Online course
Start Writing Poetry
12 weeks
12 weeks
Join us on a journey into the transformative world of writing poetry. On this 12-week online creative writing course you’ll read inspiring poets, explore how poems take shape, and begin to write poems and share your own work with a friendly supportive group.
Module 1 – What is Poetry Anyway?
In this introductory module, you’ll explore where poems come from. You’ll meet your tutor and your peers, and together you’ll generate ideas and share work through a series of exercises. For your assignment, you’ll submit two draft poems to your tutor, for personal feedback.
Module 2 – The Image
In this module, you’ll explore one of the core components of poetry: imagery. You’ll start by looking at similes, and you’ll read poems that use symbolism to provide dual meanings. Again, you can submit up to two draft poems for feedback from your tutor.
Module 3 – The Metaphor
This module takes imagery in poetry to the next level. You will explore what a metaphor is and how to extend one over an entire poem. You’ll play with riddles to discover the double nature of language and you’ll invent your own riddles to put this to the test. You’ll read poems that contain hidden metaphors, as well as poems where the metaphor is extended throughout the piece. You’ll finish by submitting two poems that use metaphor.
Module 4 – White Space
This module looks at the spaces where words aren’t. You’ll read poems that are only one stanza, poems that have multiple stanzas and poems that contain more white space than words. In this module, you’ll also explore the notion of poetry as visual art and you’ll learn how to make shapes with your poetry and experiment with layout to enhance your work.
Module 5 – Who’s Talking?
In this module, you’ll look at narrative voices in poems. You’ll look at dramatic monologues, confessional poems, and transformational poems. You’ll read poems form a variety of voices before sending two draft poems to your tutor for feedback.
Module 6 – Musicality
In this final module, you’ll explore rhythm and rhyme in poetry. You’ll read and listen to poetry out loud to better understand the sound and musicality of poems, and you’ll experiment with meter in your writing. For this final assignment, you’ll submit two draft poems to your tutor for feedback.
If you have any questions, you can get in touch by emailing Vicki at learning@nationalcentreforwriting.org.uk.
Course scheduleThis course runs for 12 weeks and is split into several modules, which each last two weeks. Modules consist of multiple chapters and your progress is tracked throughout, making it easy to pick up where you left off.
Although a module is open for two weeks, you are not expected to dedicate that entire time to the course! Our online courses are designed to fit around a busy lifestyle and each chapter is conveniently bite-sized so that you can always be making progress. On average we expect most students to spend between 3-5 hours per week on a course (this time will be a mixture of reading, community discussions, exercises and assignments). This will vary from student-to-student and some modules may be more intensive than others.
Each module includes smaller exercises and a main assignment. How much time you spend on these is flexible and will depend on your own writing style and process.
Zoom sessions TBC.
Equipment and software: What you needYou will need access to a computer and you will need access to the internet.
You can view the study materials on a mobile device but we recommend using a desktop or laptop computer for working on assignments and taking part in community discussions.
Important: Your web browser must be up-to-date to access the courses. We recommend using Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.
We use two platforms to deliver our tutored online courses:
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“I’ve taken away a much greater confidence in my creative work, an ability to be much more flexible but also decisive with my writing ideas and have learned many new writing techniques and ways of working.”
“I have learned a huge amount on this course. I feel I have leaped ahead in my knowledge of writing and what I am capable of writing at the moment.”
“My output has improved a thousand-fold in both content and quality.”
“The course had a therapeutic effect. I gained a sense of freedom from getting lost in the characterisations and dramas of my stories.”
“The course exceeded my expectations in every aspect with how well-structured it was, the exercises and the feedback. I couldn’t have asked for anything more.”
“Having someone read and feedback on my writing gave me focus and motivation.”
Who is this course for?This course is ideal for people who have done no formal training or courses who want to:
Core areas of expertise: I am an experienced tutor of creative writing and writing mentor. I taught on the undergraduate creative writing degree at Liverpool John Moores University for many years and more recently on the Creative Writing Masters (poetry) programme at the University of East Anglia. I have run writing workshops for all ages in schools, universities, libraries, in association with literary festivals and in the community.
Notable works: My pamphlet Keeping Houston Time was published in 1997 by Slow Dancer Press. My first full-length collection The Anatomy of Structures was published by Flambard Press in 2010. My second collection, Her Birth, was published in 2013 by Carcanet/Northern House. It was shortlisted for the 2013 Forward Prize for Best Collection, won the Poetry category in the East Anglian Book Awards 2013, and in 2015 was shortlisted for the Warwick Prize for Writing and the Portico Prize for Literature.
In 2014, I was selected for The Poetry Book Society’s Next Generation Poets. Carousel, my collaboration with the photographer Chris Routledge was published in 2018 with Guillemot Press. My third full-length collection, Girl, was published with Carcanet/Northern House in 2019 and was shortlisted in the East Anglian Book Awards 2019. I am the recipient of the 2016 Roger Deakin Award from The Society of Authors and winner of the Sylvia Plath Prize 2022.
What’s great about the course? This course is designed to stimulate and inspire. The engaging mix of resources, writing prompts and exercises ensure writers can produce a substantial amount of creative work in the 12 weeks.
I like the atmosphere that is created within the group using the online forum – a friendly space to share work and ideas and chat about the course content. I like interacting on the forum with course participants’, especially their reactions to poems and other stimuli. I like that I can offer detailed feedback on assignments and get to know a writer’s work as the course progresses.
It’s always great to see a participant go on to push themselves a bit further, submit their work to, and get placed in, a national poetry competition. But anyone completing this course will have worked hard and achieved success. It’s a great way to learn more about yourself as a writer and have new poems to be proud of.