Creative Writing

In this course, students will be introduced to creative writing, from both a practical and theoretical perspective.

Focusing on the work of contemporary Irish writers, with secondary texts drawn from international authors, students will learn flexible techniques and approaches that can be used to produce work across a range of genres. Each day will of the course will include critical reading, discussion, mutual workshopping, technique-based exercises, and time to work on individual projects.

The course will encourage an innovative and hybrid creative approach to writing, thinking not only about how to write, but about how writing can be experienced by the reader, on and off the page. As well as writing for print, we will look at visual techniques, digital, sound and performance.

By the end of the course, students will have completed a short piece of writing in any creative prose or poetry genre, or in a hybrid genre mix.

Course Objectives:

• To introduce students to the understanding and practice of reading and writing a variety of prose and poetry including drafting, revising, and editing their own work.

• To give students some idea of the range of contemporary Irish literary practice in a variety of genres.

• To enable students to produce an completed short work in prose or poetry.

• To introduce students to active participation in creative writing workshops.

Course Outcomes:

• Students will be able analyse a written text and isolate techniques used by the author, reading critically with creation in mind.

• They will be able to confidently experiment with applying these techniques creatively to personal work.

• They will learn to workshop other students’ work kindly, confidently, and constructively.

• They will understand how to learn from in-workshop critiques, and also to judge when it is appropriate to reject advice.