Is writing at university imperative or impossible?

Writing has been my favourite pastime for as long as I can remember. I completed the first draft of my very first “novel” when I was thirteen. It was a staggering eighty pages long, and received rave reviews from my mum and dad. Since then I have written several novels of varying lengths (and with varying degrees of success, I hasten to add) and as soon as I started at Warwick I knew that I would be surrounded by all manner of inspiration for my future projects. Everyone I meet is a potential character, and university was sure to provide me with the widest range of people I had ever encountered, not to mention a host of new life experiences which I could draw upon in my projects.

It’s not just about getting the project finished, it’s also about providing yourself with some sort of release from the day-to-day stresses of uni life

Then, of course, I was confronted by lectures, seminar readings and essay deadlines, and my latest project was pushed right to the back of my mind. I barely wrote anything in the first term of my first year, and I rarely found the time to sit down and bash out more than a hundred words, leaving me with an ugly first draft which required a complete rewrite, as oppose to a swift edit. I collected my thoughts over the Christmas holidays and decided to focus my term-time efforts on planning, collating my plots and characters and organising them in such a way that, come Easter, I would simply be able to sit and write. This worked relatively well, and this summer I completed the first draft of my longest novel yet.

However, it’s not just about getting the project finished, it’s also about providing yourself with some sort of release from the day-to-day stresses of university life. It’s about taking negative thoughts and energy and channelling them into something positive. I love highlighting things that haven’t quite gone to plan, and somehow utilising them in my stories, hiding my own emotions and beliefs within crazy plotlines. Writing is my main form of expression and, for me at least, there is no better way to unwind at the end of a stressful day.

Isabel Alexander

Writing at university can be difficult because, with so many competing commitments, it can sometimes be the last thing on your mind. I keep a blog and find it difficult to post regular short stories and poetry. Embarrassingly, despite a productive summer, the blog has fallen silent in the past few weeks.

During the course of your degree, you will no doubt find yourself in various situations where you think, “how did that come about?”

Whilst at university, I mainly try to write short stories because I find that I can write them quickly in the little free time I have. I struggle to dedicate time to anything longer and therefore cannot adequately develop characters or plot. Also, as there is such a long gap between the times when I write, I often forget key details and lack consistency. The first time I write something, the main character will have blue eyes, and when I get around to writing it again three weeks later, they suddenly have brown eyes.

Having said that, university is a great place for inspiration. During the course of your degree, you will no doubt find yourself in various situations where you think, “how did that come about?” – whether it be a strange night out, an awkward flat meal or a seminar with a strange tutor. There are so many great conversations you can overhear just by queuing for a coffee in the Humanities Café or on the stairs between floors three and four of the Library. They can inspire a conversation or even an entire story. University is also full of interesting people; a character can be based entirely on one person or the fascinating aspects of many different people.

At university, writing can be the crucial break you need to get away from the campus bubble. For me, it is a great source of relaxation that takes me away from impending deadlines and unfinished applications.  

Georgia Simcox