Raw Writing, founded by author and teacher Carla Jenkins, is a growing community of over 500 members. With face-to-face and online courses, author masterclasses, live events and gatherings that celebrate creative writing at every stage, Raw Writing is about more than just writing — it’s about finding your voice, building confidence, and being part of a warm, creative community.
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GROUP CLASSES
Small group (max. 8) Memoir and Novel courses take place throughout the year at The Phoenix Arts Centre in Exeter. With the limited class sizes, everyone gets a good amount of attention.
For a full list of courses available, please visit our courses page
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Reviews
The below are reviews from past attendees of Raw Writing courses and classes.
If you would like to leave a review, please do so here.
Posted on Tony Priest The course administration was straightforward and smooth. The location of the venue was very convenient for me, near the city centre train station. Carla, our tutor, really was excellent. Her subject knowledge is broad and deep and her passion for developing writers obvious. Carla had a most engaging, interested manner with students, was generous with her time and full of positivity. The course provided very good value for money and I would recommend it wholeheartedly without reservation. Tony PPosted on martin simmons Alex Robbins if Raw Writing delivered a superb set of 6 sessions on playwrighting. Knowledgeable and experienced, his style was to immerse the group in a quick-pace series of short exercises as a way of exploring, structure, place, dialogue, directions etc. At the end, our 10 minute plays were performed by actors at the Barnfield Theatre in Exeter. A fantastic opportunity and great value.Posted on R Kendall I participated in the six-week Introduction to Playwriting course run by Raw Writing and led by Alex Robbins. It was a consistently interesting and inspiring course and finished with a live performance of ten-minute plays written by each participant staged at the Barnfield Theatre. I couldn't have asked for a better course: I was introduced to new writing exercises, writers, and ideas and my own dramatic writing came on leaps and bounds. This is the only Raw Writing course I have so far participated in but I doubt it will be my last. Raw Writing strikes a nice balance between free and paid for courses, between work- and community-focused events, and between teacher-led exercises and opportunities for freeform creative writing. Overall, Raw Writing really helps Exeter live up to its status as one of the UK's Cities of Literature.Posted on Jo Burgess Such a brilliant course. I began with no idea of where to start. By the end of the course I had a draft to be proud of and some lovely new writing friends. Thank you. I will be back for more.Posted on Jennifer Bleasdale Attended Raw Writing Pick and Mix course with Carla Jenkins recently. Excellent introduction to wide variety of ideas, styles and discussion. Loved it. Too short! Highly recommend it to get one off ones metaphorical writing bum.Posted on louise banks Having joined the Memoir course, Mondays soon became my favourite day of the week - a sanctuary from all other commitments and a chance for some cathartic reflecting and writing. Carla guided us with inspiring material and prompts. The feedback from both her and fellow attendees really helped me hone my writing skills and shape my thoughts. I valued the mutual support in the group and we soon formed a strong and special bond. Within a short space of time my work developed in a way I had always hoped it would. Booking onto this course was such a great move and has literally started a new chapter in my life.Posted on Tara Fletcher The quality of the courses run at Raw Writing are excellent. I have done two courses now with Carla and I can honestly say that they have both exceeded expectation. The courses are well planned, paced and professionally delivered. Carla's passion for writing and writers is infectious and at the end of each lesson you can't help but be completely revved up to pursue your own writing goals. She really is a wonderful teacher!Posted on Karen Huckvale Raw Writing’s Pick & Mix course was the perfect start to writing this year: engaging, informative and encouraging. There was a good – but comfortably small- group of people, interesting exercises and helpful feedback. Thanks to Carla and Adam for being so approachable. I’ve signed up for the short story course starting in March…Posted on dave clo I really enjoyed this short course. It was a great opportunity to meet other aspiring storytellers, share ideas and (supportively) critique each other’s offferings. If you’re interested in developing your skills as a writer then this is an excellent course. My one criticism is that, at 1.5 hours in duration, it felt each class was over too soon. Perhaps extending class time to 2 hours might allow the sessions to breathe.Posted on PowerFlowDevon Thoroughly enjoyed what was my first step into the world of creating writing. Carla steered our small group towards our own individual paths with skilled and gentle subtlety providing (from my own experience) a wonderful introduction into a world I had only watched from the sidelines. I think I might be hooked…Google rating score: 5.0 of 5, based on 84 reviews