Creative Writing

Taught modules

Compulsory modules

• The Writing Studio (40 credits)

  This is the core module taken by all our students at the beginning of the MA. Through workshops led by our staff and Creative Writing Fellows, it’s designed to lead you out of your comfort zone and get you writing in ways you might never have contemplated. In our virtual space – the studio – you are free to think, write and depart in new directions. It demands a readiness to go out of the “comfort zone” and ask real questions of your own writing.

Optional modules

• Bringing a Story to Life (40 credits)

  You’ll learn about the techniques – the “tricks of the trade”, in a completely positive sense – which highly successful authors use to achieve their aims. You’ll explore how narratives and stories are constructed through elements like plotting, pace, perspective and structure. You’ll be aiming to identify these writerly techniques, to describe them and - most importantly of all – to incorporate them in your own writing.

  We’ll look at:

  • characterisation through dialogue
  • unspoken stories
  • the unreliable narrator
  • omniscient narrators
  • the slow reveal.

• Trade Publishing: Shaping and Selling Stories (20 credits) (20 credits)

  Fiction and non-fiction publishing are perennially popular business models within the publishing world, and the globalisation and digitisation of the consumer book landscape have only enhanced one of the most dynamic and creative sectors of the industry. Within this module, you will explore the range and depth of pitfalls and possibilities intrinsic to this ever-changing aspect of publishing. You will gain an understanding of the importance of verticals in consumer publishing and as well as the elasticity of the role of the author.

• Writing Poetry Now (40 credits)

  What is poetry? What is it for, and what can it do that prose can’t? You’ll focus on contemporary poetry in terms of its functions, as well as its form. While the emphasis will be on your own writing, we’ll also study the poetry of both contemporary and traditional writers from Britain and further afield, who work or have worked in a variety of forms and using a range of techniques.

  You’ll also look at topics like:

  • poetry and place
  • narrative poetry
  • voice
  • confession
  • experiments in form.

• Writing Voice (40 credits)

  You’ll explore methods for writing creatively in relation to voice. We’ll discuss and analyse works by contemporary authors in a range of forms (poems, novels, short stories), to inspire you to explore different voices in your own writing.

  We’ll investigate:

  • how writers create distinctive voices to control and modulate tone and register in a text
  • the interplay of multiple voices (author, narrators, characters)
  • interrelated notions of identity, authenticity, social construction, style and aesthetics.

  Topics will include:

  • Monologue and Dialogue
  • Unreliable Voices
  • Polyphony
  • Children’s Voices
  • Dialect
  • Historicised voices.
     

• Independent Study (40 credits)

  This is a great chance to design your own course of study, allowing you to explore an area of writing that fascinates you. You’ll start by producing a detailed project plan, to be agreed with your supervisor and module leader. You’ll develop high-level research skills, manage your own schedule and produce well-structured, articulate work at master’s level. Examples of independent studies have included: an extended poem developed from the literature and art of ancient Persia, and a pacy novel for young adults set in a militaristic dystopia.

• Craft of Storytelling (20 credits)

  Crafting and telling a story are central to all forms of publishing, and increasingly key in all industries worldwide. This module will build on knowledge from Semester One’s compulsory modules in order to examine and practise the techniques involved in writing and shaping narratives across all forms of fiction and non-fiction, as well as for promotional and brand purposes. Through a range of taught presentations, workshops, and guest lectures, you will learn to identify and implement methods which optimise the potential of narratives across a range of genres and platforms, and for multiple purposes.

• Children's and Young Adult Publishing (20 credits)

  This module explores the development of the market sector and the current shape and business practices of publishing for children and young adults. Topics include picture books, co-editions and translatability; the sector's links to other leisure industries, merchandising and content reuse; editing and censorship; age ranging and gatekeeping; literacy and reading campaigns; and promotion.