I thought folks might find this observation useful. Although I've been getting articles published and paid for since 1990, I still take writing courses. How come? Well, my view is that I don't know what I don't know, so I am bound to learn something. Indeed, I’ve found that even when a course is so failing to match my expectations that I end up voting with my feet, I usually don’t go away empty-handed as it were.

Benefits of taking courses

As a result of taking various creative writing courses I have:

• Been introduced to some fine writers I hadn't read before.

• Been introduced to some great writing by fellow students.

• Made a couple of lasting friendships.

• Learnt something that ought to have been obvious but which wasn’t until someone said it! I’m thinking in particular of when a tutor said that if your genre is historical fiction and you wish to write about, say, the 4th July 1871, then you need to research the newspapers from the 5th July 1871.

• As someone in the Business of Being a Writer group on Facebook commented, you may find that the tutor or another person on the course reminds you of something you knew but had forgotten, or forgotten about.

• Improved (I think and hope) my own writing by applying some of the things I've learnt on the courses.

Costs of taking courses

I regard taking such courses as an investment in myself, and in my opinion they are definitely worth the time and money commitment. Note that I'm talking about courses you physically attend, not online ones. I haven't taken any online courses so I can't comment about those.

On a couple of occasions I’ve signed up to free online courses and ended up not attending. I conclude that, for me at any rate, paying some money is important, and having to travel somewhere is important.

Deriving long-term benefits from attending a course

I think it’s important to act upon at least some of the things you pick up on a course. I always make a follow-up to-do list, but in my experience that is not enough: I need something that is, for want of a better way of putting it, “sticky”.

For example, if a blog I’ve not heard of before is mentioned on the course, I will look at a few posts and then, if it looks useful and interesting, subscribe to it. That way, even if I forget the blog’s existence, at some point I’ll be reminded when a new article pops up.

Another example: on a course I recently attended (and left before it had finished, as it happens), the tutor introduced the idea of 100 word vignettes. I’ve come across the idea before (it’s called a “drabble”), but this time I decided to put it to use beyond the confines of the course. I’ve written about the 100 word constraint, and applied it.

Conclusion

I still read books about writing, but I’ve found that attending courses has social benefits (meeting and exchanging ideas and work with) other people as well as practical ones.