ENG210 – Creative writing: A Practical Introduction Web viewYou might use some of your words...

[ENG210 – Creative writing: A Practical Introduction]

SP1 2012

Macquarie University – All Rights Reserved.

Information collated and proofed by December Medland

TABLE OF CONTENTSWeek 1: Association & Connotation......................................................................................................3

Readings........................................................................................................................................3

Activities........................................................................................................................................3

Week 2: The Image................................................................................................................................4

Readings........................................................................................................................................5

Writing Exercises...........................................................................................................................5

Week 3: Language Writing.....................................................................................................................6

Readings........................................................................................................................................7

Writing Exercises...........................................................................................................................8

Week 4: Assignment 1...........................................................................................................................8

Week 5: Using a Referent......................................................................................................................9

Readings........................................................................................................................................9

Writing Exercises.........................................................................................................................10

Week 6: Memory.................................................................................................................................10

Readings......................................................................................................................................12


Week 7: Time as Structure..................................................................................................................12

Readings......................................................................................................................................13


Week 8: Assignment 2.........................................................................................................................13

Week 9: Point of View.........................................................................................................................14

Readings......................................................................................................................................15


Week 10: Dialogue..............................................................................................................................16

Readings......................................................................................................................................18


Week 11: The City................................................................................................................................18

Readings......................................................................................................................................19


Week 12: Assignment 3.......................................................................................................................20

WEEK 1: ASSOCIATION & CONNOTATIONWelcome to Macquarie University's ENG211 - Creative Writing: A Practical Introduction 2012, and welcome to the first of the weekly exercises! This week we look at using association and connotation to generate writing.

STEPS TO FOLLOW

Step 1: Read the Week 1 notes

Step 2: Do the Readings for this week

Step 3: Complete the Writing Exercises for this week

WEEK 1 NOTES:For this week, and next week, we look at the way words and images can be used to generate a creative text. Free association exercises are used. Here words can also become images, connotatively and through association, providing other words and phrases to work with. We consider the 'organic' nature of creativity, as opposed to linear thinking.

READINGSKinross-Smith, Graeme. "Seeking poetry" in Writer: A Working Guide for New Writers , Kinross-Smith, Graeme , 1992 , 6-20Kinross-Smith, Graeme. "From poetry to prose (extract)" in Writer: A Working Guide for New Writers , Kinross-Smith, Graeme , 1992 , 21-25

ACTIVITIES

FREE WRITING AND ASSOCIATION

1. Do some free writing. This means writing, without stopping, whatever comes onto the page, or into your head, for about 3-5 minutes. Just allow yourself to free associate, and don't worry about punctuation, in fact try not using it! It's a good idea to get comfortable and relaxed, close your eyes for a minute and just let yourself become responsive to thoughts and sensations - sounds, sights, smells. You can, of course, do this for a lot longer - some people recommend doing it every evening for ten minutes over a set period of time, as it opens up the non-linear creative channels and is good for your writing.

2. Now read your piece of writing, and try to see whether there are any themes, or structuring principles, or contrasts in it. Could you use any of these contrasts or themes, or any words or phrases, to generate a piece of writing? (Don't worry if you have any incomprehensible jumble, the exercise is valuable as a process for freeing up your non-rational, intuitive functions). You might use

some of your words as a word pool (see Week 3), or try to combine any contrasting terms as oxymorons that create interesting, often quite powerful, images. Examples could be something like "warm dark", "dry clay", "poor money". Another possibility is to select a word (eg a single word, like "green"), or a phrase, and proceed to free-associate a further list of words through connotation. That is, you allow the connotation of other words triggered by the meaning of your chosen word(s).

CONNOTATION: Unlike the term "denotation", which implies denoted meaning, fixed meaning, such as Dictionary meaning, "connotation" is culturally determined and changeable. Connotations are whatever meanings you associate - an obvious example of changing connotation is a word like "gay". Similarly, a word such as "gross". Connotation is whatever comes to you when you read a word - what do the words "sea" or "clay" or "dream" or "blue" connote to you? Or consider a word like "stubby" for its connotations.

You may also be moved to write a short text or a poem, based on your free writing exercise.

If you are in groups 1, 2 and 3, one piece of writing emerging from these exercises will be your workshop piece. So develop it to take it beyond just the writing exercise!

WEEK 2: THE IMAGEThis week we look at using images to generate writing.

