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WRITING
REALITY

COURSE LENGTH
START DATE
COMPLETION DATE
AVAILABILITY
COST

10 WEEKS
MARCH 2021
JUNE 2021
TAKING ENROLMENTS
R 6 990

Course Enrolment

Writing Reality 1
Writing Reality 2
Writing Reality 3

Many writers start out with fiction and then cross the open ground to non-fiction, usually to write a memoir. Interestingly, since the movement called “the new journalism” revitalised non-fiction in the 1960s, these sorts of life stories have become some of the most fascinating books published. Consider Tom Wolfe’s The Right Stuff or Alexandra Fuller’s Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight or Jenny Diski’s Sailing to Antarctica. As a journalist I have long had a fascination with writing reality. And I’ve been fortunate enough to be commissioned to write biographies, memoirs, and history. Which is why I’ve put together the non-fiction short course. I’ve a soft spot for turning reality into stories.

Course outline

Module 1 Stories

There are many options when it comes to writing what are called non-fiction narratives: autobiography, memoir, biography, history, travel writing. Which one suits your story? This module looks at the various types of stories and what your position as writer will be in your own story.

Module 2 Characters

Whichever way you look at it, whether you are writing a memoir, a travelogue or a biography, you will have to write about other people. That’s never easy because these are real people. How do you describe them? How to you describe their emotional behaviour? Learn how in this module.

Module 3 Current Events

History and current events at some point will feature in your writing whether you’re writing a travelogue, a memoir or a biography. Often this means descriptive writing and reporting. How do you fit that into your style? There are various ways you can handle this and this module focuses on those techniques. It also looks at style and how best to structure your sentences.

Module 4 Scenes

In this module we’ll look at how to develop your story and how to describe scenes. Scenes are the building blocks of any story and you need to be able to fill them with details so that the reader’s imagination can take over and ‘complete’ your story.

Module 5 Dialogue

You’re now set up for the great leap forward in non-fiction writing: creative non-fiction. Way back in the late 1960s, a bunch of journalists in the United States turned to the novel for ways of hyping up their non-fiction. What really grabbed their attention was dialogue. This module is about dramatisation using dialogue.

Module 6 Research

Non-fiction stories are about facts, they’re about the world out there – reality. So before putting words on the screen, collecting information is important. This is the raw material from which you will write and without it you have no story. This module will show you where to find that raw material in ‘family archives’ and beyond in state archives, libraries, and the internet.

Module 7 Voice

This module returns to the technicalities of writing. You might be wondering about your writing style, and even wondering what is meant by style. Is it a built-in part of you or something you can acquire, something that can be taught? Well, the answer is that it’s a bit of both. You will have an inherent style but you can learn how to improve and sharpen it.

Module 8 Bookends

By bookends, I mean the beginning and ending of your story. Both are critical. The beginning sounds logical but why should you be considering the ending before you’ve even written a word. Well, that’s because ending non-fiction stories, particularly autobiographies, memoirs and biographies can pose a problem, especially if the life that is their topic is on-going. We’ll look at solutions in this module.

Module 9 Revision

You have written the first draft of your non-fiction story. What now? In this module I’ll discuss some of the editing issues you need to be aware of and end with comments on publishing – be that by conventional means or self-publishing.

What you need to know

Writing Reality 4

How does the Course Work

Writing Reality is a nine-module course that lasts 10 weeks. Each week on Monday, a new module is released with extensive notes on the topic, links to interviews with writers discussing the topic, extra reading material, and a chat room forum where we can connect and talk about writing, and where you will have contact with your fellow students. There will be new topics put up for discussion each week. An important focus with each module is your assignment, which is targeted to allow you to experiment with some of the techniques explained in the notes. Each assignment will be reviewed with constructive detailed feedback.

Writing Reality 5

How does the Course Work

Writing Reality is a nine-module course that lasts 10 weeks. Each week on Monday, a new module is released with extensive notes on the topic, links to interviews with writers discussing the topic, extra reading material, and a chat room forum where we can connect and talk about writing, and where you will have contact with your fellow students. There will be new topics put up for discussion each week. An important focus with each module is your assignment, which is targeted to allow you to experiment with some of the techniques explained in the notes. Each assignment will be reviewed with constructive detailed feedback.

Writing Reality 6

How does the Course Work

Writing Reality is a nine-module course that lasts 10 weeks. Each week on Monday, a new module is released with extensive notes on the topic, links to interviews with writers discussing the topic, extra reading material, and a chat room forum where we can connect and talk about writing, and where you will have contact with your fellow students. There will be new topics put up for discussion each week. An important focus with each module is your assignment, which is targeted to allow you to experiment with some of the techniques explained in the notes. Each assignment will be reviewed with constructive detailed feedback.

Course Registration

Writing Reality 7

If you’d like more information about my courses or you’d like to join the next Masterclass, please get in touch via the Contact page.

To register for this course please click the button below.

You can secure your position on the course by filling in and submitting the application form. Once returned, you will be invoiced and on receipt of the course fee you will be notified that your registration has been successful.

To ensure you’ll get a seat allocation, please check the course availability at the top of this page and try to register at least two weeks in advance of the course initiation date.

PAYMENTS

Payment can either be made in a one-off amount or there is a two-payment option.

The cost of the Writing Reality course is
R 6 990

REFUNDS

Should you decide to cancel your participation on the course a 50% refund will be considered before the release of Module 2.

Enrol on this course

At the end of the course

You will have all you need to write your works of non-fiction – whatever genre you’ve chosen. You might now be thinking: what next? Why not sign up for The Writers’ Masterclass which is nine months of supervision. What most writers who’ve taken the Masterclass appreciate are the deadlines – they help you sit down to the business of writing. Because writing is about learning to sit still.

Join me for the next Writers’ Masterclass.

Other courses with Mike Nicol

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Writing Reality 10

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For the past twenty years I have been helping writers get their stories into print. This class offers nine months of online supervision and has a proven track record.

9 Months
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