Creative writing course
Do you have an idea for a book, a screenplay you would love to be writing, a project you are struggling with, a novel in progress or an unfinished manuscript?
* Allaboutwriting's ten week creative writing course stimulates creativity and allows each writer to find their own individual voice.
* The course provides writers with a range of skills and techniques to translate their vision into publishable manuscripts.
* Sessions are held once a week for two and a half hours every week in the Parkview, Johannesburg area and will have access to the facilitators via e-mail throughout.
* The first hour of every meeting will cover writing do's and don'ts. The second will be spent workshopping, mentoring and troubleshooting works in progress.
* The course is open to anyone with a proposed writing project, even if it's only the sketchiest idea at this stage. It will serve writers of fiction, non-fiction or even screenplays.
* The skills cover everything from finding a voice to plotting a piece of writing from beginning to end.
Sessions are held every Wednesday from 7 - 9.30pm for ten weeks.
Booking details
To book your place please email trishurquhart@gmail.com or call Trish on 0826524643
Course description
* Freeing you up/finding your voice
Techniques to fight self-consciousness. Using skills such as free-writing and personal myth-making to develop a unique style and voice. How free-writing and journaling can help your writing. How to use them for personal brain-storming.
* Where to find ideas storyboarding. Brainstorming, either alone or in groups to identify your story. How to facilitate the formation of ideas. How to develop them creatively, whether you have access to a group or are doing it alone. Different ways that story-boarding can help build ideas.
* What is the story?
What elements should every story have? How does a story work? The story as a rehearsal for life. The differences between novels, short stories and non-fiction in the way they tell the story. What differences are there, if any, in plot structure?
* Point of view
The many possibilities provided by point of view for telling a story in different ways. The differences between point of view and grammatical first, second and third person. Every point of view has advantages and disadvantages for the writer, and each can change the tone of the story irrevocably. How to choose the one that best suits your story. Which points of view are most commonly used in different kinds of fiction - and which are suitable for narrative non-fiction.
* Building characters, be they real or fictional
How to create believable characters. How to build a profile of internal and external characteristics that help us develop fully rounded characters. Techniques that assist this process. How each character's characteristics indicate how they will respond to different situations and circumstances. Character development - the differences and similarities between fiction and non-fiction. How real-life characters can help this process, whether we're writing fiction or non-fiction.
* Structure: Beginnings, middles and ends
The beginning is not always where the story starts. We have already spoken of the elements of plot. Now is the time to play with those elements. How to decide where to come in on the story, for best effect. The middle contains the meat of the story. How to make a meal of it. Build the story in a way that holds the reader. Developing conflict and when to resolve it. Every story has a beginning, middle and end. By the time we've dealt with the middle, we should have dramatically set up the conflict to the point where readers are waiting for the big pay-off at the end. How to end. Where to leave our reader. Different options, different types of story. How to develop a satisfying end without tying things up with a big bow.
* Scenes: telling stories in a series of scenes
Using visual techniques to improve writing. Life happens in a series of scenes. Stories should happen in the same way. One telling scene can take the story forward powerfully by placing the reader squarely within the action. Avoiding the "dinner conversation" style of story-telling.
* Suspense: set-ups and pay-offs
The hook and the promise: How to hook the reader from the first paragraph, and promise them more. How to use cliff-hangers and mini-cliffhangers from scene to scene, and paragraph to paragraph. How to use tension to hold the reader, whether it comes in the form of a shot ringing out at midnight, or a delicate exposition of a changing relationship. Different forms of tension: person against person, person against the environment and inner tension. This is equally relevant for fiction and non-fiction. Narrative writers who have used literary techniques like suspense to tell both personal and researched stories.
* Detail and description
Every detail and descriptive passage has a job to do. How to use small details to bring home big issues. How to find and note them in non-fiction. How the right detail can save you reams of tedious explanation in character development. How the mention of some details sets the reader up for a later pay-off.
* Avoiding exposition: show, don't tell
How to weave in back story, without paragraphs of tedious explanation. How details and characters' reactions can help this process. How we can put things across more powerfully by showing rather than telling our readers. Using dialogue, memory and flashback (sparingly) to avoid long exposition.
* Dialogue and wrap-up
How to create believable dialogue. How real-life dialogue differs from literary dialogue. How to create the appearance of real-life dialogue. How dialogue can help put across other aspects of the story. Learning from movies to create vivid and visual fiction and non-fiction. Wrapping up: using the elements of the course most effectively. Possibilities for future writing.
Venue: Parkview, Johannesburg
Cost: R5500
Date: 26 January 2011 to 30 March 2011
Venue: Parkview, Johannesburg
Cost: R5500
Date: 06 April 2011 to 15 June 2011
Venue: Parkview, Johannesburg
Cost: R5500
Date: 17 August 2011 to 19 October 2011
Venue: Parkview, Johannesburg
Cost: R5500