GRACE WARD
Actor / Writer / Content Creator / Marketing
Writing
Education:
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Creative Writing BA Degree (First Class Honours) at University of Roehampton 2015 - 2018
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Introduction to Creative Writing 10 Week Course at Arts University Bournemouth 2014
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Write to the End of Your Novel, short course at Curtis Brown Creative 2020
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English Literature A-Level (B Grade) at Parkstone Grammar School 2008 - 2014
Creative Writing at University
My Creative Writing degree at Roehampton not only gave me an opportunity to hone in on my fiction writing skills (I began writing short stories from around six years old), it also opened my world to a variety of styles of writing.
I took modules such as:
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Novel Writing
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Writing Short Stories
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Flash Fiction/Flash Non-Fiction
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Screenwriting: Short Films
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Writing for Children
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Graphic Narratives
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Telling True Stories
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Gaming and Interactive Narrative
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Business of Writing
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Screenwriting: Adaptation
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Poetry
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Process of Writing
Along with these, I developed skills in editing and copywriting.
Debut Novel
I have recently finished writing and editing the second draft of my debut novel. A YA, coming of age story that in many ways questions the notion of 'coming of age'.
The book involves topics such as: leaving home, LGBTQ+, religion, found-families, and self-discovery. I submitted my first chapter (4,000 words) for my Novel Writing module in third year at University, and it was graded a First.
I am now sending the draft to others for feedback, editing a third draft, and working on my pitch to eventually send out to agents to hopefully publish.
I have a list of other novel ideas I want to write, so once one book is complete, I have plenty of others to choose to start on next! Most of the ideas I have are Adult Fiction, but there is still some room for Young Adult too!
Screenwriting
I have co-written a short film with my friend and writer Conrad Pollock. The short film is called Greedy Guts, and it is about Biphobia within the LGBTQ+ Community. We began pre-production last year but had to put it on pause due to production clashes - however, we plan to bring this back in the near future.
I know numerous other screenwriters, and am often asked to proofread and edit their work.
I am also taking an online course with BBC Maestro ‘Writing Comedy for Television with Bill Lawrence’. Having been inspired by shows like Gavin & Stacey and Derry Girls, I have always wanted to write a comedy series. I am now in the process of planning and writing a series that centres round a single Lesbian who requires the help of her four straight male housemates to get her a date.
Marketing & Communications
Working in Marketing and Communications for the past almost six years has required a lot of writing skills.
From writing social media copy, news articles, magazines, scripts for videos, booklets, leaflets, newsletters, emails, communication and project plans - to editing important documents, co-writing official statements, copywriting, and more.
In my first year as Communications Intern at Roehampton Students' Union, I was given my own project. This was to collate a number of short stories written by students, edit them and publish them into a book to sell. I also designed the interior and front cover, wrote the foreword and marketed the published book online.
