An Education: Reasons to Take a Writing Course

As writers, we are always learning our craft. Most of us will never “master” the art of writing, and I might guess that even those truly great authors, who we mere mortal writers consider masters, may argue that they were still learning and didn’t know everything. There is much to learn, both about the art and about the skill of writing. A lot of it we learn as we go, from editing our own work, from reading a wide variety of fiction, and from reading blogs such as this one. .

But, should we take a writing course? Many of you may have already taken a course – a learn-at-home course done at your own pace, a week-long writer’s retreat, or even a longer, University-based course. Other may be thinking about it, weighing up the pros and cons. I’d like to share with you here my experience during my time studying for my Masters in Creative Writing. I’ve summed up the experience into the main pros and cons, as I see it.

Con #1 – The money.

A course like the one I took costs money. A LOT of money, in fact, and at several times during the course I was unsure whether the money I was spending was really worth it. I took this course before we slid into a recession, but at this time now it is even harder not to look at things from a cost and reward viewpoint, we are always looking to get our money’s worth. Actual teaching time on this course seemed sparse, about four to six hours a week, so we really had to make the most of the time with our tutors.

One particular area of the course that I did not feel was value for money was the module dedicated to the publishing side of writing – something that me and my fellow students were really looking forward to. All of us, even from the start, had some measure of skill and confidence in our writing, but we all lacked awareness of the industry in which we wanted to break. Unfortunately, this module delivered little of this insight. Each week a different local professional, from publishers to writers to agents to theatre directors, would give us a talk on the industry. But mostly they seemed to focus on how hard it would be for us to get our work published, how little money we would actually make if we did. One writer spent the entire lecture telling us about all the extra things she did to promote her books, with seemingly very little success. Not particularly inspiring, or insightful.

One lecture did come close, where an agent outlined what would make a good submission and query letter, but helpful practicalities like this seemed very thin on the ground.

Con #2 –  Lack of long-term help.

I feel that the Masters course, despite being a year long, still did nothing to help my long-term writing career. This is another major con of a course like this, if you are looking for something like this as a “way in” to the publishing industry, I don’t think that it is it. Even if the course that you take offers better advice on the practicalities of the publishing industry, it is a far cry from actually applying them in the real world. Maybe I went into the module, and my friends also, with the wrong expectations. A better way to learn about the practicalities of the publishing industry, if that is all that you are looking to do, may be to delve into the advice found on the Internet. Yes, you won’t get the face-to-face benefit of talking to an agent, but maybe this is not necessary. After all, you can learn all you can about writing queries, but that’s no use if you haven’t written something that’s good enough to publish!

Despite these cons, and I believe they are pretty major reasons not to take a course like this, they are definitely outweighed by the pros. To see them, you just have to focus not on the future, but take a while to focus on the immediate benefits you experience on a writing course.

Pro #1 – Honing your Skills.

Stephen King argued that while it is impossible to make a great writer out of a good one, or a competent writer out of a bad one, it IS possible, with help, to make a good writer out of a merely competent one. On the Masters we definitely got the help and advice for this to happen. We all got the opportunity to really hone the skills that we already had. Learning them from scratch on a course like this may be a lot harder, but we all went into the course already with some writing skill, and I don’t think anyone would take a writing course if they didn’t already have some skill in writing.

Perhaps the dullest parts of the course, for me certainly, were spent learning about some of the mechanics of writing. However, these are all important, even if you do not think about them all the time while you are writing (in fact, it’s probably a good idea if you don’t, for fear of restricting and second-guessing yourself) it is important to be aware of how the words you put down and the way you construct them affect the meaning and the story that you convey to the reader, and can make a big difference in your writing.

Another skill that we all honed was becoming aware of and developing our individual styles. One such exercise in style that I can remember, and one of my favourite memories of the course, was when we had to count the number of adjectives that we had in a (short) passage of our writing. I had seven, one of the lowest in the class. Most people had a few more than that. My best mate had 22!

Pro #2 – The company you keep.

One of the best things about taking a writing course (unless it is a home-study one) is the wonderful people that you are likely to meet. On the Masters I was brought together with lots of like-minded people, people who wrote but wouldn’t yet call themselves writers. There were many people my age, and also a lot of older people, which was a great mix of enthusiasm and experience. There were some amazing characters too — the American pastor who had a story for every occasion and would tell it no matter who was or wasn’t listening, a lady who seemed to accidentally make everything that she wrote erotic and filled with double meanings, and a Lord (not a real one…) with whom I have shared many a milkshake, and many a game of Wii Mario Kart. 

And these were just the students! The teachers were amazing too, for the most part, and were all so different in their backgrounds and writing styles that we were exposed to a range of influences and teaching styles. The teachers included Jackie Kay, a writer who almost became the first female Poet Laureate, a Malawian writer who was imprisoned for almost 4 years by the Dictator Hastings Banda for his poetry, and the wonderful David Almond, author of Skellig. He, in particular was utterly inspiring, sharing with us not only practical skills, but also ways of thinking about our work, and the magic that is at the heart of writing. On any writing course I am sure that you will be exposed to a similar variety of tutors, many of whom may be rather famous and successful themselves. Even the ones who aren’t will have a wealth of knowledge, both practical and inspirational, to pass on.

Pro #3 – Having FUN!

Writing is supposed to be fun, right? Far often we take it too seriously, sitting for long hours at our desks, writing away, editing, getting frustrated. On the course we would meet up frequently outside of class, sometimes with our current work that we would share with each other, critique etc. We bad-mouthed a particularly obnoxious tutor, joked with some of the girls that they fancied him. Me and my best mate got told off once, like little schoolkids, for laughing and joking on in class. We had parties, drank cocktails. The great thing was that even spending time not writing with these new friends was rewarding and beneficial. What we ultimately all had in common was writing, the creative spirit, and a commitment to furthering our knowledge. Being like-minded individuals, we all helped each other to grow, not just as writers but as people as well.

In the end, it boiled down to one thing. It was the people I met that made it worth taking the course, and the same will be true for you.

Have any of you taken a writing course? Did you think it was worth it? Please share your comments below, and please ask any questions you might have about my experience studying the craft.