Creative writing made easy

It’s a belief, perpetuated and disseminated among writers, that the process of writing excellent  prose is torturous. Hence the quote, credited to Hemingway: “Writing is easy. You simply sit down at the typewriter, open your veins, and bleed.” Fortunately, many writers enjoy the writing process a good deal more than Hemingway did. In this course you’ll learn techniques that make writing fun, but not at the expense of high standards. The course will include writing games to unlock your creative flow and practical exercises to help switch off the critical mind while engaging the creative brain. This is a Creative Writing 10 session course and must be taken with W1CWAm50 in week 1.

Typical week: Monday to Friday 

Courses run from Monday to Friday. For each week of study, you select a morning (Am) course and an afternoon (Pm) course. The maximum class size is 25 students.   

Courses are complemented by a series of daily plenary lectures, exploring new ideas in a wide range of disciplines. To add to your learning experience, we are also planning additional evening talks and events. 

Evaluation and Academic Credit  

If you are seeking to enhance your own study experience, or earn academic credit from your Cambridge Summer Programme studies at your home institution, you can submit written work for assessment for one or more of your courses.  

Essay questions are set and assessed against the University of Cambridge standard by your Course Director, a list of essay questions can be found in the Course Materials. Essays are submitted two weeks after the end of each course, so those studying for multiple weeks need to plan their time accordingly. There is an evaluation fee of £75 per essay. 

For more information about writing essays see Evaluation and Academic Credit. 

Certificate of attendance 

A certificate of attendance will be sent to you electronically after the programme.