Year: Second
Part of the year: Half Year 1
Module Leader: David Belbin
Assessments:
Keywords:
Creative Writing, Fiction, Poetry, graphic novels, commentary
Description:
This module leads to the submission of a 5000 word portfolio, the majority of which consists of three pieces of creative writing. The remaining 1250 words are a commentary on the submitted writing. Advice will be given on how to choose and present your work to best effect and how to write a good commentary. There will be plenty of opportunity to workshop the work to be used in the portfolio. Students will be introduced to a wide range of texts and look at two (in addition to the core text) in detail, as part of the process of identifying where their strengths as a writer lie. This module also prepares students for the Creative Writing dissertation.
You will learn to workshop in small groups, offering and receiving constructive feedback. You will learn how to apply editing and creative skills to commercial work, developing contacts and making use of NTU links to local media, for whom you will write reviews for potential publication. From year to year a selection from the following areas will be offered:
Scriptwriting, General Fiction/Genre fiction/Flash fiction/Young Adult fiction, Poetry, Experimental writing, Editing/proof reading, Writing for Social Media, Creative Non-Fiction, Digital writing, Commercial writing, Review writing
Prerequisites:
None
Useful Information:
Core text:
David Mitchell – Cloud Atlas
Some indicative texts:
Italo Calvino, If On a Winter’s Night a Traveller (Vintage 1992)
Raymond Carver, Beginnings (Cape 2009) & any other short stories
Raymond Chandler, The Simple Art of Murder (Atlantic Magazine, 1945 http://www.en.utexas.edu/amlit/amlitprivate/scans/chandlerart.html)
Jonathon Coe, Like A Fiery Elephant - B.S.Johnson (Viking 2003)
Will Eisner, Comics And Sequential Art (Norton 2008)
Teaching methods/structure:
Interactive lectures including small group brainstorming and other activities with many individual writing exercises. This two hour lecture is followed by one hour writing workshops where brief presentations are followed by workshopping in groups of three or four, for which four copies of printed work (up to 1000 words, sometimes on specified topics) should be brought every week. The module leader sits in with a different group every week.
Should you require to look at the full module specification please contact the School Admin Team at AAHSchool.admin@ntu.ac.uk
Contact details for further queries (module leader):
David Belbin
Email: david.belbin@ntu.ac.uk
Tel: 0115 848 3354;
Office hours in MAE310: http://davidbelbin.youcanbook.me/