{"id":679,"date":"2025-04-14T21:55:36","date_gmt":"2025-04-14T20:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/penandploughtutoring.co.uk\/?page_id=679"},"modified":"2026-10-18T20:34:55","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T19:34:55","slug":"creative-writing-courses","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/penandploughtutoring.co.uk\/?page_id=679","title":{"rendered":"Creative Writing Courses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Writers don\u2019t need tricks or gimmicks or even necessarily need to be the smartest fellows on the block. At the risk of appearing foolish, a writer sometimes needs to be able to just stand and gape at this or that thing – a sunset or an old shoe – in absolute and simple amazement.<\/strong>

\u2015 Raymond Carver, <\/strong>Fires: Essays, Poems, Stories<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Kent parent<\/strong> (Zoom, Creative Writing, GCSE)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Jacqueline has been amazing with my daughter in Year 11 boosting her confidence in creative writing to the extent she actually enjoys it!. Jacqueline has a lovely mannerism, calm, engaging, personable and great at providing constructive timely feedback. Exactly what my daughter needs heading into her GCSES. Thank you very much.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cranbrook parent<\/strong> (Creative Writing course, year 9)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘these sessions are incredibly helpful… I dare to say that since you\u2019re giving her Creative Writing tasks, her love for drawing has returned too!’<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cranbrook parent<\/strong> (Creative Writing course, year 9)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘We want to say a big thank you, and it was great to work with you and learn more about writing.’<\/p>\n\n\n

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Thank you very much for this feedback and all the feedbacks before this! [The student’s] English grade was totally excellent… <\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Parent of a Year 9 Creative Course student (July 2025)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

I offer tailored writing courses in blocks of 12 weeks which are very successful for GCSE <\/strong>preparation (creative writing is 50% of the English Language GCSE), as well as younger years.

OPTION ONE
<\/strong>The first six weeks comprise extracts to read, perhaps with a short skill activity, and then a linked creative writing prompt. I include all the main writing forms <\/strong>(e.g. screenwriting, flash fiction, short stories, poetry – or we can focus on just one if there is a particular preference) with written feedback notes after each session. After the sixth session, I do a recorded feedback to review the writing so far and to look at next steps. The following six weeks then focus on improving writing style<\/strong>, but otherwise follow a similar format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OPTION TWO<\/strong>
The first six weeks comprise extracts to read, perhaps with a short skill activity, and then a linked creative writing prompt. I include a variety of writing genres <\/strong>(e.g. crime, historical, romance, sci-fi, dystopian, fantasy, mystery or literary – or we can focus on just one if there is a particular preference) with written feedback notes after each session. After the sixth session, I do a recorded feedback to review the writing so far and to look at next steps. The following six weeks then focus on improving writing style<\/strong>, but otherwise follow a similar format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

OPTION THREE<\/strong>
For those students who would just like to do their own choice<\/strong> of creative writing, and to receive feedback and tips for improvement, then this is the ‘freestyle’ version.

Each week they submit creative writing which will have taken an hour to complete (to be discussed, according to ability) and I will give feedback in a way that suits the student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each session should take an hour to complete.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

They then send me their finished writing (either scanned, on a Word document\/Google doc or a photo via a parent’s WhatsApp) and I give a page of detailed, helpful feedback and encouragement<\/strong>, or recorded video feedback.

The course can be matched to personal interests (including academic aims such as scholarships, GCSEs or 11+).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fiction Writing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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\u201cOne day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.\u201d<\/em>
\u2013Jack Kerouac<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

For those who would like a step-by-step<\/strong> approach to crafting a story, I do a more structured course where we focus on reading and analysing <\/strong>story extracts and focusing on a particular aspect of constructing <\/strong>a story each week. Again, this is tailored to the current ability of the student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Interested in more information? Pop here<\/a> for prices or here<\/a> to ask questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And why Creative Writing for younger students? (it doesn’t have to be about exams)<\/h2>\n\n\n
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\"Creative<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
If I stood in front of you right now and said, Please tell me a story, <\/em>how would you feel?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

When I first said that to one student I tutored, as I closed the book of Noodlehead Stories<\/em> we had been reading, he looked at me with that look\u200a\u2014\u200a<\/em>that, You are really giving me permission? <\/em>look, then he stood up and paced the room, a clich\u00e9 of delightful action, before starting to tell me his story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But his story had really started before I finished saying \u2018story\u2019 and even the school bell sounding twice, and me packing up my papers, wouldn\u2019t stop him. He had literally walked right into a story and he found it was a place where he could finally be himself, yet not mention himself at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fact and fiction need to share a room in a child\u2019s life. They need to top-and-tail in bed and stay up late, giggling under the covers and shining the torch in each other\u2019s face. Sometimes they’ll argue, but mostly, they’ll just want to be together when it is too dark to stay on the swing, and too early to overfill cereal bowls with Coco Pops. If one gets kicked out the bed for a bad smell, or just being<\/em>, the other will quickly feel lonely and a small hand will shoot out to welcome them back into the blanket bunker, no questions asked. No apologies expected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet something comes along between primary school and mid-teens and even when we want to tell a story, it seems as though someone has just said, Climb this rockface. No pressure, just get to the top, and don\u2019t pause; don\u2019t make contorted faces; and don\u2019t inhale air. Just climb. And by the way, in case you wondered\u200a\u2014\u200aeveryone falls.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what if your young person wants to write, but the potential stories stare down at them from a high shelf and they can\u2019t find a stool to even read the spines? Sharing a bed with anything resembling their own creative fiction is, well, likely to remain a fiction, and the crocodiles of sleepless, storyless nights (and days) are snapping at their heels…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The solution?<\/strong>
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\u2728 A creative writing correspondence course<\/a>! \u2728

<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writers don\u2019t need tricks or gimmicks or even necessarily need to be the smartest fellows on the block. At the risk of appearing foolish, a writer sometimes needs to be able to just stand and gape at this or that thing – a sunset or an old shoe – in absolute and simple amazement. \u2015 Raymond… Read More »Creative Writing Courses<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":740,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"saved_in_kubio":false,"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","iawp_total_views":108,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-679","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"kubio_ai_page_context":{"short_desc":"","purpose":"general"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/penandploughtutoring.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/penandploughtutoring.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/penandploughtutoring.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penandploughtutoring.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penandploughtutoring.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=679"}],"version-history":[{"count":76,"href":"https:\/\/penandploughtutoring.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1703,"href":"https:\/\/penandploughtutoring.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/679\/revisions\/1703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/penandploughtutoring.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/penandploughtutoring.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}