Aidan Trulove, "How to End Your Story"

Aidan Trulove is a writer from Austin, Texas, who specialises in experimental fiction, mostly fantasy and horror. She mainly writes for a Young Adult (YA) audience, though also enjoys horrifying her professors with her encyclopaedic knowledge of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, a film she has incorporated into all of her academic work (without penalisation). She has been published by the Agave Review and the Skyline Literary Magazine, and currently works as a bookseller and story competition judge. 

Below, Aidan has written a letter addressed to future MA Creative Writing hopefuls, discussing her time writing her dissertation, The Unchosen One. 

How to End Your Story

To My Fellow Creative Writers,

When our dear lecturer and head of program, Jonathan Taylor, asked me to write about my process in crafting my dissertation, I was a bit surprised. Not because of anything about Jonathan, but due what he now knows about my own personal style. Even after earning my MA, I’m really not the formal academic-type. Here again, I probably won’t reference much of the theory that I’ve learned, or the articles (the many, many articles) I’ve read on the practice of writing. Instead, I’m going to tell you in the most unabashed way I can what it felt like to write my dissertation: The Unchosen One.  

Probably not the most dramatic title I could have chosen, but too late now. 

I came into this program having a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to finish my book, the first book in my Young Adult fiction series, which up until recently I’ve been calling The Unchosen One. (I’m changing this title because, now that I work in bookselling, I’ve realized there’s a Middle Grade book by the exact same name). I’ve been working on this project since the start of the COVID pandemic, when I had nothing else going on. The story of Gwen, my protagonist, and her misadventures in the magical world of Iaxos, have been my constant companion through two degrees, my entire relationship with my now-fianceé, and a series of moves from Texas to California, California to Texas, and Texas all the way to England. 

Still, even as I crept closer to the end of Gwen’s story, I found myself unable to part with it. I was terrified to let the story end - to face the beckoning crescendo at the culmination of the piece, one I didn’t feel skilled enough to write. I knew where I wanted Gwen’s story to go, but I didn’t know how to get there. Hence, deciding to get my MA. 

The single most important thing I learned during my time at Leicester is this: all stories have to end. They can have a concrete ending, an open-ending, an ending that falls somewhere in-between, but there comes a time where the words on the page must simply stop. Whether it’s a five-line poem or a twelve-thousand word dissertation, it’s not healthy to keep a story going indefinitely, for you or your writing. Especially since I plan on writing more books, I was encouraged in my dissertation to take this plunge, and to find out what an ending looked like, for me and for Gwen. 

At first, it felt like I was flying blind, because the research I wanted about the theory behind YA books just doesn’t exist yet, given that it’s a relatively new genre. This led me to switch to a more practical approach: reading YA books, mainly ones that were the first in their series, to look at how they ended and think about why. Given the timespan for the MA, I mainly focused on series I already loved: Suzanne Collins’ Hungergames, Tracey Deonn’s Legendborn, and Tomi Adeyemi’s Legacy of Orïsha. I looked at these series, observing a) how the protagonists changed from the start to the end of the first book, b) what questions the end of the stories did/didn’t answer, and c) the overall effect of the ending on me as a reader. 

Between these factors, I noticed something: none of these stories came to a polished end. As they approached their final pages, they opened the worlds of their protagonists even wider, while also, as Harry Whitehead would put it, "chasing their characters up a tree and continuing to throw rocks at them." I also realized, it isn’t enough to scare your readers into caring about your main character, by simply leaving them dangling over a cliff. Most of the authors I read took things a step further, by using the very final moments of the book to take something away that their protagonists could never get back, and then, after backing them into a corner, finally allowing these figures to reach their true potential. 

To end, here is a small excerpt from one of the final chapters of my book. I hope you enjoy, and if you happen to be a fellow YA/fantasy/horror writer, don’t hesitate to ask Jonathan for my contact information. Writing is a team sport, and I couldn’t have done any of this without the advice of my lecturers, and the support of my peers. 

