The Bloomsbury Introduction to Creative Writing

The Bloomsbury Introduction to

Creative WritingInstructor’s Manual

Prepared by the author of The Bloomsbury Introduction to Creative Writing,

Dr Tara Mokhtari

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Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Chapter by Chapter Notes and Reading Lists 3

3. Bonus Exercises or Assessment Tasks 8

4. Glossary 13

5. Online Media 19

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1. Introduction

The success of a Creative Writing class is contingent on the individual instructor’s development and nurturance of a unique creative culture; therefore this Instructor’s Manual will highlight only the technical aspects of The Bloomsbury Introduction to Creative Writing which might be useful to take into consideration in the planning of a curriculum based on the book.

To begin with, the manual gives an overview of the connections between the exercises in each chapter, some ideas for discussion, and a list of readings mentioned in that chapter. This can help with planning a curriculum of various interconnected forms or genres.

It is essential to emphasize that the readings referred to in the textbook and in this manual do not replace the instructor’s own selection of reading material for a Creative Writing class. Students respond best when instructors teach the literature they are most passionate about. The readings mentioned here are simply additional readings which will help to exemplify and contextualize the discussions and exercises in the textbook.

In section 3, the manual offers a bonus exercise which could be used as an assessment task for each chapter.In section 4 you will find a glossary of terms for reference.

Pedagogically, The Bloomsbury Introduction to Creative Writing presupposes the following:

MM In Creative Writing, formal scholarship complements an independent programme of arts practice by teaching technique as well critical and creative thinking, literary and composition theory, as well literary citizenship.

MM No Creative Writing course of study takes place solely in the classroom. The exercises in this book offer opportunities to experiment with different writing environments: galleries, cafes, on public transport, in the kitchen at home.

MM Creative Writing is an art form, and creative writers are artists; therefore students need to be exposed to the complex connections between writing and life.

MM Scholarly practice-led research and writing methods (which work best alongside foundational knowledge of literary theory and new criticism) should be introduced early in undergraduate degrees in Creative Writing for these reasons:

MM To complement the verbal critique process of workshops.MM To help students think critically about their creative practice in order to develop and improve.MM To force students to contextualize their own writing by reading and analyzing contemporary and

classical literature, which is important not only for creative development but also in practical terms for functioning effectively in the publishing and editing industry.

MM To prepare students for the rigorous scholarly demands of postgraduate study.

Furthermore, The Bloomsbury Introduction to Creative Writing is written with the changing climate of humanities in academia in mind. On one hand, an acknowledgement that a student does not enrol in a Creative Writing degree to become qualified to write a novel begs for a holistic approach to scholarship which encompasses knowledge, daily life, and active learning and teaching environments. On the other hand, a growing dissatis-faction with the terminal MFA which has been the standard offering of postgraduate Creative Writing study invites a conscientious rethinking of approaches taken in undergraduate degrees which may need to begin to predicate Doctoral and PhD programmes in Creative Writing. For these reasons, The Bloomsbury Introduction to Creative Writing might offer an opportunity for instructors and course convenors to reimagine the balances of creative and critical, theory and practice, and classroom and real-world learning in existing Creative Writing undergraduate degrees.

Alternatively, each chapter of The Bloomsbury Introduction to Creative Writing can be used individually for their practical exercises and workshops alongside established modes of study in each form and genre.

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2 The Bloomsbury Introduction to Creative Writing

DiscussionsDiscussions on theory, form, and style work as precursors to each progressive series of exercises and workshops. It might be useful to assign the introductions to chapters alongside all addition readings as a jumping-off point for in-class discussions. Whereas readings of literature (both the suggested readings for each chapter and the stories and poems chosen by the instructor) are important for understanding the context of each form or genre, the discussions in The Bloomsbury Introduction to Creative Writing are handy ways into explorations of the students’ own writing practice.

ExamplesSome examples provided are original ones by the author. Others are taken from existing literature, and a compre-hensive list of readings for each chapter can be found at the end of this manual.

It is perfectly reasonable for instructors to opt not to have students focus on the examples until they have written a first draft, or simply to use the examples as counterpoints for discussion in workshopping.

There are some students, especially early on in their studies, who have anxiety about taking direction for writing exercises and the examples might be useful initially to help quell some of this anxiety. It is worth noting when students are sticking too closely to the examples provided (it’s much less of a problem if they depart exponentially from the examples).

ExercisesAside from the exercises that specify they should be done in environments other than the classroom, most of the exercises in the book are designed to work as in-class tasks which should take no more than about 20 minutes to complete.

It is important that students are writing both in class and at home every week—if not every day.One suggested class format is to plan a seminar which incorporates one or two of the exercises (depending on

time constraints) alongside a mini-lecture or class discussion and concludes with a workshop session of one of the previous week’s exercises (homework might be to redraft exercises done in class, or complete new exercises from the book).

WorkshopsThe workshops in the book are also appropriate in-class activities, although, depending on the existing format for classes, instructors might organize students into workshop groups that meet outside of class once a week and report back on their progress in class.

It is important that students aren’t expected to simply read their work aloud and discuss it freely early on in undergraduate courses, because, generally speaking, they will get off topic or fail to give and receive really useful critical feedback from their peers. The workshops in the book specify different ways of sharing working—for example, some workshops ask students to swap their draft with another member of the group and listen to their partner read their draft out to the larger group. This is a way of forcing students to experiment with the ways they engage with each other’s work, and with their own work in the redrafting and editing process.

Every instructor will have her own way of setting rules or guidelines for workshop participation from the start and the workshops in the book assume this.

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2. Chapter by Chapter Notes and Reading Lists

This section will explain how some of the exercises in each chapter relate to exercises in other chapters. A list of readings used in each chapter is included, but these shouldn’t limit students from reading a range of comple-mentary texts set by instructors and sourced independently.

2.0. Introduction

Readings:Alison Flood, “Philip Roth tells young writer ‘don’t do this to yourself’,” in The Guardian online edition (UK: 16 November 2012)

Charles Bukowski, “So You Want to be Writer,” in Sifting Through the Madness for the Word, the Line, the Way (New York: HarperCollins, 2009)

2.1. Chapter 1: Writing and KnowledgeThe point to the exercises in this chapter is the creation of a sort of creative knowledge database that students can refer back to for material for the exercises in the following chapters in The Bloomsbury Introduction to Creative Writing. Most of the exercises are intended to be completed within 15 or 20 minutes, which doesn’t allow much conceptualization time; so, by collating a series of brainstormed lists in Chapter 1, students will have fallback material should they fail to have a gut-reaction idea to future exercises.

