Flying Start:
Our Online Creative Writing Course
Perfect for beginners
Key information
Start date: Multiple dates available Duration: 4 weeks
Format: online No. of students: 12 (max)
Flying Start:
Do you long to write, but don’t know where to start? You’re in the right place.
This course sheds light not only on narrative, but on the whole creative process. With Haydn’s help you will get those words from head to heart, and onto page or screen. The first few exercises are designed to stimulate creativity and get you into the habit of writing. Above all, this course is for people who want have fun, let their imagination fly, and see their writing soar.
Book the ‘Creative Writing Flying Start’ course
A comprehensive introduction to the fundamentals of Creative Writing: prose, plotting and character. Suitable for beginners.
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Tutor Bio
Haydn Middleton
Haydn Middleton has been an author for over 30 years. His 7 novels include The People in the Picture (‘an astonishing fictional debut’ – Anthony Burgess), and Grimm’s Last Fairytale (British Fantasy Society nominated for Best Novel). He has written over 100 non-fiction books for children, primary on historical subjects.
Haydn has taught creative writing around the world, including Britain, the USA, Greece and Australia. He believes the Flying Start’s collaborative approach is the best way to encourage new writers to spread their wings.
Overview
Summary
This course sheds light not only on narrative, but on the whole creative process. With Haydn’s help you will get those words from head to heart, and onto page or screen. The first few exercises are designed to stimulate creativity and get you into the habit of writing. Above all, this course is for people who want have fun, let their imagination fly, and see their writing soar.
Outcome Statement
At the end of this course you’ll know the basics of creative writing, have completed a 1,000 word short story and have kick-started your creativity.
Syllabus
Week 1 – Self
Where does writing begin? Staring at the blank page can be daunting. How do we keep the pen moving across the page? We’ll look at ways to silence the inner-critic and write through the scary part. We begin with ourselves: emotions, memories, experience. How can we feed this into our fiction writing?
Week 2 – Other people
Writing is about people. As writers, we need to understand what makes others tick. A character with a problem or goal to pursue is the starting point of all fiction. How do we create characters that readers can believe in? We’ll think about observation: how to watch others with a writer’s eye and the importance of dialogue as a tool of character. We make the imaginative leap from ourselves to others, and see how to blend the two together.
Week 3 – Language (and making it sing)
The English language is a rich one. How can we use it to make our writing shine? In short fiction especially, every word should count. We look at ways to avoid cliché and lazy writing, and we’ll think about imagery.
Week 4 – Writing the story
Here we look at how character makes plot. What is your character’s motivation? What does he/she want? What’s preventing him/her getting it? We’ll look at how this moves the story forward. We’ll also be thinking about story structures, and try writing our own short piece.
Detailed information
How the course works
All course content, including videos, exercises, tasks and reading lists, will be uploaded to the course platform on the same day each week. You’ll be able to have full access to all that content permanently, so there’s plenty of time for you to fit the course around your everyday life. Each week, you will be set a ‘homework’ task to be completed by the following week if you can (but if you can’t, just let your tutor know – they’ll understand!) This homework will enable your fellow students and your tutor to give you feedback on your writing.
The course platform is easy-to-use, friendly and yours to access whenever is most convenient for you. We suggest dedicating a minimum of three hours a week to the course, but like anything – the more you put into it, the more you get out!
Many of our learners leave courses having made life-long friends and a clear idea where to take their writing. Just take look at a few of the testimonials below.
Build a strong underlying story structure