Why Take a Creative Writing Course?

Are you interested in writing? What type of writing would you like to do? There is a number of writing styles that you could pursue. Creative writing is certainly one of the most fun styles simply because you get to be creative. One suggestion is to take a course in creative writing. There are many places to take free courses both online and offline making it very easy to get started. Simply search your local papers or just do a search on google for "free creative writing course".

Creative writing classes are typically fun and often do creative exercises. They also have serious classes as well, but those classes are more geared toward the mechanics of writing. Most teachers will start a class with reading exercises. If you want to write, you must read. Then they progress to spelling and grammar. This is proofreading. You must proofread everything you write multiple times. The easiest way to proofread for spelling and grammar errors is to read your story backwards. This way you are reading sentences, not a story.

Several teachers will also spend a lot of time on "bad writing." One exercise that is popular among writing instructors is to have the students write a six sentence paragraph. The hitch is that you cannot repeat any words at all, even the contracted words, and words like and, is and not. But your paragraph must make sense. It's a difficult exercise, but it teaches you what bad writing sounds like. At the end of the class all of the essays are read, then discarded without mentioning any names. The exercise is all about what sounds bad, not humiliating any students.

There are plenty of classes to choose from. You can attend your local colleges, universities or community colleges, or you can enter into an online class. As mentioned, there are at least ten Universities that offer free creative writing classes. If you are really interested in learning how to write, perhaps a free class will give you a taste of the writing world; and encourage you to pursue your dream. You can find the free classes online, you can choose from schools such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Utah and Purdue University.

Once you have taken you first class, you may want to continue with your classes, some of the online Universities offer more than just one free class. But if you think you're ready for your first job as a writer, visit some of the websites for new and first time writers. They can offer a wealth of information to get you started. The website called writer.com offers advice and classes; they also recommend different writing groups for you to get involved in as well. The best way to get published is to associate with people who have. These sites are very informative and you can get a lot of networking done.