Creative Writing

OCA creative writing courses can be studied individually for personal development, towards a creative writing degree or as part of a creative arts degree. All students have a personal tutor who provides detailed feedback on projects and assignments. Students studying the level 3 courses, Writing Advanced and Your Own Portfolio, are given the opportunity to choose their own tutor on the basis of the relevance of the tutor’s published work to the student’s own writing.

OCA creative writing courses:

  • can be studied individually for personal development or together towards a degree in Creative Writing or Creative Arts
  • provide an intellectually stimulating programme of study based on high quality study materials
  • are taught by tutors who are all published writers

Students can register and start to study at a time to suit them.

OCA’s creative writing degree prepares students for further study at Master’s level and for employment in a variety of roles in the commercial, public and voluntary sectors, as well as providing the base skills for setting up as an independent practitioner.

Through studying Creative Writing with OCA, you will:

  • be supported in finding your own voice as a writer and becoming an effective writing practitioner
  • gain experience of writing in a variety of literary forms, including life writing, poetry, short fiction and writing for children
  • work with tutors who are published writers
  • be encouraged to develop the disciplines of a professional writer, including observation and reflection through keeping a journal and common-place book
  • develop your critical understanding of the theoretical and conceptual issues central to the practice of writing, and the theoretical and historical context in which they developed
  • be given both a rigorous structure for study and practice and the flexibility and freedom to take creative risks
  • extend your critical faculty for your own work and the work of other writers

Find out more about the Creative Writing degree pathway by listening to OCA Creative Writing Course leader Jane Rogers. http://vimeo.com/21590653

Careers for creative writers

Students studying creative writing for personal development may choose to study with OCA to support them in working on a novel, collection of short stories or memoir they have already begun. Others may be aiming to fulfil an ambition to become a novelist, playwright or poet.

A degree in creative writing is also a route in to feature writing for newspapers and magazines, and to non-fiction work such as education books and biographies. The advertising, PR and marketing industries provide employment opportunities for writers, and creative writing and editing skills are essential for web editors. Other options include screen-writing for feature films, TV comedy, drama and children’s programmes. Community arts workers help plan and organise arts activities including creative writing.

Future plans

OCA’s creative writing degree was accredited in March 2011. For further details on the Creative Writing degree, go to the OCA's BA Hons Creative Writing Degree page.

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