School of Creative Communication

Immediately after completing my professional writing degree, I took up a position editing government recruitment advertising. Though this paid very well it was slowly but surely turning my brain to mush. I gave it up and went to work at BMA magazine (the local street press) as their Advertising and Marketing Manager. In my time there I was able to introduce a film section and became the film editor. All the while I slowly engineered my working week to involve more writing time.

Most recently, I have taken on a part-time job in order to dedicate myself to feverishly attacking a screenwriting career. As this is a very difficult industry to crack, I’m filling my days working on three feature films, scouring the net for competitions, as well as applying for programs like the Don and Gee Nicholl Fellowship and BBC Writersroom. I have been approached to write a bunch of shorts for friends and fellows and am actively pursuing this angle as well.

The specific skills gained from my professional writing degree did not directly contribute to the jobs I have taken as yet (the government position would have taken any communications degree) but I didn’t do the course with the expectation of going straight into a nine-to-five. Instead, I set my sights on lofty pipe dreams; and I plan to focus everything I gained from my time at UC on this goal till cruel reality tells me otherwise.

The greatest effect that professional writing had on me was to reveal what I really wanted to do. I came into the course knowing that I wanted to write but with no solid idea of what format that would take. A couple of weeks into scriptwriting 1 however, and my path was set.

The most appealing things about the subjects for me was the creative freedom I was allowed. The parameters given to us helped start the cogs grinding but after that it was great to be assessed – in the main – on creativity and expression.

I would recommend the degree to anyone who has a passion and flair for writing. I gained skills in many different styles and mediums as well as learned some of the theories behind narrative. Most important to me though, I was amongst other writers. Meeting other people with differing backgrounds but similar goals meant that I had an invaluable support network and talented editors quick to hand. I have kept these relationships up and now have a group of like-minded friends whose opinions I respect. I know that my writing has improved drastically in ways that would not have been possible without this.

I loved my time in the UC professional writing course and am confident it has increased my understanding of the field as well as being a brilliant life experience in itself. I do wish that there had been a little more focus on ways of getting into very difficult careers such as screenplay or novel writing but we were never given false hope that it would be a cake-walk and this difficulty has helped me develop a fiery artistic tenacity.

© Mark Russell 2007