Opinions on online courses

[dasyrch]

Hi everybody!

Lately I've been thinking about online courses about writing techniques and similar.

Of course, I mean the ones that somebody reviews your actual work, not the ones that are a series of videos and nothing more.

Here in the UK I've found a few of them with a price around £400 from University of Oxford or UK Writters College but I'm hesitating to spend that money (and time!) in them.

What is your opinion about those? Can they be useful?

 

[CupofJoe]

I did the Open University Creative Writing course a few years ago and found helpful. It did teach me the basics and gave me a few approaches on how to build characters and organise idea. It is part of a BA, so it isn't cheap. On its own, it's about £1500 now.

 

[skip.knox]

They can be useful, but there's no predicting. It will depend on the material, the teacher, and the student. It will depend on where the student is as a writer, whether the material is a good match, and whether the teacher and student connect in some meaningful way. With some online courses, there might be very little connection at all. That may or may not be necessary.

In other words, there are so many unknowns involved, it's impossible to say whether you'll find it helpful or not.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Yeah, I'd say this is an it depends situation. UCLA's screenwriting courses were damned good, and the teachers are working screenwriters. But in general, I'd be leery.

 

[Devor]

IMO it all depends on you and whether you use the course well, so to speak. Are you going to reach out to teachers? To your classmates? Are you going put to yourself out there? And do the work to follow through?

There's no magic bullet. It would be very easy to drop 400 pounds, spend six weeks ignoring the course, or even just doing the minimum, and end up without progressing. It's all on you.

For me personally, and everyone is at a different place, but for the money I'd sooner look at a writing retreat, the kind of place where you go somewhere for a few days, and they have lectures in the mornings, and the rest of the time you're supposed to write.