I have a confession to make - I do a lot of writing, and can whack an article together no worries, but when it comes to writing something as lavish as an Ayn Rand novel, well...I've NFI where I should begin.

Personal experience dictates that learning the basics (in anything) from a good teacher rapidly speeds up the process, hence I'm looking to undertake a creative writing course.

So, to all you bloggers, thread posters, and closeted poets, please come forth and give me your advice. Has anyone done a course? Anyone interested in doing one with me? Online, offline, real life, telepathically... all suggestions welcomed.

Thanks

I did a course called "Unlocking Creativity" at the Writers Studio in Bronte and it was amazing. A really great teacher, a top course and the people were great. Gave me a lot of confidence in my writing.

You should totally do it Cam.

I write all the time, and probably have a few books worth of poetry and short stories.
I have never done a writing course, but was the top english student of my school, and read alot while filling in time scoring smack when younger.

Would love to do a course and was thinking about it recently.

The secret to writing ( for me anyway)- is finding and developing your "voice'. The truer you keep it to your own inner dialogue, the greater the writing. It will sound natural and organic. Not just a quilt of ideas, stolen from other writers.

I also use the "cut up" method developed by Burroughs. Where you take a page and cut it into pieces and then stick the pieces together randomly. The words form a stream of consciousness sounding work- that sometimes can give you some interesting combinations of words.

hope it helped
and for some reason- i am the opposite to you cam,- i can write stories , poems and scripts no problems, its writing short, concise , factual pieces i have the most trouble with.

I did a Post Grad Certificate in Creative Writing at Macquarie Uni at night over a few years. Was great!!

Also look into the NSW Writers Centre - they have courses and a newsletter.

Creative writing for me is instinctive & a discipline, too. (trust my words & craft)
I have to know what I'm writing about. (knowledge)
I have to feel comfortable expressing it. (personal ethics)
I'm mindful of who will read it. (target audience)
I embody a character, scenario, idea or thing to the point of trusting the genre/expression completely & authentically. (language-appropriate)
I've studied composition, exposition, prose, structural dialogue & procedural sentence development. It was a one year course at TAFE.

Sorry I'm dishlexic wehn it cums to writing....I think I need a whirlpool..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Light-Bearer

I also use the "cut up" method developed by Burroughs. Where you take a page and cut it into pieces and then stick the pieces together randomly. The words form a stream of consciousness sounding work- that sometimes can give you some interesting combinations of words.

I don't understand do you mean like a Humument?

http://humument.com/

I write, I did some poetry courses in highschool as extra english electives in year 10, the bitch teacher stole my book for some reason at the end of it and lied to me about what happened to it.

I took playwriting one and two in my first degree, but the lecturer was pretty crap and I couldn't take his opinions on board anyhow.

I think the best advice I ever got in regards to this came from my intro to performance lecturer, and it was to observe everyone around you and take in all their subtle nuances and develop possible character depths from this. Public transport-particularly trains that head out of the city are a gold mine for this type of thing.

You should keep an observation journal for a year and also a personal one, and also a dream journal(the more you recount your dreams the easier it is to remember them when you awaken because you train your mind to do this). Once you are finished re read all the stuff you have down there, the practice will have given you good basis for characters and also regular production of a body of work

Do what I do and write down the first thing that comes to your head. Fun times

I write a fair bit myself...its good fun and it can be incredibly relaxing at times however my wrist gets incredibly sore from doing that sometimes...bloody hand writing things too quickly...

Quote:

Originally Posted by rudeboy86

I write a fair bit myself...its good fun and it can be incredibly relaxing at times however my wrist gets incredibly sore from doing that sometimes...bloody hand writing things too quickly...

I'm the opposite I hate writing with a pen, my left handedness holds them in contempt due to the awkwardness of ring binders and smudging ink etc. and furthermore I write slower than my brain so occasionally I end up with these wuzzle words on the page that are jumped thought junctures where I have begun writing one word at the end of one sentence and jumped ahead a word or a sentence in some cases and the half of another word ends up smooshed on the end.
The rhythm of typing keeps my thoughts centred and focussed though, and I generally and comparitively find it quite easy to belt something out.

Mama enjoys writing and her scibblings usually come about after shes seen something that amused her, annoyed her or just affected her in some way. She takes this thing whatever it may be and then just combines it with her twisted mind and before she knows it she's whacked out a few pages. Mamas greatest problem is punctuation - she ends up with these huge scentences that really need to be edited into something that wont casue an asthmatic to reach for the puffer when reading out loud.

I'm left handed toooo....

Oh dear...wine is slowly kicking in.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm