WHAT DOES A CREATIVE WRITING MA INVOLVE?

 

I wondered if you’re thinking about a doing a course of formal study or if you’re just curious, you might like to know what a Creative Writing MA entails.

I’ve just finished mine at the University of Plymouth. I took the yearlong fulltime option but it’s also available as a part time 2 year course. The hardest thing for me wasn’t the amount of work but switching between different writing modes. I found it easiest to dedicate specific days in the week to each.

One reason I chose Plymouth was because it offered a range of genres across the modules. If you’re not sure what genre you want to pursue or you’d just like to explore others, then I’d recommend this style curriculum.

We had four modules (2 per semester):

1.      Poetry and Creative Non Fiction

2.      Fiction

3.      Script Writing

4.      The Business of Writing

Each 3 hour seminar included some theory discussion, often a writing exercise, and then workshopping our weekly assignments. There were also set texts to read in preparation.

Theory included things like how to write trauma, the structure of stories, or cognitive linguistics. Exercises could be using an online random image generator to find an object to write about: mine was a walnut where I wrote about Julian of Norwich, perspective, and brain anatomy. Another was to brainstorm lists of ‘decent characters’, what made them successful, their typical thoughts, actions and beliefs, where they lived, what they had (objects, people, prospects).

Weekly assignments usually led on from these. For example, the opening scenes of our ‘decent character’s’ story and a summary of how, as a novelist, we would destroy them. Or an entire scene with no dialogue whatsoever, with a storyboard to illustrate.

The most time was spent workshopping. Our assignments had to be uploaded online within a few days so everyone had time to read and respond to them. Sometimes, I found, if inspiration hit quickly, my train commute home came in useful for getting my assignment out of the way, or at least well on its way. Being disciplined, and used to deadlines at work, also helped.

I’d been questioned at my interview about how I coped with feedback. Again, experience of supervision, peer support, and teaching students myself, meant this wasn’t new for me. But tutors also set clear guidelines for feedback that kept it encouraging and appropriate:

1. Reflect on what’s been written.

2. Pick out 2 positive things.

3. Pick one thing that needs feeding (needs more, made bigger, more of).

And I was blessed to be part of an enthusiastic and motivating group of fellow students.

Each module ended with an assignment which counted towards our final grade, usually a set length creative piece (part of a novel, poem collection, short script) and a critical evaluation of it.  The latter was what I was most nervous about; I doubted whether I had the level of academic skills. But, again, lecturers were happy to give extra tutoring to those of us who felt rusty or unsure. Once I’d got the hang of it, I even started to enjoy it, especially when I was able to call on previous expertise like occupational therapy models. And that’s the joy of the academic side of a Masters: taking theory from a wide range of disciplines and weaving them together into something unique.

For our fourth module, our assignment was a short creative piece (just three poems in my case) to back up a formal dissertation proposal, so that we could ‘hit the ground running’ in the summer term.

Our dissertation, apart from a brief abstract, was entirely creative. We met one to one with our designated tutor six times and then we were on our own. Submission by 31^st August and wait for the results. I took the mad but stimulating decision to do an internship at the same time to write and record a series of radio programmes. I’m glad it was short.

So, that’s the bones of my MA. Next month, I’ll tell you what I gained from it and whether it was worth it.

Liz Manning lives in Cornwall and has recently finished a Creative Writing MA at Plymouth University. Her dissertation was a visual poetry collection, (a mixture of words and art) which explored the idea of reclaiming and reshaping difficult times through faith and making. She’s currently trying to figure out what happens next but it will include writing.

She blogs regularly at https://thestufflifeismadeofblog.wordpress.com/  and has a new website in development at lizmanning.me