The Stream of Consciousness exercise, particularly, is the foundation for later guided stream-of-consciousness-based exercises in the Reflection Writing and Feature Planning sections of Chapter 2, the discussions and exercises in Chapter 3, and culminating in an exercise in Chapter 4 which asks the student to use the best parts of previous stream of consciousness exercises in the development of voice.

All of these exercises are suitable for in-class or homework tasks, and might provide an interesting forum for students to get to know each other before plunging into more intensive workshop situations.

Readings:Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason, unabridged edition, trans. Norman Kemp Smith (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1965)

Matsuo Bash, “Blowing Stones,” in Short Poems, ed. Jean Elizabeth Ward, trans. Robert Hass (Lulu.com, 2009) <http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Short_Poems.html>

Katie Fischer, “John Slattery is a Natural,” Interview Magazine <www.interviewmagazine.com/film/john-slattery-in-our-nature>

Lawrence Ferlinghetti, These Are My Rivers: New & Selected Poems 1955-1993 (New York: New Directions, 1994)

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2.2. Chapter 2: Writing the SelfThe exercises in this chapter put the student/author at the centre of the text.

The Autobiography and Memoir exercises are an introduction to the storytelling techniques practiced in Chapters 4, 5 and 6.

The Reflection and Personal Interest Feature Writing exercises are an introduction to the structural and conceptualization aspects of digital media and scholarly writing exercises in Chapters 7 and 8.

It is important that students read the essays referenced by George Orwell and Joan Didion both as examples of the personal essay genre and for their insights into the subject matter of the Why I Write exercise at the end of the chapter.

The exercise, Why I Write, is designed partly to motivate students, to get them thinking of themselves as a writer and consciously interrogate their relationship with writing.

George Orwell, Keep the Aspidistra Flying (Florida: Harcourt Inc, 1956)

Charles Dickens, Great Expectations (London: Penguin Books, 2012)

Readings:George Orwell, “Why I Write,” orwell.ru < http://orwell.ru/library/essays/wiw/english/e_wiw>

Ian Jack, “Memoirs are made of this – and that,” in The Guardian online edition (AU: 8 February 2003)

Anthony Kiedis and Larry Sloman, Scar Tissue (London: Time Warner Books, 2004)

Bob Dylan, Chronicles: Volume One (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004)

Joan Didion, “Why I Write,” (Bridgewater: Bridgewater.edu) <http://people.bridgewater.edu/~atrupe/ENG310/Didion.pdf>

2.3. Chapter 3: Poetics and Poetry CompositionThe intention behind the exercises in this chapter are threefold: first, to begin to link creative writing practice with poetics; second, to allow students to experiment with forms outside of their comfort zone; third, to emphasize the careful use of language across all genres.

Although there are some key poets and poems mentioned in the section on Poetic Movements, these are just an initial guide. Instructors can add examples of different forms they particularly want students to focus on and build discussions on those examples from the overview provided in the chapter.

The haiku exercise, in particular, is useful as an introduction to narrative structure discussions in the fiction and screenwriting chapters. It asks students to consider the haiku as a whole and experiment with the order and presentation of images which come together in the haiku to tell a story.

It’s also not necessary for students to do the exercises in any particular order, and it may be helpful for them to be prescribed one exercise to attempt several times over the course of a few weeks to begin to master a particular form.

For courses which focus on Poetry Writing, many of the exercises in this chapter can be completed and workshopped in class.

As students become more confident sharing their drafts, and more familiar with each other’s work, the exercises might build up to an organized public poetry reading outside of class. While this is a big ask for under-graduate students, it’s also a motivating event to work towards.

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2. Chapter by Chapter Notes 5

2.4. Chapter 4: Fiction ConventionsThe exercises in this chapter build to some extent on the memoir writing exercises from Chapter 2.

Given that the first few exercises in this chapter are about micro-short stories, and this is a medium which is readily publishable with online social media, it might be beneficial to create a blog, Facebook group, or Twitter hashtag and workshop some of the writing online as homework. Students could do this in small workshop groups, or they could be encouraged to join a whole-class forum online and engage with a larger readership that way.

The first exercise in this chapter, which gives a short list of “beginnings,” is ideal to use in class as a warm-up writing task. You might start by explaining the exercise, then projecting the first phrase and begin quiet writing time for three or four minutes, then stop writing, then replace the first phrase with the second phrase, then stop, and so on. It might help students keep up to give a warning 30 seconds before changing phrases.

The exercise on narrative structure is a precursor to the narrative arc discussions and exercises in the following chapter on screenwriting techniques. This section is designed to get students thinking visually about the macro-structure of stories. It might be useful to relate this to the haiku line-order exercise in the poetry chapter.

Ideally students will read the short stories by Virginia Woolf, William Carlos Williams, and Guy de Maupassant before doing the related exercises which draw heavily from literary techniques employed in those works. These short stories might be prescribed homework reading and the exercises could be done in class.

It’s less necessary for students to read the novels referenced by Sylvia Plath, Harper Lee, and Jane Austen, but these novels are selected because it is likely students will have been exposed to them in other English courses and will be familiar with the characters cited in the discussions and exercises.

The concluding exercise in genre fiction is simply a fun, optional departure from literary creative writing, which might be helpful as a transition to the more formulaic practice of screenwriting in the following chapter.

Readings:Poems linked in-text and/or included throughout.

Readings:Anton Chekhov, “The Slander,” in The Horse Stealer and Other Stories (New York: The MacMillan Com-pany, 1921)

Virginia Woolf, To The Lighthouse (London: Urban Romantics, 2012)

William Carlos Williams, “The Use of Force,” in The Doctor Series (New York: New Directions, 1984)

Guy De Maupassant, “Confessing,” in The Hairpin and Other Stories (Whitefish: Kessinger Publishing, 2004)

2.5. Chapter 5: Screenwriting TechniquesThe first couple of exercises in this chapter ask students to practice fundamental screenwriting structure and presentation, and are ideally completed (or at least workshopped) in class so that you can correct technical errors before moving on to the more challenging exercises. It’s also preferable for students to practice these fundamentals—writing out slug lines and formatting action and dialogue correctly—in every exercise in the remainder of this chapter.

