Cirrus@Austlit

This postgraduate unit is a key Creative Writing unit in the Masters program, and is open also to Graduate Diploma, Graduate Certificate and Honours students. This unit enables you to develop a sustained and coherent piece of work, and develop the analytical, practical and professional skills needed to work within this unique form. The unit is also designed to enable you to begin to develop a critical understanding of your own and others approaches to the writing life.

Aims

This unit aims to:

- familiarise you with the scope, challenges, philosophy and practices of writing a sustained creative work.

- enable you to develop an original and engaging novel

- develop your editorial skills

- provide you with a constructive and critical workshop experience in a blended learning environment

support you in developing a critical understanding of a professional writer's praxis, and use your critical engagement to further develop your own skills.

Objectives

On completion of this unit you should be able to:

1. understand and engage with the novel as a literary form

2. critically understand a professional writer's writing praxis

3. critically understand your own novel writing praxis

4. produce a significant portion of an original novel

Content

This unit includes face-to-face and electronic learning environments designed to develop professional reading, editing and writing skills. The unit will enhance skills needed to develop, research, write and submit a novel to a professional agent or publisher.