STEPS TO FOLLOW:


Step 2: Listen to Audio Lecture 1 (accessed from Resource CD-ROM 1)


Step 4: Complete the Writing Exercise for this week

WEEK 2: NOTES - THE IMAGEThis week will continue with word association and images made of words, and introduce the use of visual images to generate sensory writing.

EXERCISE

Use a visual image (for example, an artwork) or an object as a trigger for a piece of writing. The object can be as simple as you like - say, an orange, or any ordinary household object - or something that is meaningful to you. The more quotidian the object, the more free you are to create new connotations, yet known objects can be redolent with emotion. Try both kinds of object and see if it makes any difference to what you write.

To develop the text you need to consider your exercises as drafts, selecting from them what you feel is most important or interesting, and reworking and rewriting them. Look for contrasts and other structuring principles on which to base your writing.

READING

Poetry based on the image and imagery in the course reader, and continue with Kinross-Smith Parts 1 and 2, Williams, Ondaatje, Kent (ordinary object as stimulus for poem)

Kinross-Smith pp. 6-20, pp.21-25 Williams - Selected poemsOndaatje - Running in the familyKent - To the Ironingboard

Some websites that take you to excellent examples of art works to stimulate your writing are:

The Art Gallery of New South Wales http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/ Museum of Modern Art, NY http://www.moma.org/ The Metropolitan Museum of Art http://www.metmuseum.org/

Week 2: Audio Lecture

This week you need to listen to:

Lecture 1 (PLAY track ENG110 Lecture 01.mp3 on the RESOURCE MP3 disk.)

READINGS Kinross-Smith, Graeme. "Seeking poetry" in Writer: A Working Guide for New Writers ,

Kinross-Smith, Graeme , 1992 , 6-20 Kinross-Smith, Graeme. "From poetry to prose (extract)" in Writer: A Working Guide for

New Writers , Kinross-Smith, Graeme , 1992 , 21-25 Williams, William Carlos; Tomlinson, Charles. "The Horse" in Selected Poems , Williams,

William Carlos; Tomlinson, Charles , 1976 , 149-150 Ondaatje, Michael. "Sweet like a crow" in Running in the Family , Ondaatje, Michael ,

1982 , 76-77 Kent, Jean. "To the ironboard" in Penguin Book of Australian Women Poets , Hampton,

Susan; Llewellyn, Kate , 1986 , 227-228

WRITING EXERCISESUse a visual image (for example, an artwork) or an object as a trigger for a piece of writing. The object can be as simple as you like - say, an orange, or any ordinary household object - or something that is meaningful to you. The more quotidian the object, the more free you are to create new

connotations, yet known objects can be redolent with emotion. Try both kinds of object and see if it makes any difference to what you write.

To develop the text you need to consider your exercises as drafts, selecting from them what you feel is most important or interesting, and reworking and rewriting them. Look for contrasts and other structuring principles on which to base your writing.

Some websites that take you to excellent examples of art works to stimulate your writing are:

The Art Gallery of New South Wales http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/ Museum of Modern Art, NY http://www.moma.org/ The Metropolitan Museum of Art http://www.metmuseum.org/

WEEK 3: LANGUAGE WRITINGThis week we look at language writing.

STEPS TO FOLLOW:



Step 3: Complete the Writing Exercise for this week

NOTES

"Language writing attempts to give language itself the space to speak, to allow the unrecognized or repressed elements of language to surface. Such experimentation takes 'language' as the subject of a poetic practice whose concern is with the linguistic operations that determine our sense of reality" (Sigi Curnow, "Language Poetry and the Academy," Meanjin, Vol 50, 1, 1991: 171).

While theories such as structuralism, poststructuralism and Marxism are recognised as impulses contributing to the emergence of Language poetry, we should also recognize other influences such as jazz, experimental music and conceptual art practices.

This topic looks at the possibilities of using language on the page to generate a text, as opposed to any notion of 'expression' or 'inspiration'. Here we are dealing with words as signs, rather than as 'concepts'. Be prepared to develop a text by 'playing' with word combinations and phrase structures.

WEEK 3: NOTES - LANGUAGE WRITING

"Language writing attempts to give language itself the space to speak, to allow the unrecognized or repressed elements of language to surface. Such experimentation takes 'language' as the subject of a poetic practice whose concern is with the linguistic operations that determine our sense of reality." (Sigi Curnow, "Language Poetry and the Academy," Meanjin, Vol 50, 1, 1991: 171).

