Budding writers can develop their storytelling skills thanks to a new course launched by the Centre for Lifelong Learning.
Telling Tales is one of more than 400 courses starting this September as part of the Centres new Choices prospectus.
Led by author Lynne Barrett-Lee, Telling Tales offers firsthand practical and theoretical tuition, tips and advice on the craft of creative writing. It will also give writers the opportunity to go through analysis, application and inspiration, to get them crafting truly compelling fiction and also includes advice on finding markets and getting published.
Speaking about Telling Tales, Lynne Barrett-Lee said: “The passing on of stories is as old as mankind, and the urge to tell them, for many of us, runs deep. Those of us who find ourselves afflicted by what many writers liken to a disease, will know only too well that the true writer can’t not write. As is so eloquently stated by the author Gracie Harmon, we are “just people who have a whole lot on the inside that they need to get to the outside, with pen and paper as their preferred method of transport”. Writers, in the main, write compulsively; we enjoy creating fiction out of the facts all around us, and even if we’re not all scribbling furiously in cafes, then we’re often to be found, miles away, staring into space, while engaged in doing likewise in our heads.”
“My course is for anyone who has not yet started to write as well as those who are more experienced. Writing fiction, in the first instance, requires just three things: a desire to tell tales (that disease I mentioned earlier); an imagination (if it’s rusty, no matter; it will be nurtured) and most of all, a sense of adventure. In other words – bar perhaps a working knowledge of written English – nothing the average person can’t muster, if telling tales looks like becoming an affliction for you too…”
Telling Tales starts on Friday 1st October 2010 at the Cardiff Centre for Lifelong Learning. Lynne Barrett-Lee has published seven novels including Barefoot In The Dark which was shortlisted for the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance in 2007. She is also a popular columnist for the Western Mail.
Cardiff University’s Centre for Lifelong Learning offers hundreds of courses covering a range of subject areas, including Languages, Business and Management and Computer Studies. Whether it is for personal or professional development or purely recreational, there is almost certainly a course available to suit all tastes. To get your free copy of Choices, and to see a full list of courses starting this September, contact the Centre on 029 2087 0000 or visit the website www.cardiff.ac.uk/learn.
