Creative Writing Class Final Rehash

So, as many of you already know, I enrolled in an online course on Creative Writing through my local Community College. The course, called "Advanced Fiction Writing" has its final exam today and I'm taking the day off from work to take that, work on finishing my AinA, do laundry, and generally catch up since my Wednesday was a national holiday and I had to share my usual "day off" with my DH. It was fun to share the day with him in mid-week, but I accomplished absolutely nothing of my own personal goals. I need today and I'm taking it.

In any case, I have to take my exam today (it's the last day that I can). I have to say, I really enjoyed the course. It was quite comprehensive and left me with tons of supplementary material, websites, a 1-1/2" thick binder of printed classes to refer back to, etc. What I didn't do was participate a lot in the discussion aspect, although I usually am the first to jump into things like that. I didn't like the format for discussion, it seemed quick clunky and didn't really seem to encourage genuine interaction. But that aside, I loved the course.

The information I got is available in other formats and was nothing new, but it was good to get down to the basics again and re-acquaint myself with the foundations of all literature. I want to continue to work on improving my own writing and branch off to writing some original fiction. This course and other books are providing me with a foundation to be able to do that. It was relatively inexpensive and well worth the cost of time, materials and actual money. I would do another on-line course based on the success of this one.

Friday! So Needed...So Wanted...So Welcome!

So, it's Friday. I mention the obvious just in case you were a brain-dead zombie when you awakened this morning and turned on your computer in search of the appropriate designation for this glorious day. It's Friday. Now, for most of you that will mean that you are at the end of your work week. It doesn't mean that for me because my work week doesn't end until 5pm tomorrow, but I'll be happy with Friday. After all, I'm one day closer to my "weekend" than I was yesterday.




Today is the final day of my Creative Writing course. I've really learned a lot and I have enjoyed the class a great deal. It's not information that isn't out there, but it is information that I needed to remind myself about. When I look back over my writing and student history, I don't think I ever had much of a grounding in the actual structure of writing, plot development, character exploration, point of view, etc. Of course I am a voracious reader and have been all of my life, so much of what I needed to be able to write well I have absorbed by reading tens of thousands of books. But I did find taking an organized course to be very helpful as well. If any of my readers are thinking about taking an on-line continuing education course, if my experience is anything to go by, I recommend it.




I didn't have much time to continue with my own story revisions last night. I owed the latest chapter to my ESL friend for whom I do beta work, and worked on her story instead of my own. But I did get another page or two done. I'm almost caught up with the POV revisions and can then settle down to continuing the story through the last two weeks of its timeline. I do have to admit, though, that I like the flow of the story much better since I did the POV change, and I think it reads much better. I have to get finished with this, though, so that I can start the formal editing (yes, it has to go through at least one more serious edit before it is fit for other eyes) and begin work on the other stories that I've committed to. Or perhaps I should just revise my life's motto to read: "I should be committed!" Happy Friday, all y'all!