Key facts

Type	Online and Distance Learning
Location	Online
Dates	Wed 11 Sep to Fri 22 Nov 2013 Select a different date/time to view detailsWed 8 Jan to Fri 21 Mar 2014 - applications not open
Subject area(s)	Creative Writing
CATS points	10
Fees	From £320.00
Application status	Applications being accepted
Course code	O13P368CRV
Course contact	If you have any questions about this course, please email onlinecourses@conted.ox.ac.uk.

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Overview

Few occupations are so wrapped up with myth and misconception as writing. This course aims to debunk the myths and through refreshingly practical and down-to-earth advice help anyone with the motivation to pick up a pen and write.

Description

Writing, someone once said, is easy. You just sit down at the typewriter and open a vein. Few occupations are so bound up with mystique and mystery as writing. As a result, many would-be writers are deterred from starting; and those who start often misconstrue the difficulties they encounter as evidence that they are not cut out for the task. This course aims to debunk the myths and show that anyone with sufficient interest and motivation can write. In the company of an experienced tutor, the student learns the time-honoured techniques of good, old-fashioned storytelling and also acquires the confidence to deploy those techniques. There is a liberal supply of practical advice, down-to-earth wisdom and enjoyment; and not a whiff of Romantic agony! As the professional writers have known all along, the true secret of writing is to poick up a pen, sit down at the typewriter or computer, and open a packet of biscuits.

Programme details

1. Essential preliminary demystification
2. Getting the idea
3. Plot
4. With this first line, I thee wed
5. Character
6. Good old-fashioned story-telling
7. Fictive dream - The Big Picture
8. Fictive dream - The Small Picture
9. Voice, point of view, endings.
10. All writing is re-writing

We strongly recommend that you try to find a little time each week to engage in the online conversations (at times that are convenient to you) as the forums are an integral, and very rewarding, part of the course and the online learning experience.

Staff

Course aims

This course aims to:

• Debunk the misconception that you have to be someone special to write.
• Show how important it is to cultivate the right mind-set first
• Take broad overview of the topography - from the blank page to revision and polishing, and what comes after.
• Break the process of writing down into constituent parts and reveal the art and craft at work.
• Give students the opportunity to roll up their sleeves and 'have a go.'
• Give students the opportunity to put it all together and create a short piece of fiction.

Certification

This course is accredited and you are expected to take the course for credit. To be awarded credit you must complete written contributions satisfactorily. Successful students will receive credit, awarded by the Board of Studies of Oxford University Department for Continuing Education. The award will take the form of 10 units of transferable credit at FHEQ level 4of the Credit Accumulation and Transfer Scheme (CATS). A transcript detailing the credit will be issued to successful students.

Assessment methods

Students will submit two written assignments, one of approximately 500 words and one of not more than 1000 words.

Level and demands

FHEQ level 4, 10 weeks, approx 10 hours per week, therefore a total of about 100 study hours.

Recommended reading

To participate in the course you will need to have regular access to the Internet and you will need to buy the following books:

• Lodge, D., The Art of Fiction [London: Penguin, 1992.]
• 
  
• Mullan, J., How Novels Work [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006]
• 
  
• Wood, J., How Fiction Works [London: Vintage, 2009]

Teaching methods

• Guided reading of texts
• Guided use of existing websites
• Discussions of particular issues and responses to reading in the unit forums
• Written non-assessed exercises discussed by the group.

Teaching outcomes

By the end of this course students will understand:

• How real writers work as opposed to the myth
• How many effects in fiction are more the result of hard work than magic
• That all writers differ and there is no right or wrong way of doing it.
• The fundamental nature of the fictive dream and how to use this understanding to write better fiction
• That good writing is a process of distillation.

By the end of this course students will have gained the following skills:

• The ability to sail past doubt and dismiss misconceived notions of ‘not being worthy’
• The ability to actively generate ideas rather than passively await their arrival.
• The ability to practise writing like pilots learning flying in a flight simulator: by breaking it down into individual steps and practising them.
• The ability to deploy time-honoured story-telling tricks & techniques to improve their fiction

Fee options

Programme Fee

Home/EU Fee: £320.00

Non-EU Fee: £495.00

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