Creative Writing Course - download

This non-interactive version of the course gives you instant access to all ten lessons.

For just £9.95 (approx €10.30/$13.70) you can download the Writing Forge course of ten comprehensive modules with over forty written exercises to help hone your writing skills.

For more information click here to see the lesson outlines.

To download simply click the payment button below. After payment has completed you will be given a link to download the full course of ten Writing Forge lessons.

Early Autumn Offer - until 30 September 2012

Get feedback on over forty exercises from your personal writing tutor and sign up for the full premier interactive writing course here.

For just £195 get instant access to

  • the Writing Forge on-line writing course of ten comprehensive modules
  • detailed feedback on over forty exercises from your personal tutor
  • professional advice on your own work
  • access to members-only area
  • on-line publishing on the Writing Forge site

Both the downloadable and online courses include...

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Module 1. Getting started
Objective: To introduce the basics of creative writing

  1. Finding ideas
  2. Tools of the Trade
  3. Getting fresh – the power of description
  4. Active reading
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Module 2. Finding Believable Characters
Objective: Understand the importance of strong characterisation

  1. Get a life - the importance of character
  2. The man in the bobble hat - markers
  3. Psychological consistency
  4. Transformation
  5. Voice
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Module 3. Point of View
Objective: Learn how to choose a viewpoint for your story

  1. Look who's talking
  2. It's my story - writing in the first person
  3. Omniscience for beginners - using the third person
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Module 4. What happens next – Plot and counter-plot
Objective: Understand how to construct and use plots

  1. Deriving plot from character
  2. Genre fiction – constraints and opportunities
  3. Thinking ahead – how to avoid the deus ex machina
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Module 5. “And then she said…”
Objective: Learn how to write captivating dialogue

  1. An invented language
  2. Angled reponses
  3. He said, she said - speech attribution
  4. Speech markers
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Module 6. The Structure of Fiction
Objective: Understand how to use description, narrative summary and immediate scenes

  1. 21st century fiction
  2. The power of descriptions
  3. Leave the past behind - narrative summary
  4. Immediate scenes
  5. Show, don't tell
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Module 7. Where’s the cheese – Tension and Desire
Objective: Learn how to keep the reader's attention

  1. Shaping the story
  2. Don't go there - confounding the reader
  3. Escalations
  4. Managing Time
  5. Flowcharting the Muse
  6. Transactions
  7. Where's the cheese - introducing tension
  8. Narrative hooks
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Module 8. Stepping Back
Objective: Become an objective reviewer and know how to revise your work

  1. Stepping back
  2. Reading yourself
  3. Survival of the fittest - clichés and modifiers
  4. Less is more - losing weak scenes
  5. Silencing the author
  6. Writing groups
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Module 9. Bringing it all back home
Objective: Review previous modules and complete a short story

  1. Characterisation Part 2
  2. Another point-of view
  3. Another Voice
  4. Ideas
  5. Plot Part 2
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Module 10. Professional writing and writing for publication Objective: To examine outlets for fiction and the role of agents and publishers

  1. The market for fiction
  2. The fiction industry – agents and publishers
  3. Submitting your work
  4. Style & format

  • I have no hesitation in recommending The Writing Forge Courses... more 

    It rewarded the effort I put into each exercise and did not shy away from clearly pointing out areas for improvement. more 

    ... probably the best investment you could make in your writing. more 

  • The Writing Forge was founded by CJ Emerson, author of 'Objects of Desire'

    (Shortlisted for the 2007 Crime Writers' Association 'New Blood Dagger' Award):
    "I started creative writing after spending years working in offices, staring at computer screens, frustrated at my own lack of motivation to fulfil a promise I'd made to myself at school - that one day I'd be ... more 
  • Objects of Desire
    'Beautifully written ... with a plot like a nest of seething vipers' Andrew Taylor, author of The American Boy
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