COURSE STRUCTURE AND CONTENT
The 10 lessons (including a Special Project) are as outlined below:
Lesson 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.
Lesson 2. Basic Creative Writing Skills
- Words and their proper use.
- Types of language
- Common grammatical errors
- Run on sentences.
- Irregular verbs.
- Whom or who.
- Pronouns and Antecedents.
- Punctuation.
- Creating and critiquing.
- Generating ideas.
- Developing ideas.
- Narrative theory.
- Story line.
- Narrative structure.
- Settings or scenes.
- Mood or atmosphere.
- Time.
- Voice.
- Point of view.
- Creative reading.
Lesson 3. Writing Clearly and Concisely
- Clarity
- Slice of life fiction.
- Conciseness and Succinctness.
- Ambiguity.
- De-familiarisation.
Lesson 4. Planning What You Write
- Writing routine.
- Establishing a theme.
- Organising ideas.
- Paragraphing.
- Writing a synopsis.
- Titles.
- Developing objectives.
Lesson 5. Writing Fiction
- Elements.
- Clues.
- Signs.
- Common errors.
- Scope or Range.
- Theme problems.
- Authenticity problems.
- Tone problems.
Lesson 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.
Lesson 7. News Writing
- What to write, scope.
- News values.
- Writing guidelines.
- Regular columns.
- Fillers.
Lesson 8. Writing for Magazines
- Scope of magazine writing.
- What publishers want.
- Magazine articles.
- Travel writing.
- Writing for public relations.
- Selling your work.
Lesson 9. Writing Books
- Themes.
- Consistency.
- Believability.
- Variety.
- Getting started.
- Getting a contract.
- Book publishing.
- Non-fiction books.
- Fact finding.
Lesson 10 Special Project
- Organising a portfolio to sell yourself.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What will you do in this course?
- Analyse texts.
- Research publishers.
- Write news articles, stories, scenes, dialogue.
- Drafting, proofreading and editing.
- Planning your work.
- Learn how to write fiction and non-fiction, for profit or pleasure.
- Receive constructive guidance every step of the way from professional journalists and writers.
Why Study Creative Writing?
Study creative writing to improve your writing skills, explore work opportunities and develop as a professional writer.
Who Is This Course Suitable For?
- Professional Writers wanting to improve and update their skills
- Amateur Writers
- Bloggers
- Writers
- Web development writers
- Content Editors
- Copywriters
- Marketing writers
- Article writers
- Teachers
The only pre-requisite is a love of writing and a desire to improve.
What do our students say?
Dan Read, a student in our Creative Writing course has recently had an article purchased for publication. He said of the course - "I feel that the course has given me the tools and confidence necessary to make this possible."
Dilys said -
"I found the course to be extremely helpful. It has given me the confidence and skills to present my work to publishers."
Here’s what Jo had to say -
"I commenced the Creative Writing Course with the ACS having had no prior experience in this field whatsoever. Having always been in accounting or payroll jobs, I decided to give the course a go. The course demonstrated to me what I enjoyed writing about, the types of writing I was good at, and not so good at. It broadened my horizon to show me what was out there to write about. It gave me knowledge and confidence. I have continued to write, and in the future want to commence with the next course, but in the meantime, I have submitted various articles of mine to some magazines and have had nothing but positive feedback from all the editors and some of my work is to be published!! Which I personally feel is fantastic as I have only been doing this for a year or so. Thank you for opening up a whole new world of creativity to me which I can only enhance upon!"
What Next?
You can enrol today by clicking the “Enrol Now” button above.
Or
Click here to contact a writing tutor.
Or Request a Prospectus Here.