As I said, I consider myself a writer - at least part-time. Unfortunately, writing doesn't pay my rent and while I don't expect it to do so in the near future, I don't completely want to rule out that possibility either. Expect the worst and hope for the best, right?
If you consider doing a degree in Creative Writing, like I did, I just want to tell you that it did not teach me all that much. Most of what I know about writing, I know from books and from interacting on some darn fine forums (check out my suggestions). I also learned more than I can possibly imagine through many conversations with one old, wise bald dude (he should recognize himself).
The point I'm trying to make is: don't imagine uni as some miracle course where they'll tell you a secret formula that will push your writing to unknown heights. Rely on your own creativity and hard work, that's more likely to get you going.
All this is just some general advice borne from my own personal experiences. I'm not presumptuous enough to pretend I can offer a CW how-to. There are essays already out there, more insightful than I could be.
At any rate, I'll be sharing some of my creative material here, so enjoy.
Open Window is a short story I wrote about one year ago. Dealing with attraction and love, it contains some autobiographic material (only tidbits really) but the story is all in all fictitious.
Literary Detective Sister Grimm is a just-for-fun thing that I wrote. It is based off a role-playing game that we had in a seminar. The point of it was that truth depends on point of view and that it is not so easily defined. Well, if you give a bunch of students the opportunity to mess around with the fairy-tale of Little Red Riding Hood, fun stuff can occur. Enjoy.
I had a phase when I liked gothic, over-the-top poetry, full of vivid imagery that was supposed to hit the reader with the force of a sledgehammer. Whether I succeeded is for the reader to decide. Also, I'd like to mention that both 'Hunter and Prey' and 'Sin' would never have seen the light of day if it hadn't been for my very own muse. Thank you, very much.
The following are two villanelles. And for the record: villanelles are amongst the most difficult of fixed form poems to write. They rely on only two rhyme sounds and they have two refrains which are repeated alternatively. Well, see for yourself: