Have you always wanted to write but don’t know where to start? Welcome to Beginners Creative Writing! This course is perfect for new writers, established authors who need a refresh, and everyone in between.

Learn the foundations of storytelling through fun and practical exercises that will get you writing from the very first class. Craft characters, build plots and create magical worlds you and your readers will love. Beginners Creative Writing is a supportive environment for all writers that love stories and want to create them.

Course Outline:

Week One Let’s Get Started!

Why do you write? Where do your ideas come from?

In week one, we’ll begin by focusing on a range of warm-up exercises to ignite your creativity and help you get some words down on the page! We’ll also set some goals for the course and reflect on the written word.

Week Two Heroes and Villains

Characters are a core component of any good story, but how do we make them come alive? What truly makes them tick?

In week two, we’ll take a closer look at heroes and villains in popular fiction and how to create them.

Week Three What A Wonderful World

Make your readers want to live in your fictional world and stay there!

This week, we’ll take a dive into magical and mystical settings in fiction, as well as real-life locations. Then, we’ll create our own unique worlds through blocks of sensory detail.

Week Four Compelling Plots

What makes a great plot? What obstacles should you put your characters through?

In week four, we’ll analyse plot mechanisms like Freytag’s Pyramid and how to keep a story moving forward. You’ll have a reader hooked in no time!

Week Five Putting It All Together

We’ll finish the course by putting everything we’ve learnt together! We’ll go through each element — character, setting and plot — and how they work together to create an exciting story.

Then, we’ll help you write a guided short story of your very own.

Learning Outcomes:

• Strategies to ignite your creativity and beat writer’s block
• Learn the skills to create stories that readers will love
• Gain confidence in a supportive environment with an experienced tutor

What to bring:

• Pen and paper, or laptop/tablet
• Highlighters or anything else you might like to bring!

About the Tutor:

‘Aylish Dowsett is an award-winning writer, tutor, and copywriter. She teaches creative writing at The Writers’ Studio, The Writing Quarter, Creative Writing Ink, and SGSCC. Her work has been published in Mythrill Fiction, Collider, Honi Soit, Grapeshot, The Quarry, and many others. She loves cats and all things weird and British.'

Other Information:

• To ensure resources are ready for you at the start of your course, we ask you ideally enrol at least one week before the course commences.
• All courses need a minimum number of students to run ("we try our hardest to get those") . If your course does not have enough students it will be cancelled prior to the commencement and you will be informed.