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A blank page can be as exciting, or intimidating, as a parachute jump. If you’re looking to take the plunge into writing fiction, this course will give you the push you need to succeed.
Led by author Ross Raisin, this 24-week masterclass will help you find your voice and unlock your potential as a writer. Through a programme of workshops, discussions and one-to-one tuition, you’ll get to grips with all the major components of telling a story - and what you have to do before the writing even begins. Over 24 weeks, you’ll learn the expert techniques necessary to draft a compelling plot, create believable characters, write memorable, realistic dialogue and structure your stories to give them tension and pace.
In later weeks, you’ll tackle more complex storytelling techniques, from points of view and styles of narration to how to construct scenes with impact. You’ll learn to show your readers what you want them to see, not merely tell them about it.
Our expert tutor and small class size foster a friendly and supportive atmosphere which will encourage you to try new ideas and test the boundaries of your creativity. By the end, you’ll understand the art of storytelling, the fundamental skill which underpins all great writing. You’ll leave the course with a short story or sample chapter of a longer work already written, and the confidence and technical ability to start work on your own novel.
Course programme
This course aims to provide a framework of the basic techniques for the craft of writing a novel. On the philosophy that the best way of learning to write is to write, participants will be expected to begin work on a novel from the beginning of the course and/or present and continue any work already begun. Writers will learn through workshopping to listen to constructive criticism and to receive help from the tutor and group in thinking of ways forward. Individual tuition will help to build skills. By the end of the course, a substantial amount of work should have been completed, making use of the principles that have been laid down during the sessions.
There will be several small writing projects to complete during the course, culminating in a 5,000 word final submission, during the creation of which students will receive one-on-one feedback and support from Ross in tutorial.
Session 1: Introduction and warm up
An introductory session on what the course will entail, its aims and objectives, a breakdown of its core components, and both tutor and student expectations. Each student will be given the opportunity to talk about their desires and fears and their past writing experience (if it applies), and their literary tastes. Students will be encouraged to set personal goals for themselves. This session will also involve some gentle introductory creative writing exercises designed to ease the students into the writing process.
Session 2: Plot and story
How do you go about structuring a work of fiction? What is the difference between plot and story? How does story take shape and how do you keep the reader interested from beginning to end? Some writers plot a whole novel in advance; others are more intuitive. We’ll look at some of the options of how to structure a story, how to build in narrative drive and tension, how to work with the mechanics and variations of plot.
Session 3: Characterisation
Characters are at the heart of all fiction. Without characters there is no fiction. So how do you create characters that are interesting, believable, flawed, complex, dynamic? Who are they? What are they? What are their relationships? How do they present themselves to the world and what do they withhold? How do they drive the narrative, what transformation do they undergo, what is their motivation and what obstacles do they have to overcome?
Session 4: Setting
We experience the world through our senses - through sound, sight, touch, taste and smell. Through sensory description we create and embellish our stories. Some writers soak their fiction in sensory detail; others prefer a stripped, minimalist approach. But the power of description is available to us to transport the reader into the worlds of our fiction; to evoke and stimulate; to create atmosphere and to bring our stories alive, to make them palpable. Through our powers of description we can make the reading experience one of total immersion.
Session 5: Showing and telling
The beginner writer often struggles with the creative writing tutor’s dictum, ‘Show, don’t tell’. By this we mean that it’s often better to illustrate something rather than to simply tell the reader. For example, you might describe an old man as simply ‘old’, or alternatively you can describe an old man as such without actually saying so through describing his facial features, hair, body shape, dress, mannerisms, walk etc. The reader then conjures up an image of an old man through specific, significant detail rather than generalisation. Like every other topic, we will return to this often.
Session 6: Point of view
Fiction writers have a choice to write either in the first person (I), second person (you) or third person (they). Most writers opt for the first or third person - each with its own set of limitations and possibilities. Point of view simply means from whose point of view is the story being told? If it’s a first person narrator, it’s simpler, but if it’s a third person narration then it can accommodate multiple points of view. We will look at the subtleties between first and third person narratives, omniscient narratives, free indirect style, and reliable and unreliable narrators.
Session 7: Dialogue
Dialogue is an effective way to present characters, relationships and explore the tensions and dynamics in narrative. Characters reveal themselves through dialogue, but dialogue is not necessarily a verbatim reproduction of everyday speech, even though it might approximate to it. We will look at real versus staged dialogue and how to make the most effective use of dialogue on the page, the relationship between dialogue and narrative, and the stylistic and moral implications of speech differentiation. To what extent should dialogue stand alone and what comes into play when we interpret a character’s way of speaking?
Session 8: Language
Prose style - the way you use language in your fiction - is a matter of inclination and taste. The range of prose styles is enormous, from extremely pared-down language to heightened poetic prose. And how do you handle vernacular so that it sounds authentic, such as Scottish, Yorkshire, patois, cockney? We’ll also examine the relationship between form and content and the decision-making process. You may find you have your own default style but it’s worth experimenting with other styles. Whatever your starting point, your prose style can improve with practice and indeed change from story to story.
