School for Writers

Useful Links

admin — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 19:56:25 +0000

Borders Counselling – Online counselling, coaching and mentoring.

Childcare Training – Childcare training directory, with free ebook on child psychology and online training course.

Counselling UK – Online directory of counselors and psychologists throughout the UK.

Counselors Online – Online counseling and therapy with expert therapists.

Couple Therapy Online – Advice for couples and families from expert therapists.

Edinburgh Garden School – Online gardening and horticulture courses from the gardening spacialists.

Employee Counselling –
Online Workplace Counselling.

Learning Curve – One of the Uk’s leading distance learning providers.

Horticulture Courses – Directory of horticulture and gardening courses.

Learning Curve – Online courses from Learning Curve, one of the UK’s leading distance learning providers.

Borders Online Counselling – Online counselling and therapy with expert counsellors.

School for Writers – a leading provider of online writingcourses.

Borders Relationships – online relationship therapy and sex therapy.

Virtual Ocean – Release messages and emotions into the digital ocean.

Borders Business Mentors – Online business advice, articles and mentoring.

Explore Gardening – Online directory of gardeners and garden designers, as well as gardening articles and courses.

What is Therapy – Information and advice about different types of therapy.

Your Course Finder – Online directory of courses, including online, distance learning, part-time and full-time courses.

Develop Key Writing Skills

admin — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 18:26:40 +0000

Begin studying within two hours with our online writing courses. Work with an expert tutor to develop your writing skills and learn how to market your work effectively.

Our one-to-one tutor support means that you have instant access to your own personal tutor – contact him or her at any time and receive a reply within 12 hours.

Subjects covered:

Writing for the Web

Planning and Writing Your Novel

Writing for Business

Freelance Journalism

Writing and Selling Your Autobiography

Creating Convincing Fictional Characters

admin — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:15:04 +0000

Characters as real people

You want to know about people. You want to know what makes them tick. You’ve spent most of your life listening to the way people talk, watching how they behave. They intrigue you, they madden you, they fascinate you.

Somebody Else’s Shoes, Paul Magrs.

Characters are a key aspect of any piece of fiction. They are often the reason a reader picks up a story – as well as what a story is about, we want to know who it is about.

We each have our own, unique perspective on the world and this is as true for your characters as it is for real people. In addition, we each relate to other people in our own, quite unique, way.

Select one of the main characters from a story you are working on at the moment. How do other people see your chosen character? What do they see as his/her strengths and limitations?

For example, do they see him/her as warm, friendly and approachable or does he/she often come across as critical, cross or distant? To what extent is your character aware of how others see him/her?

Often, just as in real-life, your characters will be oblivious to the way other people see them. This is because there are often parts of ourselves that we are unaware of. We may not realise just what messages we are giving out to people through our body language, facial expression, tone of voice or attitude.

Where it all began

The way your characters choose to present themselves to other people gives some important clues about how they see their inner world.

Each one of us consciously has to create an understanding of the life in which we find ourselves. This process has been compared to making a map or a model which we can use as an aid to making decisions about what we should do to survive. This representation determines to a large degree how we perceive the choices available to us as we go through life.

No two people have exactly the same map. Even people born into the same family often have quite different perceptions of their shared childhood. Your characters will have their own, unique perception of their life and experiences. The next exercise aims to demonstrate this.

Stand by an open window and look at the view. If you don’t have a window handy, imagine that you are looking at a beautiful landscape through an open window. Now close the window and notice the differences. The change might be significant, for instance the window might be dirty, or the glass distorted, or it might be subtle, perhaps with a small mark on the glass or part of the view cut off by the frame.

Collect different types of spectacles and sunglasses and experiment with each of them, noticing how they change the view you have. Write down some of the differences you have noticed. You might think of each of your characters as having their own, unique ‘lens’ through which they look at life.

Just as our sight is affected by different filters, our perceptions are affected by mental filters such as:

individual genetic inheritance
the time and place of our birth, the family into which we were born and the way we are brought up
our unique personality, the collection of likes, dislikes, moral values, habits and so on which go to make up our individual response.

For instance, two brothers growing up in the same family might develop very different perceptions of their world. One might say ‘My parents were caring but I knew that they really preferred my brother. They tried to be fair, but they definitely liked him better.’ The other might say, ‘I was unhappy as a child. My parents didn’t love me as much as they loved my brother and they never hid the fact.’ The parents’ point of view is that they were trying their hardest not to show either child any favoured treatment! Each of the brothers has created his own model of the world they shared.

