7 Creative Writing Courses offered this spring ~ Introductory to Intensive ~ including Writing Personal Stories & Writing Kid Lit

Welcome to Creative Writing

Nine weeks of discovering your creative side

Wednesday afternoons, 12:45 – 2:45

April 18 – June 13, 2018

Appleby United Church, 4407 Spruce Ave, Burlington, Ontario (Map here.)

This is your chance to take up writing in a warm, supportive environment. This course will open the door to writing short stories and writing dialogue, writing in first person and writing in third person, writing just for fun and writing all kinds of things. 

You’ll get a shot of inspiration every week and an assignment to keep you going till the next class. Best of all, this class will provide a zero-pressure, totally safe setting, where your words will grow and flower.

Fee: $167.26 plus 13% hst = 189 (Space still available in this class)

To reserve your spot, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Writing Personal Stories

8 weeks of sharing and writing

Friday afternoons, 1:15 – 3:15 p.m.

April 13 – June 8, 2018 (No class June 1)

Glenview Church, Bethlehem Room
1 Glenview Ave, Toronto, Ontario (Map here)

If you've ever considered writing your personal stories, this course is for you. We’ll look at memoirs, travel writing, personal essays, family history ~ personal stories of all kinds. Plus, of course, we’ll work on creativity and writing technique and have fun doing it. 

Whether you want to write a book or just get your thoughts down on paper, this weekly course will get you going. We'll reveal the tricks and conventions of telling true stories, and we’ll show you how to use the techniques of the novel to recount actual events. Weekly writing exercises and friendly feedback from the instructor will help you move forward on this writing adventure. Whether you want to write for your family and friends or for a wider public, don't miss this course.

Fee:$159.29 plus 13% hst = $180 (Space still available in this class)

To reserve your spot, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

The Calling a YA novel by Kelley Armstrong,
a New York Times #1 bestselling author
and one of Brian's students

Writing Kid Lit ~ Picture Books to Young Adult

Thursday evenings, April 12 – June 14, 2018

7 – 9 p.m.

Appleby United Church, 4407 Spruce Ave, Burlington, Ontario (Map here.)

From picture books to young adult novels, this weekly course is accessible for beginners and meaty enough for advanced writers. Through lectures, in-class assignments, homework, and feedback on your writing, we’ll give you ins and outs of writing for younger readers and set you on course toward writing your own books. 

We’ll have two published children’s authors as guest speakers: 

Jennifer Mook-Sang grew up in Guyana and moved to Canada when she was fourteen. While reading bedtime stories to her two sons, she fell in love with picture books and decided to write one of her own. In one of Brian Henry's classes she found the beginnings of a story. That story grew into the humorous middle-grade novel Speechless, published by Scholastic in 2015. 

Speechless won the Surrey Schools Book of the Year Award, was shortlisted for many others, and was recommended by the Ontario Library Association, the Canadian Childrens’ Book Centre, the CBC, and the TD Summer Reading Club. 

Then in October 2017, Jennifer published her first picture book Captain Monty Takes the Plunge with Kids Can Press. Captain Monty is the boldest, stinkiest pirate to sail the six or seven seas; in fact, he’s never had a bath. Naturally, the Junior Library Guild immediately selected him for its fall list of recommended books. Captain Monty has also been nominated for the Rainforest of Reading Award and Jennifer will be travelling to St. Lucia for that Festival in March.

Jennifer lives in Burlington, Ontario. You can find out more about her here. 

Speechless is available online here. And Captain Monty Takes the Plunge is available here.

Kira Vermond is an award-winning writer with over 1,500 articles to her name. She has been a frequent contributor to the Globe and Mail, Chatelaine, CBC and Today's Parent.

