Taking a break from George Eliot’s 'Middlemarch', I picked up Domenica de Rosa’s 'Summer School', poured myself a glass of red and whiled away the afternoon enchanted by the descriptions of the beautiful Tuscan countryside, the thirteenth-century Italian castle and the mouth-watering menu. 'Summer School' is about seven aspiring authors enticed by ads for a writers' retreat Patricia O’Hara runs at her Castello in Tuscany. The writing is warm and witty, and I find myself polishing off a third glass of wine before I forced myself to lay it aside until the next evening. 'Summer School', in my minds eye describes the idyllic writers' retreat and I find myself roaming the internet, dreamily scrolling through the plethora of websites offering writers' workshops in San Gimignano, Siena, Montepulciano, Pienza where through “the ancient history that gathers in every piazza, and in every voice speaking the beautiful Italian language, you will find a well-spring of ideas”, as one website describes it. Having spent a month in Italy a few years ago I need little convincing.The last month we have been discussing writing courses and whether they do indeed help you become a better writer. I’m eagerly awaiting the results of the survey conducted by Barbara. A lot of these courses are also outrageously priced anywhere between $5000 for a Graduate Certificate to well over $30000 for a Bachelor’s Degree. A fortnight in Tuscany at a writer’s retreat costs about 2000 – 3000 euros. I don’t know, but a writers' retreat is sounding better everyday.
4 comments:
Hello Skye. I've had 47 responses to my survey. I was aiming at about 50 so I think this is probably all I will get. It's impossible to form any hard and fast view from such a small sample. However I'm interested in two questions:
1> how many people making a living out of writing having coughed up the money required for fees
2> of these people which University courses did they complete, and were satisfied that the money was well spent
Very soon I intend starting to write...
Barbara
PS Your book review above has reminded me that I want to put a few links to good reviewing blogs online on this site. Think I might set about it right now. One of the problems with print reviewing is the delicacy required by known writers reviewing one another (could miss out on grants, get revenge reviews etc) - I think blogs are probably a less biased medium for reviewing.
Great idea. I hope you had a wonderful time in Turkey, I really enjoyed your blog. For some reason however I had troubles posting comments. I am going back next year and completing my Masters, however I'm changing my major from Writing to English, hence why I'm reading Middlemarch. I want to gain a better knowledge of English Literature as sometimes I feel quite ignorant in this area, a personal journey you could say. I think my writing will improve naturally without doing a course specifically on writing. Also to note, UNE costs $650 a unit in comparison to QUT which is $1600 a unit. Also in regard to studying English you also learn quite a bit a history during the particular period you are studying, for eg. Victorian, Renaissance etc. And as I love history I'm killing two birds with one stone.
My own university background (in the 70s) was a double major in literature, an enormous pleasure from beginning to end, and very challenging, not the kind of doddle that Swinburne presented. I could have done the Swinburne MA with about 1/4 of the brain power my UQ BA required, unlike one of my friends who did a UQ MA on William Blake. She said she had never had to work so hard in her life. I think your choice is a very good one as my own opinion is that reading well makes for writing well. Yes Turkey was amazing and fascinating. I'd love to go again but probably won't (too many other places to see) - ciao for now, see you en blog Barbara
Yes, we were discussing last night at work how a lot of universities have really dumbed down, especially the long distance uni's who are just out to make a buck. I hope UNE as an old, established university will not take that route.
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