Our Course Programme

This is your chance to try out Writing School Leicester.  Come along, bring a pen and a sheet of paper and join in this fun introductory session.

Suitable for all writers – including men!  What makes a story will be at the heart of this course.  You will discover through both group discussion and writing exercises how to turn the nugget of an idea into a proper plot.  Over the 8 weeks, you should be able to complete a short story and have the opportunity to receive feedback on this from both the tutor and fellow students.  Finally, you will learn how to edit and present a manuscript for the magazine market.

We will look at published novels and identify a range of genres.  Through group and individual work, you will discover how plot works in a novel, will create characters and begin to identify how to use character in fiction, and will start to write dialogue and recognise some of its uses in novel writing.  These sessions will include discussion, handouts, worksheets, short writing exercises and shared feedback.

This more advanced course will further develop your knowledge and skills, and you will be encouraged to start writing your own novel.  The course will offer a mix of structured learning and interactive workshop sessions.  These are designed to support you in building writing skills and in offering and receiving feedback on work-in-progress, rewriting and editing.  There will be advice on preparing for publication.

We will play with words and experiment with fresh, original language.  Using tiny exercises, you will start to develop a good, modern writing style.  This enjoyable lead-in to creative writing forms a useful foundation for further courses.

This course will build knowledge and skills to support successful freelancing for newspapers and magazines.  We will identify news values, readerships, house-styles and will look at tone and content of a wide range of daily and local papers and magazines.  You will learn how to research, structure and submit a news report, and how to plan, research and write an article with a target readership.  You will begin to develop interviewing skills.  You will learn how to offer work appropriately for publication and we will identify and target those areas of journalism that are responsive to new writers.  Sessions will include analysis of published journalism, discussion, practical and writing exercises, group work, pairs and individual work.  You will receive feedback and marketing advice on your own pieces.

Are you passionate about children’s books?  This useful first module is suitable for beginners or those who have already started writing but would like advice, support and encouragement.  There will be a brief outline of the history of children’s publishing and a resume of the state of the market today.  Then we will look at some key children’s books and ask ourselves why they are successful and what can we learn from them.  We will look at practicalities – how they are formatted, how many pages.  (You will be asked to read some books for homework and discuss them.)  There will be short written exercises in creating character, plot and vivid description.

This module will give students the chance to develop their own book, with more classroom exercises and lots of encouragement to read and write in the genre at home.  You will be able to ‘workshop’ your own texts for feedback in a supportive atmosphere.  There will be a session on how to prepare your manuscript for publication and approach publishers and agents.

Ideal for newcomers to writing poetry, this lively and playful module will give you the skills and confidence to start to take poetry into unfamiliar places.

Build on skills learned and take poetry into imaginative new directions in interactive group sessions..

Experiment by mixing a bit of craft with the art.  Present poetry on tapes, buildings, origami, mobiles and more.

Join John again to experiment in finding ever new and imaginative directions for poetry and ways of presenting it.  There will be an opportunity for the group to develop their own poetry performance/happening/exhibition and to showcase this.

Recognised worldwide as a pioneering ‘dub’ poet, Jean will share with group members her considerable skills in creating poetry especially for stage performance.  You will learn to invent this different genre of  poetry, note it down, and  strut your stuff confidently to an audience, moving them to laughter and to tears.  You will learn how to support your words with the drama skills needed for delivery in a theatrical setting.  The course will include an opportunity for performance.

This course is suitable for beginners or can be taken as a refresher.

We will create a story from scratch and through workshops explore characterisation, structure and storylines, as well as genre, themes, story plans and the synopsis.  We will take a brief look at stories for commercial markets.  You will create a 500 word interpretation of the class created storyline for a class read on week four.  As homework, you will be encouraged to write a storyline and synopsis in professional layout and hand this in for constructive criticism and comment by week 3.   

Most screenwriters and directors take their first step towards the production of a major film script and begin their careers with a film short.  On this course you can take a first step in scriptwriting.  We will plan and create a short film from idea to completion of a professionally laid-out script.  We will explore what is a Short and view shorts from the silent era through to current non-fiction and fiction narratives, as well as the so-called Art Short.  You will take part in group workshops creating a team script as well as doing homework to write your own screenplay.  There will be one-to-ones, group script-reading and written feedback on your personal script.  By week 6, you will be encouraged to hand in a 10 page script for constructive criticism and comments.

(No meeting on 19th Feb – halfterm)

Many authors and academics see the short story as the pinnacle of fiction writing.  We will explore in-depth this demanding and rewarding narrative form through class exercises, discussion, homework and workshops, analysing some of the past and present masters of the short story and your own work.  We will look at characterisation, structure, theme and genre and will explore commercial aspects, markets (home and abroad) as well as writing for competitions.

You will be asked to produce in the first half of the term an original short story of 1,000 words on which you will receive constructive criticism.  In the second half of the term, we will focus on a few competitions and markets for you to target with your own work.  This will be through group discussion, class readings of your work and homework.  We shall also look at editing and preparing work for submission.  There will be one-to-ones and by week 9 you will be encouraged to submit a completed story ready for submission to a market or as an entry in a competition for final comments and suggestions.

September - Easter