Guest Blog: Why We Will Do Writing Courses Until We Die! Writers Maddie Rice & Tom Machell on The Value of Their New Courses at Guildhall

Writing is hard, it is. It takes so much to complete something – even when you have completed it, you hate it. Then you love it, then you hate it again, and then you love it (sort of). Then you send it to a friend to read, and then you wait, then you chase, and then you wait again… you get the idea.

We've come up with a solution to help deal with the constant anxiety – surround yourself with other people in the same position. It is a lonely profession, so any opportunity to express and discuss your inner turmoils and character arcs is great. This is why we will do writing courses until we die.

There are so many good things that come from writing courses,

• You never know who else will be on the course; your peers and tutors will be like-minded artists who may become invaluable collaborators and contacts.
• Courses give you time, motivation, and structure to create new work you may not otherwise get around to, with feedback from brilliant creatives.
• You learn new writing exercises and engage in free writing that will birth ideas that’ll end up in things you write for years to come.
• You'll meet other writers to share work with.
• Practice, practice, practice – courses keep you match fit and break you out of habits, testing and training you to be better. In most other industries, you have training days, conditioning, etc. In the arts, we have to find ways to motivate ourselves to do the same.
• Deadlines – This is probably the most important one. If you can put something off, you will, so having a deadline that you have to meet will get you through that next draft.

When we were both writing our first plays, we couldn’t find a course that enabled us to explore and fail in a safe space – a course where we could hear professional actors read our work out loud. A course that made us accountable and gave us those all-important deadlines. So we created one and have now had four cohorts of Creative Writing for Performance Level 1 students at Guildhall.

We are very excited because, for the first time ever, we're offering a Level 2 version of this course for the more seasoned writer. Perhaps you have written before? Maybe you have that draft in the drawer that you would love to work on again, but you aren't sure where to go next with it? Or perhaps you are newer to the writing world and have had some experience but want to explore further in a safe environment. Then come join us for seven weeks.

In the time we have run this course, we have seen several pieces of work move forward and develop into professional productions. We can't wait to see what you bring to the table. So come join us and adopt the mantra that doing writing courses until we die is the only way of dealing with the highs and lows of being a writer.

Maddie Rice and Tom Machell lead Creative Writing for Live Performance, Level 2 at Guildhall School this autumn. Find out more via Guildhall School’s website

Photo Credits: Tom Machell - Pip, Maddie Rice - Michael Shelford