Creative Writing Taster Lecture

Speaker: Dr Claire Griffiths, Programme Director and Assistant Professor in Creative Writing

Date: Monday 1st November 2021, 4:30-5:30pm (GMT)

The NCH creative writing minor allows students to harness the full expressive potential and persuasive power of language, and provides the tools and the confidence to approach a wide range of literary forms – from short fiction and immersive journalism, to poetry and scriptwriting for stage, radio, and screen – with aesthetic judgement and practical command.

In this taster lecture we’ll focus on character creation in prose: how to create authentic-feeling characters and how to transpose them from your imagination to the page. We’ll look at a handy character creation tool called the Proust Questionnaire, and consider how we might use it to inform our characters’ actions and reactions.

We’ll also think about how to make characters ‘come alive’ on the page, by comparing the craft choices of the classic English author Charles Dickens and the contemporary Trinidad and Tobago writer Michelene Adams.

This taster will include ample time for Q&A with Faculty and Student Ambassadors. No prior reading or experience of creative writing are needed, and all are very welcome!