Stories from Life

Are you new to writing and want to share a powerful story that allows people to experience the events, places, and communities that mean something to you? Founded on the belief that everyone has a story to tell, this four-week course offers an accessible entry point into writing, helping to boost your confidence and guide you as you complete a story from scratch.

You’ll work in a small group of fellow writers with an expert tutor to learn how to turn raw experience into stories. We’ll look at the basic rules of storytelling and how to structure a real-life experience on the page so that others will want to read on. You’ll have a go at bringing scenes to life using description, and creating vivid characters and memorable dialogue. We’ll also focus on the importance of editing and rewriting. By the end of the course, you’ll have produced a story you’re proud of and which says something about your life.

Duration: 4 weeks
Skill level: Beginner
Frequency: Weekly
Sessions: 4

This course allows you to:

• Start writing and find inspiration in real-life experiences
• Recognise how to build an idea, event, memory or fact into a narrative
• Appreciate the value of writing, rewriting, editing and critiquing
• Build confidence by expressing and recording a life experience
• Value stories that emerge from the realities of life in your community and region
• Trust your instinct when selecting and developing ideas
• Become a more effective writer, for recreation and at work
• Develop the transferable skills writers require (eg discipline, attention to detail, ability to work to deadlines)
• Practise giving feedback to other writers and receiving responses to your work
• Build greater independence, autonomy and judgement as you work on a final assignment

Session 1: Finding Inspiration in Experiences

We’ll start the course by looking closely at the basic rules of storytelling and what makes an effective story. Focusing on life experiences, you’ll learn how to find inspiration from your past and turn an event into inspiration for a story.

Session 2: Turning Experiences into Stories

How do you get from your raw memories to a written account on the page? In the second session, you’ll focus on how to turn your experience into a story by creating structure and crafting a beginning, middle, and end to your story.

Session 3: Power and Polish

Your story shouldn’t just be a factual narrative – it should read as a powerful piece of writing that moves people. To do this, you’ll learn how to set descriptive scenes, write engaging dialogue, and find a resonating ending that leaves the reader feeling satisfied.

Session 4 Editing and Rewriting

In the final week, we’ll focus on why editing and rewriting, and not inspiration, is what makes you a writer. Also on accepting and understanding why the process of writing might lead you to understand experience differently, and how to use that. We’ll also look at ways to maintain the motivation and discipline to finish a project, and where to take it next, including competitions and anthologies.

At the end of the course you will submit a finished and edited story for tutor feedback.