The influential nature of these models can be seen in the way your characters manage crisis points in their lives. Some have little difficulty, experiencing them as times of challenge, while others, faced with the same situations, experience fear, anxiety and pain. One way of explaining such different responses to similar situations is that everyone is making choices out of their own particular model. It is not so much that people are making bad choices; rather their model does not offer enough options.

It follows from all this that the way we each see ourselves is crucial to the way we respond to life experiences and stress. As an author, if you wish to bring a character’s perspective to life effectively you need to be able to share his or her ‘model’ or perception of the world – to have empathy with him or her – even if you do not necessarily agree with them.

Beginning to Write

admin — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:10:52 +0000

One of the most important things you can do is simply to begin writing. Set aside time every day or every couple of days when you can write. Don’t feel that you have to produce something specific – an end-product, such as a novel chapter or short story – or set restrictions on your writing. You will reach a point where you do want to work towards an end-product, but for now give yourself the freedom simply to explore. Write whatever comes into your head.

Biting my truant pen, beating myself for spite: ‘Fool!’ said my Muse to me, ‘look in thy heart and write.’

Astrophel and Stella, Sir Philip Sidney

Take some time now to think realistically about how writing will fit into your weekly routine. Is there some time available already, or will you need to shuffle other commitments around? Perhaps you will need to get up an hour or so earlier in the morning? It might only be an hour, or even less. What is important is that you have a regular time at which to sit down at your desk.

Three hours a day will produce as much as a man ought to write.

Autobiography, Anthony Trollope.

Treat this time as equally important to other commitments you might have. Many new authors start out with good intentions but then other things get in the way. They decide to go for a coffee with a friend, or watch a television programme instead, and before they know it, they haven’t written in weeks.

Of course, your writing should be enjoyable and this is not about making it just another chore – rather, it is about recognising its importance in your life. You have already made a personal commitment to explore and improve your current writing skills by enrolling on this course; setting aside regular ‘writing time’ is the next vital step. As with any skill, writing needs to be practised if it is to develop.

People around you – your partner, children, house-mates, parents, and friends – also need to know that your writing time is important. Make it clear that unless there is a dire emergency you do not want to be disturbed. Many of us are very bad at asking for the things we need – instead we spend our time looking after everyone else. If this is true of you it might seem almost impossibly difficult to tell your family that during your writing time you are unavailable. It may be even more difficult to say it and actually mean it! Your family may not believe you at first either, so it is important to be persistent.

Remember that nobody else needs to see your writing unless you decide to share it – this can give you the freedom to write more openly than you might otherwise.

Sometimes the opinions of friends and family can be of great assistance, at other times they are unhelpful, either because they don’t want to hurt your feelings or because they are over-critical. You probably already have a fairly clear idea of whose opinions you value, and who, if anyone, you wish to share your work with.

Forget Yourself

Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music – the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls, and interesting people. Forget yourself.

Henry James

When you forget yourself – when you let go of any ideas you might have about writing well, being judged by the reader, impressing the publisher, or reaching the best-seller lists – then you are free to settle into simply being a writer. When you become merely a vehicle, a storyteller, and not the focus of the writing process, you will be able to write much more easily and confidently.

Writing for Children

admin — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:59:50 +0000

Understanding the young reader

What does it feel like to be a child? Lie down on the floor. Imagine what it would be like if you were dependent on another person in order to move around (just as a small baby is). How do you feel? What kind of control do you have over where you are and what you can see?

Now kneel up. How much more of the room can you see? You might find that your eye line is now about tabletop height. In what ways does the world look different from this perspective?

Finally stand up and walk around the room. Have your feelings changed?

Is there a difference in the kind of control you have over what you can see and where you are?

Some of the best children’s writers seem always to have retained the ability to reach the child within. Michael Woods, a psychologist who analysed Enid Blyton through her books, wrote:

She was a child, she thought like a child and she wrote as a child….

