What you will study
This module further develops techniques and approaches introduced in MA Creative Writing part 1 (A802) and allows for more in-depth discussion of writing topics and work in progress. You'll be able to consolidate and build on the writing, editorial, analytical, critical and research skills you've previously acquired, and to develop more sustained pieces of work, and gain greater critical and editorial awareness in the analysis of your own work and the work of your peers. By the end of the module, you will have undertaken a sustained piece of individual work for your dissertation. You'll choose a genre specialism from fiction, poetry, scriptwriting, or creative nonfiction. Your exact study path will depend on your genre specialism. However, all genres will follow a path leading to a period of independent study and the production of a substantial piece of writing.
In Block 1, you will:
- develop advanced reading-as-a-writer skills in your chosen genre,
- further develop writing techniques and technical vocabulary specific to your genre;
- explore aspects of your writing such as research, world creation, endings, experimentation, hybrid forms, voice and tone;
- exchange work with fellow students via forums and online workshops;
- develop advanced critiquing skills, analysing increasingly sustained and evolved pieces of work.
In Block 2, you will:
- explore advanced approaches appropriate to your genre in aspects of writing such as plot, structure, character, the line, the reader, tension, tense and time
- examine your approach to writing and writing with a sense of engagement
- explore and acknowledge the critical influence of writers or works in your genre
- exchange work with fellow students via forums and online workshops
- further develop advanced critiquing skills, analysing sustained and evolved pieces of work.
In Block 3, you will:
- explore cross-fertilisation of ideas from one of the other three genres taught on the module
- develop advanced approaches to elements such as style, intertextuality, political writing, metaphor, writing about the self, critical concepts and performing your work
- exchange work with fellow students via forums and online workshops
- further develop advanced critiquing skills, analysing sustained and evolved pieces of work.
In Block 4, you will:
- engage in aspects of writing such as genre experimentation, the future of your genre; breaching boundaries, playfulness, multidisciplinary and shifting forms
- consider approaches to manuscript and whole book editing
- contemplate the possible future directions of your genre
- exchange work with fellow students via forums and online workshops
- further develop advanced critiquing skills, analysing sustained and evolved pieces of work.
Interspersed throughout the first four blocks of the module, you'll encounter The Writer in The World. These sections explore how writers make a living from their craft and suggest ways for you to engage with the professional world of writing, such as how to go about contacting agents, producers and publishers. The Writer in the World sections also consider online writing as a mode of self-promotion and as a form of publication.
Block 5: Independent study
During this part of the module, you'll work primarily on producing a substantial piece of creative writing (15,000 words of fiction or equivalent in other genres). Depending on your specialism, this will either be a substantial extract from a larger prose work or a collection of poems, stories or complete scripts. You'll be expected to produce this work to a professional standard.
You will learn
This module will help to:
- harness your individual creative strengths, nurturing your ability to generate and develop ideas;
- build a disciplined practice of writing;
- encourage you to read and analyse texts from different cultural settings;
- focus on writing in your chosen genre while appreciating how other genres work and interact;
- further develop your analytical and editorial skills, technical knowledge, vocabulary, and ability to critique both work-in-progress and contextual reading;
- accelerate the development of your conceptual ability, communication skills, and capacity for independent thinking and working;
- further your knowledge of professional writing practice, including an awareness of the publishing/performance sector, networks of practice and freelance possibilities;
- further develop your self-awareness, confidence and reflexivity.