing.
• Establish theme and structure as planning tools.
• Identify and discuss various forms of fiction writing and publishing opportunities.
• Analyse different non-fiction genres to determine key elements and strategies.
• Analyse different forms of creative writing commonly found in newspapers.
• Analyse magazine articles to determine what makes a good feature article.
• Discuss the main elements of book writing, including theme, organisation, and weaving different narrative threads into a unified whole.
• Prepare a portfolio of creative writing ready for submission and of future ideas.

What are the different Possibilities?

Here are just some examples of different "genres" that you may apply creative writing to:

• poetry of all kinds
• short stories
• novels, including westerns, romances, science fiction, detective stories, mysteries, fantasy, etc.
• stage play scripts
• film and television screenplays
• music lyrics
• magazine articles
• newspaper feature stories
• essays
• biographies
• advertisements
• card greetings
• books or articles on science, history etc.
• letters and emails
• blogs
• marketing materials

Every piece of writing, no matter whether it is a novel or a business letter, should have a dominant theme or underlying idea. In a business letter and in technical writing, the theme should be immediately obvious and clear and should be stated. In a piece of creating writing it might be gradually revealed through the development of the work and may only be fully apprehended by the reader at the very end. Nevertheless, the theme should be present from the beginning, and should exist as a unifying thread through every chapter or paragraph. Every piece of the writing should, in some way, relate to that theme. It is what unifies a piece of writing and lets it stand alone as a meaningful expression.

We can develop themes any means, and often through a variety of means, such as:

• thoughts and speech of characters
• actions of characters
• contrasting societies or generations within a society
• identifying shared values and experiences between groups or generations
• ways to dealing with and coping with the environment
• symbolic use of landscape and nature
• repetition of ideas in different forms
• repeated symbols or cultural items
• contrast of values

Getting Started

One of the hardest things for any new writer is to get their first work published. Publishers (print & electronic media) are always looking for stand out writers; but they are also busy people, often swamped by submissions with insufficient time in the day to read everything that comes their way. The challenge is to just get read!

When a publisher has limited time to read submissions, they are likely to do a few things:

1. Perhaps only look at submissions from people who have been published previously. Anyone published before may be seen as more likely to be worth consideration.
2. Maybe only look at the first paragraph or two of each work then only read the "stand out" manuscripts further.
3. Get an assistant to sort through the submitted works; and only read those that are separated out as worthwhile.

WHY STUDY WITH ACS?

There are lots of reasons why you should sign up to do this course with us, including:

• The course is detailed to ensure that you have the level of knowledge required to apply the practices in your own work, whether that's for a business or your own personal writing
• Within each lesson you have the opportunity to apply your learning to activities which enables you to practice different concepts and expand your own research in areas of interest
• Knowledge of these key areas will enable you to stand out from other applicants when it comes to applying for jobs, it will also give you greater confidence
• Having the knowledge of different writing techniques will enable you to work in many different sectors and business types, giving you flexibility now and in the future
• Our subject specialist tutors, including published authors, will be there to support you throughout your course, they are only too happy to share their industry knowledge and experience with you
• When studying with us you set your own deadlines, meaning you study at your own pace enabling it to fit around other commitments

TAKE THE NEXT STEP AND ENROL NOW!

Let your imagination take flight and improve your creative writing skills! 

You can enrol on the course now, but if you have any questions about the content of the course or studying with ACS, then please get in touch with us today - use our FREE COURSE COUNSELLING SERVICE to get in touch with our expert tutors. They will be pleased to help you!