The London School of Journalism

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Creative Writing

 

A course that covers the main techniques of writing utilising a blend of workshops, class discussion and teaching. Designed for both novice and intermediate writers of fiction, the techniques and practices discussed will be common to both short story and novel writing.

Tutor:  Ruby Radburn - author

Day 1: The blank page / Characters / Dialogue

Getting started: ideas and inspiration. Forming good habits. Techniques for creating convincing characters. Relationships between characters.
The functions of dialogue. Questions of realism.

Day 2: Voice and Viewpoint / Plot and structure / The external world

Voice: a presence on the page. Exploring tense and narrative viewpoint. Tension, conflict and suspense.
Organising events in time. Setting and location. Placing your characters in physical space.

Day 3: Editing and Revising / Writing as an ongoing pursuit Revision techniques - finding weak points.
Cutting down vs. building up. Developing writing networks and support. Competitions, resources, agents, publishers. On Day 3, students will be encouraged to share work-in-progress with others, in small groups or in pairs, and will also have the opportunity for a brief one-to-one tutorial.
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