James Franco hopes to get more than an education from his creative writing studies at Los Angeles university UCLA - he's using the course to write a novel. The studious star went back to the university to complete the studies he started before he became an in-demand actor.

He says, "I'm working on my honors thesis, which is a creative thesis where I'll be writing a novel. I actually have the first draft. I'll be reworking it until next year under the supervision of my professor, Mona Simpson, who wrote Anywhere But Here.

"Part of it (novel's plot) is based on a person I knew when I was younger who got in a lot of trouble and a lot of fights and was arrested a lot and was considered a troubled kid and kicked out of high school.

"Then, later, when I graduated high school he was diagnosed as a schizophrenic so I see his behaviour as pre-symptoms to getting the help that he needed."

-James Franco Pictures

(This news article provided by World Entertainment News Network)