Literary courses at the literary institute. Applying the Skill of Writing

Eat stable expression: everything that ever happened should become a book. From time immemorial, people have written down their history - fictional and real, to put it literary language and describing only dry facts. And the more accessible writing became, the more widely it was used, gaining, century after century, more and more freedom and creative expression.

The word “blog” won’t surprise anyone these days. Everyone seems to be leading them. Some people write often, others less often, but social networks one way or another organize posts, design them and structure them into one whole, be it your personal page or thematic posts in communities. Simply put, if you have a barely active page on a social network, then you can rightfully be considered a writer. But which one?

This is where the most interesting thing lies. Given the fact that many, if not all, write, very few people really know how to write. A colossally small amount is often contributing authors thinking about improving his craft. Not just to write more competently or more interestingly, but to create texts like a professional writer, with full awareness of the meaning of using a great and powerful word. Therefore, we strongly advise those who write regularly to become a real pro. This will not only expand and improve the author’s presentation, but will also little by little raise the general level of writing culture. And this will already be an impressive milestone in new history.

Creative Writing School

Briefly about: l literary workshops Creative Writing School were founded by writer Maya Kucherskaya and philologist Natalya Osipova. The concept of the school is based on creative writing programs used in American and European universities. All workshop developments are unique and created specifically for Creative Writing School.

Courses:« Gloss in a human way: how to write columns for women's magazines", "Storytelling: how to write entertainingly?", "How to write witty? Search for wit: from poetic epigrams to book reviews”, etc.

Duration: from 10 weeks to one-day intensive.

Price: from 4000 rub.

School of editors in the design bureau of Artyom Gorbunov

Briefly about: w Kola puts preparation on stream and gives a ticket to the profession to domestic editors with clear life guidelines. The school's partners provide jobs for the best students. Review and selection of interns takes place during the defense of the final work.

Program: text and editing, typography and layout, interface and information, negotiations and relationships, design and law, management and results.

Duration: y The curriculum consists of three stages and lasts one academic year.

Price: 40,000 rubles / level.

Courses “Punctum”

Briefly about:"P unktum” - small free Cultural Center, where various events take place every day: lectures, shows, seminars, concerts, exhibitions. The main direction is humanitarian knowledge: philosophy, art, culture, languages, music, cinema, as well as workshops where you can learn specific skills: drawing, creating beautiful texts, speaking English dead languages, play the guitar and more.

Courses:"Workshop artistic word: create a hero,” Olga Gavrilina’s express course “Text Workshop: from concept to implementation,” “Landscape with an iron or creative screenwriting as it is.”

Duration: from 1 lesson.

Price: from 2500 rub. class.

Writing-school

Briefly about: " Writing-School.ru School of Writing is aimed at both beginners and established authors - prose writers, poets, screenwriters, playwrights, etc. Currently, the school is under development, but educational materials are already available for study. It is planned to publish both the school’s original courses and courses from other specialists.

Courses: James Patterson: “Lessons in Writing,” “I Want to Become a Writer: A Start,” “Conscious Writing.”

Duration: Courses are conducted online, materials are available on the website.

Price: from 1250 rub. well.

Online courses at Free Publicity School

Briefly about: Free Publicity School conducts online courses and trainings that help realize the inner need of a person - the need to express oneself to the world. Since 2014, we have conducted more than 20 courses, the graduates of which are published in such publications as Forbes, Psychologies, Lifehacker, “Life is Interesting!”, “Happy Parents” and many others.

Courses:“Conscious Writing Course”, “Strong Text”, “I Write a Book Every Day”, “Personal Brand”, etc.

Duration: 10 days.

Price: from 10,000 rub.

Courses at the International Union of Writers

Briefly about: The International Union of Writers (International Union of Writers, Poets, Playwrights and Journalists) is the world's largest organization of professional writers. The union was founded in 1954. Until recently, the organization's headquarters were in Paris, in this moment The main division is located in Moscow.

Program: literary seminars; lectures on creation theory literary work;
introduction to history mass literature; the basics of producing a writer (negotiations with the publisher, subtleties and pitfalls when concluding a contract); Copyright; meetings and master classes with invited writers, journalists, representatives of publishing houses, literary critics reviewing prose in major media.

