Fiction Workshop: The Contemporary Novel

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 6
• Convenor: Luke Williams
• Assessment: a 4000-word extract from a novel (100%)

A novelist can do anything he wants, as long as he makes people believe in it. Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The contemporary novel is arguably the most expansive form available to the fiction writer, given its potential to encompass a vast range of styles and techniques. In this module we aim to give you a sense of the exciting breadth and scope of this form. You will conceive and embark on the development of your own novel, with regular guidance and feedback from your tutor. You will be prepared for the major challenges of sustaining a long-term project and equipped to manage the demands of bringing a novel to completion.

You will consider the key aspects of novel-writing, building on your understanding of the craft elements developed in previous years. In lectures we will address novel-writing techniques, focusing on one (or more) of the six titles on the reading list, which you are required to read and bring to class.

Writing workshops offer the opportunity to submit extracts from your novel-in-progress for group critique. You will also get the chance to discuss your progress in one-to-one tutorials with your tutor, and engage in a collaborative writing experiment with the whole class.

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• demonstrate awareness and control of the elements of longer form fiction (the novel)
• discuss and evaluate the work of fellow students and established writers in relation to elements of craft
• interpret, self-evaluate and communicate constructive feedback
• maintain a regular writing habit and produce more effective creative work independently
• understand sources of inspiration and creativity
• use language more confidently, precisely and imaginatively
• experiment with style and form
• display confidence and fluency in longer forms of writing
• solve craft-related problems in your creative work
• practise redrafting and editing
• sustain and evaluate a longer-term project
• demonstrate an awareness of the industry-standard expectations for the presentation of your creative work
• show knowledge and understanding of contemporary (i.e. post-war) novels
• think critically and independently about creative works you have written and read
• edit and revise, and apply technique and critical analysis to the development of a piece of creative work
• work more efficiently and constructively within a group to critique work.