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DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2022/2023

Timetable information in the Course Catalogue may be subject to change.

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DRPS : Course Catalogue : Centre for Open Learning : Literature, Languages and Cultures

Undergraduate Course: Find Your Voice (Course 3) (LLLG07093)

Course Outline
SchoolCentre for Open Learning CollegeCollege of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 7 (Year 1 Undergraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits10 ECTS Credits5
SummaryThis is a for-credit course offered by the Centre for Open Learning (COL); only students registered with COL should be enrolled.

Continuation of Course 2 but new students very welcome. Bring a sense of humour, self-discipline and a desire to write. From 'hands-on' stimulating and interactive experiences to all forms of creative writing, the creative process is yours!
Course description Week 1

Introductory exercises in banning self-censorship sine die; and prompts for writing for Week 2.

Weeks 2 - 10

Guided discussion of students' work presented each week. Bring two printed copies. The aim is to share at least one piece from each student per week.

We free wheel through experimental and established form and genre following our own voices while looking at (for example) life-writing, comedy, satire and the surreal. No holds barred.

We look through tension and conflict at reader (or audience) expectation: how to fulfil; when to deny. We explore positive editing (murdering our darlings) and developing "rhythm" in voice and structure: how to develop the bigger narrative (or dramatic) arc; how to avoid the (merely) episodic to create the organic: the world which continues when the reader has "finished".

Prompts are always open-ended to allow students to develop their own interests or creative endeavours.

Guidance on publication and performance.
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered
Learning Outcomes
It is intended that by the end of the course students will have achieved a better understanding of their own abilities and why they wish to write, as well as what. Hopefully, some will go on to publish
Reading List
There are many 'guides' and 'handbooks' to creative writing which you may choose to read from. In general, you should read widely, as you wish, in different genres (novels, stories, scripts and modern/contemporary poetry).

You are encouraged to register with the University Library, the National Library of Scotland, the Edinburgh Central Library and the Scottish Poetry Library; and to make use of information and advice on book publishing, literary magazines etc. to be found through the Writers and Artists Yearbook and the Scottish Book Trust.

Reading writers' autobiographies is particularly recommended. Among such, we could include:

Bennett, A., 1997. Writing Home. London: Faber & Faber.
Dylan, B., 2004. Chronicles. London: Simon & Schuster.
MacDiarmid, H., 1972. Lucky Poet. London: Jonathan Cape.
Neruda, P., 2004. Memoirs. London: Souvenir Press.
Miller,A., 1999. Timebends. London: Methuen Publishing.
Milosz, C., 1992. Native Realm. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Muir, E., 2008. An Autobiography. Edinburgh: Canongate Classics.
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills Not entered
KeywordsNot entered
Contacts
Course organiserMs Kate McHugh
Tel: (0131 6)51 1589
Email:
Course secretaryMs Kameliya Skerleva
Tel: (0131 6)51 1855
Email:
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