I've spent many years running workshops for schools and writers' circles and tutoring on distance learning courses in fiction, non-fiction, scriptwriting and life writing for an international writing school. I'm currently tutoring for the following distance learning courses, so I can recommend them from first-hand experience:

Open College of the Arts (OCA)

• photography,
• fine arts,
• music
• writing

You can take a BA Hons degree on their courses or do them for your own pleasure. The University for the Creative Arts (UCA) will be OCA's partner higher education institution for the validation and accreditation of all OCA undergraduate (subject to validation) and postgraduate courses from 2012. It is already the validating higher education institution for OCA's first postgraduate qualification, MA Fine Art.

Writing courses include:

• basic writing
• fiction
• life writing
• poetry
• writing for children
• scriptwriting

Writer Jane Rogers heads up the writing courses. They are available on three levels. Students work through the manuals, which include exercises leading to written assignments and these are submitted to professional writers/tutors for comment. At the end of the course, students can choose to submit their work for assessment.

I tutor on the basic writing, fiction and life writing courses and am currently in charge of piloting a third level course for people who would like to develop their own project, for example a novel but who need the support of a mentor. First, we agree a schedule of work, then the student submits five extracts of writing for my appraisal and comments. The student benefits from my phone or email support on how to move the work forwards, its marketability and those moments when a boost of confidence is needed.

The latest creative writing course to be launched is called Narrative and Dialogue, a Level 1 course. It is an introduction to narrative and dialogue and it focuses on scriptwriting as a vehicle to help students learn to write in any form that requires plot, structure, dialogue and character and that can 'tell a story'. It's equally valid for scriptwriters as it is for writers whose primary interest is the novel, short story or narrative poetry. I will be tutoring on this course. It is a core requirement for the BA Hons Creative Writing.

Writers' News Home Study

Many of you will be familiar with the Writers' News magazine. The Home Study Division runs distance learning writing courses in a wide variety of genres. I have tutored on the Scriptwriting course for many years and I am now available to tutor the Article Writing and Freelance Journalism Courses.

If any of these courses interest you or if you are interested in writing workshops for schools or writers' circles, please contact me at diane@keywordeditorial.com or through the Contacts Page on this site.