While theories such as structuralism, poststructuralism and Marxism are recognised as impulses contributing to the emergence of Language poetry, we should also recognize other influences such as jazz, experimental music and conceptual art practices.

This topic looks at the possibilities of using language on the page to generate a text, as opposed to any notion of 'expression' or 'inspiration.' Here we are dealing with words as signs, rather than as 'concepts.' Be prepared to develop a text by 'playing' with word combinations and phrase structures. Notice the example of a concrete poem on the right.

EXERCISE

Use a word pool to create one or more short texts, using one or more of the following possibilities:

Combine two words at random and allow them to "bounce" off each other, creating words and phrases on the page through connotation and association. You can add words like "of", "the" or "is" eg. "tiger of dark", "mellow is the orient".

Combine several words into a phrase or short sentence which you "play" with by varying and developing permutations of the phrase, eg. Sound permutations ("Tashkent is yellow"), reversing structures and meanings in the phrase, expansion (adding more words), and further association.

The word pool can be created from the free writing exercise in Week 1, or you can find words that appeal to you in the dictionary, or elsewhere.

Or you may also use other exercises that use a word or phrase and association and connotation.

Concrete poetry: For this topic you can also write a concrete poem. Concrete poetry uses the word as image on the page to construct meaning. It extends the idea of language poetry, and blurs the boundaries between visual art and text. Remember that the form of the poem, its shape, is part of the way in which it constructs meaning on the page.

READINGS

Examples of language poetry and concrete poetry in the reader: Herbert, cummings, Kumagai, Mansell, PiO, as well as Thalia, "Concrete Poetry and My Work" (available from e-Reserve)

Herbert, Cummings, Kumagai, Mansell - Drawing the Landscape, One more missile for the road, PiO, Thalia

Kinross-Smith 1 and 2 as a resource for this topic too.

The Ubu website at http://www.ubu.com/ has some great examples of concrete poetry

READINGS Thalia. "Micho: 1941" in Beyond the Echo: Multicultural Women's Writing , Gunew,

Sneja; Mahyuddin, Jan, 1988, 249-250

http://www.ubu.com/

https://www.library.mq.edu.au/e-access/document.php?eid=37832







Cummings, Edward E. "Buffalo Bill" in Selected Poems, 1923-1958, Cummings, Edward E., 1960, 4

Kumagai, Yuriya Julia. "In parallel" in Her Space-Time Continuum , Kumagai, Yuriya Julia, 1995, 20

Mansell, Chris. "Drawing the landscape" in Redshift/Blueshift , Mansell, Chris , 1988 , 24 You may also find the Kinross-Smith readings beneficial this week.

WRITING EXERCISESUse a word pool to create one or more short texts, using one or more of the following possibilities:

Combine two words at random and allow them to "bounce" off each other, creating words and phrases on the page through connotation and association. You can add words like "of", "the" or "is" eg "tiger of dark", "mellow is the orient".

Combine several words into a phrase or short sentence which you "play" with by varying and developing permutations of the phrase, e.g. sound permutations "Tashkent is yellow"), reversing structures and meanings in the phrase, expansion (adding more words), and further association.

The word pool can be created from the free writing exercise in Week 1, or you can find words that appeal to you in the dictionary, or elsewhere.

Or you may also use other exercises that use a word or phrase and association and connotation.

Concrete poetry: For this topic you can also write a concrete poem. Concrete poetry uses the word as image on the page to construct meaning. It extends the idea of language poetry, and blurs the boundaries between visual art and text. Remember that the form of the poem, its shape, is part of the way in which it constructs meaning on the page.

WEEK 4: ASSIGNMENT 1Use this week and the next to complete and submit Assignment 1, guidelines for which are available through the Assignments link above, or in the course unit guide.

Depending on which group you're in, you may have to post a piece for workshopping in Week 4, as well as provide feedback to others in your group.

Also be aware that weekly exercises continue in Week 5 (see Workshop 02), but there are no scheduled workshops for any of the groups that week.

WEEK 5: USING A REFERENTThis week we look at using referents to generate writing.

STEPS TO FOLLOW




NOTES

This topic continues the Language Writing approach. A referent is a term which 'refers' to, or 'contains', other words/concepts by connotation and association. It is used here as the basis of a piece of writing.

WEEK 5: NOTES - USING A REFERENTThis topic continues the Language Writing approach. A referent is a term which 'refers' to, or 'contains,' other words/concepts by connotation and association. It is used here as the basis of a piece of writing.

EXERCISE

Write a short text using one of the following as a referent: the mirror, the map, or the machine. Use the referent as a 'starter' and/or structuring principle for your writing allowing verbal and other connotations and associations to develop. Use only one referent but consider the possibilities of 'layered' text using different aspects of the referent.

READINGS

Examples using the mirror as a referent: Williams (image), Ondaatje (sensory images and detail), Herbert, Kumagai (concrete poems), cummings (use of lineation), Mansell, PiO (language poetry), McMaster, McCullers (example of using mirror as referent) (available from e-Reserve)

READINGS Williams, William Carlos; Tomlinson, Charles. "The Horse" in Selected Poems, Williams,

William Carlos; Tomlinson, Charles, 1976, 149-150 Ondaatje, Michael. "Sweet like a crow" in Running in the Family , Ondaatje, Michael ,

1982, 76-77 Herbert, George. "Easter wings" in The Metaphysical Poets, Gardner, Helen L., 1961, 121 Kumagai, Yuriya Julia. "In parallel" in Her Space-Time Continuum , Kumagai, Yuriya Julia,

1995, 20

9 of 20 ENG210: Week 4: Assignment 1 |Macquarie University – All Rights Reserved.

Cummings, Edward E. "Buffalo Bill" in Selected Poems, 1923-1958, Cummings, Edward E., 1960, 4

WRITING EXERCISESWrite a short text using one of the following as a referent: the mirror, the map, or the machine. Use the referent as a 'starter' and/or structuring principle for your writing allowing verbal and other connotations and associations to develop. Use only one referent but consider the possibilities of 'layered' text using different aspects of the referent.

WEEK 6: MEMORYThis week we look at memory as the source and object of writing.

STEPS TO FOLLOW





NOTES

The exercises done for the first two workshops may have triggered or created a piece of writing on an important moment in your personal experience, one which has changed your perception. Use any of these exercises, or another trigger, such as an image, photograph, object, incident), or the "I remember..." exercise below, to create a piece of writing based on a memory. It is important to focus on details and sensory perception. Remember that using the present tense and focusing on detail creates immediacy in your writing.

All memory is reconstruction - we "construct" our memory material in order to make sense of it, and often to try to understand something about the present as well. When you write from memory, using it as a trigger for writing, you need not be consciously aware of this restructuring (the brain does it anyway), although you may bring this feature of memory to bear more consciously in the rewriting phase of your writing. However, the form of memory can be fragmented and non-linear; the "causal" links in the structure need not be sequential, nor form a narrative. On the other hand, there may in fact be narrative elements in the memory as it constructs itself this way, and you may want to structure your work as narrative.

WEEK 6: NOTES - MEMORY


The exercises done for the first two workshops may have triggered or created a piece of writing on an important moment in our personal experience, one which has changed your perception. Use any of these exercises, or another trigger (such as an image, photograph, object, incident), or the "I remember..." exercise below, to create a piece of writing based on a memory. It is important to focus on details and sensory perception. Remember that using the present tense and focusing on detail creates immediacy in your writing.

All memory is reconstruction - we "construct" our memory material in order to make sense of it, and often to try to understand something about the present as well. When you write from memory, using it as a trigger for writing, you need not be consciously aware of this restructuring (the brain does it anyway), although you may bring this feature of memory to bear more consciously in the rewriting phase of your writing. However, the form of memory can be fragmented and non-linear; the "causal" links in the structure need not be sequential, nor form a narrative. On the other hand, there may in fact be narrative elements in the memory as it constructs itself this way, and you may want to structure your work as narrative

ANOTHER MEMORY EXERCISE

Write the words "I remember" at the beginning of a line, and allow a detail to present itself, which you write down. After the first line and its details, return to the beginning of the next line, write "I remember ..." again, and go on. Allow the details of each line to freely associate and create the next detail or fragment. (You can take out some or all of the "I remember's" when you go back to edit your piece.) It is very important to use details, senses, fragments, so that you don't write about the past, but actually write the past. Don't worry about deliberately constructing causal or narrative relationships at first, allow them emerge of their own accord, then you can structure your piece more consciously once you have the material.

READINGS

Salman Rushdie, "Imaginary Homelands" and creative examples of writing based on memory: Herrick, McGough, Freiman, Heaney (available from e-Reserve). The Stephen Herrick example has been generated by an "I remember..." exercise.

