If you’ve ever dreamed about picking up a pen and reaming of a great novel or composing some poetic verse, or jotting down the story of your life, or creating a colourful short story to amuse your grand-children, then now is most definitely the time to do it!
But how to begin… in the words of the Bard, “that is the question”. In fact, in literary terms, that is the first great obstacle that our hero must overcome on their journey of self-discovery.
Well, just as in any great story the journey begins with a chance encounter. In this case a suitably strange sequence of unrelated coincidences takes our protagonist by the hand and places them squarely upon the right road.
I can just imagine the opening line of your interview with The Guardian Literary Section twelve months from now. “Well, of course I had always thought about getting into creative writing but I never seemed to have the time. Then the Coronavirus pandemic happened and I found myself stuck at home with nothing to do. Even that wouldn’t have been enough to prompt me if I hadn’t stumbled across a wonderful article on Greysnet all about how to get started in creative writing. Well, I just took the plunge and here I am today, a best-selling author who’s just been short-listed for the Booker Prize. In a way I owe it all to Greysnet.”
First of all, may I say, you’re far too kind, the honour is all yours but thanks for the plug in the Guardian all the same. Anyway, aren’t we getting a little ahead of ourselves? You still haven’t actually starting writing anything yet. But don’t worry because these flights of fancy are exactly the sort of thing that great writing is made of. You just need to get it out of your head and on to paper. And we are here to help you do just that.
Over the next six weeks our Writer In Residence (enforced residence, since she can’t actually go anywhere), the wonderful Karen Quinn, will be teaching you everything you need to know to help you get started, or if you’ve already begun your journey as a writer, to help you along the path with a plethora of hints, tips, techniques and ideas.
Here’s Chapter One (it’s actually Lesson One but we thought Chapter One sounded more literary). Before you begin, you’re going to need set aside a bit of time, about thirty minutes, so you can focus on the lesson and you’ll also need something to write with – a pen and paper should be fine.
All right, are you sitting comfortably? Then let’s begin….
Share Your Work
You can post your comments and questions for Karen using the discussion section below. You can also use it to share your work with one another. Keep an eye out for the next lesson coming soon!
Greysnet Creative Writing Course: Chapter 2 – greysnet
[…] Don’t worry if you missed the first lesson, you can find it right here. […]
Angela Melia
I cant work out how to get the ist Creative Writing lesson.
Kerry Rooney
Hi Angela
Just click on the picture inside the article to start the video.
Kerry
Peigi
Thank you Karen, that was most enjoyable. I’m way behind in finding this course, but delighted I can still access it.
Jude Smith
For Karen Quinn
How do I send my first attempt at anything like this to you.
Shelagh O’Grady
I found you by accident but so enjoyed your presentation, chapter one. I will certainly continue with your course.
I have been doing creative writing for several years and have entered competition with little success! I belong to a small group of writing friends who meet regularly and we have self published two books of our work.
However I am delighted to find your site and feel able to look at how I work with fresh eyes.
I look forward to chapter two.