CRWR1100 Workshop: Reading and Writing

"If you want to be a writer you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot." - Stephen King.

Hit the ground running and get writing in this first-year creative writing workshop. This topic offers first-year BCA (Creative Writing) students an introduction to critically analysing and workshopping creative writing at a university level. The emphasis in this series of two-hour workshops is on reading and responding to published creative writing, for thinking about critical concepts related to creative writing theory, and to the discipline of creative writing. Bearing this in mind, students will devote much of this semester to engaging with articles and professional book reviews, reading and writing like literary critics, and writing critical responses to short works of fiction. There will also be opportunities for students to develop their editing skills, to produce their own creative pieces, to discuss the craft of writing and related matters to do with the publishing industry.

• Introduce creative writing students to workshop processes
• Provide students with opportunities to develop skills in critiquing their own, and others’ writing
• Encourage students to read and respond to published creative writing from local and international authors from a range of literary styles and contexts
• Explore and contextualise issues relevant to creative writing as a discipline

1. Discuss their textual analysis skills when reading and responding to their peers’ creative writing, both orally and in writing
2. Respond critically to published creative writing and appraise techniques of the craft through clear and effective written communication
3. Develop a short story of their own following appropriate form, genre and style