BTW the next course opens on 20th February if you're interested.
Enjoy...
Tutor
Q&A: Heidi Rice
The
first iteration of our Introduction to Writing Hot Romance course has just
finished with great success. We thought we’d see what our tutor, romance author
Heidi Rice, had to say about our unique approach to teaching people how to
write.
Q
- Hi Heidi. We love your work on the Introduction to Writing Hot Romance
course, but what do you enjoy most about teaching writing with the Professional
Writing Academy?
Heidi Rice - I love the time and
flexibility it gives me to really nurture writers over a 7+ week long time
frame. When putting the materials together for the course it allowed me to look
in-depth at the different craft aspects of romance writing, and it amazed me
the different skills and experiences the writers on the course brought to these
disciplines.
Q
- How do you find the online course differs from teaching or running workshops
face to face?
HR - Honestly, I love the
flexibility it gives course participants to develop their writing on their own
timetable. When giving workshops face-to-face it's also hard to make contact
with each individual writer to the extent I can do in this format. Similarly,
when doing face-to-face workshops myself, before I became a published author, I
always felt under pressure to ‘perform’ when given writing assignments. To be
spontaneously brilliant is a lot of pressure, and not how the process of
writing works in reality for most authors (and certainly not for me). It can
take hours, days to write and then edit any piece. Sometimes the writing flows,
but often it doesn’t.
Also, all the materials are
accessible and available throughout the course, so you’re not having to jot
down notes and listen intently - it’s all there to access and refer to at your
leisure when you have the headspace to do so - while at the same time the
course gives you deadlines so you can’t prevaricate or procrastinate too much
(which all writers tend to do given half a chance, me included!). Sometimes,
too, the anonymity of online participation can give writers more confidence
about displaying their work. It’s tough putting your writing out there for
others to read, especially if you’ve never done it before, and being able to
have that little degree of separation can be really empowering. Not everyone is
an extrovert after all, and this can be particularly true of writers!
Q
- Is there anything in particular that makes Professional Writing Academy so
special?
HR - I think the way in which the
Professional Writing Academy’s online classroom works is one of its greatest
strengths. As the tutor, I love the opportunities it gives me to give each
individual writer informed feedback on their writing exercise and also look at
their overall development during the course. Perhaps even more important,
though, are the opportunities it gives for the writers to support and encourage
each other as they learn to critique each other's work.
Writing is an extremely solitary
profession in practice. The support I get from other writers in my genre whom I
interact with online is invaluable to me and something that this course
actively encourages, so that when writers finish the course they have the
potential to continue to use and benefit from those friendships going forward.
Q
- Do you think group teaching is more successful than other approaches?
HR - Definitely. Learning to edit
your own work is an essential part of writing, and the very best way to do that
is to first learn how to read a piece of writing like an author. Then, it’s
important to learn how to improve the qualities in that writing that you
believe don’t work - while also acknowledging and supporting those aspects
which do. Those are all skills that critiquing the writing of your peers
teaches you.
Similarly, having your work
critiqued by your fellow writers gives you an invaluable insight into how an
informed reader views your writing. Seeing how other writers approach the same
exercise also broadens your own perspective. You may think ‘wow, I wish I’d
done that’, or ‘that’s an interesting approach’, or even ‘that doesn’t work for
me’, but as soon as you read that piece - because you’ve had to do the same
thing yourself - you’ll instinctively be looking at what they’ve written
through the eyes of a writer as well as a reader.
The beauty of the group approach,
therefore, is that it means you’re not just learning from your tutor. You’re
also learning from every single other writer on your course. That’s a lot of
extra bang for your buck (to put it bluntly!).
Q
- Do your students ever struggle with peer critiquing?
HR - Writers often lack confidence
in their work, especially if they’re new writers who have never put their work
out there before. They may be apprehensive about having their work criticised,
or conversely criticising the work of others. I always say that it’s okay to be
nervous, but to always remember the online classroom is a universally
supportive and inclusive environment. The other writers want to improve their
writing too, and they know exactly what you’re going through because they’re
right there with you.
By the end of the course I assure
them that they’ll not only have learned so much from the experience of peer
critiquing, but they’ll actually be really excited about getting feedback on
their work.
Q
- Have any students given you feedback about your work on the course?
HR - Yes, and it was great!
Learning to write - in whatever genre - is hard, and it’s a journey that never
ends, so I was really pleased that the feedback I got from students on my first
Introduction to Writing Hot Romance course was so positive about continuing on
their own individual journeys as writers. As a tutor that’s my end goal - not
just to inform writers about the skills required to become a romance author,
but also to enthuse and excite them about their own potential as writers.
Q - Heidi, it’s been
great seeing a tutor’s perspective of teaching on the course, and I hope you’ll
have just as much fun in the future. Thanks!
HR - It’s always a pleasure! Thank you.
_______________
Heidi Rice is a USA Today bestselling author of 24
romantic novels, novellas and short stories. She has sold over 2 million copies
of her books worldwide, had her stories translated into 23 languages and has
finaled three times in the Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA awards
which recognise excellence in romance writing. Her first women’s fiction novel,
So Now You’re Back, was published in February 2016 by Harlequin Mira UK and
described by one Amazon reviewer as ‘a sheer delight’.
