Creative, Digital and Professional Writing - MA

Program Overview

This Master's program in Creative Writing and Digital Media equips students with the skills and knowledge necessary for a career in the creative industries. Through a combination of creative writing, multimedia, and digital skills, students develop their writing abilities and professional employability. The program emphasizes both creative work and professional development, preparing graduates for careers in media, journalism, publishing, and other creative fields.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

This master's program is designed to equip you with the creative writing abilities, multimedia and digital skills necessary for a career as a professional writer in the creative industries. You will be taught by leading professionals with the skills, contacts, and industry profiles to help you develop your own distinctive and individual writing voice.

What you will learn:

• Develop your creative writing abilities to thrive in creative roles such as fiction and non-fiction writer or editor.
• Gain professional skills in digital writing and editing suitable for a wide range of professional settings and literary modes.
• Understand the demands and opportunities of a professional writing career, including portfolio creation and industry contacts.
• Explore career opportunities in media, journalism, film, publishing, e-books, marketing, and communications.

What makes the course unique:

• Equal emphasis on creative work and professional employability.
• Exciting and varied content praised by independent external reviewers.
• Up-to-date and outstanding focus on professional skills.
• Personalized feedback for students.
• Showcase your work in the School's online show, LIVENESS.

CLiOH Participation:

Participate in the University's new Centre for Research into Life Writing and Oral History (CLiOH), launched in March 2020.

Outline:

Modules:

• Creative Writing (core, 20 credits)
• Creative, Digital and Professional Writing Project / Dissertation (core, 60 credits)
• Digital Storytelling (core, 20 credits)
• Feature and Arts Journalism (core, 20 credits)
• Research for Creative Practice (core, 20 credits)
• Accredited Work-Based Learning in the Creative Industries (option, 20 credits)
• Creative Nonfiction (option, 20 credits)
• Digital Journalism (option, 20 credits)
• Digital Video Production (option, 20 credits)
• Principles of Digital Media (option, 20 credits)
• Routes into Publishing (option, 20 credits)
• Scriptwriting (option, 20 credits)

Module Descriptions:

• Creative Writing: This module introduces students to the principles, techniques, and forms of contemporary creative writing through practice and readings of long- and short-form fiction, digital texts, and other material.
Seminars/workshops will develop students' practice-based skills, primarily in fiction though students may also work in other genres.
• Creative, Digital and Professional Writing Project / Dissertation: Focuses on the production of either a practice-based project or an academic dissertation.
Provides students with the opportunity to produce a substantial piece of work that integrates subjects and approaches studied on the program or specializes in one area of the curriculum. Emphasis throughout will be on the student's ability to study independently under supervision.
• Digital Storytelling: Explores the creative potentials of digital platforms and tools for writers within the postdigital era.
Stimulates students to experiment with how their own writing practice and ideas about literature, storytelling, and persuasive communication might continue to take new directions in response to the ongoing innovations in digital media and their cultural impacts.
• Feature and Arts Journalism: Allows students to devise, research, and write, in a workshop setting and through independent study, feature articles of the type published in magazines, newspapers, online, and other journalistic outlets.
Creative activity will be informed by critical reading of published work in feature and arts journalism and secondary texts about these fields.
• Research for Creative Practice: Explores how creative practitioners research, develop, and reflect upon their own creative practices and those of others.
You will study, through diaries, interviews, archives, and other documentary sources, how writers and other creative practitioners develop and sustain their professional practice and how this is shaped by economic, social, cultural, and institutional factors, as well as creative and aesthetic ones.
• Accredited Work-Based Learning in the Creative Industries: Enables postgraduate students to develop and extend practical arts and/or media experience and expertise in a professional environment.
Students will work and be mentored by selected arts and/or media practitioners.
• Creative Nonfiction: Explores creative nonfiction, focusing on researching and writing different kinds of narrative such as history, life writing (biography and memoir), travel writing, science writing, sports writing, nature writing, reportage, and literary journalism.
You will study some leading examples of the genre.
• Digital Journalism: Students will learn to place their journalism skills and understanding in relation to today's digital environment.
They will develop their writing, production, and design skills to a professional level, learning how to adopt creative approaches to creating journalistic stories across different media platforms.
• Digital Video Production: Provides students with practical experience in the production of digital video.
Serves as an introduction to the topic but is also suitable for those with some experience in this area. Introduces them to the principles constituting new media functionality and raises awareness of the operative structures new media enact and work through.
• Routes into Publishing: Introduces students to the major current forms, formats, platforms, and processes of publishing and dissemination of writing in a range of creative genres and media.
The module takes advantage of London's location, both as the hub of UK publishing and as a key node for the multi-directional, global flow of literature.
• Scriptwriting: Introduces students to dramatic storytelling and the craft of writing scripts for the media of film and television.
In line with film and television industry practice, students learn how to develop their ideas via outlines, treatments, and story beats.

Assessment:

You will be assessed through assignments, coursework, media artefacts, and portfolios made up of original written, visual, and audio work. The program encourages you to work to professional standards and produce polished portfolios that you can submit to editors and other media organizations.

Teaching:

The program benefits from the expertise of practicing writers and editors with close industry links. Staff include:

• Sunny Singh: Award-winning novelist, chair of the Authors' Club, and co-founder of the Jhalak Prize for Writers of Colour.
• Andrew Cutting: Course leader, author of Missions for Thoughtful Gamers.
• Anne Karpf: Award-winning journalist and writer, 'Guardian' columnist, and author of four books of nonfiction.
• Tanya Nash: Award-winning script editor who has worked in BBC Radio and TV, including on Eastenders and Holby City.

Careers:

This master's program can help you forge a career in the media and creative industries. Almost every commercial and public company now requires a communications manager, and as a graduate of this course, you'll be equipped with the specialist skills this role demands. Potential sectors you could work in include the arts,创意, cultural, publishing, public relations, music, media, and marketing industries.

Other:

• The program welcomes students from around the world, as well as the UK.
• The program is part of the internationally recognized School of Art, Architecture and Design.
• The program is located in central London, encouraging students to take full advantage of the city's remarkable range of cultural and artistic events.
• The program has been reviewed by external reviewers, judging it "innovative and versatile," praising its "exciting and varied content" and calling its focus on professional skills "up-to-date and outstanding."