Creative Writing: Fiction and Poetry
This course will look at both reading and writing creatively, studying the work of established British writers - some of whom will visit the course - as well as reading one another's work. We will look at how to start and develop our writing and also revision, and students will be expected to submit revised work towards the end of the course.
The course begins with workshop exercise/discussion seminars, covering a wide range of writing skills including description, character, monologue, dialogue, narrative shape, about form, metaphor and rhythm. Students will produce a typed piece of fiction (c.2,000 words) or poem and a critical/reflective commentary on a rota basis, which will be marked up by the other students and discussed in detail in class.
The workshops will focus on getting started as a writer, using model poems and stories as a way of generating new work. These workshops will be accompanied by individual tuition and they will suit inexperienced, first-time writers as well as students who have already studied creative writing during their university degree.
Students will also use a handbook featuring work by writers including Martin Amis, Simon Armitage, Carol Ann Duffy, Seamus Heaney, Jackie Kay, Hanif Kureishi, Mike McCormack, Paul Muldoon, Helen Simpson and Ali Smith.
Aims:
- To enable students to further develop their skills in writing poems and short fiction
- To improve students' understanding of the imaginative and technical possibilities of creative writing
- To enhance students' powers of critical thinking and skills in written and verbal forms of expression
- To further develop students' expertise, proficiency and confidence in editing their own work and in commenting constructively on that of others, to a level appropriate to work that will form part of the final degree assessment
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of the course unit the successful student will have demonstrated:
- Enhanced skills in the craft of creative writing
- An improved understanding of the imaginative and technical possibilities of creative writing
- Critical and analytical thinking and skills in written expression
- Skills in editing his or her own work, and in commenting constructively on that of others
Classes will meet each morning and be structured around a combination of discussions, presentations and workshops. Outside the classroom, writers will visit the campus and read from and discuss their work with students.
This course will be worth ten UK study credits. These usually equate to three US credits, however it is the prerogative of a student's home university to make the appropriate grade transfer so please consult your International Programmes Office.