Introduction
To introduce you to the key skills and knowledge that underpin fiction writing and the development of the novel. These will include the organisational skills required for plotting, character development and narrative technique. It will also introduce you to constructive and focused critical reflection of your work and support the development of rewriting/drafting skills. 

Skills Development 
The course will offer a stimulating and varied learning environment to enable writers to develop their skills around style, point of view, pacing and prose. Writing exercises will be used, along with discussion and textual analysis. 

It will facilitate constructive critical thinking/reflection and cover redrafting, narrative drive and the development of voice. 

Contextual and Critical Studies 
The course will offer insight into the traditions, theory and responsibilities of the writer and enable you to make clear authorial and editorial choices about your developing work. 

Unit 1: Character and Point of View | Tutor: Laura Wilkinson
21–23 February 2025 | Weekend | Intermediate | SWE33233  

Unit 1 will include:  

• Ideas generation, testing ideas and thinking like a writer (Friday evening) 
• Building character 
• Point of view 
• Character arc and development (what change looks like/how does the character learn) 

Pre-course preparation:
Please read Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, Bernadine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other (or at least Amma’s opening chapter and Bummi’s scenes from Chapter Two), the opening three chapters of Mike Gayle’ Half a World Away and the opening three chapters of Claire Fuller’s Unsettled Ground.. For How-to reading, Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer is a great place to start, if you wish.

Unit 2: Plot and Place | Bethan Roberts
6–8 June 2025 | Weekend | Intermediate | SWE33236  

Unit 2 will include:  

• Structure and plot 
• Sense of place (and time) 
• Narrative skills 
• Conflict and dramatic tension 

Pre-course preparation:
The tutor will be in touch prior to the course with details, if any advance reading is required.

Unit 3: Writing Your Book | Tutors: Bethan Roberts and Laura Wilkinson 
5-7 September 2025 | Weekend | Intermediate | SWE33237  

Unit 3 will include: 

• The discipline of writing (time management, organisation, scene and purpose) 
• Show, don’t tell 
• Dialogue and pacing 
• Writing to theme 

On completion of the course, students will submit the first 5000 words of a piece they have developed on the programme, for feedback within two months of the final unit from the programme tutors (7 December). Feedback is given the following month. 

On successful completion, students will receive a Certificate of Completion and be offered an interview for the MA in Creative Writing and Publishing, should they want to continue their studies and project. The MA is set up to facilitate the production of a completed novel.