Creative Writing, BA

​​Welcome Week provides an essential introduction to your course and the wider University, helping you to feel confident and prepared for your studies right from the very start.

​The BA Creative Writing Welcome Week will be made up of the following:

​Knowledge and Skills Session - You will be equipped with all of the basic information you need to hit the ground running on the course such as: meeting your peers and the Creative Writing staff; exploring the campus; getting to know Blackboard; understanding assessments and deadlines; the essentials of email communications; opportunities for extra-curricular participation etc

​Writing Workshop - You will complete some fun creative writing and research tasks and challenges both collaboratively and independently and begin your writing journey at CCCU

​Social Event – Details of this event will be shared during the week itself. Don’t worry, it’s just an informal gathering in which you can start to get to know the people you will be spending a lot of time with over the next three years.

​​Our students say that they write more in their first year than they have written in their whole lives, and that’s just how we like it.

​You will be encouraged to take risks with your writing, to reflect on what works, and what doesn’t. In this way, you will develop your own writing practice and unique voice.

​You will be exposed to a range of writers and techniques. Some will be familiar, others will be new. You will begin to explore relationships between writers and writing across time and how contemporary writers shape their work and practice as they look towards the future.

​Writers often talk about ‘filling the well’, or the need to inspire themselves with cultural experiences such as: reading, watching plays and films, or visiting galleries, exhibitions and other places of interest. Your only preparation task is to fill your own well – in whatever form you choose and to be ready to talk about something that has inspired you this summer.

​One essential thing every writer needs is a substantial hardback notebook, one that will last a lifetime. You can fill this notebook with ideas for stories, inspirational quotes, notes to self, sketches, lines of poetry, draft writing...

​In the first semester you will complete two Creative Writing modules:

​Sustainable Writing Practices: Essential Skills (15 Credits)
​Learn practical skills and strategies for navigating writing challenges and developing resilience for the future. Discover how to utilise your writer’s journal to boost your creativity and wellbeing. Learn how to draft, track your progress, edit and revise your work. Begin to explore the use of creative tools and technologies, including AI, and the ethical implications of their use.

​The Short Form (30 Credits)
​Learn the art of short-form writing, from haikus and Instapoetry to flash fiction, dramatic monologues, and mini-memoirs. Discover the mechanics of each form, exploring what makes them unique and how they connect. Whether you’re drawn to poetry, fiction, drama, or nonfiction, this module will help you sharpen your skills.

​Teaching will consist of seminars and writing workshops designed to give you the time to write and develop your writing portfolios. You will be introduced to new skills, techniques, ideas and concepts and then get the chance to apply them to your own writing, utilising your own creativity and voice.

​Alongside delivered content from tutors you will utilise the range of resources we have shared with you on your module Blackboard pages.

We do not expect you to undertake any course reading over the summer. However, if you are keen to start mentally preparing for your studies, for practical writing advice we suggest Stephen King's On Writing. And for inspiration, energy and in celebration of the very joy of writing, why not pick up a copy of Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury?