CREATIVE WRITING 1 COURSE OUTLINE
A successful learner from this course will be able to:
- identify and understand a wide range of writing forms, such as the short story in fiction
- demonstrate the acquisition of a broad base of creative and critical writing skills, such as the critical analysis of a poem
- draw creatively on their personal experience to construct specific pieces of written work, such as a reminiscence narrative
- apply their learning as transferable skills in other practical and creative contexts, such as reports, letters and essays
1. Introduction to the Course. People getting to know each other. Identifying people’s writing interests. Discuss and incorporate class needs into course layout. Exercise 1 - Mona Lisa. Exercise 2 - Colours. Homework - Describe a memory about a colour, either in poetry or in prose.
2. Critical Skills 1. Looking at why we write, how we write, what we write, where we write and when we write. Exercise 3 - Purpose and Place. Exercise 4 - Time. Homework - Write about a time you would have liked to live in, describing its attractions.
3. Critical Skills 2. Points of view: the eyes through which we see as writers. First, second and third person points of view, and their variations. Exercise 5 - From Every Side. Exercise 6 - About Me. Homework - Write about yourself from the viewpoint of someone else who knows you.
4. The Short Story 1. Read-through and discussion of a selected short story. The challenges of the short story. Exercise 7 - Short Story: write a short story of up to 1000 words on any theme, and complete for homework.
5. The Short Story 2. A continued look at short story writing, reading through and discussing the stories written by the class. Homework - Write a critical piece about what you think the essential elements of a short story are.
6. The Novel 1. A brief study of the demands of the novel. Memorable beginnings and endings. Theme, plot, setting and dialogue. Exercise 8 - Beginnings and Endings: choose the beginning of a novel and the end of a novel from the provided list and continue the stories in your own writing.
7. The Novel 2. An in-depth examination of the role of dialogue and voice, and a critical study of various examples of dialogue drawn from a selection of novels. Homework - Write examples of dialogue on different topics and in different settings.
8. Poetry. A personal overview. Classic forms and free verse. Language and languages. Studying a range of diverse poems. Exercise 9 - Anatomy of a Poem. Exercise 10 - Experiments in Structure: write a poem using haiku, tanka or shaped forms. Homework - Write a poem in another form on the same theme.
9. Non-Fiction. A study of non-fiction writing, such as autobiography, biography, historical, academic, technical, how-to, spiritual and self-development. Homework - Write a short piece of non-fiction using one of the approaches discussed in class.
10. Multimedia and Other Writing Forms. Using multimedia and the Internet. Writing in drama, radio, cinematic and song-lyric forms. Exercise 11 - Voices: create a character and then express them in one of the studied forms. Homework - Write a poem, or a piece of fiction or non-fiction of up to 400 words, produced in typed format.
11. Creative Critique. Exercise 12 - Creative Critique: the class divides into pairs to read over and comment on each other’s homework. Discussion about the writing and the experience. Homework - Bring in for next week extracts from your favourite writers.
12. Round-up. Pulling the threads of the course together. Advice about publishing your work. Answering any questions about ideas and issues that have come up during the course.
© John Brewster, January 2009.
