Skip to 0 minutes and 3 seconds Hello and welcome to An Introduction to Writing Fiction. If you have never written fiction before or are a keen writer looking to acquire some fundamental skills, then this course should help you to expand your understanding of the key elements of storytelling. As one of the oldest forms of entertainment, storytelling has the capacity to help us in our professional endeavours, support our well-being, or simply offer opportunities for creativity. Writing is an accessible hobby, requiring only a pen, paper, and your imagination. As with any art form, however, a knowledge of technique is essential when developing your craft. I’m Doctor Amy Lilwall, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the School of Creative Arts at the University of Lincoln.
Skip to 0 minutes and 44 seconds I am a published novelist and I teach prose writing techniques to undergraduates and postgraduate students. This course will address topics such as the art of writing a good sentence, creating and revealing character, and developing and embedding a sense of place into your writing. You will investigate key writing concepts such as show, don’t tell, the dynamic sentence, rounded characters, and the use of detail. Through carefully selected readings and exercises, you will acquire an applied understanding of specific writing techniques. In week one, you will focus on how to write and identify a beautiful sentence. In your second week, you will learn about the psychological basis of characterization and techniques for building convincing characters.
Skip to 1 minute and 33 seconds In your third week, you will consider the significance of setting and how a full sense of place can facilitate and enhance your narrative. And in the final week of the course, you will combine these techniques to create a rich passage of writing, which you will go on to edit and share. We anticipate that you will spend up to three hours per week studying for this course, and we encourage you to share your opinions, ideas, and your writing with other learners. As with many writing courses, you will be prompted to read extracts from fiction and work by writers on writing to encourage you to think more deeply about your own approaches to developing and shaping story.
Skip to 2 minutes and 11 seconds You need no prior knowledge of writing to join the course, just an eagerness to learn and an open mind. We hope that this course will build your confidence as a writer and encourage you to pursue publishing opportunities. If you are looking to deepen your knowledge and awareness of narrative technique and hone your fiction writing skills, then this course is for you. I look forward to supporting your next steps into the world of writing.