Doing a Part-Time MA in Creative Writing

By Karen Rust

I began my Creative Writing MA at the University of Leicester in October 2018, having applied three months earlier. I knew I’d have to be part time as having two school-age kids at home, a home to run and a husband with a busy job, I couldn’t commit to full-time hours. Turns out that others in the same position felt they could manage full time, and I watched them do it successfully. The decision is very personal and depends on your individual circumstances.

I was lucky enough (?!) to have earned nothing for a good few years whilst off with the kids, so there was no pressure for me to get back on the gravy train; in fact I was pretty set on not boarding the gravy train I’d travelled on pre-kids. Office life? Urrgrh.

For me, studying part-time has been perfect, I’d recommend it wholeheartedly. Here’s why:

Time to adjust 
Coming back to study 25 years after I finished my degree, it took a while to get back into the flow of University basics – the library, IT, Blackboard, where to get the best coffee and cake. You know, the important stuff. As a part-timer, I had the grace of time to ease back into things without the pressure of having two assignments due in mid-January.

Reading
A crucial part of the MA. The more you read, the better you’ll do. Fiction, poetry, non-fiction, craft books and more craft books. Over two years you have a lot more time to read than one, especially when the one year course is so intense. You can continue to read voraciously post-MA, but reading during allows interaction with peers and tutors and these discussions feed into your learning and direction. 

Relationships 
Having a longer time period to get to know tutors and peers allows the relationships to develop further. Also, you meet more people - I’ve met the cohort of full-timers from both my first and second years, plus part-timers who started with me and those who started in my second year. There have also been tutors on project leave whose brains I wouldn’t have been able to pick if I’d been here for just one year.

The Creative Process 
It’s different for everyone, but I like to mull on things. Some things click instantly, but other things take time to come together. At the end of year one of the part-time course, you have a big old gap whilst the full-timers are working on their dissertations, five months in fact from May-September, which provides an opportunity to write, read and engage with your tutor (until term ends in June). Then in year two, you work on the more creative, workshop-based modules and the reading and prep from year one comes into its own. If I’d been full time, I think I’d have ended the year feeling punch drunk and needing time to assimilate all I’d learned.

Profession 
Given my desire to move writing from a hobby to a career, I’ve had time to explore this during the MA process. I used the kudos of being an MA student when speaking to various organisations within the arts sector. I also submitted short pieces of work and gained publications that added to my writing biography.  As I work on my dissertation now, I’m a Lead Writer for Writing East Midlands. I’ve delivered monthly local writing workshops for disadvantaged children and am about to start a new online workshop series for them across Northamptonshire. A personal biography company approached me via my Linkedin profile, and it was the MA reference that interested them. I now write personal biographies for clients, which is great for writing discipline and working to a brief, plus it pays well. I’ve also worked with a local arts organisation to deliver a spoken-word video for the Grow Arts Festival in February and am talking to them about future community-based projects. I don’t think I’d have had the time for this during the full-time course and would have had to wait until I’d finished to start this journey. My dream is still to have a book published, but in reality, most writers don’t make enough to live on from that route alone, so diversification is key. 

I don’t want to put you off the full-time route if that’s what you have in mind. My ‘other-mum’ peer from last year is also delivering online workshops professionally and has an impressive publication and prize-winning writing biography. For me, having access to my tutors and peers, not just online but in person (until recently!) has buffered my transition from passionate hobbyist to thinking writing could be more. I’m ending my MA feeling like a writer and with a writing CV/biography a million miles away from the blank sheet I started with.
Whatever fits in with your life, go for it, but if you can spare two years, I’d recommend the part-time course as offering the perfect balance of learning and time to develop it.
Happy Writing!

About the author
Karen Rust is working on a young adult cli-fi thriller for her MA dissertation. You can find her work at Mooky Chick, Ink Pantry, Ellipsiszine & Yours Magazine. Check out her blog at: https://bloominglateblog.wordpress.com/

Two Inspiring Guest Lectures

By Karen Rust

This week we were treated to two very different, but equally inspiring guest speakers in the School of Arts.

Kim Slater, full-time author, known for her award-winning Young Adult novels and bestselling crime novels, gave us a guest lecture with the fantastic title: ‘From MA to a Million Copies Sold’ - the holy grail for aspiring novelists.

Kim outlined her lengthy journey from wannabe to bestseller: the countless rejections, the roller coaster of emotions as doubt and lack of self-belief set in and the turning point when she decided to go back to University and study. She completed a full-time BA in English Literature and Creative Writing at Nottingham Trent University whilst holding down a job and looking after a family, which says a lot about her. Moving straight onto the MA, she experimented with different genres and discovered she enjoyed writing for young adults.  A short story written for that module received a universal thumbs up from her course peers and went on to become her first novel Smart. She had it professionally edited and sent it to six literary agents, five of whom offered her representation. The book sold quickly, so by the time Kim graduated she had both an agent and a publisher. 

She soon found she wanted to write more than one YA book every two years, even though she was still working, and returned to her first love – crime writing, as K.L. Slater. 

Bookouture, an innovative digital publisher, new to the market at that time, signed her up and she’s gone on to write full time and sell over a million copies for them. 

Kim has created a lovely balance for herself; the YA books are more literary and have won tens of awards, whilst the crime is commercial, formulaic but fun and pays the bills in a big way.

Her hard work, tenacity and self-belief has got her to this point. Writing three or four crime books a year as well as a YA novel every two years is no mean feat. An inspiring journey. 

Our second guest speaker this week was another inspiring woman, Crystal Mahey-Morgan. Crystal wrote for The Guardian and Face magazine aged sixteen, as well as running open-mic sessions for poets and hip-hop artists whilst performing herself. She became marketing Manager for the Raindance film festival aged nineteen, and then moved into traditional publishing for several years.

