There are a variety of methods available to help the aspiring writer to achieve his or her ambition.
Many colleges and universities offer part-time courses. These will usually be held as evening classes. Alternatively, there are many correspondence courses available, whereby the student will work from home and submit his given tasks by post (or more commonly these days - email). The Open University offers a wide variety of courses, some of which being “How to write essays, family history, fiction, plays and poetry” and of course there are online courses available. Methods of learning which don’t involve others are fine if you don’t mind the lack of interaction and exchange of ideas which a group environment will provide.
Learndirect is also a good source of information for finding a suitable course in your area. Choose which type of writing you’re interested in, plug in your postcode and away you go.
Once you have developed the necessary skills, the real work begins. It can take up to two or three years from basic ideas and storyline to actually having your work accepted and book published. In the same way a budding musician will send recordings to many record companies, an unknown author will need to send his work to a multitude of publishers before being accepted (unless he is very lucky) and even then the publisher might require some changes to be made. You think it’s a full length novel with more volumes to follow – the publisher may think it would make a better short story!!
Many colleges and universities offer part-time courses. These will usually be held as evening classes. Alternatively, there are many correspondence courses available, whereby the student will work from home and submit his given tasks by post (or more commonly these days - email). The Open University offers a wide variety of courses, some of which being “How to write essays, family history, fiction, plays and poetry” and of course there are online courses available. Methods of learning which don’t involve others are fine if you don’t mind the lack of interaction and exchange of ideas which a group environment will provide.
Learndirect is also a good source of information for finding a suitable course in your area. Choose which type of writing you’re interested in, plug in your postcode and away you go.
Once you have developed the necessary skills, the real work begins. It can take up to two or three years from basic ideas and storyline to actually having your work accepted and book published. In the same way a budding musician will send recordings to many record companies, an unknown author will need to send his work to a multitude of publishers before being accepted (unless he is very lucky) and even then the publisher might require some changes to be made. You think it’s a full length novel with more volumes to follow – the publisher may think it would make a better short story!!