Creative Writing

Creative writing
This module takes a student-centred approach to creative writing, offering a range of

strategies to help you develop as a writer. The emphasis is highly practical, with
exercises and activities designed to ignite and sustain the writing impulse. The five-
part module starts by showing ways of using your memory and experience and
building a daily discipline. This is followed by demonstration and practice of the three
most popular forms – writing fiction, writing poetry, and life writing (biography and
autobiography). The concluding part aims to demystify the world of agents and
publishers, teaching you how to revise and present your work to a professional
standard.
What you will study

This module is suitable for new writers as well as for those with some experience who
would like to develop their skills. It will help you to identify your strengths and
interests as a writer by giving you the opportunity to write in a range of genres:
fiction, poetry, biography and autobiography. The emphasis is on finding your own
directions and styles through experiment, practice and constructive feedback. The
module is suitable not only for aspiring writers, but for anyone with a strong interest
in reading and writing, who would like to deepen their understanding of the creative
process.
The module is structured around five parts. The introductory part, The Creative
Process, focuses on developing a habit of writing. It examines a range of strategies
including clustering, morning pages, and keeping a writer’s notebook, as well as
statements from writers about their own approaches and practices.
Part 2, Writing Fiction, introduces the main aspects of narrative including story
structure and genre; showing and telling; character; point of view; and place and time.
In Part 3, Writing Poetry, the role and function of poetry are discussed. The main
formal strategies and poetic devices are introduced, including lines; line breaks;
enjambment; rhyme and half-rhyme; varieties of metre; stanzas; and forms.
Part 4, Life Writing, looks at biography and autobiography. Some of the central issues
raised by life writing are discussed, including the nature of memory and forgetting,
the performance of the self, and the representation of others. There are suggestions for
finding subject matter, with an emphasis on the importance of memory.
The final part, Going Public, outlines the requirement for professional presentation of
manuscripts and an understanding of audience and market.
At the core of the module is a Workbook that takes you week-by-week through the
five parts. The emphasis is very much on practice through guided activities, supported
by supplementary articles and literary examples including poems, prose extracts and
complete stories to illustrate particular methods or strategies. Four audio CDs contain
interviews with writers talking about their own inspirations and methods, and with
representatives of the publishing industry.
Online tutor-group forums enable peer discussion of some of your work and allow
tutors to make general points of relevance to the whole group.
Your tutor will support you through assignment feedback, and through five online
tutorials. Your electronic tuition is supported by two face-to-face day schools. Your
tutor also offers general support throughout the module, as you progress through the
Workbook, which is the principal guide to your learning.
For further information visit the A215 website.
What you will study

This module is structured in four parts. At the core of the module is a handbook that
takes you week-by-week through methods, readings and writing exercises. This
handbook covers the first three parts of the module. The fourth part is a period of
independent study and project work.
Part 1: Ways of writing

You'll begin by looking at different approaches to writing. In particular you'll focus
on the influence of genre, contrast, research, revision and drama on writing style.
Work includes readings and writing exercises in fiction, poetry, and life writing.
Part 2: Writing drama

You'll progress to explore writing techniques for three dramatic media: stage, film and
radio. You'll examine the conventional layouts and illustrates the narrative strengths
and constraints of each medium. This part will also deal with dramatic principles
connected to dialogue, subtext, status and exposition, as well as media-specific
elements such as sets for the stage, aural contrast in radio and montage in film.
Part 3: Developing style

You'll look at how some of the methods used in dramatic writing can improve fiction
writing, life writing and poetry. For example, looking at the connection between
dramatic monologues and fictional narrators; examining the connection between film
techniques such as montage and the way fiction might be structured. This section goes
on to explore writing approaches in wide-ranging fashion, covering poetic form,
rhetoric and the use of analogy. You’ll focus on improving your writing style and
voice in all genres.
Part 4: Independent study

This final part involves working on a larger project, culminating in the presentation of
an end-of-module assessment comprising a substantial piece of creative writing in one
of the forms taught in the module – fiction, poetry, life writing or drama.
As in Creative writing (A215), the emphasis is very much on practice through guided
activities, although as the module progresses you will increasingly be expected to
generate and develop your own ideas without reliance on the study materials. In
comparison to the OU level 2 module the emphasis will be on working independently
to enhance and improve your writing style and voice. You will generate slightly fewer
projects but these will be of more substantial length and you will spend longer
developing, editing and redrafting your work. You will write a dramatic adaptation
and explore the influence of drama on your work.
A DVD and audio CDs will provide you with excerpts from films, stage and radio
plays as well as interviews with novelists, poets and scriptwriters.
Online tutor-group forums will enable peer-group discussion of some of your work.
You will be expected to engage in these activities, giving impersonal and informed
evaluations of your own and others’ work through constructive criticism. One of the
TMAs involves writing a critique of the work of your peers, as posted on the online
forum.

Creative Writing

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Creative writing

This module takes a student-centred approach to creative writing, offering a range of

What you will study

For further information visit the A215 website.

What you will study

Part 1: Ways of writing

Part 2: Writing drama

Part 3: Developing style

Part 4: Independent study

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