Any good beginners crative writing courses in Dublin?

tunguska

Hi
After years of threatening to do a creative writing course Ive decided to finally pluck up the courage and er, do one. Anybody know of any fairly decent courses(part-time in the evening)? I did a search on the google machine and there seems to be a fair few but I dont know the dodgy ones from the good ones so any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

EileenG

It's a bad time of year, almost everything is ending for summer. But I've just finished an excellent creative writing course in UCD given by Patrica O'Reilly. She's doing anther one in September, which is "The Nuts and Bolts of Creative writing" or something like that.

I'm also doing another one in Swords, at the BASE centre, which is based on the Amhurst method. Very good for getting going, and getting over the fear of putting words on paper, but the standard is a lot lower than the UCD one.

Antilles

This question seems to come up every few weeks - can we get one of the threads stickied so people can find a list of courses (in Dublin and elsewhere)? Might help

idlebones

I'm looking at that course at the moment Eileen. Can you tell me any more about it? Is it geared towards novice writers/experienced etc?

Thanks,

Owen

EileenG

This one is geared more towards beginners. Patrica O'Reilly, who teaches it, said that she had a couple of courses with some very experienced writers on them, and they tended to intimidate the newcomers, who sometimes dropped out, even though they needed the course more than the experienced writers. So this one is aimed at the people without a lot of experience, but who are prepared to put in the work.

She's a good teacher.

idlebones

By experienced, do you mean published, or people who like to write as a hobby? I'd place myself in the second group as someone who has written for a hobby for years but never, while made any of my writings open to family members, but never been published as such.

EileenG

Not necessarily published, but someone who is working on a project (novel or play etc) that they expect to get published sooner or later. Someone who had a good idea of what they are doing and where they are going, but might need a bit of a push to get there.

I think this particular course is more aimed at the person who is fairly certain they can write, but is not sure how to go about writing something that can be published.

Wuggectumondo

This part-time Beginner's Writing Course looks excellent! You don't need to have prior experience.

www.bigsmokewritingfactory.com

(I'm going to join one or two of their courses!)

ally2

Try www.someblindalleys.com for courses. They do a variety of them - starting mid-sept. I did a few of these and the tutor is very good. makes you work hard but worth the sweat!

54321Dave

A course might be fun, but I don't see the need to pay for something like this with the internet around. Why not just start writing and then post your work here for others to critique? I think you'll get alot more honest feedback here and it's free.

betty888

I also have decided to do a writing course but would like to do an online one. Can anyone tell me which of these would be better:
CMIT or
Kilroys colleges

Loriharton

Hi all,

could someone who might have done one of these courses or knows someone who did tell me which they think might be better for a beginners creative writing course?

The Big Smoke Factory course:

http://www.bigsmokewritingfactory.com/Beginners.php

or the beginners course in the Irish Writer's centre:

http://www.writerscentre.ie/html/courses/begjean.htm

I thought the IWC one might be good, purely because of the name, but the tutor is a poet and i'm really not in to writing poetry so I don't know if this would affect it?

Any info would be greatly appreciated!

ciara121

Loriharton wrote: »

Hi all,

could someone who might have done one of these courses or knows someone who did tell me which they think might be better for a beginners creative writing course?

The Big Smoke Factory course:

http://www.bigsmokewritingfactory.com/Beginners.php

or the beginners course in the Irish Writer's centre:

http://www.writerscentre.ie/html/courses/begjean.htm

I thought the IWC one might be good, purely because of the name, but the tutor is a poet and i'm really not in to writing poetry so I don't know if this would affect it?

Any info would be greatly appreciated!

hi,

i haven't actually done either of those two courses but i have done a course in both the iwc and big smoke. I picked a course based on the name the IWC has but I think i preffered my course at the big smoke. I honestly hadnt really heard much about the big smoke but I came across them on writing.ie( don't know if you have used this website before but i like it! Good writing tips an all that:) ) i enjoyed my course at the big smoke anyway, there was a nice feel about the day! No preassure just enjoyable.

I hope this helps in some way!!!

