Course Overview
Work on a book-length project in your chosen genre – poetry, fiction, non-fiction, scriptwriting. Receive excellent mentoring from experienced writers and valuable feedback from workshopping with other students. Add to this your own motivation and discipline, and by the end of the year produce the first draft of a book-length manuscript (and often much more).
You can enrol for the Diploma in Creative Writing (Advanced)
* As a one year, full-time Diploma
* As the second year of a two year Diploma
* As the second year of the Bachelor of Applied Arts (Creative Writing)
Course outline
Work with your core tutor on
• craft and technique within your chosen genre
• refining the idea
• planning and research
• reading and critique within your chosen genre
• rewriting and editing
• knowledge and appreciation of the publishing/production process
Each genre is delivered in a slightly different way, however all involve structured classes, tutor support, and a large amount of self-directed time for writing. Students on the second year of the Bachelor of Applied Arts (Creative Writing) work in a cross-genre class that provides structure and support for a first time manuscript writer.
Write a Novel Writing a novel is a great challenge. You start with a good idea that unfolds into an excellent manuscript as you come to grips with the characters, the story itself, the manner of its telling. As you discover how you can reshape and strengthen the novel through rewriting, you begin to see what you can really do with this idea that began as a small flame inside your head.
Maybe now is the time to write that novel. The Diploma in Creative Writing (Advanced) gives you the opportunity to write a novel manuscript with a community of writers. You participate in regular workshops, and also work with a mentor/reader for up to 10 hours to complete a first draft – although you may achieve considerably more than a first draft.
This course combines a thoughtful and thorough approach to the craft of writing, with excellent mentoring from experienced writers. Each month there will be a full weekend workshop, held at Whitireia NZ Media Training Centre, 107 Cuba St (in Cuba Mall), Central Wellington. In the intervening weeks you have contact with the tutor by email. Workshops focus on the craft of writing, with practical writing exercises designed to help you develop your novel manuscript, as well as facilitated critiquing sessions of students’ work. There are also a range of assignments to help develop you further as a writer and a reader, and to enable critical examination of the writing journey you have embarked upon.
This combination of intensive workshops and regular email contact has proved very productive.
Tutor: Mandy Hager
Format: Weekend workshops (Saturday and Sunday 9.30-4) once a month; students email the tutor each week.
Start date: 18/19 February 2012.
Credits: planning = 30 credits, workshops = 30 credits, manuscript = 40 credits
Write Non-Fiction
So you’ve thought of a brilliant idea for a memoir of a particular event or time, a full autobiography, a travel experience, how you made a garden, a collection of personal essays, or something completely different – non-fiction covers a wide field. You know you need help to bring it to reality if it’s going to be a book. Whitireia offers that help.
Contemporary creative non-fiction pays particular attention to story, structure, context, good characterisation, figurative language, the importance of research, and the development of a personal style. This is exactly what we offer to our creative non-fiction students on the Diploma in Creative Writing (Advanced). You meet with other students and your tutor on a weekly basis. You are stretched by writing exercises and devise a broad reading programme of contemporary creative non-fiction. You develop your writing time-management skills outside class time, with tutorial help available by email. You pursue your objective – to complete a manuscript draft to a high standard through the Whitireia Diploma in Creative Writing (Advanced).
Tutor: Renee
Format: Thursdays 1-3.30
Start date: 16 Feb 2012
Credits: planning = 30 credits, workshops = 30 credits, manuscript = 40 credits
Write a Script
If you’ve ever walked out of a bad movie and said to yourself “I could have written a better script than that!” here’s your chance to prove it.
A good screenplay must be a strong blueprint for a movie or TV show, as well as an entertaining reading experience in its own right. It must portray interesting characters in difficult situations and illuminate a compelling theme, all in a highly structured format. A good screenwriter imagines a movie in all its cinematic glory, and then conveys that movie clearly and evocatively into the reader’s imagination using the fewest words possible.
In this course you learn the art, craft, and business of screenwriting. It covers the tricks of the trade involving creativity, story paradigms, structure, genre, character, momentum, dialogue, and cinematic vision. You learn what it’s like to work in the rewarding, collaborative, and often ego-filled world of the film and television industries, as well as how to give and receive criticism in a safe and constructive environment. Guest speakers include working film and TV screenwriters, producers, and Film Commission executives.
Short documents such as storylines, treatments and scene breakdowns are a major part of the process. You complete at least a first draft of a full-length script. In addition you are required to keep a viewing journal, to carry out research into your chosen genre, attend workshop and critique sessions and present a seminar on your writing and researching at the end of the year.
