Julie Cohen's Advanced Novel Writing Course

  

(Julie Cohen who is officially Ace).

Hi there and thanks for visiting the baby blog of the Ciren Writers.

It's my turn to write a post and I said I would do one about Julie Cohen's Advanced Novel Writing course held a couple of weekends ago in Reading.

Trouble is, how to pack 8 hours of BRILLIANT information, feedback and guidance into 500 words? Tricky. And I've already used up loads saying hello.

Anyway, as well as being a wonderful day (and I would advise anyone lucky enough to spot a Julie C course to sign up immediately) it got me thinking...

A couple of my writing friends said recently that they have stopped going on writing courses as they feel like frauds. They said they aren't really writing much at the moment and don't want to be the kind of people who Just Go On Courses and never actually finish any serious pieces of work themselves.

Well, I reckon it doesn't really matter if you do. Nobody ever advertises a writing course and says Small Print: We're going to check on you all in six months time and if you haven't at least churned out a novella, we'll tell everyone on Twitter that you're The Inflatable Boy and have let yourself down.

Exactly. Being an amateur writer and hoping to get published...or maybe even not...is a long enough road as it is. Going on courses and learning from talented, generous people who can inspire you even to write a paragraph more, is one of the best things of all. 

And spending a day with ten or so other people who just love to write and just hope to be alright at it and just want to have a go? Well, for me, that's one of the real bonuses of writing. Learning and listening and chatting about stuff.  And eating cake. Obviously.

So, even though Julie's course had me scrambling to open the laptop again as soon as I got home, for anyone who writes - or isn't at the moment and feels really guilty about it, I say, go on as many courses as you want. Hold your head up high and be a Serial Courser if you like.

Writing doesn't always have to be about achievement and worrying about agents and trying to get published. If it makes life a little bit more fun and a little less gloomy, then in the words of the lovely old farmer in Babe, that'll do. (Pig.)


Thanks for reading this and please visit again. We're not sure if we'll be any good at doing a writing blog but we're giving it a try!  Floss did the first post, I've now had a go and Anne will be doing the next post soon.

Bye for now
AJ
(Where Things Are Mostly Cheerful)

PS: Julie Cohen's new book Getting Away With It is available from Amazon and all good book shops now.  Read all about it and her other books here: http://www.julie-cohen.com/books/