Paula Hillman, author

Well…big news! I passed my MA with DISTINCTION! Thanks to the friends and family who have taken an interest and supported me, and a big shout-out to Lancaster University Creative Writing department…they were wonderful. I enjoyed every minute of the MA, and those who know me know where I’m heading next!!

If you’re interested in how the MA in Creative Writing works, the format is a mixture of tutorials, seminars and conferences, with a two week summer school in the middle. Tutorials take place across each 5000-word piece you submit, twelve in all, working one-to-one with a tutor. Mine was Professor Jane Draycott and she was superb. There are also seminars and conferences for students to submit pieces of writing and critique together, and the summer school gave the opportunity to meet and work with lots of other creative writing tutors and professionals. The dissertation at the end of two years consisted of a 35000-word mixture of creative work and essay. My dissertation novel was Seaview House, which is why it’s so close to my heart. But in that two-year period, I also wrote two other novels and many shorter pieces and a draft of my children’s novel. It’s compulsive, but I have got a lot of years to make up!