Archive - Creative Digest from City, University of London

Creative Digest #13: On the Representation of Trauma in Fiction; Managing Time; Why Write or, Fail Better

The latest edition of our departmental Substack looks at the representation of trauma in novel writing, managing the timings of a Creative Writing MA…

Mar 10 •

,

, and

December 2024

Creative Digest #12: On Endings, A Review and a Remembrance, Fiction and Politics

The latest edition of our departmental Substack looks at how to end a novel, an appreciation of John Burnside, and thoughts on writing politics.

Dec 11, 2024 •

,

, and

November 2024

Creative Digest #11: recent reading and future writing

The latest edition of our departmental Substack looks at two recently published novels and the very future of the novel itself

Nov 5, 2024 •

,

Jessica Andrews

, and

June 2024

Creative Digest #10: Scope in the short story; the contemporary Bildungsroman; growing out of Auster

The latest edition of our departmental Substack looks at lessons from two recently deceased masters of their crafts, and how the Bildungsroman stays…

Jun 5, 2024 •

and

May 2024

Creative Digest #9: Keeping perspective; in defence of the adverb; licking, brushing and pinching

The latest edition of our departmental Substack looks at how to keep a level head as a published writer, relearning a 'taste' for adverbs, and lessons…

May 1, 2024 •

and

March 2024

Creative Digest #8: Environmental poetry; lessons from playwriting; my favourite semi-colon

The latest edition of our departmental Substack looks at how poetry engages with the climate crisis, what novelists can learn from dramatic writing, and…

Mar 27, 2024 •

Jessica Andrews

and

February 2024

Creative Digest #7: What diversity entails; the personal and the historical; 'the story is not elsewhere'

The latest edition of our departmental Substack looks at how to think about diversity and decolonisation, the process of aligning fiction to personal…

Feb 28, 2024 •

,

, and

Jessica Andrews

January 2024

Creative Digest #6: What are 'rocks'? – and three recent takes on the historical novel

The first edition of our departmental Substack for 2024 looks at a familiar maxim about plot structure, and three recent but very different historical…

Jan 31, 2024 •

,

, and

December 2023

Creative Digest #5: end-of-the-year round-up: favourite books and teaching highlights

The fifth edition of our departmental Substack gives City's Creative Writing lecturers the chance to look back over their year for reading and teaching…

Dec 13, 2023 •

,

,

,

Jessica Andrews

, and

November 2023

Creative Digest #4: workshop tales; against vaping; disrupting the status quo

The fourth edition of our departmental Substack looks at good and bad approaches to leading a workshop, how vapes fail writers, and a useful short…

Nov 29, 2023 •

,

, and

Creative Digest #3: writing from personal experience; research-driven novels; the challenge of autofiction

The third edition of our departmental Substack looks at different approaches to using real life in fiction, from research-based novels to autofiction

Nov 8, 2023 •

,

Jessica Andrews

, and

October 2023

Creative Digest #2: Mary Gaitskill’s dinner details; semi-colon vs comma splice; Percival Everett’s artifice

The second edition of our departmental Substack looks at craft issues around observation and authenticity, and uncovers a useful grammatical trick

Oct 18, 2023 •

,

, and

Jessica Andrews

#nojs-banner { position: fixed; bottom: 0; left: 0; padding: 16px 16px 16px 32px; width: 100%; box-sizing: border-box; background: red; color: white; font-family: -apple-system, "Segoe UI", Roboto, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol"; font-size: 13px; line-height: 13px; } #nojs-banner a { color: inherit; text-decoration: underline; } This site requires JavaScript to run correctly. Please turn on JavaScript or unblock scripts