While Paul Hodder-Williams, a publishing executive who had worked with Enid, noted:

She really loved children and understood instinctively what would interest them. It was with children that her gift of sympathy had its greatest flowering… That is why they have loved and will continue to love the best of the books which she wrote for them and them alone…

Writing effectively for children means not only writing about what a child is doing and thinking, but also seeing the world through the child’s eyes. There is an important difference here. In the first case, you are writing about the child’s world through adult eyes. This sometimes works but often it is too sentimental and appears unrealistic to the child reader. In the second case you are actually sharing the child’s world view and allowing the reader to share it too.

Spend time with children, really listening to what they have to say. Try to remember how you felt and thought as a child. Reading old diaries, stories and school work can be a good trigger here, if you still have them.

You might find the following questions useful as a starting point:

What was my favourite book when I was a child?
What was the scariest thing that happened to me as a child?
What was my greatest happiness as a child? Why?
What was my greatest fear? Why?
Where did my monsters live? In the dark? Under the bed? In the cupboard?
What were my monsters like?
What made me feel most secure as a child?
What was my best school experience? What was my worst?
Who was my best friend when I was growing up? Why did we get on so well?
What were my ambitions/hopes/dreams as a child/teenager?

You will also find it useful to begin studying the work of other children’s authors. Are they writing from an adult world view or that of a child? How do they speak to the child reader?

children as readers

Children are rewarding readers. They have an amazing ability to lose themselves in an imaginary world and will happily go along with the most extraordinary ideas in the books they read. They are also much less cynical and judgmental than older readers.

Louise Reed, Literacy Teacher.

It is difficult to imagine a book for adult readers featuring a peach so large you can sit in it, or a child-sized dancing centipede, as in Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach. For children the world is still a mysterious and wonderful place, where anything is possible. As children’s writers, we are at our most successful when we recapture that sense of wonder and possibility.

At the same time, children appreciate fiction that reflects the reality of their lives. Even in the most astounding of stories, young readers will find much that they can identify with on a personal level:

… Everything is so deadly quiet, and the shadows are so long and black, and they keep turning into strange shapes that seem to move as you look at them, and the slightest snap of a twig makes you jump.

James felt exactly like that now. He stared straight ahead with large frightened eyes, hardly daring to breathe. …

And then all at once, little shivers of excitement started to run over the skin on James’s back.

James and the Giant Peach, Roald Dahl.

What child would not recognise these feelings!

In order to write effectively for children you need a good awareness of the way children think and speak, and the way they live today. If you have regular contact with children – perhaps as a parent, grandparent, teacher or carer – this will be relatively easy. Otherwise, you will need to find some other way of learning about today’s children.

Films and television programmes written for children can be a good starting point. What you are looking for is an understanding of:

The child’s world view – which is quite different from that of adults, and usually quite different from your own world view as a child (depending how much time has elapsed)!

What is important to children – what do they worry about? What do they think about key issues (indeed, what do children see as key issues)? Research suggests that some of the issues children most often worry about include:

bullying
the environment
crime and violence
examinations
friendships
pocket money.

How do children use language? Each generation of children uses language in a slightly different way – they have their own favourite words. This is particularly true for adolescents. Nothing will date your work as much as getting the language wrong.

What is the modern child’s life like?

One of the most common errors made by new children’s authors is to write stories of the sort they enjoyed as children, often an Enid Blyton-type adventure. Although Blyton’s work still sells extremely well and can be found in almost every bookshop, this is not the sort of story publishers want from today’s authors.

They are looking for work, whether fiction or non-fiction, that reflects the reality of life for today’s children, which includes the following facts:

Almost two in three married couples divorce, which means that many children have experience of living in a single parent family or a step-family.
Over eighty percent of children live in an urban area – many of them have never visited the countryside and a substantial number have never seen a real cow, pig or chicken.
Children live in a multicultural society and attend school with children from a wide range of other cultures and religions.

Similarly, young readers may themselves be drawn from a wide range of cultures and religions, and stories should reflect this.

Publishers also like to see stories that deal with the issues children might face in everyday life – including going into hospital, bereavement, starting school or secondary school, relationships, living in a stepfamily.

In addition, writing successfully for children means writing for them as if writing for equals, not writing down to them.

Writing is a kind of double living…

admin — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:38:10 +0000

Writing, I think, is not apart from living. Writing is a kind of double living. The writer experiences everything twice. Once in reality and once in that mirror which waits always before or behind.

