Youtube is a wonderful treasure-trove of how-to videos for just about every skill imaginable. That includes innumerable pundits offering tips for writers – many for free.
So why spend money on a creative writing course? Here are 5 things every writer needs that you’ll never get from Youtube alone.
Regular writing time.
Singers sing, dancers dance, runners run – and writers write. It’s doing it that counts. Not thinking about doing it. Or listening to people talking about doing it. Writers write.
A weekly writing course means weekly writing time. In the lively, supportive environment of a writing class, students learn not to wait for inspiration. Instead, by turning up to class and trying out writing exercises, you learn to push past blocks, self-doubt and over-thinking.
As with any other activity, practice builds skill and confidence. By strengthening your creative muscles, you’ll discover increased enjoyment and increased capacity to keep writing.
Expert guidance.
All our writing courses are led by professional writers. People who have published novels, short stories or collections of poetry, or whose scripts have been performed on stage, tv or in cinemas.
You’ll be interacting with tutors who are excellent at what they do, and at passing on their skills and knowledge.
If you’re just starting out, and not sure what type of writing you want to do, there are general creative writing courses like Ways into creative writing. You’ll have a chance to try out different forms – poetry, fiction, playwriting and screenwriting. Or if you want to write in a particular form, such as the novel, you can choose a course designed to teach you those specific skills.
Either way, you’ll be learning in real time, from an expert who is ready to answer your writing questions and help you achieve your ambitions.
Structure.
On a creative writing course, tutors take you through a carefully planned, step-by-step, learning process.
Whether it’s an 11 week course or a two-hour taster, each class includes plenty of variety to fire your creativity, stimulate your mind and optimise your understanding. Mini-presentations teach nuggets of new information. Writing exercises let you practice applying techniques. Reading and analysing published writing enables you to understand how successful writing works (because good writers are good readers).
As you build skills, you can move from beginner to intermediate through to advanced courses, at your own pace.
Writing exercise: working with the senses
Author Helen Cox leads a City Lit class in some quickfire writing activities that work with the five senses.
Deadlines.
Agents, publishers, theatre directors, and film and tv studios all work to deadlines. Therefore, professional writers learn to write ‘on demand’.
You might be thinking, I can only write when I’ve got loads of time/ I’m in the mood/ I’m in the perfect environment. You might even be thinking, I don’t want to be a professional, I just want to write for fun.
In fact, deadlines help you write. Therefore, a writing course lets you practice this essential skill.
Tutors might set micro time-limits: a two-minute writing prompt, or a fifteen-minute timed writing exercise. Learners get used to picking up the pen (or laptop) and just… writing. Your tutor won’t expect this to be your best work, or even particularly good. Good writing has invariably gone through a few re-writes. However, you will have made a start. And once you start, more ideas follow.
Tutors also set longer deadlines, of a week or a few weeks. Learners might be asked to finish a piece of writing started in class at home, to bring in the following session.
Or your course might include workshopping – learners take turns, on a rota, to bring a piece of writing for the class to discuss. Knowing that it will be your turn to share your writing in X number of weeks, wonderfully focusses the mind.
Feedback.
Arguably the most important benefit of a class over YouTube is interacting with classmates. Writing can be a lonely activity. It’s all too easy to become discouraged, to lose confidence and to wonder why you’re bothering.
A writing course puts you in contact with other people who want to write. People with creative hopes, dreams and ambitions, and who understand the challenges that presents. Each one brings to the class their unique life experience, insight and approach.
Additionally, the tutor guides the class in giving constructive feedback. That means identifying what’s working or what might need working-on in a piece of writing. Every insight and suggestion comes from the perspective of a fellow writer. It’s then each writer’s job to decide which suggestions to take on.
A writing course is dynamic, exciting and fun. You learn as much from each other as from the tutor. You also discover how much you already know – and how to put that knowledge into practice.
There’s no substitute for learning in real-time, with classmates, led by an expert tutor. Taking a writing course is one of the best ways of taking your writing seriously. By signing up to a live course, you’re investing in your passion. And a creative writing course with City Lit is a guarantee of quality and value-for money.
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About the author
Judith Bryan’s first novel Bernard and the Cloth Monkey won the 1997 Saga Prize. In 2021 it was reissued by Penguin as part of their Black Britain Writing Back Series, with a new introduction by Booker prize winner Bernadine Evaristo. Judith’s short fiction and non-fiction have been published in various anthologies including IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain (edited by Courttia Newland and Kadija Sesay, Penguin 2000), Gas and Air: Tales of Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond (edited by Jill Dawson and Margo Daly, Bloomsbury 2002) and Closure: Contemporary Black British Stories (edited by Jacob Ross, Peepal Tree Press 2015). Her play, Keeping Mum was selected for the WriteNow2 Festival of New Writing, produced at Brockley Jack Studio Theatre, London, in 2011 (dir. Rebecca Manson Jones). Judith is working on her third novel.
