CTYI spring/summer 2009

At the moment I'm teaching Imaginative Writing for the 8-12s on Saturdays at CTYI. Sometimes the students interpret 'Imaginative' as 'fantastical', which it doesn't need to be, though often it is. I like it; it's a course I've taught a few times and it's always different. Some things stay the same: there's usually something to do with character development, there's reading out of work, and there's free writing. But other things change. It's to do with 'going off topic', I think; writing classes very easily go off-topic, filled with people who like telling stories, and kids are (sometimes) quite unselfconscious about that. But it's a class where the main purpose is to get students writing, get them trying new things, introduce them to the dreaded concept of 'drafting'. So off-topic-ness can always be lured back and used.

The Novel Writing course (Session 2 of the summer programme, 12th - 31st July 2009) is a bit different in that it has more specific goals. It's three weeks, full days, older students (12-16s, secondary school), and a group novel to write in the second week and an individual chapter to write in the third. But the very nature of it means that it can't ever be exactly the same, year after year, and I like that. Plus the fact that it's concentrating on novel writing in particular means it's something different for students who've taken a general creative writing class, or who always opt for the 'write a story' essay on their English exams.

(Note, casual and unofficial, for eligible CTYIers and/or their parents: deadline for receiving applications is April 3. Other classes people of a creative/writerish persuasion might be interested in include the following: 'Write, Act, Perform', 'Writing for Life', 'Speculative Fiction Writing', 'Journalism', 'Drama', and 'Gothic Studies'. Watch as the humanities take over nerd camp!)