A hypertext example that utilises the fragmented and non-linear qualities of memory (and history) is Terri-Ann White, Deep Immersion http://tracearchive.ntu.ac.uk/deep/




If you're keen, you may also listen to Lectures 5 and 6 in any week from now on – they contain information that will inspire your writing throughout the course. Otherwise, wait until you're prompted to listen to them in Weeks 11 and 12.


http://tracearchive.ntu.ac.uk/deep/

READINGS Rushdie, Salman. "Imaginary homelands" in Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism

1981-1991 , Rushdie, Salman, 199 , 9-21 Freiman, Marcelle. "Memories" in Monkey's Weddin , Freiman, Marcell, 1997, 27 Heaney, Seamus. "Mother of the groom" in The Oxford Book of Short Poems , Kavanagh,

P.J.; Michie, James, 1985, 272 Henri, Adrian; McGough, Roger; Patten, Brian. "A lot of water has flown under bridge"

Penguin Modern Poets, 10:, 1974, 61-62 A hypertext example that utilises the fragmented and non-linear qualities of memory (and

history) is Terri-Ann White, Deep Immersion http://tracearchive.ntu.ac.uk/deep/

WRITING EXERCISESWrite the words "I remember" at the beginning of a line, and allow a detail to present itself, which you write down (The Stephen Herrick example has been generated by an "I remember..." exercise). After the first line and its details, return to the beginning of the next line, write "I remember..." again, and go on. Allow the details of each line to freely associate and create the next detail or fragment. (You can take out some or all of the "I remember's" when you go back to edit your piece). It is very important to use details, senses, fragments, so that you don't write about the past, but actually write the past. Don't worry about deliberately constructing causal or narrative relationships at first, allow them to emerge of their own accord, then you can structure your piece more consciously once you have the material.

WEEK 7: TIME AS STRUCTUREThis week we look at time as a structuring principle in writing.

STEPS TO FOLLOW

Step 1: Read the Week Seven Notes

Step 2: Do the readings for this week


WEEK 7: NOTES - TIME AS STRUCTURE

EXERCISE

Write a narrative which is structured round at least three "blocks" or fragments of time. The fragments might be separated by line breaks and/or perspective (i.e. different character positions, voices), or they can be narrated omnisciently, with or without breaks. You might use flashbacks, "flash-forwards", or move back from or around an incident. The two stories prescribed for reading provide two very different examples of prose narratives structured through time. Look carefully at the way time is treated, and used for structure, in these stories, and in the prescribed poetry.


http://tracearchive.ntu.ac.uk/

READINGS

David Malouf "The Empty Lunch Tin", Merle Hodge "Inez" and poetry based on fragments of time, and perspectives on time: Freiman, Heaney

READINGS Malouf, David. "The empty lunch-tin" in Antipodes, 1985, 36-42 Hodge, Merle. "Inez" in The Faber Book of Contemporary Caribbean Short Stories ,

Morris, Mervyn, 1990, 81-85

You could also look at poetry based on fragments of time, and perpsectives on time in Freiman and Heaney's work.

WRITING EXERCISESWrite a narrative which is structured round at least three "blocks" or fragments of time. The fragments might be separated by line breaks and/or perspective (ie different character positions, voices), or they can be narrated omnisciently, with or without breaks. You might use flashbacks, "flash-forwards", or move back from or around an incident. The two stories prescribed for reading provide two very different examples of prose narratives structured through time. Look carefully at the way time is treated, and used for structure, in these stories, and in the prescribed poetry.

WEEK 8: ASSIGNMENT 2Use this week and the next to complete and submit Assignment 2, guidelines for which are available through the Assignments link above, and in your unit guide.


Also be aware that weekly exercises continue in Week 9 (see Workshop 3), but there are no scheduled workshops for any of the groups that week.




WEEK 9: POINT OF VIEWThis week we look at point of view in writing.

STEPS TO FOLLOW





NOTES

In writing there is always a bias or point of view. This can be used to control the narrative, or to manipulate the reader's response. Writing from a point of view of a character, or several characters, requires the writer to image the consciousness of the character, the possibility of writing from a point of view that is not immediately your own. Allow the creative process and your imagination to experiment with different points of view.

Use first person or third person, third allowing you more freedom to move outside your own "I" narration. Second person "you" directly confronts the reader - see the Kim Scott example - accessed from e-Reserve to examine one use of this technique.

