Thursday, February 23, 2006

My Creative Writing Course

My creative writing course kicks off again next month, with MPH giving it a home once more. For which I am eternally grateful.

I haven't advertised it yet. Not because I'm slow and inefficient (which actually, yes, I am) but because I'd had a whole lot of folks who expressed interest in the course last year and were left in mailing-list limbo, so I have to give them priority. And then there's the word of mouth factor. Participants enjoyed the experience and passed the word onto friends. Thanks too to Yvonne for the publicity on her blog! (I may take her on as full-time publicist!)

I keep the group size small (I aim for 10 max) so that everyone gets plenty of time to share their work, but that means that courses fill very quickly.

The course will run on Tuesday nights 7.30-9.30 from 14/3-18/4/06. The price is (notionally!) RM450 but with the MPH Reader's Card there is now a 20% discount.

If you are interested, please contact me directly:

sbakar@streamyx.com or 012-6849935

And I'll send you all the details.

April/May I will be running the course in-house for a corporate client ('bout which I can say nothing at the moment), which means that the next public course will be in June. I'm also in the process of planning one or two follow-up courses, and short workshops for fun. My head is veritably buzzing with ideas!

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

any plans to do a course via video conferencing in the future?

bibliobibuli said...

what a novel idea! but no ... i think there wouldn't be the same intimacy ...

Chet said...

You want intimacy, you gotta suggest to MPH to throw out those chairs and tables and give you sofas instead. Plus a real coffee maker. By the way, I hope you'll consider asking your students to bring their own mugs - one way of achieving intimacy. Better than those paper cups and no spoons!

bibliobibuli said...

yeps chet. point taken. i loved the course i ran at darling muse. the ambience was amazing. but the rental had to be passed on to participants and i didn't feel so happy about that.

still looking for the perfect venue in bangsar/damansara. somewhere beautiful and creative but cheap.

(one day my own purpose built centre!)

own mugs? they'd never remember, chet.

sorry i kept forgetting spoons - but 1)sugar isn't good for you 2) you can always use your pen

Chet said...

There's a book cafe near where I now live in Damansara Perdana (almost next door to IKEA). Wanna check it out one of these days? It has sofas and all. Quite spacious. They might agree to letting you have a corner, altho you and your students may have to pay for the coffee.

Chet said...

P/S Make your own mugs and offer them free with your writing course. A tagline to the effect "I survived Sharon Bakar's creative writing course."

Chet said...

One more thing - sugar's not good for you? But those darn 3-in-1 coffee sachets already come with sugar, lah.

bibliobibuli said...

chet - you're being incredibly creative this morning

will of course sus out the book cafe with you (another assault on ikea planned soon) - but can't do course in a public space

sugar? haha wondered if you'd catch me out ... you should have pointed out all those e-number rich multi-coloured wriggly gunmmy kids snacks i bring along to make people loosen up a little

mugs? ah yes. now we're moving in merchandising ... and why not? i have plans to make notebooks ... maybe even t-shirts ... and have a lovely mascot with the 'angel man' that jaeson created for me ... just add inspiring words

you could be my marketing manager!

Kak Teh said...

yap, with video conferencing, I'd be the first to register. I have yet to register with the creative writing course here as so many things are getting in the way. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

I do not mind about the sugar but the caffeine.... Although a good class of wine would tease the muse,uplift the mood and crash.. the course into a million of little laughs! For more severe brain damage, I have heard that (designer)absinthe is in fashion again. Avis aux amateurs.

Anonymous said...

I meant 'glass' and not 'class'. Lapsus are so grass!

bibliobibuli said...

Kak teh - do hope you enrol for that course!

I meant 'glass' and not 'class'. Are you sure you haven't been imbibing already?

Maybe you're more thunk than you drink you are?

Perhaps I should think about the absinthe?

Anonymous said...

My dear, I was born imbibed, and not with a silver spoon in my mouth, thus my many slips of the tongue! See you tonight

bibliobibuli said...

i can't drink ... if i did i'd be a bibulousbibiobibuli imbibing ...

Anonymous said...

you do in-house courses as well? waaaah! hey if I ask around my college and if there's enough interest, will you come?

Anonymous said...

Can I join too?? I'd like to be apart of the creative writing seminar. Hopefully it fits into my schedule. I'll e-mail you shortly, Sharon.

bibliobibuli said...

yvonne - that can be negotiated, for sure ... would also arrange to do it at a discounted rate if i didn't have to spend time on things like finding venue, recruiting participants etc. ... only thing is i'm pretty busy now until end may ...

eternal wanderer - yes, get in touch.

Anonymous said...

A "novel" idea indeed :)

Anonymous said...

y'know, one day I might join you. There's a lot about poetry (good poetry) that people don't get. It's almost a shame to call them poems. Poems are what you write in your free time, what kids write to each other as a matter of growing up. Not to say there isn't a beauty in that, but well, other things. Need to be explained.

Want a co-presenter ? :)

bibliobibuli said...

haha ... not even sure you exist anonymous

Anonymous said...

I probably don't.. but then that hasn't stopped a lot of people :)