I, also, have taken a Writers Bureau course - in fact, I am in the middle of one at the moment. I have nothing but praise for it.

The tutors, at least the ones I have had, are all experienced published writers.

Yes, their courses can be fairly expensive but they usually come with a money-back guarantee, so if you don't cover your costs with sales by the end of the course you can get your money back.

Also, there is no time limit on them, so it doesn't matter if you have limited time to spend on it. I had months off at one point due to house moves etc.

They are also very flexible. My course is a comprehensive one covering all aspects of writing but it wasn't long before I realised that what I really wanted was tuition on novel writing. I was able to use the remaining modules to concentrate on that and choose the aspects of writing I wanted to concentrate on most.

They also have a good market newsletter and a monthly ezine.

Go for it.




<Added>

By the way, they do all kinds of courses, short and long, on all kinds of aspects of writing.

I did an OCA (Open College of the Arts) course in creative writing about twelve years ago. My only criticism was that one of the two textbooks was rather awful, but the other was absolutely fine. Everything else was excellent and the feedback from the tutors was genuinely helpful. What the OCA's like now, I can't say but I would certainly take a look at them. Deb's comment about working at your own pace is particularly important. I did an Open University course in another subject area and the relentlessly strict timetable was a total pain. I did all my professional exams with another establishment via distance learning in between difficult travelling commitments so I am a fan of the concept, but the OU approach I found virtually unworkable. How rigid they are with the CW courses I can't say.

Chris

We've been discussing Arvon courses on another thread. What I believe you need to bear in mind when looking at courses is that for any that are regularly occuring, which have overheads, advertising to pay for, etc, it is vital that they fill their student slots. Not that there's anything wrong with that in itself, but inevitably it will colour the kind of teaching that's provided. The watchword will be to continue at all costs, which means the teaching may well veer towards the safe side or that some courses are taken by tutors who may not be the best for the job but are at least available. To give you one example, a few years back just about all the writing tutors at the Open College of the Arts quit at the same time, mainly because of poor pay and crap conditions. Which meant the College was suddenly left with no-one to take the courses coming up. Did they stop advertising or taking on students? No. Which at least raises the question of how did they manage to teach them and to what level of quality.

Terry

Hi,

I, too, am in the middle of a Writer's Bureau course - well coming to the end of mine. And like a few other members here, I have found the course perfect for me. With two young children I have very little time during the day, this course allows me the flexibility to work in the evenings and at my own pace.

My tutor is wonderful and extremely helpful and I can't praise everybody at the WB's enough.

I'm about to start a 6 month online Creative Writing course run by Lancaster University. Check out their website (think it's www.lancs.ac.uk offhand) and look at Continuing Education. It starts on 12th April and costs £111 full price.

freebird