Introduction to creative writing

What you will study

This Continuing Professional Development (CPD) short course will introduce you to three forms of creative writing: poetry, fiction and scriptwriting.

Introduction to creative writing is split into three fortnightly sections. During the first section, you will focus on poetry, next you’ll explore fiction and finally you’ll look at scriptwriting.

Weeks 1–2 focus on poetry. Since we experience the world first through our bodies, you will explore ways to appeal to the five senses: sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. You’ll see how poets such as Malika Booker, Owen Sheers and Jane Yeh have employed these techniques.

Weeks 3–4 concentrate on fiction. Fascinating characters lie at the heart of good stories. Drawing on your experiences, observations, and imagination, you will create convincing characters of your own. And then you’ll learn how to place them into compelling scenarios, following the examples of fiction writers such as Kevin Barry, Jhumpa Lahiri and Courttia Newland.

In Weeks 5–6 you will learn about scriptwriting. Here, you will be introduced to methods for putting words into the mouths of your characters. After all, what they say – and don’t say – is a core component of drama. This is something you’ll get to see for yourself in the work of scriptwriters such as Jonathan Harvey, Ming Ho and Julia Pascal.

At the mid-point of each week, you’ll pause to learn about writing habits – the kinds of rituals, routines and strategies writers tend to find useful for generating ideas, getting started and keeping going.

Each section builds to a 'Bringing it together' point, when you get to try out for yourself the writing skills and strategies you've looked at in published passages or heard discussed by working writers.

As you work through this course, you’ll be building a portfolio of creative writing, which, by the end of Week 6, will include a poem, a short passage of fiction and a few pages of script.

You will learn

Knowledge and understanding

You should gain a knowledge and understanding of:

• wide-ranging creative processes and writing skills
• the importance of experimentation
• your own writerly strengths and interests.

Cognitive skills

You should gain an ability to:

• identify a range of literary techniques
• employ these techniques in your own writing
• appraise your own work accurately.

Key skills

You should gain an ability to:

• develop helpful writing habits
• generate ideas
• compose and redraft a poem, a short passage of fiction and a few pages of script.

Practical and professional skills

You should develop:

• an ability to manage a sequence of work to a series of deadlines
• the capacity to consider different approaches
• an understanding of future study opportunities.

Vocational relevance

This course has relevance for those interested in becoming professional writers as well as those interested in working in the literary industries.

Teaching and assessment

Assessment

There's no formal assessment. However, there will be three 'Bringing it together' points built into the course, which will allow you to employ in your own writing some of the key techniques you've studied.

Regulations