Back to School…

It’s September 1st and the start of the academic year is fast approaching. That’s my thin excuse for mentioning my writing guide Back to Creative Writing School. It’s got a nice new cover (see the picture in the right hand column and below) and it is celebrating its 10th birthday.

Why the new cover?
It was Amazon’s idea/suggestion/diktat. They decided that the old one was unacceptable. I’m not sure if the rules have changed or no one had noticed before but it contravened a very sensible policy: images shouldn’t give the impression that customers will get something that they won’t be getting, in this case, a spiral metal spine as if it were a notebook with pages that could easily be torn out.

In reality it is a very conventional paperback: no metal spiral and no pages ready to be torn out. Perish the thought. I still like the old cover but the policy does make sense. I would be interested to know which one you prefer: the old or the new.

What’s inside?
The same as before – 30 writing exercises on subjects ranging from character creation to prose poetry. There’s even one on on bibliomancy, technically making a prediction by opening a book at random, but I use it as a way of getting over the fear of starting. The blank page or computer screen can be very intimidating. It takes courage to write when you don’t know where you are going.

I want to emphasise that only the cover has changed. If you’ve bought the old one, don’t buy this.

However, if you haven’t running a writing group it makes very good sense to invest £7.99 in it. It has been used in US high schools and UK secondary schools and by community organisations such as The University of the Third Age (U3A). It is even organised into three terms so you are ready to go.

Most readers though are at an early stage in their writing career. They may have thought about going to a course but want to test the water first. Or they may not have easy access to adult education classes.

The title?

It’s not great, is it? And it’d far too long (which a real nuisance on twitter) but even so, I still quite like it.
When I decided on it a decade ago I was thinking about how we are all born creative, it’s part of our DNA. When a toddler learns to walk, she dances. Give her a piece of chalk she draws and once she has words she needs stories. You enrolled in the first creative writing school long before you started nursery…

Picture credit: Photo by Philippe Bout on Unsplash