Session 9: Short stories
The short story differs from the novel primarily by its length, which might range from 100 words (micro-fiction) to 2000 words, or over 10,000 words or longer. The form functions in a similar way to poetry in that it usually distils and condenses rather than embellishes, creates snapshots rather than fully fledged narratives and moves more swiftly towards closure. But there are no hard and fast rules and short stories can be as experimental and off-the-wall as the writer desires. We’ll look at a selection of short stories and discuss their internal architecture.
Session 10: Beginnings and endings
How do you write in such a way that the reader becomes hooked and wants to read on? Everybody does it differently. Some writers open their fiction with great vigour and drama and grab the reader by the throat. Others are quieter, more subtle and slower in their approach. The most important thing to remember is that you want to intrigue the reader enough to keep their attention. And once you’ve held onto them until the end, how do you bring your fiction to a successful closure? When do you know that your story is completed?
(Short story 1: Students will be set a complete short story to write. Feedback will be given in tutorials.)
Session 11: Creating scenes
One solution to the ‘showing/telling’ conundrum is to create scenes – moments in your fiction that are told in real time – with characters interacting, setting described, perhaps dialogue and internal commentary, action taking place, tension being developed. In the same way that screen drama and theatre are built up through scenes, this technique is also used in fiction. A novel might traditionally have a mix of scene and summary, the former telling the story in action and the summary functioning as exposition that bridges scenes. A scene has to have purpose and move the story along. It is an essential building block of fiction.
Session 12: Tutorials
Tutorials x 6 students to include feedback on short story 1.
Session 13: Tutorials
Tutorials x 6 students to include feedback on short story 1
Session 14: Research
The students will have already carried out research in preparation for this class, researching something far removed from their own lives. In this session they will present their research to the group and this might come in multiple formats, eg notes, internet print-outs, newspaper clippings, photographs/images, objects, recordings. We’ll look at the material and explore how best to use the research in the creation of fiction. Students will begin to write a short story based on their research. This will be short story 2.
Session 15: The novel
Students will have already been set two contrasting novels to read and in this session we will dissect how they work from a writer’s craft rather than an academic point of view. We’ll break it down into its component parts using all the areas we’ve explored so far and see how it applies, including story structure, characterisation, setting, dialogue, point of view etc. We’ll ask ourselves what works and what doesn’t and debate the story’s subject matter and themes.
Session 16: Redrafting
Writing is rewriting and every writer must find their own way to revise their work. The right kind of reader feedback helps, but this is not always available. A writer must learn to redraft with a critical eye. This might mean cutting huge sections and starting again, shuffling sections around, adding scenes, fleshing out, removing or adding characters, altering the trajectory of the narrative and improving sentences. It can mean many things. In these two sessions (16 and 17) we’ll look at the 12 stories (short story 2) that came out of the research project, and look at how, through redrafting, they can be improved.
Session 17: Redrafting
As above.
Session 18: Originality
Fictional innovators are those who do things differently. Unlike the art world where almost anything goes, most popular fiction is not known for innovation. Writers who take risks might appeal to a smaller readership but there is much to learn from those who innovate and thereby progress the form. The exercises set for this class will be about pushing the imagination beyond its usual constraints and seeing what you discover.
Session 19: Literary influences
Each student will bring in a short fiction extract of their choice that has inspired them in some way. Each student presents an argument for this piece of writing/writer and the class debates it. The idea is to open the group up to each other’s literary tastes and to widen the reading beyond the tutor’s choices. Students will then choose one of the extracts to produce a piece of writing modeled on it.
Session 20: Personal project
In this session we will focus on a project that you might want to develop after the course. You might have an idea for a novel or a series of short stories. We’ll explore all the possibilities and you’ll begin writing it in the class to be continued at home.
Session 21: Personal project
Continue to work on personal project in class. This will involve writing, guidance from the tutor and perhaps some group sharing of ideas and workshopping.
(Short story 3, or a novel extract, will be set as final homework to be handed in at the end of the course in session 24.)
Session 22: Tutorials
Course evaluation - tutorials x 6 students
Session 23: Tutorials
Course evaluation - tutorials x 6 students
Session 24: End of an era
The aim of this session is to do a final roundup of the course, to look at everything that has been covered and refresh our minds about what has been learned. Students will have already discussed the next stage of their writing in their tutorials and they will be encouraged to share this with the group and to set goals. We’ll also talk about the business of writing, the publishing process etc. Students will be encouraged to give readings of their work to the rest of the group.
Note: Sessions may change depending on the needs of the group - any changes will be discussed with the group before confirmation.
Assessment
Writers who successfully complete the course will receive a successful completion certificate from UEA. The course will be a pass or fail. This will be determined by ongoing assessment and a final submission of 5,000 words.
Profile of the course tutor
Ross Raisin is a prize-winning author. His debut novel, God’s Own Country, won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award in 2009, the Guilford First Novel prize, and was shortlisted for six others, including the Guardian First Book award and the IMPAC Dublin literary award.
Timings and specifics
The course will have places for 12 participants who will meet for one three-hour session per week (6.30pm - 9.30pm) for a period of six months at the Guardian Building, 90 York Way, Kings Cross, London N1 9GU.
Refunds
Refunds will not be given to students who miss sessions or drop out of the course once the full fee has been paid.