Duration: 3 months.

Price: Full-time – 71,100 rubles, distance learning – 60,000 rubles. per semester.

How I studied three literature courses at the same time and what it led to

Text: Marina Bezuglova
Drawing by Charles D. Gibson from www.zazzle.com
Photo of Marina Bezuglova from her Facebook page

The new school year is approaching, 2017/2018 . Which has a chance to go down in the history of Russian literature as the year of a breakthrough in the field of professional writing education - which, according to editors of publishing houses, sometimes our talents are sorely lacking. The Institute of Culture has opened admission to students in the specialty " children's writer" The Higher School of Economics for the first time began accepting admission to the master's program - and, according to those involved, the competition for budget places exceeded ten people per place.
And this, of course, does not count, which quietly and systematically continues its work. And the incalculable number of offline and online literary courses that have emerged over the past few years.
A direct participant in the process shares her vivid impressions of the latter.

...I rewind time and think: why did I need literature courses at all? I have no philological education. I am the manager of a small mirror production workshop. My interest in writing grew out of my love of reading. But I didn’t know how to approach my own work. I needed to test my strength and give myself permission to write.
I live in Rostov-on-Don, and literary education concentrated in the capital. Therefore, I could not study in person, only online. Then I organized an intensive course for myself with full immersion on topic: for four months I studied in parallel at three writing schools and as a result received a triple blessing from the masters of the world of literature.
I’ll say right away: all the courses do an excellent job of inspiring.
Now more about educational process. This is not an advertisement, so I won’t name the courses themselves, but I’ll explain a little. In my school years there was such a wonderful concept as a class “with a bias”. In relation to courses, this word is also appropriate. So, I chose: courses with an emphasis on genre commercial literature (these are those books that are published in series by publishing houses), courses for beginners with an emphasis on the so-called great literature(works from the lists big bonuses) and courses with a slight focus on Western literature. In addition, there are courses in poetry, screenwriting, non-fiction courses, etc. Prices vary from several thousand to several tens of thousands of rubles. Many schools provide discounts, hold drawings for free places and competitions. (Thanks to this, I had the opportunity to try three options at once.)

But if you are not as extreme of literature as I am,

When choosing a direction, ask yourself the question: “What does it mean to me to be a writer? Be the author of a paper book? Publish posts on social networks and collect likes? Win competitions? An honest answer will greatly help you get your bearings.

In addition, before studying, it is very important to read special textbooks, as well as take advantage of free resources - there are a lot of articles and videos on the Internet. And if you realize that you are ripe for professional courses, these are the parameters I recommend using to choose an online school.

1. First parameter- the same “bias”. However, in reality the “bias” was very conditional. All of my courses covered literary craftsmanship fairly broadly, with little or no duplication of information.
2. Number and duration of classes- calculate your strength. As a rule, these are weekly lectures lasting from 30 minutes to 1 hour. But there are courses that will require 3 hours 3 times a week.
3. Homework. Each lesson consists of a theoretical lecture and a creative assignment. Courses that involve peer review of written work, that is, feedback from teachers, are many times more useful. Discussing your texts only with students like you is not particularly effective.
4. Number and volume of creative tasks performed during the course. The more text you write, the more responses you get, the better.
5. Teaching Staff. Perhaps the most important point. Of course, it’s nice when mentors are popular writers. But their level of fame should not be decisive. After all, writing and teaching it to others are two different things. Their teaching talent is more important to you. Read the works of your future teachers, search the Internet for videos of them, and finally look at their profiles on social networks. If these people captivate you, then the training will be interesting.
6.Feedback. How can you ask questions to teachers? In a webinar format, in a special group on social networks, by email, or is there no such option at all?
7. Further fate. What are the chances that students' work will be published? Albeit on a competitive basis, albeit not in the most popular publications, but the very existence of such an opportunity is a big plus.
8. Video. With online learning, you will receive recorded lectures. Most of us perceive information best visually, so having a video helps.
9. Full-time/correspondence form. If you have the opportunity to study in person, take advantage. This form, of course, is preferable to correspondence.

