Running Writing Workshops is for anyone looking to develop a range of workshop-management skills for use in their own creative, academic, professional or recreational practice.

The course is suitable if you:

• Are running or would like to run writing groups or workshops
• Would like to develop your skills as a group facilitator
• Work with groups or run writing workshops in schools and academic settings
• Use writing groups in your counselling practice
• Run or would like to set up an informal creative writing group
• Are interested in using writing as a therapeutic tool in group settings
• Need a steer on the logistics, ethics and legal framework of running groups
• Are looking for practical resources, exercises and teaching plans to use with writing groups
• Are seeking a CPD (Continuing Professional Development) course (15 hours didactic learning, 15 hours peer learning)
• Enjoy the discipline of deadlines and peer learning
• Want to join a friendly and supportive small group of learners
• Can dedicate a minimum of 5-7 hours per week to the learning (at a time to suit you).
  

This course allows you to:

• Learn the principles of running a writing workshop
• Explore and identify your role as a writing group facilitator
• Identify what kind of workshop you would like to run
• Develop an action plan for getting a workshop off the ground
• Use writing groups in your counselling practice
• Make workshops more effective in academic settings
• Run groups in a professional setting for reflective practice
• Use writing workshops as a teaching tool
• Set up informal groups for creative writers
• Produce teaching and management plans, risk assessments, launch plans and promotional materials
• Feel confident in using a range of resources and exercises
• Develop transferable professional skills (discipline, attention to detail, ability to work to deadlines)
• Increase professionalism in working with others
• Feel more confident in responding to other people’s work and receiving responses to your own work
• Build greater independence, autonomy and judgment as you self-direct, self-manage and realise assignments to the course briefs.

Each course is divided into sessions. These sessions are released one by one (weekly or fortnightly, depending on the course). 

There’s no need to log on at a set time. You can work through the learning materials whenever suits you, day or night, wherever you are in the world. Just complete the assignments and join forum discussions by the session deadline. 

Our teaching method is based on the science of active learning: you read/listen/watch, try out, share and reflect. It’s a social experience – you become part of a small group, feeding back on each other’s writing to build a supportive bunch of readers you trust. Find out more here.

Sessions become available on Monday morning each week. While there are set deadlines for posting your work and giving feedback to fellow classmates, our 24/7 digital campus means you can work through the course material at your own pace. This course is flexible, with no pre-recordings or live classes, so you can dip in and out, fitting your study around work or family commitments.

Session 1: Introducing Writing Groups – What is a writing workshop? We’ll begin by considering the history of writing groups and the variety of settings and people that they might include. We’ll look at what you want to gain personally from the course and start thinking about the sort of group you’d like to run.

Session 2: How Do Groups Work? – We’ll consider the psychology of groups and what makes them tick, with reference to existing principles including transference and projection. You’ll consider your own experience of group dynamics and how this will affect your practice and workshop plan.

Session 3: Being a Facilitator – What kind of group facilitator will you be, and what skills will you need? We’ll discuss facilitation styles and using writing and reflection, and will start to explore the style in which you will run your group.

Session 4: Planning and Managing – We’ll look at how to structure a session or group series, how to establish goals and evaluate outcomes. You’ll think about goals for your own writing group and content for the sessions.

Session 5: Staying Safe – This week we’ll consider the important issues of ethics and the legalities of running groups and keeping ourselves safe through mentoring and supervision. You’ll put your own ideas forward on how to deal with these challenges.

Session 6: Putting it All Together – You’ll complete the course by writing a mission statement based on your learning so far. With the support of your tutors and fellow learners, you’ll put the finishing touches to your writing group project proposal and outline your plans for the future.

After finishing the course you might like to explore our companion course, Introduction to Therapeutic and Reflective Writing.

Join our alumni community 

After your course, you can join our online alumni community – a friendly group of writers supporting each other as they continue to explore and develop their writing. There’s no cost for this. It’s easy to access via the online classroom, where you can:

• Revisit all your course materials, including tutor notes, feedback, videos, podcasts and forum posts
• Rejoin your classmates, and continue working together in a private space
• Meet alumni from other courses to find beta-readers and share work on our critiquing forum
• Network with other writers working in your genre or area of interest
• Take part in regular ‘sit and write’ Zoom sessions, to push forward with your work-in-progress
• Join monthly live alumni events with our expert tutors and industry guests, including agents, editors, publishers, competition and festival organisers, and prizewinning writers

Taking things further
If you’d like to continue on to another Professional Writing Academy course, please get in touch for more details.