The Craft of Writing

A follow-on course in two parts for students who have completed the ten-week course on the short story.

This course is only suitable for students who have already completed the ten-week course here at the centre. 

The course is divided into two blocks of five weeks. 

Students can decide to take one or both blocks. Cost per five-week block is €150.

Block 1: Tuesday, January 7th 7pm-10pm - Tuesday, February 4th 2020.

Block 2: Monday, February 10th 7pm-10pm – Monday, March 9th 2020.

While the course will follow the format of the ten-week course, as in a three-part structure of 

(a) Ten-minute Free write 

(b) examination and instruction in the craft of writing 

(c) Workshopping of student material

the focus will not just be on the short story but also the novel. As a result, the reading list (see below) for this course is more extensive and it is advised that students have some of it covered before the course begins to avoid trying to read a novel in a week.

The course intends to build on the skills students have developed in the first ten-week course and to provide the student with a discipline and routine around their writing practice. This will be particularly helpful if the student is working on an on-going project, which could be a work of fiction or creative non-fiction, as both will be covered.

Reading List.

Claire Keegan Foster

Ian McEwan On Chesil Beach 

Donal Ryan The Spinning Heart

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Raymond Carver What we Talk about When we Talk about Love (short story collection)

Elizabeth Strout Olive Kitteridge

Edna O’ Brien Country Girl, A Memoir (Not to be confused with her work of fiction, The Country Girls)

Julian Barnes The Sense of an Ending

Éilís ní Dhuibhne The Day Elvis Presley Died, from her short story collection, The Pale Gold of Alaska.

Alice Munro Chance (A rather long short story from her collection Runaway, (2004))