A363 - Advanced Creative Writing Details

[Liam O'Hara]

Hi all,

I thought I'd post all the info I have regarding the Advanced Creative
Writing course.

SCHEDULE

There are 30 weeks to this course. They are as follows (this is last
year's schedule):

Playing with genre
Conflict and Contrast
Vision and Revision
TMA 01 - Short story (1500) and commentary (350) DUE 7th NOVEMBER
Writing stage plays
Revealing Secrets
Staging Stories
Writing Radio Drama
Writing Films
Film structure
CHRISTMAS
NEW YEAR
TMA 02 - 15 min adaptation - DUE 8th JAN
Film techniques in fiction
Splicing the strands
TMA 03 - 1000 critique
Voices in fiction
Rhetoric and style
Using analogy + TMA 04 - 750 word proposal
Poetry: the freedom of form
Time and timing
Theme and sequence
TMA 05 - 2,500 word story DUE 20th MAR

TMA 06 - 1,000 word TMA extract DUE 10th APR

ECA - DUE 22nd MAY

You will see that from week 21 onwards, you are working independently,
with no timetabled coursebook work, just TMA and ECA stuff.

TMA DETAILS

TMA01 - Short story (1500) and commentary (350)
or in 2008, there was a life writing option. (15%)

TMA02 - Stage, radio or film adaptation of TMA01, with a running time
of 15 minutes and 500 word commentary. (25%)

TMA03 - 1000 word critique of a piece of work someone else has posted
to the tutor group forum (this is difficult if the forum is a quiet
one, and I can't really get ahead on that one!) (10%)

TMA04 - a proposal for the ECA of 500-750 words, it's compulsory and
can be for any form taught on the course BUT it doesn't count towards
your course mark.

TMA05 - write 2,500 words of either a short story or life writing OR
80-100 lines of poetry and 750 words of commentary. (40%)

TMA06 - either 1000 words of fiction OR 30 lines of poetry (in the
forms in A363, sestina, sonnet, pantoum or villanelle) OR 5 minutes of
drama of a section of your ECA. (10%)

ECA - A short story or the start of a novel or life writing (4000) OR
30 minutes of one of the forms of drama suggested OR 140-160 lines of
poetry in an associated sequence and a 1000 word commentary.

COURSEWORK

I have been working under my own steam through a second-hand copy of
the Advanced Creative Writing coursebook.
The book is structured very much like the A215 coursebook. There are
probably the same amount of activities, but I'd say there is less
reading.
I have managed to work through the first 6 weeks of the course
(excluding writing the TMA) in about 3 weeks. That is still doing all
the excercises, but I haven't been freewriting every day, as the book
suggests.

AUDIO CD's

You can download the tracks that are sent out on CD now from the OU on
iTunes:
http://itunes.open.ac.uk/r/3WWQYL

FORUM

There is a A363 forum already, accessable through the OUSA signpost
forums online. In this forum are lots of discusssions, course feedback
and a few copies of past TMA booklets to download:
http://discuss1.open.ac.uk/Login/FAVC-00015F6E/FAVC-00058C53/FAVC-0004298B/FAVC-002EBE9E/

PREPERATION

You could easily work through the first four weeks of the course book
as soon as it arrives. It covers a lot of the same ground as A215, but
with more of an emphasis on conflict - something that is covered in
more detail as you get on to writing plays.

Try to listen to as many audio plays as you can now - I've been
listening to Radio 4 afternoon plays on iPlayer whilst at work:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qrzz

Download and read some film scripts. Not an easy task, very different
from reading a short story, but I would suggest reading a film you are
very familiar with. You can get these from www.simplyscripts.com - I
will also post some scripts up under the WORK tab of the forum.

also radio scripts available from the bbc:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/insight/radio_drama.shtml

Finally - start freewriting and clustering NOW in an effort to create
ideas for your stories on the course. A lot of the emphasis in the
early weeks of the course is on research. If you have an idea ready,
this can really save you some time.

I hope this helps everyone get ready for round 2!

Liam

[Lu]

Hi Liam

This is a really helpful preview... I have been intending to join this
course but waiting for my bank account to recover sufficiently after a
long period of very little work last year... but by the sounds of it,
it is worth going ahead / getting ahead early.

I notice that with the A215 course, there is a glut of assignments
that come hot on each other's tail at the end of the course so I will
definitely be looking to pace myself better than this year.

Can't believe how organised you are - don't you have a full time job
AND a small child??!!

Is anyone else planning to do this course? - I am really looking
forward to it.

Lu x

> and a few copies of past TMA booklets to download:http://discuss1.open.ac.uk/Login/FAVC-00015F6E/FAVC-00058C53/FAVC-000...

>
> PREPERATION
>
> You could easily work through the first four weeks of the course book
> as soon as it arrives. It covers a lot of the same ground as A215, but
> with more of an emphasis on conflict - something that is covered in
> more detail as you get on to writing plays.
>
> Try to listen to as many audio plays as you can now - I've been
> listening to Radio 4 afternoon plays on iPlayer whilst at work:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qrzz
>
> Download and read some film scripts. Not an easy task, very different
> from reading a short story, but I would suggest reading a film you are

> very familiar with. You can get these fromwww.simplyscripts.com- I