Free e-book – ‘The academic eccentricity: creative writing in the classroom’

By Iain Broome | 15 March 2009 | 6 comments

Download this free e-book, which looks at the development of creative writing as an academic subject and tries to answer the age-old question: can you teach creative writing?

This post offers you the chance to download the first free e-book from Write for Your Life. Written in 2003, ‘The academic eccentricity: creative writing in the classroom’ started life as an essay put together during my time on Sheffield Hallam University’s MA Writing course.

Many of the issues it looks at are still highly relevant today, including:

the rise of postgraduate creative writing courses
the arguments for and against creative writing ‘genius’
creative writing as a taught process
how creative writing courses can benefit writers
the credibility of creative writing qualifications

What’s more, it contains some fantastic writing quotes that I’d all but forgotten about. Some of them are really very good and well worth checking out, even if you skip all my bits. Go for it. I’ll never know.

Naturally, my writing style has changed and developed since then. And this was an essay, after all. So apologies if it sounds rather stuffy in places. I read it and do my best to stay proud – if you know what I mean.

Anyway, feel free to download it and make of it what you will – here it is:

The academic eccentricity: creative writing in the classroom [PDF 228Kb]

Share your thoughts

Of course, though this might not be a regular kind of a Write for Your Life post, I’d still love to know what you think. Feel free to come back here and share your thoughts in the comments section when you’ve finished reading.

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Written by Iain Broome

Iain is the editor of Write for Your Life and Websites for writers. His first novel is called A is for Angelica and is represented by literary agent, Tibor Jones Associates. By day, Iain works as a copywriter for leading UK design and e-learning company, The Workshop.

6 comments so far

Comment by Gabe
16 March 2009

Nice, I look forward to giving this a look over. It seems like a precise read.

Gabe’s last blog post: Spider Haiku
Comment by Melissa Donovan
16 March 2009

I’ll look forward to reading this. I’ve often considered enrolling in an MFA program and may do so eventually.

Melissa Donovan’s last blog post: 12 Places to Find Awesome Writing Ideas
Comment by Iain
16 March 2009

@Gabe Thanks Gabe – I hope you find it interesting. Come back and let me know what you think.

@Melissa Donovan Ah, it should be interesting to you then, I reckon. Let me know if you need any more information or more up-to-date thoughts. I think the point I make in the essay about putting yourself in the right environment is the most important one, looking back. It really helped me to work alongside and with the support of other likeminded people. A bit like bloggin’, I guess.
Comment by Terry Heath
24 March 2009

Funny to find this since I’ve been working on adapting one of my MFA papers into an ebook! Looking forward to the read.

Terry Heath’s last blog post: Lifehacks à la Gilbert and Sullivan – Synergy
Comment by Iain
24 March 2009

@Terry Heath Well, I figured there was no point sitting on it if it might be of interest to people. So long as I/you don’t claim it as new, up-to-date content I think it’s pretty fair game.