Sharing my love of writing
I've been gratified to receive not one, but two, requests recently for creative writing workshops.
Now, I have to be honest - I'm not a qualified teacher. I do have training in my background; years ago I gained a Certificate in Training and Development when I was designing and running cleanliness courses at work. That learning was backed up with an NVQ Level 3 in Training and Development as an Association Trainer with the Guide Association. I've also spent quite a few years (paid and unpaid) supporting primary school children in the classroom. And I help to run a small creative writing group locally.
And I write. I've even had work published, so I do know a little bit about writing stories.
But does all of that really add up to me knowing enough about 'creative writing' to run a kosher workshop?
Having recently been to York and sat in some fabulous workshops (check out the FOW15 Diaries on dialogue, theme and taking risks), I feel woefully inadequate compared to those very distinguished workshop leaders. Almost like a fraud...
I suppose it depends on what you want out of a workshop. If you want to kick your writing into shape, you most probably need to find someone who's more of an expert in sentence formation and story arcs to run the session.
If, on the other hand, you want to play with words, explore ways of inspiring stories, create characters and settings to get your story-juices flowing...
Well, then I might just be the right person for the job.
That's what's gone into the session plan for now, anyway; I'll let you know how it works out when I do it for real with the children...
Now, I have to be honest - I'm not a qualified teacher. I do have training in my background; years ago I gained a Certificate in Training and Development when I was designing and running cleanliness courses at work. That learning was backed up with an NVQ Level 3 in Training and Development as an Association Trainer with the Guide Association. I've also spent quite a few years (paid and unpaid) supporting primary school children in the classroom. And I help to run a small creative writing group locally.
And I write. I've even had work published, so I do know a little bit about writing stories.
But does all of that really add up to me knowing enough about 'creative writing' to run a kosher workshop?
Having recently been to York and sat in some fabulous workshops (check out the FOW15 Diaries on dialogue, theme and taking risks), I feel woefully inadequate compared to those very distinguished workshop leaders. Almost like a fraud...
I suppose it depends on what you want out of a workshop. If you want to kick your writing into shape, you most probably need to find someone who's more of an expert in sentence formation and story arcs to run the session.
If, on the other hand, you want to play with words, explore ways of inspiring stories, create characters and settings to get your story-juices flowing...
Well, then I might just be the right person for the job.
That's what's gone into the session plan for now, anyway; I'll let you know how it works out when I do it for real with the children...
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| Getting to grips with technology during an author visit earlier this year... |