Creative writing class

Mark and I are taking a creative writing class here in Ireland. We have been to 2 of 5 classes so far and are enjoying it immensely. The instructor is a playwright, poet and university lecturer, Kevin Wallace. He has given us a decent insight into the life of a writer and some fun writing exercises to get us writing. Both Mark and I have written tons in the 7 hours of class time, it is interesting to see how differently our styles and ideas are expressed and to hear the work our classmates create (as you can imagine there are a few interesting characters in this creative writing class ;). The focus yesterday was on prose, today it was poetry. I may post some of the exercises later in the week when I have had time to digest everything a little more.

I have been reading this excellent book called 'Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting' by Robert Mckee and many of the points that are made in this book Kevin has made in his class. It is very affirming. I highly recommend the book for anyone interested, not just in screenwriting, but in writing short stories or even novels. The principles of writing outlined seem to transcend all writing genres. I am thinking of ways to extend some of the ideas to poetry writing too.