~Catherine Drinker Bowen, Atlantic, December 1957

Writing for the Web

admin — Sat, 28 May 2011 19:35:37 +0000

Whatever your writing skills, online markets offer a range of exciting opportunities.

The Internet offers a growing range of markets for writers, ranging from articles and news features to educational and marketing material. Not only have many new markets emerged, but traditional markets, including most newspapers and magazines, have an increasingly important online presence.

Learn how to write successfully for online markets, research appropriate markets for your work, and sell your writing successfully.

Online markets are becoming increasingly important as more publications move online.

The assignments in this course are flexible, so you can use them to work on developing core online writing skills or concentrate on creating and marketing writing projects relevant to your unique interests and experience as an author.

Work with an experienced online author as you learn how to market and sell work successfully online.

The course includes 6 modules and 6 tutor-market assignments.

Enrol now and begin studying within 3 hours!

Only £145 – (normal price £290)

Why Choose Us?

Our tutorial support is second-to-none! You’ll be assigned a personal tutor as soon as you enrol who will work with you all the way through your course. You can contact your tutor directly at any time if you have any questions or problems, or if you would just like a chat about how the course is going. Tutorial support is by e-mail and/or telephone.

Planning and Writing Your Novel

admin — Sat, 28 May 2011 19:24:44 +0000

Learn how to plan, write and publish your novel successfully.

Work with an experienced novelist to develop core skills and craft a story ready for publication.

Many people feel they have a ‘book inside’ – a captivating story they would like to tell. Unfortunately many people have no idea how to turn the dream into reality. This online home study course gives you all the knowledge you need to write and sell your novel successfully. It begins by showing you how to take those early ideas and turn them into a novel idea that other people will want to read. Prepared by experienced novelists – all of whom have successfully published their own books – it then guides you step-by-step through the process of creating and publishing your novel.

The course also contains comprehensive advice on working with publishers, agents and editors, as well as guidelines on marketing your novel successfully, and potential pitfalls to avoid.

Draw on our insider knowledge to give your novel the kickstart it deserves!

The course includes 200 pages of information divided into 6 easy-to-follow modules, and full tutorial support. The course involves approximately 50 hours of study time and the 6 tutor marked assignments will help you to put your new skills into practice, with expert guidance from your tutor. You can work through the course at your own pace and have up to 12 months to complete your studies.

Enrol now and begin studying within 3 hours!

Only £145 – (normal price £290)

Why Choose Us?

Writing for Business

admin — Sat, 28 May 2011 19:16:51 +0000

Develop core writing skills, from emails and letters to reports and web pages.

Become an expert business writer with the help of our comprehensive course, including expert tutorial support! Learn how to write reports, manuals, letters, websites and e-mails that are engaging, accessible, well-written and meet your business goals. You will also learn how to write in a way that reaches customers, clients and suppliers, conveying your messages clearly and in a way that compels action. Our course is packed with advice from expert writers. It also includes many activities and exercises to guide you through the development of your own business writing skills, as well as a comprehensive introduction to copywriting.

Create compelling and focused business writing. Work with an experienced business writer to develop key business writing skills – a great asset for career development!

The course includes 200 pages of information divided into 6 easy-to-follow modules, and full tutorial support. The course involves approximately 50 hours of study time and the 6 tutor marked assignments will help you to put your new skills into practice, with expert guidance from you tutor. You can work through the course at your own pace and have up to 12 months to complete your studies.

Enrol now and begin studying within 3 hours!

Only £145 – (normal price £290)

Why Choose Us?

Freelance Journalism

admin — Sat, 28 May 2011 19:04:17 +0000

Create compelling articles and news features that sell to a range of markets.

This is an in-depth, professional level course for students wishing to develop a career in freelance journalism. It includes input from well-known editors and publishers as well as from experienced journalists.

Study topics include: Working with editors and other production staff; researching and assessing the target market; building a reputation; selling articles and news reports; structuring and planning articles; research; understanding key markets; online opportunities; marketing your services as a journalist; understanding writing voice and style.

The assignments in this course are flexible, so you can use them to work on developing core writing skills or to explore potential markets for your work.

Work with an experienced tutor, also a freelance journalist, to hone your skills and carve out a new career!

Learn how to market your services as a journalist and produce the work that editors want to buy.

Enrol now and begin studying within 3 hours!

Only £145 – (normal price £290)

Why Choose Us?