From The Unchosen One

Once when I was around fifteen, my family left me alone at the house for a few days. I was given free reign of the kitchen, with instructions to throw out any food in the fridge that I didn’t eat before it went bad. I forgot, and on the morning they came home, we opened the fridge to find a very brown, very sour steak that had sat too long and gotten exposed to air. My mom nearly threw up on the spot, and I was tasked with throwing out the old meat, along with cleaning out and sanitizing the entire fridge. That was the smell that reached me as I curled my shield into my body, only to feel something new, and wet, soaking the edge of my clothing ...

Good luck with your own writing! Yours truly,

Aidan Trulove

All about the MA in Creative Writing Dissertation at the University of Leicester

Towards the end of the MA in Creative Writing at the University of Leicester, students concentrate on an individual extended writing project, the Dissertation in Creative Writing. The Dissertation is the students' opportunity to concentrate on a pet major project (e.g. a collection of stories, a poetry collection, a script, an extended extract from a novel, etc.), and develop it with the help of an individual supervisor. This is the students' chance to write what they always wanted to!

The Dissertation usually runs from May to mid-September, after the four taught MA modules have been completed. The Dissertation consists of three stages:

1. In May, students attend the annual Creative Writing Dissertation Day, where they get to share ideas with each other and tutors. Following this, student submit a short proposal about their intended project.

2. Students are then allotted an individual supervisor, who meets with them regularly over Summer, providing feedback and advice on the work in progress. 

3. Students submit their Creative Writing Dissertation in mid-September. 

Over the last few years, we've featured a number of our MA Creative Writing students who have written about their Dissertation experience, so to give a flavour of the (huge) range of different creative possibilities in this respect, we've collected some of these articles (below). There's lots of great writing and research advice here, and some fantastic projects. Do take a look!

If you're interested in either the part-time or full-time MA course in Creative Writing, and would like more information, please do email Jonathan Taylor on jt265@le.ac.uk. You can apply here.

Some Articles by Students about the MA Creative Writing Dissertation on Creative Writing at Leicester. 

Anna O'Sullivan, My MA Creative Dissertation

Mandy Jarvis, Moving on Up: My Creative Writing Dissertation

Tracey Foster, Deep Diving the YA Market: My Creative Writing Dissertation

Kate Durban, The Creative Writing Dissertation

Danni Devenney, Girls Who Play Sports 

Thilsana Gias, Researching and Writing a Historical Dissertation

Rosie Anderson, Managing a Creative Writing Dissertation

Millie Henson, The Call of the Wild in Children's Literature

Tionee Joseph, Mastering the Dissertation

My MA Creative Dissertation

By Anna O'Sullivan

Hello fellow creative writers! My name is Anna O’Sullivan and I’m a recent graduate from University of Leicester with a BA in English and MA in Modern and Contemporary Literature and Creative Writing with Distinction and recipient of the Waddington MA Prize – which is a bit of a mouthful! Since graduating, I work full-time at a college, with plans to travel for several months around Central and South America, starting in May. I aspire to build a career in the publishing industry later down the line.  

As well as a passion for writing, I love arts and crafts. Recently, I created a Gavin and Stacey-themed Monopoly set, and that became my whole personality for the several months it took. Above all things, I love to read. My favourite genres include feminist, historical and dystopian fiction. I have recently joined "BookTok" and am enjoying speaking to people from around the world with a mutual love for books and similar tastes to me. It is welcoming and wholesome, and a great way to share your views and receive recommendations! 

University of Leicester’s MA in Modern and Contemporary Literature was incredibly appealing to me, as it explores a range of literary forms and genres from a period of history that interests me and addresses relevant social and political issues. The books I studied on this module were thought-provoking and helped me to find my niche and shape an understanding of the subjects. The combination of this degree alongside modules from the Creative Writing MA, plus the opportunity to pursue a creative dissertation, was too good an opportunity to miss. 

The Creative Writing Dissertation, weighted 70% for the creative piece and 30% for 3,000 words of a critical reflection, enables total freedom for writers to explore any forms they would like to. Initially, due to my interest in the genre, I had ideas of a dystopian short story that would cover the 12,000-word limit. Although I made in-depth plans for this, upon further reflection, more ideas began to trickle out and I found myself wanting to write a piece that felt much more meaningful. 

