online creative writing courses

online creative writing courses

Enhancing Your Writing Skills through Online Creative Writing Courses

1. Introduction to Online Creative Writing Courses

Introduction to Writing Writing is a trade that must be learned by the aspiring author. Not so long ago, the trade was learned from a published author who took the aspiring author under his wing. This apprenticeship could last for years. Like writing, the concept of apprenticeship has changed with the growth in technology. Today’s writer has an unprecedented set of tools available to him. The computer has changed the process of writing in fundamental ways. In some ways, it has made the trade of the writer even more solitary. The computer has made self-publishing possible. With the growth of e-books, the opportunities for a writer to publish are more widespread than they ever have been. But, there are still only two corpus of writing that will be considered by a publisher or an academic institution: the previously stated, and the printed document. The idea of e-books changing this is speculative at this point. The computer has also made finding information about writing and acquiring and editing tools much easier, but this story is well known by any author who has stepped into the world of 21st-century word processing. A less examined narrative in this changing world of writing is taking writing courses online. This website seeks to chronicle my experiences taking online courses. I hope that this can contribute to the neglected idea of improving one’s writing skills or learning the art of writing creatively through online courses.

2. Benefits of Enrolling in Online Creative Writing Courses

With online courses in creative writing, you can acquire the skills of writing poetry, short stories, and all other forms of creative works. Typically, you will learn how to facilitate the writing process; how to develop character, plot, theme, setting, dialogue, style, voice, and tone. Utilizing standard editing symbols, editing skills, and providing constructive criticism will be taught as well. With your peers and professors, you will participate in a strong, supportive community that will push you to expand your creative potential. Participating in this class will not only help you to develop your craft but introduce you to writers who have experienced success in similar fields. As the name suggests, this class will provide you with some to publish your work; how to write the all-essential query letter, delve into the world of self-publishing versus obtaining a literary agent, market your work to a wider audience, and possibly even attain some knowledge about the publishing industry as a whole. Take this course if you want to learn more about narrative craft and take your writing to the next level.

3. Course Offerings and Curriculum

Screenwriting workshops are designed for students who have a serious interest in television writing, and in writing feature-length screenplays for film and television. There is a sequence of three workshops in these courses devoted to principles of narrative and dialogue in television and screenwriting, workshopping of student scripts, and revision or further work on student scripts. The sequence of workshops is intended to engage students in their own genre of screenwriting and take student scripts as far as possible toward a professional level of craft and a polish that may ready them for a screenwriting career or advanced work at the graduate level.

General creative writing courses are intended for students who have a substantial interest in creative writing in any of its forms, including fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, and writing for young adults. Within these courses, students will produce a significant new work that may be taken up in later courses, or students may choose to work consistently within one form of writing. Though there are no formal tracks at this time, students are encouraged to consider the sequence of lower and upper division courses with the aim of gaining a broad understanding of the art and practice of their selected forms of writing.

At present, UCLA’s online creative writing program (available in both screenwriting and general creative writing) is designed for maximum schedule flexibility. Designed to bring students’ work into critical and meaningful conversations with each other, these courses ask for multiple kinds of writing and revision that help students improve their own work and learn to critically engage the work of others. This is accomplished through the sharing of a “common space” in our online platform, where students from around the world are encouraged to reflect on the wider audiences of their work and to incorporate group and individual feedback in their revisions. In two quarters, both new and experienced writers may progress from the fundamentals to the advanced courses, learning the principles of narrative, generating texts for electronic contexts and print publication, and exploring audience reception and the material realities of writing communities today.

4. Engaging with Instructors and Peers

Extensive interaction enhances the learning process. Instructors are available in virtual office hours and by email. When you submit assignments, you will receive a response specific to your work. Instructors will also offer an open critique of all work and offer suggestions for revision. Peers are an important part of the learning process. The main difference between an online class and an onsite class is that the online environment is open 24 hours a day. During the week and on the weekend, students are given assignments to complete for the following week. Each assignment is open for discussion among students for the duration of the course. This means that you will have an audience or readership that is actively engaged in your work and the discussion. Often, the instructor has the class work in small groups to address specific topics. The groups are private, and the discussion is not visible to the rest of the class. This is a simulated workshop environment, a setting where real writers get together and discuss the work at hand.

5. Taking Your Writing to the Next Level: Feedback and Critique

Feedback is central to all forms of writing, and receiving it is fundamental to the rewriting process. Lectures can provide you with knowledge of the genre and an objective, but it is only through feedback on your writing that you can really learn. The attitude to your work provided through written feedback or the nature of the feedback received in a tutorial will greatly affect the way you feel about your work and your subsequent ability to rewrite. Many students feel very vulnerable about their early writing and may be very defensive if they feel that their work is being criticized. As a result, they may resist the process of redrafting. It is important to develop a positive attitude towards criticism. The chances are that your first draft can be further developed and that you have learning still to do. Writer’s workshops can be useful in helping to develop such an attitude, and often one of the most powerful ways of learning the value of criticism is from providing feedback on other students’ work.