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Welcome to Winning Words – a blog featuring interviews with writers, publishers and agents and writing tips and prompts, a free forum to chat with other writers and post your work and get feedback, a deadlines page of magazines calling for submissions and writing competitions, and our 6 week online creative writing courses.

NEW!

Kick-start your 2012 writing resolutions with a 6 week online course in writing flash fiction with one of the masters of the form, Calum Kerr…

The Whole World in a Flash

Flash-fiction is the newest form on the block and one which is catching on at incredible speed. There are two reasons for this. For the reader it’s a quick read, easy to carry on a mobile phone or e-book reader, and perfect for fitting in on that bus-rise, tube-ride, coffee-break or wherever.

For the writer it gives the opportunity to craft something small and perfectly formed, but something which will not take too long to write, nor take over your entire life in the way a novel can. It also gives the writer the chance to dip their toes into the whole huge range of literary styles and genres.

This course will introduce the writers to a large variety of different prompts from which they can write stories, show them how to find and generate new prompts for themselves, and encourage them to spread their writing nets wider than ever before, fishing off coastlines they have never heard of, and catching brighter and more exotic fish than they thought possible. (Over-extended metaphors will not be compulsory, however).

The course starts on Monday 6th February and runs for 6 weeks.

Calum Kerr is a writer and an associate lecturer in Creative Writing and English at Winchester University. He has been published widely in print and online magazines and anthologies. He specialises in flash-fiction. His self-published collection, 31, is available to buy here and his current project to write a flash-fiction every day for year is online here.

Calum is also the coordinator for the first National Flash-fiction Day to be held on 16th May 2012. More info at www.nationalflashfictionday.co.uk.

[The small print: no refunds will be issued unless the course is cancelled by Winning Words or the course tutor. Please ensure you have basic computer proficiency before signing up!

The course costs £115 and there are still a few places remaining, so sign up now!

Sign up here:

Testimonials from The Bell Jar poetry course with Jo Bell:

I began the Winningwords poetry course “The Bell Jar” without any experience of having been on a poetry/writing course before. I was a bit daunted at the thought of a forum and at posting my work for others to see/comment on. However I found the forum the best part of the course. The feedback and support from the other writers was great and gave me a lot of confidence.. I also loved reading everyone else’s work which was very helpful. The tutor Jo Bell was really down to earth and honest and I felt that she understood what I was trying to do with my work. I found her comments and criticism invaluable and I feel I have progressed a lot through her feedback and the challenging exercises. All in all doing the course was a truly positive experience and one which has set me on the road to serious poetry writing. I would recommend this course to anyone, especially those who need confidence in their writing or those who would like to learn different techniques.. An excellent course.

A well structured, interesting and constructive course with a very supportive tutor. I have written more poems in the last six weeks than I usually write in a year. Thanks for a great experience.

I can’t speak highly enough of this online course. Jo Bell has produced a perfectly pitched poetry masterclass! The exercises were stimulating, the feedback constructive and excruciatingly honest.

This was an inspiring, friendly course. I think the quality of my writing really improved over the six weeks. And I loved it!

Before the course I was feeling stuck, uninspired, under-stimulated and my output was about a poem a month. During the course I was producing 3/4 poems a week, feeling supported, encouraged, stretched and incredibly stimulated. The feedback from Jo and from other people on the course was direct, honest, focused and practical. The solidarity was very real and I learnt what my strengths and weaknesses are and how best to use the skills I have and how to build new ones. Jo’s fantastic exercises were multi-faceted, combining practical techniques with encouragement to go off in any direction. I can honestly say it has been life-changing for me !