The Mysterious Magics of Creative Writing

: Re-envisaging practice as research

Abstract

In writing over fifty works of published fiction over a timespan of twenty years, I have needed to learn not how to magically conjure up creative possibilities, but how to identify material practices that actively evoke imaginative and relevant outputs. My subsequent teaching, at all levels of learning, has evolved from these processes and I have constantly sought to re-position my creative approaches as pedagogic tools that can be adapted for a range of learning needs. The research in this thesis has therefore been drawn from an interrogation of process related to specific submitted titles, each originally evolved through a distinct creative practice and each with a different aim and intent. By re-constructing scenes and scenarios, in raising up long lost fictional characters – and finding they were, in fact, never lost – and in reflecting on what these ‘unlost’ old friends have had to tell me, I have found new perspectives related to the writing of fiction. In this context I have sought, primarily, to identify the shifts between unconscious and conscious thinking, capturing that emerging moment – not the magical, ethereal light of an idea but the tangible, recordable evidence that demonstrates how creative processes that inform works of fiction can be made, honed, and shaped. Through this I have identified that which lies at the core of my practice, aligning researched but creative approaches with existing theory and unveiling new knowledge that impacts my writing, my research, my pedagogic approaches and methodologies related to creativity, all underpinned by an enhanced awareness of creative practice as research.

Date of Award	15 Apr 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Winchester
Supervisor	Neil McCaw (Supervisor), Judith Heneghan (Supervisor) & Inga Bryden (Supervisor)