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In introductory Creative Writing classes that teach a combination of prose and script genres, the discussion in this chapter on the key points of difference between prose writing and screenwriting might happen after students have attempted the first exercise as a point of reference.

The exercise on subtext and the later exercise on “the bartender, the murderer and the rock star” work beauti-fully as whole-class instructor-led exercises. They tend to be energizing and give students a taste of what it’s like to collaborate as a round table of writers.

Watch:Pretty Woman, dir. Garry Marshall (1990; Los Angeles: Touchstone Pictures/Silver Screen Partners IV, 1990), film

The Seinfeld Chronicles—Pilot, dir. Art Wolff (1989; Los Angeles: Giggling Goose Productions, Shapiro/West Productions, Castle Rock Entertainment, 1989), television

Sex and the City, dir. Susan Seidelman (1998; New York City; Darren Starr Productions, HBO, Rysher Entertainment, 1998), television

Inception, dir. Christopher Nolan (2010; Los Angeles; Warner Bros, Legendary Pictures, Syncopy, 2010), film

When Harry Met Sally, dir. Rob Reiner (1989; Los Angeles; Castle Rock Entertainment, Nelson Entertain-ment, 1989), film

Clueless, dir. Amy Heckerling (1995; Los Angeles; Paramount Pictures, 1995), film

Readings:

Dara Marks, Inside Story: The Power of the Transformational Arc (London: A & C Black Publishers, 2009)

2.6. Chapter 6: Writing for PerformanceOne-act plays, monologue and soliloquy, spoken word are the three parts that make up the chapter on Writing for Performance, although the focus of the chapter is really on the first two genres and spoken word is included at the end as a way of getting students to put themselves into the role of performer. It may be worth discussing the reasons why spoken word fits into this chapter rather than the Poetry chapter as part of a larger discourse on the shared characteristics of poetry and stage writing (for example, sound technique and the oral quality of both forms).

For the section on one-act plays, instructors might source their local arts body’s guidelines on formatting and have students adhere to those for practice.

Readings:Harold Pinter, The Dumb Waiter (premiered 1960; London, Hampstead Theatre Club), stage play

Samuel Beckett, Endgame (premiered 1957; London, Royal Court Theatre), stage play

Anton Chekhov, The Marriage Proposal (premiered 1890; St Petersburg), stage play

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2. Chapter by Chapter Notes 7

2.7. Chapter 7: Writing for Digital MediaThe first section on Digital Storytelling really requires students to watch a few examples of digital stories on the web to understand their function. Instructors can source these on YouTube and through organizations that use digital storytelling for a variety of purposes. You could have a discussion on what constitutes a digital story, and whether all short videos on the web count as digital stories.

The Online Media Toolbox section follows on from the feature writing structure exercises in the chapter on Writing the Self.

The concluding exercise on social media is intended to get students to think critically about the professional implications of a medium they are likely very familiar with, using in their personal life. However, it is possible to use the social media-based workshop of micro-stories in the chapter on Fiction Conventions as a more immersive basis for discussion or point of comparison.

2.8. Chapter 8: Critique and ExegesisThe exercises in this chapter ask students to choose a creative piece they wrote for one of the exercises in the previous chapters and go through the steps of planning a critique of that piece. If your course includes a critique element for their first assessment pieces, the readings and exercises in this chapter might be useful to tackle earlier on in the semester as preparation.

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3. Bonus Exercises or Assessment Tasks

3.1. Chapter 1: Writing and KnowledgeIn this chapter, students are asked to reconsider the meaning and make-up of “knowledge” and apply the possi-bilities thereof to their own writing practice. This poses an opportunity for a presentation assessment/assignment task in the form of a series of panel discussions on the relationship between knowledge and writing. This task requires some preparation and should be done in class, as a class:

STEP ONE: Ask students to bring in one favorite piece of creative writing they produced before starting this Creative Writing course. The piece should be no longer than a page or two.

Photocopy or electronically distribute each student’s piece so that everyone has access to everyone else’s piece.

STEP TWO: According to the subject matter and genres of work you receive, divide students into groups of four, and give each group a week in which they will be required to present their panel discussion.

Give each group a topic based on the discussions in this chapter. Topics might include: writer’s block; your writer self compared with your social self; emotion as raw material.

Before each panel discussion, the students’ homework will be to read the presenting group’s pieces and come ready to ask questions of each presenter.

STEP THREE: You, as the instructor, should chair each panel presentation. When a group presents their panel discussion, each group member should have a few minutes to talk to the class about how their piece relates to the topic at hand. After each group member has presented, the class will ask questions of the panel or of individual group members.

This exercise has the following benefits:

MM It is a chance for students to engage in deeper discussions about their writing practice and get to know one another, which in turn will foster a healthier workshop dynamic in other tasks.

MM It is an introduction to the idea of a “panel”-style forum which is central to many professional writing conferences, thus giving students a sense of active literary citizenship starting within the classroom.

3.2. Chapter 2: Writing the SelfAll the exercises in this chapter focus on the past and present self, but the past and present can tell us a lot about the possibilities for the future. The following task asks students to depart from non-fiction-based self-writing to experiment with a hybrid of fiction and writing the self.

STEP ONE: Students should revisit the exercises in the last two chapters and think about what common threads tie their writings together. Do certain characters or settings recur in several of their exercise responses? Is there an overarching theme of family or friendship? Is there a particular time in their lives that gets more attention than other times?

STEP TWO: Ask students to workshop their findings about what links they found in their writing to date. They can work as a group to discuss the following questions: What part does the practice of writing play in these recurring themes and ideas? Has the process of exploring certain subjects through writing helped or hindered the process of dealing with those subjects in daily life? How does the student envision these themes playing out in their lives ten and 20 years from now?

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STEP THREE: As a homework assignment, students can write a first draft of a fictional story in which they are the protagonist and some of characters may be based on people they know. The fictional story should be set some time in the future (at least five years, for greater contrast), and work as a kind of speculation on how some of the themes that have preoccupied them in the past might resurface in new and unexpected ways in the future.

For example, this might mean imagining how a relationship might heal, alter or break down several years from now, or anticipating the way one might overcome an old phobia (by, say, flying for the first time), or the way a person’s notion of what constitutes a “home” might change given a new set of circumstances.