As well as attending classes on Thursdays, students have additional meetings with the tutor at specified times throughout the year. The tutor uses a practical, craft-based approach that produces proven results.
Tutor: Steve Barr
Format: Thursdays 10-3
Start date: 16 Feb 2012
Credits: planning = 30 credits, workshops = 30 credits, manuscript = 40 credits
Write a Poetry Collection
Experiment with language and begin thinking about a collection of poetry. Through a combination of set exercises and weekly workshops, develop your individual voice and draw on outside stimulation in a way that’s not possible when writing at home by yourself. Play with form, sound and meaning alongside other writers as you explore the craft of writing. By the end of the year you will have the first draft of a collection of poetry.
“Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.” Rita Dove
Tutor: Renee
Format: Thursdays 1-3.30
Start date: 16 Feb 2012
Credits: planning = 30 credits, workshops = 30 credits, manuscript = 40 credits
Combined class
During 2012, experienced tutor Renee is facilitating the class for second year degree students writing short fiction, poetry, or non-fiction. Students concentrate on writing in their chosen genre but are also stimulated by learning about genres other than their own. This builds on the experience of the first year of the degree where students gain skills through exploring the wide field of writing. Renee brings her vast experience as a novelist, scriptwriter, non-fiction writer, poet and impressive background as a long-time teacher to this role.
If you are doing the Diploma in Creative Writing (Advanced) as the second year of the degree you will also need to complete the following modules –
Creative Enterprise I
Learn about the business end of the creative writing project – from having ‘a good idea’, to the practical steps involved in implementing it. Learn basic business skills, including interpersonal skills and project management.
Tutor: Janet Nixon
Format: Weekly workshops
Credits: 10
Contextual Studies II
Explore the technological developments in creative writing , and the Big Ideas of the twentieth and twenty-first century and their impact on writing. Zero in on some of the ideas and issues that influence writers internationally today.
Tutor: Mary-Jane Duffy
Format: Wednesday workshops
Start date: 18 July 2012
Credits: 10
Entry requirements
Based on samples of your writing and an interview. You need to include a sample of writing related to the genre you intend to develop. You also need to send in a CV and covering letter.
Overseas students must meet the above criteria plus have IELTS 6.0 or equivalent.
All applicants are interviewed; applicants from outside Wellington may be interviewed by phone/Skype. Interviews are held from late November through to January.
Students say...
I studied Writing for Children online at Whitireia and went on to write the first draft of my book while a student on the Writing a Novel course. I couldn’t have done it without the Whitireia course. The technical knowledge I gained around structuring a longer work was invaluable, as was the support from tutors, mentors and other students. My novel, Iris's Ukulele, will be published soon by Scholastic. Kathy Taylor, winner Tom Fitzgibbon Award 2011
Steve Barr [scriptwriting tutor] has made us get into reading scripts and with his film background he’s shown us the value in doing that. I’ve learned a lot about structure and format and a whole lot about the voice of the character and what makes it work for the audience. You’ve got to really know your script – know all the ins and outs. I’m still learning, but I’m further along than I would have been if I wasn’t doing the course. Fred Sao, year two of BAppA (Creative Writing) and recipient of a Creative Communities NZ (Wellington local funding scheme) grant to help produce his play, ‘The Rhyming Taniwha’, for local schools.
In the first year you get the opportunity to try your hand at scriptwriting, short fiction, poetry, and non-fiction. A fellow student likened it to playing in a sandpit with a variety of toys. It’s great, because people often have a chosen genre and don’t experiment at all. In the second year I did the Writing the Novel course. I think it’s a terrific course. It’s very inclusive, welcoming people from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and life experiences – I really liked that. Now I’m doing my Masters in Creative Writing at Victoria University in Wellington working on a collection of contemporary poetry. I started off writing directly from my own experience; now I’ve moved on to embrace other areas of human endeavour. The Masters will help me continue to develop my writing. Natasha Dennerstein, Master’s student
You can also read work by current and former students in the 4th Floor Literary Journal.
For further information
Frequently Asked Questions about the Diploma in Creative Writing (Advanced)
Overview of Creative Writing Programme
Diploma in Creative Writing [delivered on-campus]
Diploma in Creative Writing [delivered online]
Graduate Diploma in Creative Writing
Bachelor of Applied Arts (Creative Writing)
Whitireia Writing Programme Success Stories