If You Were To Devise A Course In Creative Writing, What Would You Include?

If I were asked to create a creative writing course, I would ensure that the writers were all able to take part in a stimulating experience, full able to stretch and exercise their writing 'muscles', all different types of writing should be included, so that writers can explore different modes of creative writing, to develop themselves.

I would begin with some simple writing exercises in writing in response to stimulus, I would include asking the students to read certain work, following the idea that we were readers before we were writers.  This develops their knowledge of style and format, it also gives great examples of how work could/should be.

I would also include work that developed their creative vocabulary.

Next, I would work on poetry, starting with haiku and moving into long rhyming verse and possibly song writing.

Next, we would work on short stories and prose fiction, possible moving onto plays and screenwriting if there was time.

Time is a great factor and any of these areas could be worked on in great depth and studied for years.