Can you teach creative writing?

It has featured on US higher education programmes for more than a century, but British universities took longer to be convinced by creative writing. The notion that decent writing can't actually be taught was something Malcolm Bradbury found himself up against 40 years ago, when he was setting up an MA in creative writing at the University of East Anglia (UEA), the first of its kind. The course is now considered by many to lead the field, and has an impressive alumni list including Ian McEwan, Kazuo Ishiguro and Anne Enright.

A new book from UEA by Andrew Cowan, novelist and director of the university's MA course, is intended to offer an insight into the UEA method. It covers how to structure short stories and novels, creating convincing characters, writing believable dialogue and even how to overcome writer's block. Giles Foden, author and professor of creative writing at the university, says the book "answers many of the criticisms levelled at the subject and, to some degree, opens up the fabled 'black box' of our teaching."

The last decade has seen a huge expansion in creative writing courses. More than 90 British universities now offer a range of postgraduate degrees, and around 10,000 short creative writing courses or classes are on offer in the UK each year.

But, 40 years on and amid all this clamour to master the art, how well do universities teach creative writing? Can anyone actually teach it at all?

Andrew Motion, author, poet and professor of creative writing at Royal Holloway, University of London

There was a time when creative writing courses were seen on a par with athletes taking steroids, as if it somehow gave them an unfair advantage. There was this idea that creative writing was something that had to take place in a garret. But aspiring dancers go to the Royal Ballet School, and actors to Rada – why should writing be any different?

Now there are many MA programmes and degree courses with a creative writing element. There is also a move to introduce creative writing into GCSE and A-level courses. But teaching is still of variable quality. It's not about teaching students to avoid making mistakes or 'bad' writing; finding out what a blind alley looks like is an important part of the process.

David Baddiel, author, comedian and broadcaster

There seems to be a real hunger to know about the writing process. The thing is, all writers approach the process differently. I know that I work very differently to someone like Roddy Doyle, for example. He plans out the plot from start to finish before he starts a novel, whereas I tend to improvise until I feel a structure emerging. So I'm not sure writing can be taught as such. Certainly, I think you can pass on your experience as a writer and this can be used to develop latent talent. I haven't done any kind of creative writing courses myself, but I have got an English degree from Cambridge University, which was a fairly classical grounding. Ultimately, I think the only way to learn is by reading other writers.

Will Self, author, columnist and broadcaster

I'm still not convinced creative writing can be taught. Perhaps you can take a mediocre novelist and make them into a slightly better one, but a course can't make someone into a good writer. Ian McEwan and Kazuo Ishiguru both did the UEA MA, but they were both innately good anyway. Some people swear by creative writing courses. I say, go and get a job, a fairly menial one instead. Otherwise what are you going to write about? Writing is about expressing something new and exploring the form in new ways. So unless you want to churn out thrillers or misery memoirs, you can't work from a pattern book. You need to autodidact.

Fay Weldon, author and professor of creative writing at Brunel University

Four years ago, when I started teaching at Brunel, I was of the opinion that creative writing couldn't be taught. I wasn't taught how to write novels – I just wrote them. But I completely overlooked the years I spent writing copy in an advertising agency and what I learned about the nuances of language – for example, how switching the order of two words can completely change their meaning – or even just the impact of how words look on a page.

Now I believe creative writing can be taught, but only by published writers. A student with some aptitude and interest can benefit an awful lot from coaching and mentoring and sharing their work with other students.

But there are no rules; you can't say "this is how you write a short story" or "this is how you structure a novel" because something good that doesn't follow that pattern will always come along to challenge that. That said, it's difficult to turn a boring writer into an interesting one. And people who don't read a lot rarely write well.

Judy Astley, author

An MA is neat way of putting off actually writing the damn book. By time you've finished, you will be so intimidated by submersion in great and good, you may not actually want to write at all. Courses are also very concentrated on literary work – as if commercial is cheap and dirty – and sometimes taught by failed or unpublished novelists. But you go to art school to refine art techniques, so the MA could be useful for some.

MR Hall, author

I came to novel writing via 12 years of writing for the screen. While I was learning to write screenplays, I did a course with the American screenwriter and creative teacher Robert McKee. His "story" course was enormously helpful in providing basic scaffolding for my ideas. It's fashionable to dismiss this approach as formulaic, but it's like learning to compose music. You learn the principles of harmony and counterpoint before you start to write the melodies. And once the basics become instinctual, you're freed up to break the rules.

While you can learn technique, no one can create a voice for you. You either have something to say or you don't. All the decent writers I know are troubled souls: that's why they write – as lifelong therapy. But they are far from self-indulgent: a professional writer is a person with the discipline to sit at a desk for hours each day to turn the pain into well-structured words and stories designed to hold attention.

Maureen Freely, author and creative writing lecturer, Warwick University

There is a huge and growing demand for creative writing courses, but there are universities out there that simply see it as a money-making enterprise.

Good courses are taught by published writers who see it as a space to nurture and edit new writers. When I was first starting out, I had an editor who would ask me very tough questions about my work. You need that.

There are no hard and fast rules, but writing exercises can help students become more sensitive to the impact of different techniques.

Anna Davis, author and director of Curtis Brown Creative, the first literary agency to run its own creative writing courses

Publishers and agents spend a lot of time reading and assessing work, and would probably tell you that material produced on reputable creative writing courses is likely to jump to the top, or near the top, of the pile because it has already been vetted and assessed by writing tutors and refined under their guidance, but taking a creative writing course is no guarantee of publication. It is absolutely possible to be successful without this.

Curtis Brown Creative's three-month course started last week and is taught by myself and the novelist Jake Arnott. The aim is to help writers develop exciting new debuts at a time when it's not easy for first-time authors to break through.

We selected our first 15 students from a mountain of applications. In our view, you need all your students to be talented in order to really be able to achieve. We are also bringing our experience of the publishing scene and what is working in today's marketplace. I think a lot of students want this kind of practical approach, but a lot of courses focus on pretty prose and lose the bigger picture.

Andrew Cowan, author and director of the MA in creative writing (prose fiction) at the University of East Anglia

While a creative writing course can't turn someone into a writer, if you have ability and are willing to work hard, a course can help you to improve more quickly.

There has been a viral spread of creative writing courses in recent years, but teaching is not always good. You can get someone with a BA, MA and PhD in creative writing teaching on a university course with very limited experience of being published.

One criticism that is often levelled at creative writing courses is that they produce "cookie cutter" fiction. But if you look at the list of published graduates from the MA at UEA, you couldn't get a more diverse range of writers.