Creative Writing 101 Course with Naomi Ishiguro – Jericho Writers
Jericho Writers
167-169 Great Portland street, 5th Floor, London, W1W 5PF
UK: +44 (0)330 043 0150
US: +1 (646) 974 9060

Creative Writing 101 with Naomi Ishiguro

Stimulate your creativity and get into the habit of writing with this fun course for beginners, and see where your imagination takes you!

Creative Writing 101 with Naomi Ishiguro

Are you eager to start writing but don’t know where to start? This course is perfect if you’re looking for a complete introduction to the whole creative process.

This course will give you a kick start into the world of creative writing. Whether you’re a new writer or someone who wants the delve into a new creative project, this course will shed light to stimulate your creativity and get you into the habit of writing.

We’ll start by looking at getting inspired and finding your voice, before moving on to in-depth tutorials on how to build great characters, how to structure short stories, and how to draft and edit your work.

You’ll finish the course feeling inspired and energised about writing, and with your own 3,000 word short story, ready to share with readers and maybe even to submit to journals and competitions!

2021 slots are currently all sold out.

This course at a glance:


A Four-Week Course

Running in June and August

Online Learning

Weekly online content

Small Class Sizes

For personal tutor attention

Why Choose This Course?

Weekly Tutorials

All course content including tutorials, exercises, tasks, and reading lists, is uploaded to the course platform on the same day each week.

Feedback On Your Work

Each week, you’ll be set a task to be completed by the following week. Your tutors and peers will then give you feedback on your writing.

A Community of Writers

Each course has 12 students that engage in discussion and peer-feedback every week. Students tend to form strong and lasting bonds, which means the exchange of ideas, friendship and support lasts beyond the course itself.

Lifelong access

Once you’re enrolled, you’ll have full access to all that content permanently. So there’s plenty of time to fit the course around your everyday life.

Key Information

Date: June and August

Duration: 4 weeks

Price: £245 (10% discount for members)

Entry: Book your place now

Location: Online

2021 slots are currently all sold out.

Course Tutor: Naomi Ishiguro


Naomi Ishiguro was born in London, in 1992. Her first novel, Common Ground, will be published by Tinder Press in March 2021. Her first collection of stories, Escape Routes, was published in February 2020. She’s a graduate of the University of East Anglia’s MFA Creative Writing Programme, and spent two years in her early 20s working as a bookseller. Naomi currently teaches regular creative writing courses for children with All Write Now, and has run numerous creative writing workshops for adults, undergraduates and teenagers.

Course Syllabus

Week 1 – Getting inspired, and finding your voice

Finding that first spark of inspiration for a short story can be a difficult process, but there are definitely tricks to making it happen. We’ll look at some of the ways you can go out and find great ideas, instead of simply waiting for them to strike. We’ll also look at how to develop your own, unique creative voice. What kind of writer do you want to be? And how can you really sound like yourself on the page?

Outcome: You’ll learn some techniques and exercises to help find that initial idea for your short story. You’ll also work on how to develop a literary voice that really feels like your own.

Week 2 – Crafting characters to fall in love with

Writing great characters is often the key to getting your readers emotionally involved with your fiction. Whether your characters are kind-hearted, relatable, supernatural or villainous, it’s an invaluable skill to be able to build characters your readers will fall in love with – preferably from the first page! This tutorial will focus on how to do exactly that, and of course on how to create characters you’ll love to write about, too!

Outcome: You’ll learn techniques for building character, and use these to develop the characters for your short story.

Week 3 – Getting to grips with plot and structure

Great stories are structured in all sorts of different and various ways, but every great story has a shape to it, as well as a sense of tightness and coherence. We’ll look at some of the different ways you might want to structure and plot out your story, with a particular focus on where to start telling it, and how to find the perfect place at which to stop.

Outcome: You’ll be introduced to some of the many possible different ways to structure a short story, and you’ll refine the plot and structure of your own short story.

Week 4 – Writing and drafting, and building in detail and specificity

When should you set your creativity free, and when should you edit your work? How should you best go about editing, when it’s the right time to be doing it? This tutorial will focus on how to get that first draft written, and how to nail the process of refining it. We’ll look at how to make sure your story is really communicating what you want it to, and how to polish it up to a shine by sharpening details and building in moments of specificity and sense of place.

Outcome:
You’ll get that last boost you need to finish a full first draft of your story, and then you’ll learn some fail-safe ways to perfect it.

We’ve helped hundreds of writers get published

I am deeply indebted to my Jericho Writers editor, who has now been with me since 2013 and seen my writing evolve across three manuscripts.

Peter Papathanasiou

Author, ‘Son of Mine’
Quotation Mark Quotation Mark
Quotation Mark Quotation Mark

Creative Writing 101 with Naomi Ishiguro

£245.00

Creative Writing 101

Frequently asked
questions

1

How many hours work per week should I be putting in?

We suggest putting in two hours a week if you can, but obviously the more hours you put in the more you’ll get out. You’ll want to read the tutorials, do the exercises, and contribute to peer-feedback.

2

Is this course for UK writers only?

No, we work with writers from all around the world. It’s open internationally for writers from all over the world, and all online calls will take place at Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). 

3

How many students will be on the course?

There are twelve students on each course in total. Many go on to become lifelong friends.

4

Will it be possible to ask questions during the course?

Yes. You’ll be working on your own novel throughout the course, and getting plenty of feedback and opportunities for questions .

5

I can’t afford this course, is there something I can do?

We recommend taking a look at our bursary page here. We often have bursaries for under-represented writers, and we always have a bursary space available for each Self-Edit Your Novel course.

6

I have paid for the course and can’t join, can I get a refund?

If you wish to be refunded for the course, you are entitled to a refund up to 14 days before the course starts, but note that an administration fee will be charged. After this, no refund will be possible. To avoid loss, we strongly advise customers to ensure they are able to take the course on the dates advertised, and that they are comfortable undertaking this online. Should a customer wish to transfer their place to the next scheduled course, please note this is only possible if places remain, and an administration fee could still be charged. Please refer to our Terms and Conditions for more details.