What can academic writers learn from creative writers? Developing guidance and support for lecturers in higher education

Writing and publishing are crucial to the development of a successful academic career. However, lecturers typically receive little guidance on this strand of their job. Any support that does exist tends to focus on the technical and practical aspects of scholarly writing. Advice is rarely provided on managing creative and emotional facets - factors that greatly contribute to writing quality and success. This article arises from a conversation between the authors: a Higher Education researcher and a Creative Writing lecturer at the same institution. The core of the article is a personal reflection by Author 2 on teaching Creative Writing to undergraduates. From this experience, we distil a model for supporting the writing of academic staff. We conclude that, whilst creative and academic writing enjoy their own styles and conventions, elements of the writing process are shared. We argue that Creative Writing lecturers hold valuable knowledge on the writing process, which is currently under-utilised in Higher Education.