I completed OU A174 Creative Writing in 2012 and now in 2020 I have signed my first publishing contract: a 3-book deal with Poolbeg in Dublin.

You can follow my writing journey year by year, through my Short Stories.

Nowadays you can do A174 for free via OpenLearn and after that you might go on to do a BA in arts and humanities or an MA in Creative Writing.

I went on to do A215 and A363 in Creative Writing and after that flitted around the internet via NaNoWriMo, the Telegraph Creative Writing Group, Writers’ Workshop (now Jericho Writers), the University of Iowa MOOCs, and Wexford Write Club- Red Books. I made a lot of writing buddies along the way.

Critique has been the key to the journey: get someone else to read it.

What was great? – embroider it.

What wasn’t great? – improve it.

Free eBooks on Creative Writing from the Open University: