Students who enrol on this programme are not required to intend to become writers of fiction. However, writing ability is important, as well as the desire to develop this ability.
Students who apply to enrol on the programme may already be published authors or writers who have not yet sent their first manuscript to a publisher for evaluation. Published and unpublished material will be evaluated along equal lines by the entrance board, which consists of a representative from the Norwegian Authors Association, and two of the lecturers teaching on this programme.
The programme will give students the opportunity to experiment and reflect, and gather information about fiction writing in practice – information which otherwise would have to be sourced from several of the humanities disciplines. The programme will draw these elements together in order to provide a focus to the work, and to enhance the creative process.
As much emphasis is placed on theoretical topics as it is on the actual writing. The programme consists of three components that run parallel through the whole of the study-year:
Theory: literary theory, literature and society.
Writing workshop: practical exercises, analysis, work on students’ own literary projects.
Seminars: Individual short seminars.
Creative work, i.e. ‘literature production’ with associated drafting and analysis, is a major aspect of the programme. The two other main aspects should give perspective to this work, together with the more practical aspects of the profession.
The theoretical component includes lectures and group exercises. The writing workshop alternate among individual creative work, group work, text analysis and individual tutorials. Experienced authors take part in the process, which is characterised more by co-operation and experiment, than by more common teaching methods of lecture and discussion. In the first semester the theoretical and practical issues are addressed, while in the second semester there is more time for specialisation and concentration on individual literary projects.
The programme may provide qualification as an author. It may also offer the opportunity for employment in journalism and the media, publishing and editing, literature criticism and literature instruction. Depending on approval, the programme may form part of a Bachelor’s degree at university colleges or universities.
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