The benefits of this task include:

MM Aside from the obvious catharsis of taking a preoccupation of the past and reimagining it in the context of the future, the exercise demonstrates the idea that the self in writing is not necessarily a fixed idea—it is open to interpretation and imagination and change. This concept might be particularly emancipating after attempting the “Why I Write” personal essay exercise.

MM It’s an interesting exercise for linking self-writing with fiction and screenwriting. It shows students the method of starting with real life and exploding that into fictional possibilities.

3.3. Chapter 3: Poetics and Poetry CompositionThe exercises in this chapter encourage students to experiment with different forms of poetry and ready poetry from different eras. This is a good jumping-off point for students to begin to conceptualize and collate a folio of poems which work together as a collection. The following task is probably too long to work as a stand-alone exercise, but it’s an effective assignment task:

STEP ONE: Students can pick their own unifying feature for a poetry folio based on either subject matter or form, or a combination of both. For example, a student might choose to write a short series of poems on death, or a short series of sonnets, or a short series of haikus on love. Ask students to decide on the unifying feature of their folio and share with the rest of the class their plan for how and when they will write the poems.

STEP TWO: You might allocate a period of two or three weeks in which students have to compose a suite of between four (for longer forms) and 12 (for short forms, like the haiku) poems which adhere to the unifying feature they set out for themselves in class.

STEP THREE: After the poems are written, you can ask students to write a short critique (see Chapter 8) which explains the poetic techniques employed in their poems, justifies their creative choices, elucidates the unifying features of the poems and their significance, and cites at the work of least two published poets for context.

This assignment is suited to both introductory Creative Writing courses and also intermediate-level Poetry Composition courses, and is useful for:

MM Introducing students to critiquing their own creative process.MM Giving students the creative freedom to choose their own subject matter and form within a defined

framework and with specific goals.MM Encouraging students two write more poems than they need to submit so that they have a range of work

to select from.

3.4. Chapter 4: Fiction ConventionsThis chapter includes exercises designed to help students experiment with fiction and storytelling conventions such as characterization, setting, voice and plot. Some of the exercises in this chapter also touch on ways to find inspiration for stories and using different stimuli as starting points for new works of fiction.

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The following task is a departure from the usual fiction writing assignment which offers a writing prompt and word limit. This task is designed to marry experimentation with convention together with the idea of developing good writing habits, with the intended outcome of helping students find ways of working their writing practice into their everyday lives.

STEP ONE: Using one of the exercises from the Fiction Conventions chapter in the book as a starting point, students can plan a long-short story in class. The idea is to take an idea and expand on it by embellishing the plot, adding or taking away characters, and exploring the thematic possibilities. Students might be given 20 minutes of class time to write up a synopsis, either in prose form or in dot points.

STEP TWO: This part of the assignment can go on for a period of three weeks. Ask students to commit to a writing regime where they must write at least 200 words a day of their story, every day (or five days a week) for three weeks. You might have students meet up in their workshop groups each week to share drafts and discuss their progress, or you could dedicate an online forum where students post drafts and comment on each other’s work on a regular basis. By the end of the three-week period, students will have at least 3,000 words of first draft material to work with.

STEP THREE: The rewriting phase of the assignment should take one or two weeks. Ask students to continue working on redrafting and editing their short story every day. They might choose to do one full structural in the first week, and a closer edit in the second week. Or they might feel they need to do a series of two or three rewrites and copyedit in the last two days. At the end of the rewriting phase, students are ready to submit their short story.

The purpose of this assignment is to:

MM Encourage students to start writing a little bit every day.MM Demonstrate the benefits of working on one piece of creative writing slowly over an extended period of

time, as opposed to banging out work at the last minute.MM Emphasize the creative process of both writing and rewriting.MM Challenge students to be accountable to each other and support each other’s writing practice to foster a

positive literary community.MM Have their creative process (as well as the final work they submit) assessed by the instructor.

3.5. Chapter 5: Screenwriting TechniquesThis chapter covers both the technical aspects of writing for screen, as well as theoretical thematic approaches to conceptualizing stories for film and television. The exercises in this chapter prepare students for the challenges of writing a screenplay and emphasize the collaborative aspect of screenwriting industry practice. This primes students for a screenwriting assignment task:

STEP ONE: Organize students into groups of three. In class, have the groups work together to come up with an idea for a 15-minute short film which they could theoretically hand over to students in the film and television faculty to produce. This means that the film shouldn’t depend upon B-grade type plots and plot devices, CGI, graphic sex, etc. Explain that this requirement is not meant to censor their creativity; it’s there to challenge them to think practically and visually about telling their story.

Once students come up with a basic idea, ask them to fill in the Dara Marks quote on the relationship between theme, character and plot with details of their film. It might be useful for each group to pitch their film idea to the class before moving on to the next step.

STEP TWO: For homework, groups are to collaborate to write a synopsis for their film idea. Emphasize that a good synopsis covers all the plot points and major character developments of a film from beginning to end. Students should bring in their synopsis to work on in class.

In class, have each group read out their synopsis and have a class discussion on their progress. Then, in

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their groups, they can start working on a scene-by-scene step outline. Once the outline is complete, each group member should be allocated a third of the scenes to write up as homework.

STEP THREE: Although each student has a designated number of scenes to write up, they should collaborate to make sure there is a sense of continuity in their approach. This might mean meeting up outside of class or sharing draft scenes on an online forum where they can collaborate virtually. They should bring their completed scenes into class to work on them.

STEP FOUR: Groups can workshop their drafted screenplay in class. This means doing a full read-through, cutting out any extraneous scenes, reading dialogue aloud to each other to appraise continuity of voice and characterization, and fine-tuning action sequences. After this step, groups are ready to write up the final draft of the script and submit the project, including the synopsis and step outline.

This task has the following benefits:

MM It’s a break from working independently on every assignment and gives students a taste of creative writing collaboration. While some students will prefer working alone, this exercise tends to get passions running quite high and the new dynamic of bouncing ideas off one another can be really challenging and rewarding.

MM It gives students a chance to practice coming up with three important documents pertaining to screen-writing practice: the screenplay, the step outline, and the synopsis.

MM There is the opportunity for instructors to check the progress of each group over two or three weeks.

