A reflection of the MA Writing for Young People
Lucy Hope is a graduate of the MA Writing for Young People, and the author of Fledgling, a middle-grade novel published by Nosy Crow in November 2021. Her second novel, Wren, is due to be published in October 2022.
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As a recent graduate of the MA in Writing for Young People, I think I can guess how you might be feeling right now.
I imagine you’re probably a bit sad the course is over, excited for the future, and perhaps even a little fearful of putting your head above the parapet and proclaiming to the world that you’re a writer. (Of course you’ve always been a writer, but this is official now!) Who knows what the future holds for each of you, but you’ve embraced a creative life, and that’s a wonderful and bold thing to do. Your work will soon be out there for agents and editors to read, meaning you’re moving in the right direction towards your personal writing ambitions, whatever those might be.
I still miss my time on the course, the friends I made, and the total immersion in a creative environment. We were lucky that the world was still relatively ‘normal’ in 2018-19, and my cohort spent every Wednesday or Thursday at Corsham Court, writing like we’d never written before, chatting about writing over coffee and cake in the cafeteria, dodging the peacock mating dances on the way into the building, and being freaked out by the throne-like toilet in the upstairs corridor. Every moment of that beautiful, emotional year remains imprinted on my heart. Every time I sit at my keyboard or take out my notebook to write, I hear the wisdom of my tutors – Julia Green, Lucy Christopher and Janine Amos. (Hope that doesn’t sound too weird – I might set them free at some point!) But for now they’re still there, guiding, inspiring, and giving me the confidence to keep writing. I think the MA will remain with me for life, and I suspect it will with you too.
I’ve been thinking about what I learned most on the course as I plough my way through the edits for my second book, ‘Wren’ (to be published by Nosy Crow in October this year and available from all good bookshops...) There were all the things I probably should have known already – about character arcs and rhetoric (thank you Jo Nadin!), finding the heart of a story, structure, pace, creating compelling characters etc. Having come from a non-creative background, with not much writing experience beyond the occasional ode or short story, I hungrily lapped this up. But the course was so much more than the technical stuff. For me, the best bits were the conversations or writing tasks that sparked exciting new ideas, the chat with a tutor or course friend that set my mind racing, the thoughtful notes from my manuscript tutor, the David Almond lectures, my one-to-one with David Almond up a turret. The MA was, quite simply, the most wonderful experience and I’m struggling to rein myself in here in case I get into trouble for overdoing the superlatives!
So, good luck to you all. I’ll be thinking of you in the months ahead! Here’s hoping all your writing dreams come true.