**Presented by Craig Stanton of Morocco Books and Collectibles online bookshop.**

A six-week course which serves as an introduction to creative writing and an insight into the writing and publishing process. Students are taught how to analyse and structure their writing for best effect and how to adopt methods of best practice in their writing process. Classes contain written exercises along with readings, group work and general discussion. Participants are encouraged to bring their own ‘works-in-progress’ for examination, although this is not essential.

Cost: $40 per session or $200 upfront for all six classes; a maximum of eight students per class.

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First Class: Process

An overview of the writing process - why are you writing? What do you want to write? How do you tailor your method effectively to get results? Can you handle criticism?

Second Class: Management

Coming to grips with inspiration and planning your work: this class deals with how to gauge what it is that you’re writing and how to best focus your preparation for maximum output.

Third Class: Structure

Recognising the best way to pin your words onto the page – format, style, and construction. This class looks at the many different forms of writing and helps guide your work into its most effective shape.

Fourth Class: Character

Who is your work about? How do you effectively transmit these individuals to your readers? Coming to grips with the folk who populate your work.

Fifth Class: Language

What words should you use to convey your narrative? Why is grammar important? Recognising the ‘voice’ of your work…

Sixth Class: Editing

How to cut and where, why it’s important to do so, and what the benefits are to your work. Also, now that you’ve finished your piece, what do you do with it?

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About the Facilitator:

Craig Stanton owns and runs Morocco Books and Collectibles, a bookshop based in Hazelbrook and which is part of the Blue Mountains Bookshop Trail. He is a published author with a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from UTS. He is the author of Mountain Deviltry – Chilling tales of the Blue Mountains and Love Songs and Other Weirdness and has had work published in many journals including “Protodimension Magazine” and “Occult Detective Quarterly”. He has published poetry in the University of Newcastle’s SWAMP Anthology of poetry and also “narratorINTERNATIONAL”. He has written everything from news articles to textbook content, comic scripts to roleplaying games. He moderates three blogs and is currently writing a novel set in the Regency Period. He runs mostly on coffee.