3.6. Chapter 6: Writing for PerformanceThis chapter focuses primarily on theatre writing forms such as the one-act play and the monologue. The exercises in this chapter are very introductory and are designed to offer a taste of what writing for performance entails. For those students who are more passionate about theatre than film, the following assignment task is an opportunity to try writing a full one-act play:

STEP ONE: For homework, ask students to come up with a one-page synopsis for a one-act play. This doesn’t have to be a polished piece of writing—a draft is fine. The idea is to think visually, restricting the work to one setting and two or three character and a simple but engaging plot which could realistically play out in 15 minutes or less. Ask students to bring in their draft synopses to class.

STEP TWO: Divide students into groups of three or four and have each group workshop their individual synopses. After reading a synopsis together and having an initial discussion on the author’s ideas for the play, a guided improvisation can take place.

First, the author should cast each group member as one of the characters from the play.

Then the author must come up with three conflicts that can be summarized in one sentence each, write them down on a piece of paper, and hand them to the group members.

Without talking about their interpretations of the conflict, the group members should assume the voices of the characters they’ve been cast as and improvise a short conversation where the given conflict plays out. It is the author’s job to direct the improvisation when she feels the characters are getting off-track, or if she wants to experiment with the conflict (say, adding another dimension to further complicate the situation).

The author should take notes throughout.

STEP THREE: Using everything the group discovered about the characters, the plot, the central conflict and the themes that arise from it during the improvisation task, the homework task is to write up a first draft of the one-act play. Ask students to keep it as simple and visually effective as possible, sticking with the limit of one setting and two or three characters. Students can workshop these in class or outside of class in their workshop groups by directing a read-through of the play. Then they can go ahead and write a second draft before submitting the script for assessment.

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3.7. Chapter 7: Writing for Digital MediaThis chapter offers students a glimpse into the professional practice of writing for digital media. One area that is not covered in great depth is writing articles for searchable information online databases such About.com. Whereas the structural tools offered in the chapter are applicable to this kind of writing, it might be helpful to ask students to research this avenue for regular contribution. The following task suggests how.

STEP ONE: In class, go through a few of the better-known information databases, like About.com, and look for the contributor section to find out what subjects are currently available for writers to contribute to. Have a class discussion on how a writer might approach this kind of ongoing freelance job: How much time would you need to dedicate each week to a job like this? What kind of research would you undertake? How would you connect with your readership? How would you select topics if you were to write, say, two articles on this topic every week?

STEP TWO: For homework, have students pick one of the topics they found in class and come up with ideas for ten articles they might write for that topic over the course of several weeks. They don’t have to write the whole articles, just brainstorm ten ideas and make a list of ten engaging headlines. Students should bring these into class to workshop.

STEP THREE: In class, students can share their ten ideas in groups or as a whole class. The idea is for each student to receive some feedback on the following questions: Does the list work as a diverse but unified treatment of the overall topic? Are some of the ideas too similar to each other? What would you want to know about that topic that isn’t covered in the list of ideas?

Students can revise their list of headlines, and then pick one idea and write out the full article according to the guidelines provided in the textbook.

This task is useful because:MM It prepares students for one of the challenges of professional writing as a freelance career.MM It allows students to practice planning and writing an article for digital media in a specific context.MM It is an opportunity for students to marry their writing practice with another area of interest.MM This is a handy composition task because the format calls for clarity and writing for a broad readership.

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4. Glossary

Absurdist: A text which plays with the philosophy of the tension that exists between the human desire for meaning and the inherent meaninglessness of life.

Action: The prose in a script which describes the physical actions to be shown onscreen in a scene.Affirmation: The third paragraph in a five-paragraph argumentative essay which presents the evidence in favor of

the thesis stated in the introduction. It precedes the negation paragraph and immediately follows the narration paragraph.

Alliteration: The repetition of sound at the beginning or in the stressed syllables of multiple words in close proximity. For example: The salubrious citizens opposed her self-assured sensuality.

Analogy: The communication of the likeness of one scenario with a manifestly familiar counterpart scenario. For example: Colin had trouble saving cash. After he broke a hundred dollar note it was like trying to shovel sand with a fork. A more clichéd example: The mathematics teacher had a voice like nails down a chalkboard.

Anecdote: A brief story with one single intended crux. All the information provided works towards the twist at the end of the anecdote. Unlike other stories which depend on characterization, plot, theme, and setting, an anecdote is told only for the purpose of making a specific point.

Antagonist: The character in a literary text who most directly opposes the protagonist, either actively, as in a villain, or passively, as an existential competitor. Sometimes the antagonist’s role is very subtle; he or she could simply be a character who demonstrates the qualities that the protagonist wishes to embody. Other times the antagonist’s role is to aggressively roadblock the protagonist’s efforts at overcoming his or her fatal flaw.

Argumentative Essay: An essay that makes an argument in favor of one side of an issue. An argumentative essay is structured like any other essay, with an introduction with a thesis statement that articulates the essay’s central argument, a body, and a conclusion. Some of the evidence provided in an argumentative essay is supportive of the thesis statement. Other evidence which counters the argument is provided to give the author tangible oppor-tunities for rebuttal.

Aristotelian Structure: Describes the functions of the beginning, middle, and end of a dramatic narrative according to Aristotle’s Poetics.

Attribution: The formal, written acknowledgment of the source of a quote or paraphrase in a scholarly, nonfiction, or creative text.

Autobiography: All or part of the author’s own life story which is written with the intention of representing true accounts.

Ballad: A narrative poem with distinctly musical qualities.Beat: A section of a scene in a screenplay which is subtly distinguished by a sustained level of tension, a balance

of power being held by one character, a mood, or a tone. Sometimes this is determined by a change in the tone or topic of dialogue, sometimes it is marked by a shift in action or setting, other times the introduction of a new character within a scene punctuates a beat.