WEEK 9: NOTES - POINT OF VIEWIn writing there is always a bias or point of view. This can be used to control the narrative, or to manipulate the reader's response. Writing from a point of view of a character, or several characters, requires the writer to imagine the consciousness of the character, the possibility of writing from a point of view that is not immediately your own. Allow the creative process and your imagination to experiment with different points of view.

Use first person or third person, third allowing you more freedom to move outside your own "I" narration. Second person "you" directly confronts the reader - see the Kim Scott example - accessed from e-Reserve - to examine one use of this technique.

EXERCISE

Create a narrative in which an incident is narrated through the points of view of two or more characters or speaking positions,


or in which the narrator is a different gender to yourself, or in which the narrator is a child, or in which you use a shifting point of view (see the Virginia Woolf example - accessed from e-Reserve).

This task requires you to consider the "world" inhabited by your narrator(s) as well as their subjectivity. You may think in terms of writing a dramatic monologue. It's a challenging task. Take the time to make it as convincing as possible.

READINGS

Kate Grenville, The Writing Book: A workbook for fiction writers, Chapter 4 "Point of View". Read the chapter and do the exercises. You may submit writing that results from these for this topic.

Also available from e-Reserve: extract from Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse, together with other extracts demonstrating different uses of point of view: Goldsworthy, from Maestro, Marele Day, from Last Tango of Dolores Delgado, Robert Drewe, from "View from the Sandhills", Kim Scott, from True Country, Carmel Bird's story, "Goczka", Charles Dickens, from Bleak House.

Read these and identify the point(s) of view, or focalization, used by the writer.

Notice that point of view can switch often in a text. How is point of view created and managed in these texts?

(Focalization = the position from which the story is told to the reader at any given point of time in the text; the lens through which the reader receives it.)

Art works or newspaper stories can provide ideas and stimulus triggers for writing incidents through different points of view.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/Museum of Modern Art, NY http://www.moma.org/The Metropolitan Museum of Art http://www.metmuseum.org/The Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/The Australian http://www.news.com.au/




READINGS Grenville, Kate. "Point of view" in The Writing Book: A Workbook for Fiction Writers ,

Grenville, Kate, 1990, 59-74 Le Guin, Ursula K. "Changing point of view and voice: Virginia Woolf: From To The Lighthouse

(extract)" in Steering the Craft: Exercises and Discussions on Story Writing for the Lone Navigator, Le Guin, Ursula K., 1998, 110-112


There are also extracts demonstrating different uses of point of view available on e-reserve: Goldsworthy, Peter. "Extract" in Maestro , Goldsworthy, Peter , 1989, 4-5 Drewe, Robert. "The view from the Sandhills (extract)" in The Bodysurfers, Drewe, Robert,

2001, 88-89 Scott, Kim. "First thing, welcome" in True Country, Scott, Kim, 1993, 13-14 Bird, Carmel. "Goczka" in Transgression: Australian Writing Now , Anderson, Don, 1986,

150-154

* First read these works and identify the point(s) of view, or focalization, used by the writer.

* Notice that point of view can switch often in a text. How is point of view created and managed in these texts?

(Focalization = the position from which the story is told to the reader at any given point of time in the text; the lens through which the reader receives it).

Art works or newspaper stories can provide ideas and stimulus triggers for writing incidents through different points of view.

The Art Gallery of New South Wales http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/Museum of Modern Art, NY http://www.metmuseum.org/The Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.auThe Australian http://www.news.com.au/

WRITING EXERCISESCreate a narrative in which an incident is narrated through the points of view of two or more characters or speaking positions:

or in which the narrator is a different gender to yourself,

or in which the narrator is a child,

or in which you use a shifting point of view (see the Virginia Woolf example - accessed through e-Reserve).

This task requires you to consider the world inhabited by your narrator(s) as well as their subjectivity. You may think in terms of writing a dramatic monologue. It's a challenging task. Take the time to make it as convincing as possible.

WEEK 10: DIALOGUEThis week we look at dialogue in writing.

STEPS TO FOLLOW




http://www.news.com.au/

http://www.smh.com.au/

http://www.metmuseum.org/

http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/



Reminder: Begin work on Assignment 3

NOTES

This topic considers dialogue in works of fiction, drama and performance. Dialogue may develop a character or situation, and/or the engagement between different points of view or conflict, and it should develop a story, scene or situation. Try to render the dialogue as credible, bearing in mind that written dialogue does not relate verbatim every word of a spoken dialogue, but rather strives to evoke the spirit and idiom of the dialogue. You should identify the conflict between "participants" and consider the purpose of the dialogue.