Seeing a gap in the market she set up OWN IT! with her partner, Jason Morgan, a storytelling lifestyle brand that cuts across books, music, fashion and film. 

Crystal spoke with passion about her experience inside traditional publishing and the lack of diversity of voices she saw being published. OWN IT! aims to make books accessible to young people by publishing stories they can identify with and come across in the kind of places they frequent – for example, titles are stocked in West Indian takeaways in London.

Books published so far include an exploration of black masculinity set against a backdrop of crime and violence, a memoir from a young lesbian raised in a Catholic family on an inner-city housing estate, and a journey exploring family ties across generations by a woman with Maori heritage.

The company also publishes music, collaborates with film makers and produces fashion that sits alongside the other art forms. Mixing media and art forms sits at the core of their ethos.

Instead of a standard launch party at Waterstone's with cheap white wine, OWN IT!’s first book launch took place at Hackney Empire with hip hop and grime musicians taking to the stage alongside poets and readings from the book. Thirteen hundred tickets sold out for the event.

They are constantly on the look out for something fresh and different, across any genre. Their publishing contract is also innovative – a 50/50 split on the net profit between publisher and artist. Most recently, they have set up an agenting arm with Crystal at the helm.

I, for one, am super excited by their approach and rooting for them to show the publishing industry establishment the way to go.

About the author
Karen is an aspiring novelist, currently studying for an MA in Creative Writing at the University of Leicester.  Check out her blog at: https://bloominglateblog.wordpress.com

Magical Mystery Tour 2018

Photo Collage by Karen Rust

By Kathleen Hoyle

As a new student to the Creative Writing MA course at the University of Leicester, I’m still finding my feet. I’ve never thought of myself as particularly academic and still wonder how I’ve made it this far. So, with an open mind I’ve started the course, with a willingness and enthusiasm to learn all I can.

I must admit, then, when our tutor Harry Whitehead told us we were going on a ‘magical mystery tour’ down an alleyway, on a cold and rainy Wednesday afternoon in November, my enthusiasm waned a little.

We donned our coats hats, and, in my case, a broken brolly that battled with the wind half-heartedly throughout and set out somewhat half-heartedly.

But something DID transpire on that walk … you CAN find ideas in the mundane; even the brollies were a topic of discussion – my broken and deluded pound shop one, Harry’s smart and expensive one and Laura’s beautifully bright rainbow one. Harry was right all along. 
The alleyway chosen was dim and broken. There since Victorian times, it sagged behind run-down flats and overgrown gardens. But what treasures we found! 

A carrier bag, possessed with the spirits of addicts and drunks.

Romeo and Juliet’s balcony?

A bleeding wall - gothic horror.

Madge the mattress, an old prostitute with stories to tell, if only someone would listen. 

   

Locks and signs, dark holes, all stories with a threatening tone. 

We all sat in the pub afterwards warm, toasty and elated. A babble of conversation and short story ideas, all flowing from a short walk through an alleyway. Harry explained that, as writers, we must learn to observe and embrace the mundane in order to bring our stories to life and we should never dismiss anything, even an old chip box or a cigarette end, as a source of inspiration. 

It really was a great learning experience but maybe next time we can try it on a sunny day please, Harry?


By Louise Brown

The Magical Mystery Tour defied my expectations. I suspected it would be a dreary activity and wondered what was the point of viewing the litter and grimy parts of Leicester? however, the exhortations of Harry Whitehead to find inspiration in the ordinary came to life as we wandered down Oxford Avenue. 

The debrief in the pub later over a fine pint of cider was great fun. Hearing what others had come up with amazed me. One student's observation was that everywhere he looked there were “threats.” He was referring to various notices warning people they may die (electrocution hazards) or that prosecution may occur for trespassing. As my day job is that of a Solicitor I hadn’t even noticed them.

I came away thinking the ordinary is not ordinary at all; it’s just that our minds stop looking at things. We become inured and deadened to all around us. The strange sight of green and red protrusions on a brick wall, and a bin with the address daubed on in dripping paint, both of which struck  me as ghoulish, had sparked my imagination. As a result, I had a go at writing a comic ghost story, and discovered that trying to be funny is hard. However, trying something new is a must for every aspiring writer. I have included a small excerpt below from my work in progress:

.... She caught up with her dog and did a double-take. Strange growths in the shape of entrails had appeared on the bricks, coloured green and red. The house was alive and growing and it seemed to have spilt its guts overnight. Maybe it had always been there, she wondered, doubting her powers of observation. 

She remembered she had drunk all the gin yesterday. A trip to the off-licence beckoned.   

She proceeded down the alleyway. What’s the matter with the damn animal? It was barking at a dustbin now. That’s weird, she thought: someone had emblazoned on it in white paint 10 Oxford Avenue. The paint dripped down a little making it resemble white blood, and the title of some horror movie.     

By Colin Gardiner

A Possession 

There are places where the dispossessed drift.
Lost wraiths, turned inside out and pummelled
In a whispered supermarket séance.

There’s black magic in the arterial flex 
Of the back alley. Ductile will-o’-the-wisp  
Is happy to lead you here, all alone.

Step over the crunching beer-glass carpet 
And heed the orange shopping bag, tittering
Tales in the déjà vu of carpark darkness.

Plastic poltergeist gossip, reporting
Curtain twitch domestic, late night gang fight
And a screaming back-seat exorcism. 

Rustling omens in abandoned sheds,
Undecipherable to surveillance 
Heads, who dream in back-yard video loops.  

Rough handles reach into an empty sky,
Grasping at the dust illuminated by
Whispering arcs of loveless sodium.  

Behind you, an evil asthmatic wheeze 
Tickling the spinal aerial lines.
Plastic sighs of longing: you belong here.