Jan Quinn has made everything from jewellery to sweaters and now she’s crafting writers.

For the past six months she’s been helping would-be authors through a creative writing course at the Bermuda Musical and Dramatic Society.

Already she’s seeing signs of its effectiveness. One of her students received an honourable mention for a short story in a competition put on by The Bermudian magazine; Ms Quinn earned the same honour for a poem.

“The creative writing class was just something I wanted to do,” the owner of crafts store Handmade Bermuda said.

“I’m a member at BMDS and they have been a great support.”

In the class she offers writing prompts such as book titles or pictures, and, each week, students read out their work. They sometimes ask someone else to read it, if they are feeling shy.

Ms Quinn said having an audience motivates many of her students. They also have to be disciplined to produce work each week.

“If they don’t bring something to class to share they might feel left out,” she said.

Now, she is hoping to sign up more students. She normally has about six students show up every week and she has room for ten.

As a child, she loved to write, but somewhere along the way, she forgot about her interest.

“Sometimes life takes over,” she said. “I found myself in my late twenties thinking ‘what happened to that ‘and wanting to do it some more.”

The 53-year-old started taking a writing class while living in London.

“The class was taught by an old man,” she said.

“In the end, he retired from teaching in classrooms and started inviting his favourite students to his home once a week. He is still living and still doing it. He had several stories read out on the radio.”

One day her mentor encouraged her to start teaching creative writing saying, ‘you could do this’.

At first, she dismissed his suggestion, but the idea grew, and she began teaching an online writing course on a women’s website in England.

She moved to Bermuda seven years ago and is married to Bermudian Richard Amos.

“I have written a book,” she said.

“It is about wives in a fictitious polygamous cult. It is about their relationship with each other.”

But she said, she hasn’t gotten around to publishing it because it needs a rewrite.

She has perfectionist tendencies that run through all the different things she does.

“I don’t like a teaspoon out of place in my kitchen,” she said, “and I don’t like a comma out of place either.”

But she said she has never seen a piece of writing that didn’t have something good going for it. “Whatever needs improving, I can help them with that,” she said.

She edited her friend Val Tyler’s book, Time Wreccas, that was nominated for a Waterstone’s prize in 2006.

For those who don’t have the time to take her class, she has some writing prompts on her Facebook page at www.facebook.com/Bermudacreativewriting.

The class is held every Wednesday at Daylesford from 7pm to 9pm.

It is $95 for every six weeks of class.

“I don’t require students to pay up front,” she said. “I allow people to just come in and take one class to see if they like it.”

For more information e-mail janquinn3@aol.com or call 536-4043.