This 12-week online course is aimed at writers who want to embark on a journey to write fiction in English as a second language. By the end of this course, students will have acquired a range of craft and stylistic techniques and learnt to apply them; developed metaliterary language and used it appropriately to comment their own text and their peers’; and learnt to reflect on their stylistic and narrative choices and on their own creative process.

Objectives

The aim of this course is to gather confidence writing in English as a second language and to embark on a journey to discover one’s authorial voice in a second language. Furthermore, students will be able to work towards the following measurable outcomes:

• Approach and learn how to apply core craft and stylistic techniques.
• Learn how to reflect on personal stylistic and narrative choices.
• Expand one’s metalinguistic and metaliterary vocabulary and use it confidently in reflective and critical writing.
• Familiarise with the concepts of identity and otherness of one’s authorial voice.

This course is suitable for both beginners who approach creative writing for the first time and more experienced writers who are familiar with core craft techniques in their own language. The minimum English level required is a solid B2 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (self-certified), with an intermediate-to-proficient level of writing.

1. Page one: genesis of a text
2. Point of view and narrator
3. Character, conflict and characterisation
4. Dialogue
5. Setting: landscape and culture
6. Basic composition tools: scene, description, summary and digression
7. Plot and story structure
8. Theme and subtext
9. Tone and voice of a text
10. Elements of style
11. The multilingual writer
12. Strategies for revision

This course will be delivered on our virtual learning platform. Students can join from anywhere in the world and at the time that suits them best. Every week, they will receive a thematic chapter and an assignment, which will be commented on by one of their peers and by the tutor, who will also produce a collective and thematic piece of feedback. The assignment will be complemented by a piece of reflective writing in which students can express any challenges they have encountered while writing in English as a second language.

The course will start when the tutor opens the first forum thread for introductions. That’s also the day in which the first thematic chapter is released, along with the assignment for the following week. Students will have one week (until the following Wednesday) to submit their creative work. The tutor will collect all submissions and share them with the group, assigning each student one of their peers’ texts to read and comment. On the following week, the tutor will release a document collecting all individual feedback. Once a month, students will be invited to join a one-hour live videoconference, in which each of them will be asked to present a brief critical analysis of a literary text of their choice.

• The monthly payment for this course is €143, plus €30 registration fee.
• If you opt for a single payment, the price for the entire course is €420 (no registration fee).

You can pay online on our safe payment processing platform Stripe. If you have a Spanish bank account, you can pay via a bank transfer or direct debit.