Creative Writing: The Novel

Our Creative Writing course encourages those who have an enthusiasm for writing fiction to examine their own creative practice in response to the work of established authors. The five week course will take participants through aspects of structure, style, genre and process. Each session will comprise reading and discussion of published work, followed by a creative workshop where participants will hone valuable techniques.

The course is intended to point aspiring writers towards potential publication in either the novel or novella forms. The course will culminate with a pitching and submission session.

Course Content

Week 1: Inspiration and Opening Ideas

We will look at where writers get their ideas from and how to read the work of others in order to expand your own creative writing. We will also look at the efficacy of planning and writing preliminary plot summaries.

The creative tasks will be aimed at stimulating ideas.

Week 2: Characterisation

We will explore ways of creating believable, convincing characters that fit into credible plots. Character studies will include readings from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Louis De Bernierres, Angela Carter and John Steinbeck.

The creative session will encourage you to begin the assembly of characters through a series of writing tasks.

Week 3: Style

Here we will examine the various ‘voices’ of established writers and begin to focus on your own emerging style. We will look at a diverse range of examples from writers such as Raymond Chandler, Charlotte Bronte, Carlos Ruis Zafon and Charles Dickens. Evocation, description and mood will be key words this week.

The creative session will feature tasks which will engage with the most aesthetic aspects of a writer’s work.

Week 4: Plot and Structure

The rigours and challenges of moving a story towards completion will be the focus in this session. We will discuss implications and permutations in plotting here with reference to some key texts.

The creative session will feature a peer review session of your plot and structure as it stands, together with readings from the emerging narrative.