Topic outline

  • General

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    • The course is designed to offer students the opportunity to develop their creativity and practical literary skills in a highly supportive, constructive learning environment. It also introduces students to some of the key processes and challenges involved in publishing creative written work, whether poetry or prose.

      The teaching process consists of regular, carefully targeted critical advice and guidance from the class tutor and peer evaluation from class members in a workshop environment. Examples of writing by both recognised authors and class members will be used to stimulate both the appreciation and practical application of the basic principles of effective creative writing.


      AIMS

      • to provide an understanding of the processes of creativity and of the development of an original conception into a completed literary artefact
      • to enhance students’ understanding and appreciation of literature through practical engagement with the demands of formal control, coherence and aesthetic impact
      • to provide students with techniques for developing or extending their own creativity and practical literary competence
      • to enable students to compare their own work with works by recognised and established writers
      • students will be encouraged to write about themes connected with medicine, health, illness, disability, birth and death, and in this way will address key themes of the experience of medicine from the points of view of medical professionals and patients

      This course is capped at 12 students

      Course Coordinator: Helen Lynch h.lynch@abdn.ac.uk

  • What skills does this course develop?

    • A: Knowledge and Understanding of: -

      • varying conceptions of literary technique
      • the technical handling of aesthetic techniques in literature
      • routes to publication in the contemporary publishing marketplace


      B: Intellectual Skills – able to: -

      • recognise a variety of aesthetic concepts and practical techniques in generating formal and thematic coherence and affective force in creative writing
      • analyse linguistic and formal devices in examples of prose narratives and poetry and apply general aesthetic principles to the practice of creative writing


      C: Practical Skills – able to: -

      • develop and elaborate an initial conception into a fully-formed prose narrative or poem
      • manage forms of exploration of creative potential e.g. dreambooks, journal, automatic writing etc.


      D: Transferable Skills – able to: -

      • use writerly skills for a variety of different purposes
      • write to deadlines and to commissions
      • organise study time effectively
      • use the creation of fiction and poetry as a means to heighten perception, empathy, and awareness of the experience of themselves and others within a medical environment

  • What will the timetable be like?

    • There will be two 2-hour seminars per week. All classes will take the form of seminars. At times you will be asked to work in groups or as an individual to prepare material for discussion.

      As well as generating and sharing pieces of work during the seminars, students will be expected to develop work begun in classes and will be set other exercises to do in private, as well as offering feedback in partnership with another student on the course.

      The course is structured around 3 focal points:

      1. Writing from personal experience (weeks 1 & 2)
      2. Narrative voice and dialogue (weeks 3 & 4)
      3. Exploring the unfamiliar (week 5)

      Students will be asked to submit one formative piece of work for each focal point – the strongest of these draft pieces (chosen in consultation with the course tutor) will form the basis of the final folio submission. These draft pieces are a compulsory part of the course and should be submitted in the second seminar of week 2 (Personal Experience), the second seminar of week 4 (Voice and Dialogue) and the second seminar of week 5 (The Unfamiliar).

  • How will I be assessed?

    • The course will be assessed by two components:

      Seminar Work (including constructive tutorial participation) leading to the completion of three original literary pieces of any kind (25%)

      Submission of a portfolio of original writing consisting of either a single complete work of prose of between 1,500-3,500 words, or a single dramatic scene, or between 50-75 lines of poetry. The portfolio piece should be the strongest of the three coursework pieces (chosen in consultation with the course tutor) and will be marked on a qualitative basis.

  • Anything else I should know?

    • This is a course about WRITING, and is therefore concerned with quality rather than quantity of writing: indeed one of the skills learned on the course will be how to write with the utmost effectiveness and concision. Although the word count of the summative assessment is not high compared to some other courses (for example, between 1,500-3,500 words in narrative prose) , an enormous amount of work will have gone into honing and redrafting work produced on the course.

      In addition to the three compulsory summative pieces of writing submitted along the way, students will typically be producing work arising from exercises during the class and further work in between classes, often amounting of thousands of words per week. The sharing of these, receiving and providing constructive feedback, both within seminars and in partnership with fellow students in between seminars, also forms part of the course ethos, as well as part of its summative assessment.

      This course will not make you a better person or a better doctor, but it will make you a better writer, and it will change how you see, how you experience the world. Your ability to express, communicate and invent will all be enhanced, and the course will challenge you and require you to work hard. This is not a soft or an easy option – but it is a lot of fun. Come and give it a try.

      What do previous students think?

      Student view 22-23

  • What have previous students written?


  • Where can I get more information?

    • Look through the Course Handbook - link below

      Contact the course coordinator - Helen Lynch h.lynch@abdn.ac.uk

      Read through "Verbal Remedies" - link above.

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