Stories

This is a workshop designed to help you acquire the basic rules and techniques of creative writing. Along the term you will be developing your own short story. We will look at the essential theoretical and practical aspects of narrative composition and stylistics, and you will work on your original ideas and develop them into a short creative fictional story. As a group we will analyze each individual’s work and help each other through feedback and criticism to produce the perfect story. You will learn how to develop character, plot and dramatic arc, how to build up emotions and suspense within a written text. The aim of the module is to help you develop your writing skills and creative thinking, to help you express yourself in new ways, use language flexibly and structure written text to make it accurate, engaging and thought-provoking at the same time. You will also learn that writing is rewriting – the first version of any text is only a draft, excellence comes through revision, and an openness to others’ feedback and advice is essential, thus you will also learn to give, accept and interpret criticism, and to express and argue your opinions.