Anyone been? It's in late Oct and I'm thinking maybe I should, since I missed Winchester WC (wrong timing for me).

For that matter, did you go to Winchester? I'd love to hear about the one-on-ones!bb

I don't know which one you're doing but several years ago I went on a Pitstop w/e. It was a course of two halves to me very much proved that it depends on who's taking it. Unfortunately, it seems that most bodies that put on creative writing courses don't vet their tutors very well (and I'd include Arvon in that).

The first day was taken by a young freelance editor whose name I forget but she was brilliant (many of the people in that class had come back because she was taking it). She had a knack of getting people to access the kind of emotional content you need to write stories with bite. After that, she was very good with technical details. Which I'd say is pretty much the right order to teach writing in.

But the second day . . . Well, it was taken by a children's writer whose teaching style consisted of little more than telling us she was an Author and this is what an Author does. One 'excercise' was her handing out a couple of sheets from one of her manuscripts, with a few changes made in biro, so we could see what an Author's work in progress looked like.

So, I guess my advice would be find out who's taking it, then see what you can find out about their track record.

Terry

Thanks. That's good info. I'll try to find out.