Pretension

BEAT

This thread is for those who have questions.

If you need some information of sort or just have a general question, post it here and we will try to help you out.

All new Posts should contain Creative writing.

Mr.Nice Guy

Hi I was just wondering if anyone knew of any evening writing classes that are available in Dublin.As I'm in college I'd be looking for one or two classes a week.Also are there classes available for summer when my college year would be finished?Help would be much appreciated.

My question is very much like the above one. I would be incredibly interested in doing a course that, for want of a better word would be "useful" in my life.
Brief Bio: Left school at the age of 15 after completing Junior cert. Worked and travelled ever since. I have had a fantastic reaction to my writing and now I'm going to try and bring myself up a level to doing it professionally. As a journalist perhaps, as I know publishers never throw publishing deals in the laps of unproven writers. Can anybody help me? Suggest a course of action which might assist me?

Thanking you all in advance,
Barry

Shad0r

Mr. Nice Guy:- Why do you want/feel the need to do a writing course? For what purpose basically is what I'm trying to determine.

Papa Smut:-

If you just have J.C. level qualifications its going to be harder for you. Especially if you want to do journalism. That said by no means impossible. And incidentally I don’t believe that its impossible for a 'unknown writer' to get a book deal.

In the case of Journalism you will need to first find out what the minimum entry requirements are for Journalism courses. (Check out Daycourses.com for a list of the institutions that do Journalism courses) Leaving Cert English will be an absolute minimum I'm sure, so you will have to sit at least that exam at LC level and probably need to get quite good marks in it. Most higher education however requires more than just one subject in the LC.

Your age might be a factor. If you are over 23 you are considered a mature student, which may mean different entry requirements. You will have to get in touch with the college in question and ask them.

The problem with Journalism is that there are quite a few courses out there in the subject but only four or five that offer NUJ (National Union of Journalists) certification/membership or whatever they call it. Afaik you absolutely will not get a job at a broadsheet in this country without this. That said you wont anyway so perhaps that doesn’t matter. (Incidentally there are NO night courses in journalism that offer NUJ membership)

You'd need to check this out but afair the places that offer courses with NUJ certification are:
DIT (But you have to do it with most probably French, possibly German: dependant on demand)
Griffith College, offer a bunch of options
DCU
UCD
and possibly there is a courses in Tallaght and Ballyfermot.

http://www.daycourses.com/careers/read_all_about_it.html <- There’s an article about becoming/being a journalist. www.nightcourses.com have a different article along the same lines possibly worth checking out.

Journalism is a really tough industry from what I've read and unless you have a passion particularly about the news AND writing, then it’s probably not going to turn out the way you might think.

If your passion is more along the lines of my own (i.e. fiction) or poetry, then devoting the next six odd years of your life to how to go about writing the news may not be the best way to go. Certainly do LC English (this is a must really) and possibly a creative writing course (*cringe*), but ultimately it will be doing what you enjoy that will get you to the finish line.

If you like poetry, read poetry books and write as much of the stuff as you can. If prose is more your cup of tea, read as many books as you can and write as many short stories as you can, until your comfortable with things like story development and your description and character development. Then write a book. (First book you should buy if its prose, imo of course, is Stephen Kings - On Writing. Read it cover to cover twice. Seriously, its the novelists bible imo.)

Also I cant recommend getting involved with a writers group enough, whatever your writing persuasion. My writing came on leaps and bounds when I did. I'm gona be starting a dublin based one soon enough, probably sometime after or around Christmas.

Whatever you choose, best of luck.

Walls

Hi, I came across this list of Creative Writing workshops and thought you might find it of use;

National Writing Workshops

BEAT

thanks for the input Shador and Walls, hope it helped you posters!

wayfarer

I was wondering do any people on this board have any views on pretension.

What do you think makes pretentious writing?

and what do you think are the characteristics of a pretentious person?

Maximilian

what do you think are the characteristics of a pretentious person?

1. Eats Apples.
2. Is French.
3. Keeps Cartier Donkeys.
4. Only coverses in Esperanto.
5. Owns gold hovercraft.


Hope that helps.