Starting to Write – A Free 10-Part Course (Lockdown Version)

Do you want to learn about writing?

You’re in the right place.

This is a free writing course for complete beginners, or those who have written a bit but want to go back to the start – because they know they need to get better.

Now is exactly the right time for you to give writing a go. Your usual excuses – mostly likely – no longer apply. You’re indoors. You have a bit more time than you normally do. Perhaps a lot more time. In this course, I will try and help you put that time to the best use.

In 10 Lessons, I will take you through the basics of writing short stories – just as if you were sitting among the other beginning writers in the Creative Writing workshop I run at Birkbeck College, London.

I’ve been teaching at Birkbeck over 10 years. Over that time, many of the Creative Writing MA students I’ve taught have gone on to get agents, to get published, and to win competitions.

All that’s great. But much more importantly each and every one of them, whatever their level to start with, has improved as a writer – and as a reader.

You won’t need to buy any books. Hopefully, you won’t even need to buy any stationery.  Lesson 1 will deal with Preparing to Write. (It will also involve a bit of writing.)

All the reading materials are available online. And, when possible, I link to videos as well as to stories.

There will be writing Exercises, and there will be some Reading. Each Lesson should take you around an hour to complete – but this may vary, depending on how fast a writer you are.

If you want to get the most out of the course, it’s best to go through it one lesson per day – and, even if you miss a couple of days, to pick up where you left off.

The Lessons are all online right now. There’s no need to sign up.

I look forward to helping you learn to write better stories.

Toby

Go straight to Lesson 1.