Writers might be solitary creatures much of the time, but that doesn’t mean we are finding the current restrictions any easier to deal with. Our nature leads us to keeping our minds active, and like everyone else, we are missing being with friends and colleagues at social gatherings, conferences and events.
Purely by chance, a project I’ve been working on for a while now is coming to fruition at just the right time. I’m talking about the Romantic Novelists’ Association’s new online learning programme #RNALearning.
Teaching and writing are two things I’ve done all my life, and I’m also a bit of a geek. When online training was first suggested to me in my day job as an IT trainer, I wasn’t too thrilled. I like face to face contact with people I’m teaching. They are more likely to laugh at my jokes that way. But once I started training online, I soon became a convert.
It’s so easy to attend an online course. There’s no special technology needed – just the internet. If you can watch a cute cat video online and send an email, you can do an online course. And in the current world, it’s a great way to keep our minds active in a lockdown.
Online courses can include watching videos (and not feeling guilty about it), joining online chat (see previous comment re guilt), downloading notes and doing exercises. It’s a great way to maintain contact with other writers, and because it’s online you can make it fit into whatever your time commitments are.
The RNA’s courses are open to anyone to join, whatever genre they are writing. Tutors will cover topics of interest for writers at all stages of their career, using the RNA’s online learning portal, via Moodle, a standard teaching tool used in many colleges and universities.
It’s my great joy to be the tutor for the scheme’s pilot course: Taking the Plunge – Your Submission Pack – which runs for the entire month of May. This is aimed at anyone who wants to follow a traditional publishing route and submit their work to an agent or traditional publisher. I’ll be talking about giving a book the best possible chance with agents and editors: preparing the MS, writing a synopsis and cover letter and what to do when the answer is no – or what to expect if it’s yes. Most importantly, there’ll be exercises and feedback for everyone. At the end of the course, participants should have their submission pack ready to go.
We started planning this last year – and never expected to be launching it in a world turned upside down by crisis. I hope it will be more than just a learning experience full of useful information for writers – I also hope it will help us all feel more positive in this difficult time.
Bookings are now being taken for the first course. Details can be found at:
https://romanticnovelistsassociation.org/rna-learning-intro-page/ or email janetgover@romanticnovelistsassociation.org
About the author: Janet Gover is a former journalist and IT specialist turned award-winning novelist. She is also a qualified trainer and a well regarded writing tutor. She runs the RNA’s New Writers’ Scheme and is part of the Association’s education team.