Billboard Paragraph: See Nut Graf.Block: A unified section of a scene in a screen or stage play that maintains one distinct mood, tone, power balance

between characters, or topic of conversation in dialogue.Blocking: The job of directing the action in a scene of a film or play.Blog: An informal web publication (and sometimes a discussion forum) consisting of multiple posted entries of text

and/or multimedia content.Body: The combined paragraphs between the introduction and the conclusion in an essay, critique, exegesis, or article

which present the main information and narrative thread of the subject matter.Canto: One unified section of a longer poem.Cathartic Writing: Writing which serves a therapeutic purpose for the author. Cathartic writing is written for the sake

of self-expression or venting emotion. Cathartic writing is not necessarily written to be read.Cause and Effect: The philosophy of causality. Causality is about the necessarily dependent relationship between an

outcome and the factor which initiated it. In literature it can be thought of a sequence of dependent events in a plot which challenge the protagonist. Sometimes in order for the protagonist to succeed in the end, she must wilfully intercept the cause and effect sequence and take some kind of definitive action.

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Characterization: The conventions for developing and exposing a character’s inner workings, motivations, relation-ships, and history in a work of fiction.

Climax: The plot point in a story in which everything comes to a head.Close Reading: The act of analyzing the individual parts of a text in an effort to understand the text as a whole.

This might mean going through a poem line by line and identifying the poetic techniques used and the meanings conveyed through those techniques.

Conceptualization: The process of bringing an idea into fruition or the planning stage which precedes writing.Conclusion: The last paragraph in an essay, critique, exegesis, or article which amalgamates the information in the

body to respond to or reiterate the point of the text as it was stated in the introduction.Concrete Poetry: Poetry that takes a physical shape on the page which conveys an integral part of the poem’s

meaning; came into prominence in Europe in the 1950s.Confessional: Poetry and literature which deals with the poet’s own deeply personal and internal life.Conflict: A problem that arises in a work of fiction to drive the plot and force the characters to act.Couplet: A stanza or other unified set of two lines in poetry.Craft: In creative writing, the artistic skill required to compose literature.Creative Nonfiction: A literary genre in which true stories are written using creative writing techniques.Critique: A text which critically analyzes a piece of creative writing or other artefact.Denouement: The plot point at the very end of a story which shows the protagonist’s life return to normal after the

climax.Dialogue: The speech and conversation exchanged between characters.Digital Poetry: Poetry which is composed with a strong presentational, usually multimedia, component. Digital poetry

might be thought of as the technologically advanced grandchild of concrete (or shape) poetry.Discursive Symbolism: A language-based, linear and logical way of communicating which is limited by syntax and

grammar.E-book: A book published on a digital platform that can be downloaded to an electronic device such as a PC, laptop,

smartphone, tablet, e-reader, Kindle, iPad, or iPhone.End Stop: In poetry, when a line break occurs at the end of a natural phrase. (For example: Lime and lemongrass

emanate from Little Bourke lanes / beats and riffs pulse underground / through dark hours the warmth remains / she holds my hand and walks me ‘round.)

Enjambment: In poetry, when a line break occurs in the middle of a natural phrase. (For example: his name is a breath // of fresh air.)

Epic: A long narrative poem.Exegesis: A critical analysis of a text, its meanings, and the literary conventions and creative writing techniques it

employs. In the context of Creative Writing scholarship, an exegesis is usually a longer form of critique with an articulated thesis and points of comparison and contrast.

Exposition: The mode of fiction writing whose purpose is to give back story or introduce settings or characters. The art of good exposition requires the author to know how much detail is really essential and at what point to stop explaining the past and enter the characters’ present dilemmas.

Fable: A short story with a moral lesson revealed at the end, often intended for children.Fairytale: A magical or fantastical children’s story.Feature Article: Generally, any article in a publication that is not deemed hard news.Fictionalization: The process of taking real life events or people and imposing imagination onto them to create a

work of fiction.Figurative Language: The use of devices like metaphor, irony, and subtext to manipulate meaning. For example: The

cat is the master of her domain and we are just the minions who wait on her.First Person Voice: Narrative written from the point of view of the speaker or protagonist of the text. For example:

I put my sneakers on and walked down the street where I saw my naked reflection in the barber shop window.Focus: The key topic or point of a text.Foreshadowing: A literary technique of giving a subtle hint or an allusion at the start of a story of what the outcome

of a particular plot line will be. Foreshadowing can help the reader or audience to feel more satisfied at the end of the story because something is resolved that was set up in the beginning.

Form: In poetry, the categorization of a poem according to prescribed stanzaic, metric, and other technical rules.Form: The genre of poetry as delineated by formal constraints including meter, rhyme scheme, and stanza lengths. For

example: the sonnet is a form characterized by its iambic pentameter, a b a b rhyme scheme, and three quatrains followed by a concluding rhyming couplet.

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4. Glossary 15

Formality: Of or pertaining to poetic form.Free Verse: From the French Verse Libre; poetry which is not restricted by classical form. Line lengths, stanzas,

rhythm, rhyme, and other sound devices are used at the creative discretion of the poet rather than to adhere to a prescribed structure.

Free Writing: See Stream of Consciousness.Genre: A basis for differentiating texts based on their subject matter, style, and approaches to theme, plot, and charac-

terisation. For example: romance, mystery, drama, comedy, creative nonfiction, autobiography.Ghazal: A form of Persian lyric poetry consisting of five or more couplets, usually with themes of mysticism and love.Haiku: A poem of Japanese origins consisting of three lines totaling 17 syllables, often on themes of nature.Headline: The title of an article.Hermeneutic Circle: Martin Heidegger’s concept of the challenge of interpretation of texts being the relationship

between the whole text and its individual parts. Essentially, to understand the whole, one must understand the parts; paradoxically, to understand the parts of a text, one must understand the whole.

Hermeneutics: The theory of the interpretation of texts based on the relationship between the author, the text itself, and the reader. Hermeneutics has its origins in the interpretation of biblical texts, but is now applied to a range of disciplines including literature and law.

Hook: A narrative device at the beginning of a work of fiction or nonfiction which entices the reader to read on.Human Interest: Text that pertains to human desires and emotions, including the need to engage socially and to feel

understood and not alone in our personal experiences.Hyperlink: A live, working link within a text published online to another website or article published online.Iambic Pentameter: A poetic meter with a regular five stressed syllables in each line.Identical Rhyme: In poetry, the repetition of both the stressed vowel sound and the consonant sounds of two words.

