Where is the best writing course in London?

July 14, 2009 8:12 AM

Do you know of any excellent writing courses in London?

I want to start developing the writing I've been doing for the last year, particularly a play I'm developing. I've been granted a scholarship to take an ARVON course, but it's only a week long, and I'd like something more substantial (without going back to a damn university) before going on to the Royal Court young writer's group in December.

My research has turned up a few tasty-looking courses at various colleges in London; London College of Journalism, CityLit, Brunel, Central St Martins, among others. Do any of you have experience or recommendations of places which are of particularly high quality? Suggestions for writers groups or workshops are also welcome.

I already have a portfolio of work I can show; I'm not a complete beginner, just very self-taught and looking for guidance as I get further into my play.

Any help would be hugely appreciated,

Michael H

posted by King_Wang to education (3 comments total)

I've not done a writing course there but I'd recomend CityLit as the courses I have done have been high quality with a good group of people. I have looked at their writing courses before and they seemed like they had a big range to offer in terms of content, duration etc, plus I think their courses are great value for money - much cheaper than the likes of Central St Martins
posted by smudge at 12:54 PM on July 14

And, I've just remembered - the bookshop where I go to a bookgroup also has writing groups that might be interesting - link below.
http://www.nquentinwoolf.com/workshops.html
posted by smudge at 12:56 PM on July 14

Firstly, congratulations on getting onto the RCYWP! It has a great reputation and will open a lot of doors for you.

Rather than getting onto a generic creative writing course, I'd strongly recommend something specifically aimed at writing for live performance. (The generic ones tend to skew heavily towards novels and screenplays, so the playwrights either don't get much out of them or pick up bad habits.)

If you're resident in London, your Regional Writer Development Agency is the Soho. Get on their mailing list pronto so that you'll be kept in the loop about upcoming training opportunities.

You should also be checking regularly on the BBC Writers Room and the Lit Training site.

Sign up for the mailing lists or RSS feeds of all the other RWDAs. They all publicise national offers as well as local ones. (It's a pain to slog through, because there's a lot of crossover in the content, but you can pick up info that you might otherwise have missed this way.)

Lots of new writing theatres publish newsletters for playwrights. The Hampstead, The Everyman and Contact are particularly good at this.

Subscribe to the Twitter feeds of RWDAs and theatre literary managers.

Finally make sure you are taking full advantage of your ANLO eligibility to access new writing, particularly on nights where there will be post-show discussions with the playwright.

And keep an eye on BushGreen.org. It hasn't launched yet, but when it does, it's going to make a hell of a splash...
posted by the latin mouse at 1:52 PM on July 14