Loriharton

ciara121 wrote: »

hi,

i haven't actually done either of those two courses but i have done a course in both the iwc and big smoke. I picked a course based on the name the IWC has but I think i preffered my course at the big smoke. I honestly hadnt really heard much about the big smoke but I came across them on writing.ie( don't know if you have used this website before but i like it! Good writing tips an all that:) ) i enjoyed my course at the big smoke anyway, there was a nice feel about the day! No preassure just enjoyable.

I hope this helps in some way!!!

Hi Ciara,

Thanks for the advice! I was actually thinking that the Big Smoke Factory looked like it might be more relaxed and enjoyable but I thought I might get more out of the IWC course but sounds like it might be the other way around! Thanks very much Ciara for that, and for the writers.ie link! x

rcamp

tunguska wrote: »

Hi
After years of threatening to do a creative writing course Ive decided to finally pluck up the courage and er, do one. Anybody know of any fairly decent courses(part-time in the evening)? I did a search on the google machine and there seems to be a fair few but I dont know the dodgy ones from the good ones so any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Hi
I have been tutoring creative writing courses in Cabinteely community school. The next one starts on wed 20th April and runs for 5 evenings. The school are taking enrollments at the moment . Its only 55 Euros. Judging by the good attendance and my previous students comments on it they seem to have been very happy with it. I am a published writer and I have a BA in English literature from UCD with years experience of teaching adults. If you cant do this course I will be running another next sept. my no is 085 1395 320 if you wish to discuss it further
Ross

thecookingapple

gumtree have loads advertised, do not know how good they are.

clm

I've done quite a few creative writing courses, some at writing festivals, in UCD and at the Irish Writers' Centre. The majority of the courses have been great but I think a lot of it does depend on the tutor. Most places take feedback from previous students so if in doubt there is no harm in asking the venue what the general feedback was - you obviously have to hope that they will be honest. A lot of poets/novelists/short story writers can teach the general creative writing courses that cover multiple genres, the main thing is to get a writer that you are comfortable with. If you are worried a course will focus more heavily on poetry or prose just ring up and ask or send an email! Before I did a course at the Irish Writers' Centre I went in and talked to a staff member - they gave me tea and biscuits in their library room (always a plus) and went over the courses. They were able to give me a bit of the general feedback and steer me towards a course that suited - I've now done a few there (I just have to write a best seller now!)

The important things to watch out for are class sizes - if you are doing a beginners creative writing course try and get a class with more than 6 or 7 people and less than 15 - if the group is too small you can feel pressured and a bit too much focus on your writing, if there is more than 15 it loses the cosiness of the group, you can feel you're invisible and your voice isn't heard - it has more of a lecture feel.

If you get to a more advance stage where you are getting feedback on work try and go smaller still with a very max class size of 12. As long we there are more than 5 people in the group you can get opinions from people other than the tutor - writing is subjective, so you can't take one persons opinion as being the golden rule, you need to get a few different opinions. It is lovely to have a nice peer group, which hopefully after the course ends you can form a writing group with!

The tutor is very important, if you've met him/her all the better but very rarely possible. Ring up the venue ask if they know his/her teaching style (are there in class excercises or homework, is the focus more on the writing or the critique end of things, do they cover writing styles/rules/forms, is there a lot of reading material or handouts), if they don't know ask if they could forward an email on to the writer for you and don't be shy to ask everything you need to know! A writer can be a great teacher but the style might not actually suit you, if you just want to get writing and aren't ready for feedback avoid tutors that focus on critique, if you want to tighten up your work go for one that gives you feedback. I personally liked ones that involves taught elements, excercises and critique, but that's my personal preference. Don't be blinded by the fame of the author, it is important that they are published and they know what they are talking about but just because someone is good at doing something doesn't necessarily mean they can teach it to other people. Some of the less well knows writers are fantastic teachers, and some of the more famous ones are awful - so don't pay ridiculous money to do a class with a big name unless you've heard from someone that it is really worth it!

I have a few recommendations from classes I've taken, I know some of these don't do many classes but my favourite writing teachers are: Paula Meehan, Peter Sirr, Pat Boran, Nuala Ni Chonchuir, Colm Toibin, Molly McCloskey, John Breen and Paul Durcan.

Sort of hoping I can wrangle the funds to do the short story course with Nuala Ní Chonchúir course at the Writers Centre!
http://www.writerscentre.ie/html/courses/weekendindex.html