Advanced Writing Courses

Advanced creative writing courses aim to deepen your understanding of the craft – be that poetry or prose – at a technical and stylistic level, encouraging you to develop your voice and finish a project, whether that’s a novel or a collection of poetry. Our Writing a Novel and Advanced Poetry courses, for instance, are designed to be practical alternatives to a creative writing MA. That doesn’t necessarily mean you need to have taken a course before to take one of our advanced courses; it might be the case that you’ve been honing your writing by yourself for some time and feel like now is the right point for you to sign up for something a bit more formal. Or you may have been on one or several shorter courses, either with us or other institutions, and now feel ready to study at a more advanced level.

It’s advice you’ll probably hear a lot, but read! Read as widely as you can, in the genre you’d like to write but in others, too. And practise – again, as much as you possibly can, whether it’s responding to creative writing exercises or prompts, or working on your own projects. Sharing work with a trusted writing friend or writing group can really help you figure out where your strengths are and which areas you might need to work on a little more. And shorter courses – whether it’s something focused on a specific area, like one of our masterclasses, or a twelve-week intermediate course – may also help you build your confidence and feel ready to take on an advanced level class.

Most of our advanced courses are selective, meaning they have an application process. When the tutors and Academy team are working through applications, we’re looking to build groups who will work well together as well as benefiting from the course itself. Part of this is to do with the standard of writing, to make sure everyone is at the right stage to get the most out of the sessions, but there are lots of other factors involved too – we’re also looking for students who will bring a diverse range of experience, ambitions and inspirations with them, as that’s what makes for the most interesting and constructive discussions in class.