For example: sum and wholesome.Improvisation: Impromptu creative processes, usually involving two artists, actors, or writers reacting to each other

spontaneously.Intention: The author’s objective for the meaning communicated by his or her own text.Internal Rhyme: Rhyming in poetry which occurs within the line rather than at the end of the line. For example: The

yellowing lime was a sign of the time spent at sea.Lead: The introductory paragraph in a news or feature article. In a news article, the lead gives the essential information

of the story: who, what, when, where. In a feature article, the lead hooks the reader’s interest and the essentials are detailed later in the nut graf (or the billboard paragraph).

Lede: See Lead.Literal Language: The use of language which does not deviate from each word’s actual meaning. (For example: The

cat scratches up the furniture, malts fur all over our clothes, and only pays us attention when she is hungry.)Literary Theory: The philosophies that exist for the interpretation of literature.Literature Review: A text which elucidates the key findings and relevance of all the key texts on a designated topic.

In creative writing scholarship, a literature review is often one of the earliest stages of proposing a research topic. A literature review demonstrates the viability and appropriateness of your thesis or exegesis topic to your examiners while serving as the starting point for your proposed research.

Literature: The art of writing.Log Line: A one- or two-sentence synopsis which encapsulates the major theme of a screenplay. The log line is useful

at all stages of the writing process, from clarifying the intention for the script, to pitching the script to funding bodies and producers, and finally as potential copy for the promotion of the produced film.

Manifesto: A document which explicates the philosophical and practical artistic beliefs and intentions of its author or authors.

Map: A plan which outlines the major plot points of narrative or the intended trajectory of a nonfiction text. Maps are a great way of making sure your macro-structure is sound and logical (or appropriately illogical) before you get too deep into composing the work.

Map (Fantasy Fiction Genre): A visual representation of the fictional or imagined places where the protagonist’s journey takes place in a work of fantasy fiction. Often this is a hand-drawn map which features at the beginning of a fantasy novel for the reader’s reference.

Memoir: A literary representation of all or part of the author’s own life story.Metaphor: The communication of meaning by likening one concept to another more dramatic or more tangible

concept. For example: instead of literally describing the feeling of depression, explaining instead that one is being followed everywhere by looming dark rainclouds.

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Meter: A regular rhythm comprised of a designated number of stresses in each line of a poem.Micro Story: Also called “flash fiction.” A very short story usually contained in one paragraph or less, which appeals

to the reader’s imaginativeness. Micro-stories have gained prominence through social media platforms, many of which have character restrictions for public posts.

Modernism: The period from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century. In art and literature modernism marked a rejection of realism, a move away from the attitudes of the Enlightenment, and a denial of traditional religiosity. Modernism embraced the abstract and the avant-garde, adaptations, experimentalism, and tearing down the old to make way for the pragmatic new in terms of industry, society, architecture, and technology.

Monologue: A speech delivered solo by a character in a film or play.Monomyth: Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey,” which details a series of plot points which are commonly found in

stories with origins all over the world.Narration: The story telling in a literary text, film, or television program.Narrative Arc: The trajectory of a story from the first scene or chapter, through to the climax and the eventual

conclusion.Narrative Point of View: The perspective from which a story is told. For example: first person, second person, third

person.Narrative Structure: The way a sequence of events is ordered and presented in a story.Negation: The fourth paragraph in a five-paragraph argumentative essay which presents and refutes the evidence

against the thesis stated in the Introduction. It precedes the Conclusion and immediately follows the Affirmation paragraph.

New Criticism: The dominant approach to literary theory in the mid-twentieth century initiated by the key works of John Crowe Ransom and I. A. Richards. New Criticism valued the autonomous text above author intention and encouraged the close reading approach in the analysis of the text. This approach significantly aided in making classroom literature studies interesting and challenging for students, inspiring lively discussion and debate on the possible meaning of different parts of a poem or story.

Novel: A long narrative written in prose, usually divided into chapters, with a protagonist and a plot. Generally a novel is somewhere between 60,000 and 100,000 words in length.

Nut Graf / Nut Graph: The paragraph in a feature article which defines the news value of the story and gives the essential information. The nut graf is usually found towards the end of the first quarter of the article, often somewhere between the fifth and tenth paragraphs. It is also known as the nut graph or the billboard paragraph.

One-act Play: A shorter stage play written and presented in a single act.Oral Poetry: Poetry which is composed and delivered orally instead of being written in the first instance.Outline: Something between a synopsis and a treatment, the outline is a piece of prose which explains the turning

points in the unfolding of a plot for a screenplay.Patois: Dialects of language that are considered non-standard but which have their own consistent syntactical and

grammatical systems.Performance Art: Any art form with a presentational or performance element. For example: installation, video art,

spoken word.Performance Poetry: Poetry which is written to be recited in front of an audience. Performance poetry is composed

with performance values in mind, such as character, intonation, and aurality.Personal Essay: An essay with a clear introduction, body, and conclusion, which interrogates its subject through the

reflections of its author.Petrarchan Sonnet: The Italian sonnet form which consists of a rhyming octave which introduces the subject or

dilemma, and a sestet which resolves the subject.Pitch: A brief compelling summary of a screenplay or literary or media text which presents the premise of the story,

its genre, and its main theme to a prospective producer or publisher. The goal is to sell the story as convincingly as possible. Ideally, a pitch is drafted in a way that it only takes a minute or two to deliver orally.

Plot: The sequence of events and conflicts which affect the protagonist and the other characters in a narrative. The plot can be thought of as a kind of external manifestation of theme.

Practice-led Research: Research that is based on empirical creative practice.Presentational Symbolism: An intuitive and instant, usually visually derived, way of communicating.Primary Research: Research comprising of primary sources derived from empirical methods such as observation,

interviews, questionnaires.Prose: Texts which follow the dynamics and structure of speech rather than poetry.Protagonist: The main character (or characters) in a novel, film, play, or other literary text. The protagonist is at the

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4. Glossary 17

centre of the plot, and the plot is in place specifically to force the protagonist into action. The protagonist also goes through a journey of self-discovery or self-improvement as a result of the plot, and it is his or her internal conundrum which engages the audience.

Quatrains: A stanza or other unified set of four lines in poetry.Reflective Writing: A genre of self-writing in which the author records his understandings, thoughts, feelings,

tangential responses, associations, and values on a particular topic in order to fully explore its personal or intel-lectual significance.

