My wife is getting into the writing lark, and even though we both subjectively know her grasp of English is excellent, neither of us studied it (science and engineering grauates, y’see) and we are of the generation that weren’t taught any of that old-fashioned grammar including parts-of-speech, tenses and suchlike when we were at school.
She believes it would help to go on a creative writing course that would brush up on these things as well as improve her storytelling ability. She’s inclined towards the romance genre, and is aware that Mills & Boon et al have a very prescribed style but she’s not looking to break into that particular market segment.
I don’t think she needs to go on a course for the technical side of things, though the confidence boost might be worth it. A course that’s more about analysing how good authors tell stories, develop characters and story arcs etc. would probably be better for her (and I’d be interested too, as she’s inspired me to write, though I incline towards horror/SF). Are there any scribblers on STW that could recommend such a thing? Are they ‘worth it’? Personal recommendations would mean a lot more than a page of Google results…
We’re based in the south west (Bristol/Bath area), but online or further afield would be an option too. Thanks!
