The module aims to offer students the opportunity to study and practice the techniques of novel writing and to embark on the writing of their own. The workshop format will be paramount in the sharing and critiquing of work which is completed as responses to writing exercises set. Through these exercise and through guided exploration and study the student will learn:
Ways of working - the dedicated writer.
The history of the novel and its current place in the literary world.
The differences between Literary and Genre novels.
The current market place.
How to present work professionally.
The technicalities of writing:
Characterisation
Dialogue
Plot
Structure
Setting
Viewpoint
Setting
Time frame
Sequencing
All underpinned by the reading, analysis and discussion of published novels along with the promotion and nurturing of critical judgement through analysing their own work and the work of their fellow students.
Module learning outcomes
By the end of the module the student should:
Have a better understanding of the key elements ways of the novel.
Begin to recognise the different techniques required for fiction writing within genre.
Have developed their technical writing skills.
Be better able to express themselves imaginatively with precision and clarity.
Have begun to develop their critiquing abilities and their abilities to revise and redraft.
Have read, analysed and discussed published work by established writers.
Have written/be in the process of writing a sustained piece of imaginative prose.
Indicative assessment
Task
% of module mark
Essay/coursework
100
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
Task
% of module mark
Essay/coursework
100
Module feedback
The tutor will give regular individual verbal and written feedback throughout the module on work submitted.
The assessment feedback is as per the university’s guidelines with regard to timings.
Indicative reading
Braine, John How to Write a Novel (Methuen, 2000)
Burroway, Janet Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft ( Longman, 2006)
Grenville, Kate The Writing Book (Allen and Unwin, 1990)
Forster, E M Aspects of The Novel (Penguin, 1962)
King, Stephen On Writing : A Memoir (New English Library, 2001)
Lodge, Gavid The Art of Fiction (Penguin, 1993)
Singleton J & Luckhurst M The Creative Writing Handbook. Second Edition. (Palgrove, 2000)