Kira is the author of four nonfiction books for young readers: Half-Truths and Brazen Lies, (read more about Half-Truths here);  Why We Live Where We Live (more here);  Growing Up: Inside and Out, (nominated for on Ontario Library Association Forest of Reading Award) and The Secret Life of Money: A Kid's Guide to Cash (which was my son’s and daughter’s favourite book  the year it came out, although my kids are four years apart). Kira lives in Guelph, Ontario. 

Fee: $176.11 plus 13% hst = 199 (Space still available in this class)

To reserve your spot, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

The Next Step in Creative Writing

10 weeks of creative growth

Thursday afternoons, April 12 – June 14, 2018
12:30 – 2:45 p.m.

First readings emailed April 5

Woodside Branch of the Oakville Public Library, 1274 Rebecca St, Oakville, Ontario (Map here)

The Next Step in Creative Writing will challenge you to take a step up in your writing. Over the ten weeks of classes, you’ll be asked to bring in five pieces of your writing for detailed feedback. All your pieces may be from the same work, such as a novel in progress, or they may be stand alone pieces. You bring whatever you want to work on.
Besides critiquing pieces, the instructor will give short lectures at the start of class, addressing the needs of the group, and in addition to learning how to critique your own work and receiving constructive suggestions about your writing, you’ll discover that the greatest benefits come from seeing how your classmates approach and critique a piece of writing and how they write and re-write. This is a challenging course, but extremely rewarding.

Fee: 176.11 + 13% hst = 199. (This class is currently full but a spot may well open up, so email to get on the waiting list.)

To reserve a spot now, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca 

Intensive Creative Writing
Ten weeks towards becoming a better writer

Offered in three locations:

Friday mornings, 10:15 – 12:45, April 6 – June 22

first readings emailed March 31

Glenview Church, Bethlehem Room

1 Glenview Ave, Toronto, Ontario (Map here.) – Class full.

And

Wednesday evenings, 6:45 – 9:00 p.m., April 11 – June 14

first readings emailed April 4

St. Alban's Church, 537 Main Street, Georgetown, Ontario (in the village of Glen Williams – Map here.) – Space still available in this class.
And

Tuesday afternoons, 12:30 – 2:45 p.m., April 10 – June 19

first readings emailed April 3

Appleby United Church, 4407 Spruce Ave, Burlington, Ontario (Map here.) – Waiting list only.

Intensive Creative Writing isn't for beginners; it's for people who have been writing for a while or who have done a course or two before and are working on their own projects. Over the ten weeks of classes, you’ll be asked to bring in five pieces of your writing for detailed feedback. All your pieces may be from the same work, such as a novel in progress, or they may be stand alone pieces. You bring whatever you want to work on. 

Besides critiquing pieces, the instructor will give short lectures addressing the needs of the group, and in addition to learning how to critique your own work and receiving constructive suggestions about your writing, you’ll discover that the greatest benefits come from seeing how your classmates approach and critique a piece of writing and how they write and re-write. This is a challenging course, but extremely rewarding.

Fee: $176.11 + 13% hst = $199

To reserve your spot, email: brianhenry@sympatico.ca

Instructor Brian Henry has been a book editor and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. He publishes Quick Brown Fox, Canada's most popular blog for writers, teaches creative writing at Ryerson University and has led workshops everywhere from Boston to Buffalo and from Sarnia to Saint John. Brian is the author of a children’s version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (Tribute Publishing). But his proudest boast is that he’s has helped many of his students get published. 

Read a review of Brian's various courses and workshops here (and scroll down).

See Brian’s complete current schedule here,  including writing workshops, weekly writing classes, and weekend retreats in Algonquin Park, Bolton, Barrie, Brampton, Burlington, Caledon, Georgetown, Guelph, Hamilton, Ingersoll, Kingston, Kitchener, London, Midland, Mississauga, Oakville, Ottawa, Peterborough, St. Catharines, Saint John, NB, Sudbury, Thessalon, Toronto, Windsor, Woodstock, Halton, Kitchener-Waterloo, Muskoka, Peel, Simcoe, York Region, the GTA, Ontario and beyond.