Bath Spa University

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Creative Writing

Creative Writing combines the acquisition of the skills essential to the practice of writing with the study of exemplary authors; it gives the chance to experiment with a wide variety of forms, and encourages a critical knowledge of the creative industries.

For more information about this course please visit the School of Humanities and Cultural Industries website.

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Our comprehensive programme includes prose fiction of all kinds, poetry of all kinds, scriptwriting for theatre, screen and radio, and non-fiction, such as feature writing, travel writing, nature writing, and biography. We also make films and DVDs, and encourage you to get involved in a wide range of writing related activities, such as readings, exhibitions, and magazines. Our Broadcast and Publishing labs form part of Artswork, Bath Spa University's Centre of Excellence for Teaching and Learning in the Creative Industries. In the Artswork labs, you get the chance to work with practicing industry professionals using state-of-the-art equipment.

The course will encourage you to be confident, adventurous and constructively self-critical in your creative writing, and teach you to prepare your work for submission to literary agents, publishers, broadcasters, magazines, newspapers and other outlets.

You work with writers such as Doug Chamberlin (screenwriter), Tim Liardet (poet), Lucy English (poet and novelist), Steve May (scriptwriter and novelist), Gerard Woodward (poet and novelist), Carrie Etter (poet and critic), Julia Green (writer for young people), Jonathan Neale (novelist and non-fiction writer), Mimi Thebo (novelist) and Steve Voake (writer for young people).

You are encouraged from the start to adopt professional working methods, and to orient yourself to the world of the creative industries. We have a regular programme of visiting agents, publishers, writers and representatives of the broadcasting industries which are open to and often organised by undergraduate students.

Creative Writing provides the opportunity to develop a number of skills valued highly by employers such as clear communication, language skills, sensitivity to different audiences, the ability to organise your own time and ideas, and project management.

Course Structure and Content

Year 1

Year 1 is the time to experiment, and try out as many kinds and styles of writing as possible. It is also the time to build the habits of writing which will provide the foundations for your future development. The compulsory core workshop module helps you develop your own writing, and to see yourself as a writer. You will have the opportunity to take part in a group project (for example, making a film, or organising an event or performance). The optional genre modules in prose, poetry and script encourage you to read widely, and to contextualise your own work in terms of other writing. There is also a specialist publishing option for creative writing students subject to availability.

Year 2

In Year 2 you will learn more specialised skills, and you will be encouraged to take your work into the creative world outside the course. The compulsory core workshop module picks up where the core module in year one left off: you will be expected to produce work week by week, and to develop as a writer and a reader. You will be encouraged to research suitable markets for your writing. A range of optional modules offer the chance to try out specialist areas such as Life Writing, Writing for Theatre, Genre Fiction and Performance Poetry. If you're keen on screen, then you can take the optional 40 credit Making a Film module, based in our Artswork facilities, run to industry standards, and taught by accomplished practitioners. Year 2 is designed to give you the confidence and skills to push yourself to your limits in Year 3.

Year 3

Year 3 is concerned with applying the skills learned in the first two years, with originality, with the emergence of your characteristic style and identity - and taking your work out into the world as far as possible.

The year has been structured to allow you to carry on work throughout the year: you can specialise in five areas (Fiction, Non Fiction, Poetry, Script, and Writing for Young People). You will also get the chance to realise your own ambitions, and to gain academic credit for the creative work you do outside the act of writing in our Enterprise Project module. For example, you could put on a play, research and gain experience in the career of your choice, organise an event - anything, in fact, that you can imagine, and we can help you realise.

For students with a particularly practical bent, there may be the chance to work at our ground-breaking Artswork Media company, based at the Paintworks in Bristol.

There is also a selection of modules aimed to further enhance your knowledge and understanding of the writing context.

Teaching Methods and Resources

Creative Writing is taught through a mixture of workshops, lectures, presentations and tutorials. Workshops offer you the opportunity to read and discuss each other's work in a supportive, informal and informative atmosphere. Lectures are used to introduce techniques and themes in detail. Tutorials provide you with the opportunity to discuss your work with your tutor on a one-to-one basis. Advanced students may also get the chance to work with industry mentors on project work.

We believe that for you to achieve your maximum potential you have to take yourself and your writing seriously, and that the best way to do this is to develop a professional approach. Therefore, wherever appropriate, our modules run to industry standards and adopt industry practices.

Assessment Methods

Assessment is by coursework only. At all three levels, great importance is attached to the process of drafting, redrafting and improving work, in response to discussion in workshops. You will be assessed in terms of finished product, in terms of your reflection on the process by which that product was achieved, and in terms of your engagement with the course, and personal development.
Assessment items vary from module to module, both in content and in the specific skills they demonstrate. For example, in 'Planning a Film', you will be asked to pitch your idea, in 'Performance Poetry' you will give a short performance.

Notes

Highly acclaimed lecturers:

• Gerard Woodward - shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2004;
•  Doug Chamberlin - screen credits include Toy Story II;
• Tim Liardet - shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize 2006;
• Steve May - award-winning radio dramatist and writer for television and theatre.

Specialist Artswork facilities:

• BroadcastLab;
• PublishingLab;
• Artswork Media company based at Bristol Paintworks.

Entry Requirements

240-280 UCAS Tariff points (eg BCC; BB+AS a), including A- level English Literature, English Language, Theatre Studies or a related subject at grade B.

Alternative qualifications welcome.

Candidates are sometimes asked to send samples of creative writing.