Do Creative Writing Courses Work

This may seem like a strange subject to be covered by someone actually running an online creative writing course, but I think it’s important that novice writers get a plain, unvarnished, view of what they can possibly get from professional training.
First of all, let’s analyze writing. We all learned to write at school and some of us continue to do so, if only a letter to our Aunty Betty once a year. But some of us are driven to do more, to express ourselves and write creatively. I don’t know where this impulse comes from and, frankly, I don’t really care. What I know is that I’m infected and have the monkey on my back, I have to write.
Starting out, I was scared, didn’t know if I could write, was scared of rejection and was not going to face ridicule, come what may. But the drive was strong, and no matter how often I tried to resist, or even quit, I’d always find myself back at that damn keyboard. This was in an era before creative writing courses or MAs in Creative Writing. I was on my own. But I persevered and eventually found my voice, improved my work and finally sold. Fifteen pounds for an article, but I was now a professional writer. I had achieved that ambition. Things didn’t get much better after that because I still had a lot to learn and the only way to learn was to write, get rejected and benefit from the experience.
Eventually a measure of success came with vindication for my time and effort, but how much easier could it have been if someone had taken me by the hand as a novice and pointed out the pitfalls, highlighted my flaws and focussed me on where I should be going. Someone who believed in me, that’s all I asked for.
Success breeds success and confidence breeds confidence, and you can interchange these at will. The better I wrote, the more I sold and the more I sold, the better I wrote. It’s making that breakthrough that’s the hard part.
So, to the answer to the question in my title. It is, no.
If you expect a creative writing course to make you a writer, it’s not going to happen. That has to come from within.
But, can a creative writing course make you a more confident writer, with greater chance of success, the answer is a qualified, yes. Qualified, because I’m not going to nail my colours to the mast for every charlatan out there. It’s down to the novice to find the right Course, a Tutor they can trust, a program that isn’t going to drive them into penury.
The Course, if it has any worth, will teach you the techniques and skills required for handling characters, dialogue and plot to the point where you don’t even think about them, they become as natural as breathing. At that point you are a writer. You’re allowed a little ego.
Advice, encouragement, support and perhaps a little love are the least you can expect from a Course. Ensure you’re going to get them by doing a little research. It’s just like buying any other product or service.
But, remember, taking a Course is only one option. The other is to slug it out for yourself and suffer the blows. Your choice.