Refrain: In poetry, a line or phrase which is repeated throughout the poem.Rhetoric Parallelism: Two or more successive sentences or phrases which use repetition to emphasize meaning. For

example: the quote attributed to Julius Caesar, “I came, I saw, I conquered.”Rhyming Couplet: A couplet in which the last word in each of the two lines rhyme with each other.Scope: The breadth of a particular subject which is relevant to and forms the discussion within the text. You might

think of scope in an essay as the limits you set for what is and is not essential to cover in your approach to the essay question in order to avoid getting off topic (or going over the word count).

Second Person Voice: Narrative written from the point of view of the reader of the text. For example: You put your sneakers on and walked down the street where you saw your naked reflection in the barber shop window.

Secondary Research: Research which is derived from existing studies on a subject.Sestina: A poem consisting of six stanzas of six lines each and a concluding tercet (or triplet) with a set algorithm for

the repetition of words at the end of each line.Setting: The description of place in a story.Shakespearean Sonnet: A sonnet which has the usual three quatrains and concluding rhyming couplet and is written

in iambic pentameter and follows the rhyme scheme: a b a b c d c d e f e f g g.Slug Line: The heading at the top of every new scene in a screenplay which denotes whether the scene is shot inter-

nally (INT.) or externally (EXT.), the location, whether the scene is shot in daylight (DAY) or at night (NIGHT), and sometimes whether the scene is continued from an earlier established scene (CONT’D).

Soliloquy: A kind of monologue in which a character speaks his or her thoughts aloud. A soliloquy is different from a typical monologue which is intentionally communicated to another character or the audience because there is an assumption of voyeurism—that the audience and/or other characters are witness to the character’s private reflections.

Solipsistic Writing: Writing, usually in the first person voice, that is characterized by its representation of the subjective inner world of the speaker (or author). Solipsistic writing is sometimes criticized for its inherent exclusion of the reader’s understandings from the limits of the text.

Sound Device: Technique in poetry which manipulates the aural quality of words and phrases in order to complement the communication of meaning and emotion.

Speculative: Text that is given to conjecture, abstract reasoning, imagination, and contemplation rather than fact.Spenserian Sonnet: A variation on the English sonnet consisting of three quatrains and a concluding couplet with the

unique rhyme scheme: abab bcbc cdcd ee.Spoken Word: A (usually) solo performance delivered in on stage of a piece of writing written from the author’s

point of view which appeals to the audience’s emotions and empathy. Spoken word borrows from conventions of stand-up comedy, dramatic monologue, music, and poetry.

Stanza: Can be thought of as a paragraph in poetry. A stanza is a unified set of lines which are separated by a physical space on the page. Sometimes a stanza is determined by subject matter, and other times stanzas are in place for formal reasons (for example, to create a pause in the rhythm of a poem, or to move on to a varied rhyme scheme).

Storyboard: Illustrated graphic scene-by-scene representations of a screenplay developed in the imagination phase of filming.

Stream of Consciousness: Writing constantly whatever comes to mind without censoring oneself for a timed period.Stressed Syllable: The syllables in a phrase which are naturally emphasized when spoken in everyday utterance.Subhead: The secondary title appearing below the heading which elucidates the emphasis of the article. A subhead

can also be the title of one section of a larger text.Subtext: The nonverbal cues which undertone the explicit meaning in a literary text.Subvert the Dominant Paradigm: Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s philosophy of what good poetry does.Symbol: A word or object in literature which figuratively denotes something more complex or essential to the

meaning and tone of the text. A symbol needs to be generally recognizable to the reader in order to contribute to a deeper understanding of the text. For example: flowers are used as symbols in Shakespeare’s Hamlet to denote Ophelia’s psychological states, water is regarded as a symbol of clarity and purity, and a rollercoaster might be a symbol of extreme emotional highs and lows.

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Synopsis: A page-long summary of the plot of a novel, screenplay, or other literary text written in engaging prose.Syntax: The principles that govern the rules of grammar, linguistics, and the construction of sentences and phrases.Tercet: Also known as a triplet, a tercet is a stanza of three lines in poetry.Tertiary Research: Researched derived from sources which collate information from secondary research, such as

encyclopedias.Thematic Question: The theme expounded in terms of a question which the characterization and plot seek to answer.

For example: Do single women in their thirties have a chance at finding true love in contemporary New York City?Theme: The central idea in a story which the characterization and plot development seek to examine. Themes can be

described in both general terms (for example, romantic love) and in specific terms (for example, finding romantic love in a big city).

Thesis Statement: The proposed premise of an argument or central point of discussion posed in one clearly articu-lated sentence in the introduction of an essay, critique, or other scholarly document.

Thesis: The general point made in an essay, exegesis, or critique.Thesis: The proposed premise of an argument or central point of discussion. The object of a dissertation is to rationally

prove the validity of the thesis proposed in the introduction.Third Person Voice: Narrative written from the point of view of a ubiquitous narrator who is external to the story.

For example: Barak put his sneakers on and walked down the street where he was shocked to discover his naked reflection in the barber shop window.

Three-act Play: A longer play written and presented in three acts with a discernible rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement.

Tone: The overall dynamic mood or manner which characterizes a narrative.Topic Sentence: A sentence which summarizes the central idea of the paragraph it introduces.Transitions: In a paragraph, transitions are the phrases which lead from one point to the next. Transitions usually

occur at the end of one paragraph to simultaneously conclude that paragraph and introduce the beginning of the next paragraph.

Treatment: A piece of prose which is a scene-by-scene first draft of a screenplay. The treatment is longer and more detailed than both the synopsis and the outline.

Verbal Communication: The use of language in its various forms to convey meaning.Verbatim: Quoting a source word for word.Villanelle: A poetic form consisting of five tercets and a concluding quatrain and a rhyme scheme, aba aba aba aba

aba abaa. A villanelle also contains two repeated refrains, the first of which is introduced in the first line of the first stanza, and the second in the third line of the first stanza.

Voice: The unique complex characteristics of language use that helps to distinguish one author from another.Writers’ Block: The much-talked-about mythological state of being irrationally unable to write.

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5. Online Media

Walken, Christopher. Pokerface. YouTube, 1.14. 2009 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy5JwYOlgvYSchmid, Michael. Kurt Schwitters’ Ursonate. YouTube, 16.59. 2011 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXtDkAnJx7oMutabaruka. Dis Poem. YouTube, 3.17. 2007 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pn-f8PgLVjU

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Documents

The Bloomsbury Introduction to Creative Writing