"Meaningfulness" was the key to landing on my big idea. I chose to write a collection of short stories entitled Girls about three young women in the genre of post-feminist fiction. Each story was 4,000 words and followed the female protagonist in close third-person perspective as they encountered similar themes of love, desire and sex. The stories were dispersed across three decades (2000s, 2010s and 2020s) but covered similar challenges in contemporary workplace and university settings. The piece, whilst mostly completely fictional, contained aspects of similar experiences that my friends or I have had, and therefore leant slightly towards being autobiographical. 

Whilst writing, if I hit a wall and found I had no idea how to proceed with the story, I read. The novels I know and love – the ones I would consume and think yes, I want to write something like this, they steered me onwards. Three Women by Lisa Taddeo, powerful but flawed in its own way, was a huge inspiration for my piece, as it takes readers on a journey through the lives of three real women and their relationship with sex and desire. I wanted to be a bit like Lisa Taddeo but comedic like Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones’s Diary with flawed protagonists, like Ottessa’s Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest and Relaxation - my own take on my favourite aspects of these books. I took inspiration from the modules I had enjoyed during my degree. One in which I explored the relationship between work and identity led me down a path of interest in "work novels" and "bullshit jobs." And as meaningfulness wins over, I knew I wanted to write about women and their experiences at work and in other areas that they have historically been regarded as "second." Women. Work. Desire. 

As I had read and consumed so much whilst writing the creative piece, this made the reflective commentary so much more manageable. I had the primary and secondary material at hand, and as I had picked a subject that I was interested in, I was able to discuss it in great detail. I believe a bit of fire in the belly helps steer the work along. I have a lot to say about false ideas surrounding female desire, or modern women in workplace settings, so I channelled my frustration into something creative. I wanted to create a narrative that would resonate with other women.

My greatest piece of advice, therefore, is to write about something meaningful, and something that piques your interest. The creative dissertation is all yours. It’s your vision. With the kind guidance of your supervisor, this piece of work can be shaped into whatever you want it to become. I highly recommend using this opportunity to create something that resonates with your own experiences, interests or values. 

Below you can read three excerpts from the dissertation. 

A snippet from the first short story: Maeve’s Story, 2004 
Maeve Taylor blows out the candles on her twenty-third birthday cake and wishes for the one thing she wants most in the world – to have sex with her boss. 

To repeat the exact words as she says the wish to herself: to have dirty, steamy sex with Max Walters in his office, up against the locked door or on top of his desk, or anywhere he would prefer it really. 

Of course, she couldn’t say this out loud. Her parents and grandma sit on stools on the opposite side of the counter, their faces all filled with glee and adoration, still seeing the sweet, virginal girl Maeve once was. 

It’s lucky Maeve couldn’t say the wish out loud, because her grandma might have had a heart attack, and that would probably put an end to the party. Besides, it wouldn’t come true if she did. 

A snippet from the second short story: Olive’s Story, 2014
Olive Newman screams. STOP IT. PLEASE STOP. I’M BEGGING YOU.

She screams but she can barely hear her own voice over the ringing in her ears. She is thrown to the ground suddenly. Her back smacks against the concrete. She lays there, motionless, staring up at the black, starless sky. Her breaths are shaky and uneven, her heart hammering against her ribcage. 

She reaches her hand to touch the back of her head. When she brings it back to her eyeline, her hand is coated in dirt and mud. No blood.

A snippet from the third short story: Joanna’s Story, 2020
Joanna Weatherford is left on the steps of her accommodation on a muggy September day in 2020. She watches wistfully as her parent’s car signals out of the carpark and drives away without turning back. 

She gazes up at the tall, red brick building beside her. There’s something dingy and cold about it. As she walks through into her ground-floor flat, the pasty white walls and damp smell feels slightly akin to a prison. Her room is at the very end of the hallway, by the fire exit. The floor is covered entirely by various bags and boxes of her possessions. Everything she has collected over the last eighteen years folded and shoved into suitcases.