Creative writing NG Session 2 Writing game 4

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Creative writing - NG Session 2

Creative writing - NG Session 2

Writing game 4 - Exquisite Corpse • Rules: In groups of 5, take turns

Writing game 4 - Exquisite Corpse • Rules: In groups of 5, take turns writing a word or a sentence without knowing the preceding bit(s) • Follow this sentence structure: "The/My/His/Her/Your adjective noun (adverb) verb the/his/her/your adjective noun“, i. e. for instance: “My cool karma always runs over your stale dogma”

Exquisite Corpse 2 • 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. • Choose one word each

Exquisite Corpse 2 • 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. • Choose one word each for the first sentence – do this simultaneously without consulting the others Article/pronoun + adjective (My green) Noun (friend) Adverb (if you want/need one) + verb (usually makes) Article/pronoun + Second adjective (the best) Second noun (Sunday) “My green friend makes the best Sunday”

Ex. Corpse 3 • Everyone then gets to know the whole sentence. • Next,

Ex. Corpse 3 • Everyone then gets to know the whole sentence. • Next, each member writes a whole sentence in continuation • The last word only is revealed to the next writer…

Ex. Corpse 4 • Go through 2 more rounds of corpse, then read the

Ex. Corpse 4 • Go through 2 more rounds of corpse, then read the whole mess. • Edit, if absolutely necessary, for comprehension • Read aloud in class

Last week’s genres • • Poems Flow writing, therapy Short story Blog posts

Last week’s genres • • Poems Flow writing, therapy Short story Blog posts

Today’s genres • Travel writing – one of many forms of creative non-fiction…

Today’s genres • Travel writing – one of many forms of creative non-fiction…

Ways of categorising creative non-fiction • By form: memoirs, the personal essay, literary journalism

Ways of categorising creative non-fiction • By form: memoirs, the personal essay, literary journalism • By content/subject: nature writing, literary travel, the science essay, creative cultural criticism • ‘The art of the particular’

Literary travel • Database categories for the general term ‘travel writing’: • ‘description and

Literary travel • Database categories for the general term ‘travel writing’: • ‘description and travel’ • ‘social life and customs’

Who writes travel writing? • • Journalists Fiction writers ‘Non-literary travel writing’ and ‘Literary

Who writes travel writing? • • Journalists Fiction writers ‘Non-literary travel writing’ and ‘Literary travel writing’?

Reader expectations • The journalists have a strong interest in maintaining their credibility •

Reader expectations • The journalists have a strong interest in maintaining their credibility • The fiction writers have more creative freedom (? ) • Yet they must still confirm some kind of credibility (they must have some personal experience with the place the describe)

Examples of ‘literary travel writing’ • The Writer and the City series • Peter

Examples of ‘literary travel writing’ • The Writer and the City series • Peter Carey, 30 Days in Sydney: A Wildly Distorted Account (2001)

Elizabeth Bishop • American poet and writer (1911 -1979) Won Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

Elizabeth Bishop • American poet and writer (1911 -1979) Won Pulitzer Prize for Poetry 1956) • From her poem ‘Questions of Travel’: • ‘Should we have stayed at home and thought of here? ’

Reading protocols (fiction writer) • The writer should have a personal relationship to the

Reading protocols (fiction writer) • The writer should have a personal relationship to the place he/she describes • We expect the account to rely on the writers experience and memory • We expect some literal truthfulness (not necessarily expected in fiction by the same author)

Reading protocols (The journalist) • The writer will try to be neutral and objective

Reading protocols (The journalist) • The writer will try to be neutral and objective • This is about something important, not (just) about the writer • The sources will be made clear and their reliability will be assessed • The reader can disagree, but there really is no point in doing so

Bruce Chatwin • English novelist and traveller • 1972: worked for the Sunday Times

Bruce Chatwin • English novelist and traveller • 1972: worked for the Sunday Times Magazine as an advisor on art and architecture • Went to Petagonia in 1974 (South America), later travelled to the West African state of Benin, Australia • Died in 1989 in France (of AIDS)

Bruce Chatwin • Style: • A story-teller • Has been criticised for his fictional

Bruce Chatwin • Style: • A story-teller • Has been criticised for his fictional anecdotes of real people, places and events • Chatwin did not claim his portrayals to be faithful representations • “He tells not a half truth, but a truth and a half” (Nicholas Shakespeare, Chatwin’s biographer, a British journalist and writer (1999) )

The Chinese Geomancer • Published in What am I doing Here? (1989) geomancer --

The Chinese Geomancer • Published in What am I doing Here? (1989) geomancer -- an expert in geomancy -- noun the belief that arranging your home, house, office etc in a particular way will bring you good or bad luck [↪ feng shui]

RP for Geomancer • Speaks as a visitor to Hong Kong (he is British

RP for Geomancer • Speaks as a visitor to Hong Kong (he is British but not as British as the ‘old China hand’) • Self-other construction • Distance to what he narrates • Uses irony (when referring to Russian architecture) • Informs the reader (about feng-shui) • Reflects on China history and contemporary Chinese politics • Light entertainment • Post-colonialism?

Five strands of Travel Writing • Five broad and overlapping strands that can be

Five strands of Travel Writing • Five broad and overlapping strands that can be detected within travel writing of the last 25 years: 1. The comical 2. The analytical 3. The wilderness 4. The spiritual 5. The experimental

1. The comic – For example parodies 2. The analytical – Mixture of personal

1. The comic – For example parodies 2. The analytical – Mixture of personal reportage and socio-political analysis (often a component in travel writing)

3. The wilderness – The jungle of Amazon and New Guinea – ‘the wilderness’

3. The wilderness – The jungle of Amazon and New Guinea – ‘the wilderness’ now often as ecological as indigenous: Siberia, Alaska, the poles 4. The spiritual – the inner journey merging with memoir – The spiritual dimension of travel

5. The experimental – Pushes the genre into a variety of new directions –

5. The experimental – Pushes the genre into a variety of new directions – Hybridisation (which has periodically reinvigorated travel writing through its history) – ‘extreme travel’ writing – intertextuality – Sometimes the journey is subordinate – Travel writing as cultural history – Travel writing meets investigative reporting

Writing games • • Writing game 5 – pair work. Compare your lists of

Writing games • • Writing game 5 – pair work. Compare your lists of words and merge them into one list. Choose a title for your piece Write a piece of travel writing of no more than 300 words that incorporates all the data in your list • Revise this writing until the use of this data seems completely inevitable, and neither random nor forced • Post on blog.

Data-ingredients for next week • • • • 1 overheard conversation 3 species of

Data-ingredients for next week • • • • 1 overheard conversation 3 species of birds 2 brand names for food Text from 4 signs The name of a planet or a star The name of a lipstick 1 time of day The title of a book The title of a painting The name of a dead politician 2 types of vegetables 3 items from a hardware store A make of gun