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If you love to write creatively but haven’t had the opportunity to hone your skills and learn the craft, this module is for you. Throughout the semester, you’ll work towards creating an original, artistically ambitious, technically skilled and professionally polished short story.

You’ll practice the techniques professional writers use to create compelling narratives and avoid common pitfalls like tropes, stereotypes, and writers block.

You’ll underpin this with analytical reading and research into genre, form, stylistics, and craft. Through this module you will discover the nuances of plot, character development, narration, structure, and feedback to help you build your professional writing practice. Furthermore, you will learn to identify reader expectations over genres, movements, and age-ranges, allowing you to target your writing to where it will make the most impact, politically and commercially.

Throughout this module you will work with fellow students to problem-solve and collaborate on original pieces of writing. You will debate the intersections of an author’s time, place, and political message to discover if the author truly has a ‘voice’. Finally, you’ll hone your skills in self-reflection and editing to take you from the first draft to submission.

LO1: critically discuss and estimate a wide range of work developed and encountered during the course of the module.
LO2: illustrate an understanding of the diversity of techniques and practices used in the creative process.
LO3: develop your own voice and style in the genre of your choice and illustrate an ability to review your own work.
LO4: explore the relationship of creative literature to the period it is written in, the target audience and reception, for a fuller understanding of the author’s intention and what ‘works’.
LO5: select and discuss literary theory and criticism.
LO6: demonstrate an ability to participate in class discussions and in-class writing sessions.