These points can be compared. Now I’ll briefly tell you what I personally learned from my training.

Firstly, happened small miracle: For the first time I came up with a coherent, finished work - a story. Then another, and another... The first reviews of texts give an unforgettable experience.
Secondly, the courses gave a holistic understanding of how the plot and characters should be structured in order to hold the reader’s attention. Many aspiring authors would save their own and others’ time by learning these simple principles. In fact, works written based on these laws compare favorably with those written at random.
Third, my reading perception has sharpened. I see how the text is “made”. But that doesn't stop you from enjoying it. good work- against. Strong texts (the assessment is subjective, of course) give even more joy, weak ones - even more irritate.
The training required more time and dedication from me than I expected. (I didn’t even complete one of the courses because my situation changed and I didn’t have enough time.) I also should have better prepared my household for my new hobby. Wouldn't you be wary if a person mutters to himself while looking at one point? And he, by the way, selects words for his text. Or he sits at night at the computer, and in an hour he needs to submit his work. By the way, that's how I found out great power deadline, when inspiration just comes in waves as it approaches.
After completing the training, a certain “withdrawal syndrome” occurred. Now there are no deadlines, no one praises, criticizes, or asks tricky tasks. Then everything depends only on me. After all, literary courses are not a factory of literary stars. Of those who have completed the training, only a few will write anything, only some of it will be published, and only a few will become successful authors.
What about the rest? Well,

expressive and precise formulation of one’s thoughts has never stopped anyone, not just writers or bloggers.

It is unknown how mine will turn out creative destiny. In my understanding, being a writer means having at your disposal a certain amount of texts that you are not ashamed to show to professionals and ordinary readers. I can’t call myself a writer yet. Now I'm writing a novel, there are several short stories. Short creative distances turned out to be closer to me. My reviews of two quite famous novel. There was a victory in a small literary competition. I try to enjoy life, and literature is part of it.

Probably everyone who had to write compositions, summaries, abstracts and essays at school has tried to become a writer. But are you ready to try writing now? interesting article, a large business proposal letter, let alone an entire book? If you came to this page, you would probably like to improve writing skills: the ability to easily create competent, beautiful texts.

Most people find it difficult to write even small text. These difficulties may be of different nature. For example, one person lacks the banal desire and willpower to just sit down and start writing something. Another would like to, but it’s difficult to decide on a topic or find the right words. The third may write a lot, but then notices that in his text a large number of errors.

All these problems are not so much related to our innate abilities, as much as with the knowledge and skills that were instilled in us by our parents, teachers and lecturers. Unfortunately, schools and universities rarely offer subjects or lessons that even to some extent teach how to learn to write correctly.

This course of online lessons contains useful tips to help aspiring writers. In this training you will learn what the art of writing is, or as it is now fashionably called, copywriting, and you will be able to master basic writing skills. This course is focused primarily on practical knowledge that will help you show your talent and your creativity.

What is this writing skill?

(writing, writing, copywriting, literary activity ) is the human activity of creating verbal works intended for reading by other people.

All people who can write with a pen or type on a computer have writing abilities to varying degrees. Naturally, each person develops these abilities to varying degrees. But still, not everyone is a writer. A real writer is a person who can write a good text that is interesting to readers.

If a person simply writes uninteresting and meaningless texts to anyone, this type of writing is called graphomania , and the authors themselves graphomaniacs. Today you can meet many graphomaniacs on the Internet. This is due to the fact that people are trying to create texts that are focused not on readers, but on algorithms search engines. In addition, the process of popularizing graphomania is provoked by the readers (users) themselves. Remember when you read an article from cover to cover. Most likely, in most cases you simply view (scan) texts on website pages “diagonally”, trying to quickly find necessary information. And if there is no demand for good lyrics, then there are no such proposals.

In our course we will talk about a different type of writing, the fruits of which are interesting and useful to readers.

