![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
First impressions
Feb. 12th, 2009 12:16 pm I finally got to go to my Authorship and Creative Writing "module" as they call it here in England. I was apprehensive to sign up for any kind of creative writing course at a college level because my experience with all creative writing courses has been underwhelming, and courses portrayed in films and literature have always looked pretentious and soul crushing.
This course is not like that. It is geared toward the business end of writing, because it is a module in a Publishing degree program. We aren't being taught to "write what sells," but we are being taught to write for a specific audience in mind, which I can get behind for the most part. The course is divided into seminars on the relationship between publisher and author, researching publishers, writing synopses and cover letters, etc. and workshops, in which the class is divided in two and the students work with a creative writing tutor. I'm hesitant about this only because I have been writing for some time now- I have a very naturalistic approach to my process of composition- and I don't want some other writer to come in and tell me to do it her way. I'll try, as an experiment, but it will irk me.
Here's the best part. We only have two assignments: 1) To write the synopsis, first chapter, and cover letter of an original historical fiction novel; 2) To write up a market analysis for our proposed novel. The real question is, should I actually come up with something new or just use something I already have? What if I use something I came up with last week? Decisions, decisions.
This seems like not very much work at all for someone who writes novels in her spare time ;p I'm excited to learn about the market analysis stuff though because I know it's good to mention your target audience in cover letters. Anyway, I have positive expectations for the course, if not high hopes.
I wonder what my Design for Online Communication class is going to be like- hopefully I'll be learning something of value. ;p
This course is not like that. It is geared toward the business end of writing, because it is a module in a Publishing degree program. We aren't being taught to "write what sells," but we are being taught to write for a specific audience in mind, which I can get behind for the most part. The course is divided into seminars on the relationship between publisher and author, researching publishers, writing synopses and cover letters, etc. and workshops, in which the class is divided in two and the students work with a creative writing tutor. I'm hesitant about this only because I have been writing for some time now- I have a very naturalistic approach to my process of composition- and I don't want some other writer to come in and tell me to do it her way. I'll try, as an experiment, but it will irk me.
Here's the best part. We only have two assignments: 1) To write the synopsis, first chapter, and cover letter of an original historical fiction novel; 2) To write up a market analysis for our proposed novel. The real question is, should I actually come up with something new or just use something I already have? What if I use something I came up with last week? Decisions, decisions.
This seems like not very much work at all for someone who writes novels in her spare time ;p I'm excited to learn about the market analysis stuff though because I know it's good to mention your target audience in cover letters. Anyway, I have positive expectations for the course, if not high hopes.
I wonder what my Design for Online Communication class is going to be like- hopefully I'll be learning something of value. ;p
