1st Edition

The Routledge Creative Writing Coursebook

By Paul Mills Copyright 2006
    256 Pages
    by Routledge

    254 Pages
    by Routledge

    This step-by-step, practical guide to the process of creative writing provides readers with a comprehensive course in its art and skill. With genre-based chapters, such as life writing, novels and short stories, poetry, fiction for children and screenwriting, it is an indispensable guide to writing successfully. The Routledge Creative Writing Coursebook:

    *shows new writers how to get started and suggests useful writing habits
    *encourages experimentation and creativity
    *stimulates critical awareness through discussion of literary theory and a wide range of illustrative texts
    *approaches writing as a skill, as well as an art form
    *is packed with individual and group exercises
    *offers invaluable tips on the revision and editing processes.

    Featuring practical suggestions for developing and improving your writing, The Routledge Creative Writing Coursebook is an ideal course text for students and an invaluable guide to self-study.

    Preface  Acknowledgements  1. Writing as Art  Suggestions for Writing  Revision and Editing  General Advice  2. Personal Narrative  Summary of Ideas  Suggestions for Writing  Revising and Editing Personal Narrative  3. Poetry  Summary  Suggestions for Writing  Revising and Editing Poems  4. Fiction  Questions and Summary  Suggestions for Writing  Revising and Editing Fiction  5. Fiction for Children  Questions and Summary Suggestions for Writing  Revising and Editing Fiction for Children  6. Drama  Discussion and Workshop  Suggestions for Writing  Revising and Editing Drama Scripts Glossary  References and Quotations  Bibliography  Index


    Biography

    Paul Mills teaches creative writing to u/gs and p/gs at York St John College.  He has held writing fellowships at Leeds and Manchester universities and a Fulbright Teaching exchange fellowship in the US.  He is a published poet and dramatist. 

    'This is a concise, clearly written guide to imaginative writing - and reading - in all the main contemporary genres. It's packed with vivid examples and abundant practical suggestions. And it has something extra - a narrative energy that makes a story of the arts of writing it explores. No readers, of whatever level of skill or inexperience, will finish this book without a sharper sense of literary territories, and the desire to strike out on paths of their own.' - Carol Rumens, University of Wales, Bangor

     - 'If there is one thing you will learn from Paul Mill's book it is how to be analytical about your own creativity and to draw the best out of yourself.' - Writing Magazine

    'This is a book completely free of snobbery; it is totally focused on the needs of its readers... Each of the six chapters concludes with sound, practical advice for aspiring writers, and with useful exercises.' - Kevin McCarron, Times Higher Education Supplement

    'Paul Mills' Routledge Creative Writing Coursebook is the rich fruit of his decades of experience in teaching and writing across the whole range of genres.  As well as being intensely practial, a great strength of his approach is an utter lack of snobishness in using sources that make his point clearly; from Geoffrey Hill to Coronation Street, he knows the material to reach the students and shows them the steps that will help take their own writing further.  This is not mere eclecticism, but comprehensive knowledgedeployed in the best book I know in this field.' - Ian Duhig