Applying the Skill of Writing

The ability to write beautifully, logically and competently is a skill that is useful to almost everyone to modern man. Every day we write letters, communicate with colleagues and friends via mail and social networks. In our messages, we express thoughts, address the addressee with a request, or describe some events. In this case, competent written speech can serve as an excellent assistant in career growth and business relations.

And even if you don't plan to become famous through your works, writing can be useful to you personally. For example, you can keep a diary and reflect your interesting thoughts in it, this will help put order in your head, structure important ideas, plans and upcoming tasks.

How to learn to write?

Writing skill is complex skill consisting of various knowledge and skills. Firstly, in order to become a real writer, it is important to be a sufficiently educated and versatile person. At a minimum, you need to be clear about what you want to tell your readers and why it will be important and useful to them. Secondly, you cannot do without motivation and a strong desire to create a new work, because writing requires a lot of effort and time. Are you ready for this? Thirdly, you must know the norms of language, or in other words, the rules of writing, which will allow you to convey your ideas to readers as clearly as possible.

Among the most necessary attributes that will help you become good writer, the following can be distinguished:

Well-read and educated, good upbringing.
Motivation, desire writing, hard work and perseverance.
Extensive active lexicon.
Literacy, knowledge of the rules of the Russian language.
Harmoniously developed logical and creative types of thinking.
Knowledge of genre, style and structural features written speech.

In addition, writers often say that something elusive connected with morality helps a work to come into being. life ideals, creative inspiration or perhaps a divine gift.

For example, Richard Bach claims that his most famous story“A Seagull named Jonathan Livingston” was literally “dictated from above” to him. And those who have also read Bach's other works will have noticed the striking contrast between his traditional stories and the deeply metaphorical Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

In this regard, the question arises:

Is it even possible to learn the art of writing?

How to take classes

In the lessons of our training you can find background information, and useful recommendations and exercises to master all important skills a writer who can be learned. The speed and efficiency of development of each of the skills presented for different people individual. Therefore, it is impossible to say exactly how long each lesson or the entire course will take you.

To make sure you don't miss anything, try to read all the lessons.
Try to identify your main problems and solve them, understanding them in more detail in the relevant lessons, doing exercises, following the necessary recommendations.
Practice is an important element of each lesson, so be sure to try to apply the knowledge gained in your writing activities.
Test your work with experienced, objective readers who won't be shy about saying what they really think about the fruits of your creativity.
Try to write constantly and don’t give up on it, otherwise both the muse and a good style will come to you as rarely and irregularly as you do to them.

Books and textbooks

The art of writing is not something that can be learned once and for all. The ability to write texts must be constantly improved, otherwise it will fade away. A writer needs to constantly maintain his form: read a lot, write, and also study specialized literature about writing. On this page we have listed a number of popular books and textbooks about authorship and literary skills.

Stephen King "How to Write Books"
Yuri Nikitin “How to become a writer”
Umberto Eco "How to write thesis", as well as a number of other works
Dietmar Rosenthal “Collection of exercises in the Russian language”

Quotes from writers about authorship

To help you find creative inspiration, we have collected quotes from successful famous literary (and other) figures, containing tips for combating various problems of writing:

Write freely and as quickly as you can to get everything out on paper. Never edit or rewrite until you are done. Rewriting as you go is usually nothing more than an excuse not to move forward. It also interferes with the free flow of thought and rhythm that only comes from unconsciously working with the material.

Our enemies can be more useful to us than our friends, for friends often forgive us our weaknesses, while enemies usually note them and draw our attention to them. Do not disregard the judgment of your enemies.

You need to write poetry every day, just as a violinist or pianist must play his instrument for several hours every day without skipping. Otherwise, your talent will inevitably become scarce, dry up, like a well, from where for a long time they don't take water.

A real writer it is the same as the ancient prophet: he sees more clearly than ordinary people.

People who know how to think also know how to write. And those who suffer from a low level of intelligence write the same memoirs, letters and speeches. The ability to write well is not a natural gift. This can be learned. Write the same way you speak: naturally... Try to express your thoughts simply, without pretensions to excessive intellectuality... If you are working on something very important, then ask your friends or colleagues to express their opinions about your work.