WEEK 10: NOTES - DIALOGUEThis topic considers dialogue in works of fiction, drama and performance. Dialogue may develop a character or situation, and/or the engagement between different points of view or conflict, and it should develop a story, scene or situation. Try to render the dialogue as credible, bearing in mind that written dialogue does not relate verbatim every word of a spoken dialogue, but rather strives to evoke the spirit and idiom of the dialogue. You should identify the conflict between "participants" and consider the purpose of the dialogue.

EXERCISE

Look carefully at the readings for this topic, how the writers have used language that develops the dialogue, representing and constructing both characterization and point of view. Notice also the presentation of conflict, tension, irony, humour and idiom.

Create a dialogue which progresses from non-communication to communication or vice versa

or create a dialogue based on a power struggle

or create a poem based on a dialogue

or write a prose scene or story that features the use of dialogue.

READINGS

Examples of dialogue available from e-Reserve: Ionesco, from Rhinoceros, Narayan, from The Man-eater of Malgudi, Tim Winton, from That Eye the Sky, James Joyce, from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man .

Notice how writers use dialogue in different genres of the play and the novel, and the function of dialogue in prose.

Notice the use of colloquial language, how writers create the impression of a particular context through their use of idiomatic language.


Notice the use of pace and progress, the way the writer controls characterization and situation through dialogue.




READINGS Joyce, James. "Extract" in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man , 1992 , 58-59 Narayan, R. K. "Extract" in The Man-Eater of Malgudi, Narayan, R. K., 1961, 14-17 Winton, Tim. "Extract" in That Eye, The Sky , Winton, Tim, 1986, 10-11

* Notice how writers use dialogue in diferent genres of the play and the novel, and the function of dialogue in prose.

* Notice the use of colloquial language, how writers create the impression of a particular context through their use of idiomatic language.

* Notice the use of pace and progress, the way the writer controls characterization and situation through dialogue.

WRITING EXERCISESLook carefully at the readings for this topic, how the writers have used language that develops the dialogue, representing and constructing both characterization and points of view. Notice also the presentation of conflict, tension, irony, humour and idiom.

Create a dialogue which progresses from non-communication to communication or vice versa

or create a dialogue based on a power struggle

or create a poem based on a dialogue

or write a prose scene or story that features the use of dialogue

WEEK 11: THE CITYThis week we look at writing that uses the city as a referent.

STEPS TO FOLLOW



Step 2:

Listen to Audio Lectures 5 & 6 (accessed from Resource CD-ROM 1) – see note below

Step 3:

Do the Readings for this week

Step 4:

Complete the Writing Exercises for this week

WEEK 11: NOTES - THE CITY

EXERCISE

Write a piece in any genre using the city as your referent and/or topic. This is an opportunity for you to use your own observations and ideas, to draw on your own experience of the city and apply it to your creative process.

You might consider writing a story, or a text of fragments, or a collage. Or think about the implications of the fragmented form as appropriate for the subject of the city, or try to use any of the other techniques and strategies engaged with so far.

Don't write generally "about" the city; rather have a narrator or character(s) in a specific city situation doing something.

READINGSFind your own examples of writing in a city setting.

Look at how writers use the city in their writing as a stimulus for your own creative work.





READINGSFind your own examples of writing in a city setting.

Look at how writers use the city in their writing as a stimulus for your own creative work.


Photograph of Sydney copyright © Tony Dwyer 1989

WRITING EXERCISESWrite a piece in any genre using the city as your referent and/or topic. This is an opportunity for you to use your own observations and ideas, to draw on your own experience of the city and apply it to your creative process.

You might consider writing a story, or a text of fragments, or a collage. Or think about the implications of the fragmented form as appropriate for the subject of the city, or try to use any of the other techniques and strategies engaged with so far.

Don't write generally "about" the city; rather have a narrator or character(s) in a specific city situation doing something.

WEEK 12: ASSIGNMENT 3

Use this week and the next to complete and submit Assignment 3, guidelines for which are available through the Assignments link above, or in your unit guide.


Congratulations! You have reached the end of the unit.

All the best with your future writing.


ENG210 – Creative writing: A Practical Introduction Web viewYou might use some of your words...

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