Creative Writing Practice: Reflections on Form and Process

Description

Creative Writing Practice: reflections on form and process explores the craft of creative writing by illuminating the practices of writers and writer-educators. Demonstrating solutions to problems in different forms and genres, the contributors draw on their professional and personal experiences to examine specific and practical challenges that writers must confront and solve in order to write.  This book discusses a range of approaches to writing, such as the early working out of projects, the idea of experimentation, of narrative time, and of failure.  With its strong focus on process, Creative Writing Practice is a valuable guide for students, scholars and practitioners of creative writing.   Acknowledgements Contents Notes on Contributors List of Figures Part I: Theoretical Challenges: Working It Out Chapter 1: Introduction References Chapter 2: The Ethics of Working-Class Realism in Poetry References Chapter 3: The Golden Rules Learning, Not Being Taught The PhD Versus the MFA Textualist Atheism and the Death of the Author Art and Craft Easy Answers, Hard Questions Qualified Advice The Golden Rules Theory, Practice, Reading and Writing References Chapter 4: Screenwriting Beyond the Paradigms: Creative Thinking and Script Development Introduction Creative Approaches to Screenwriting Critical Approaches to Screenwriting Creative Thinking and Script Development Models Creative Thinking in Action Conclusion References Chapter 5: Everything You Can Imagine Is Real: Worldbuilding, the Donnée and the Magic of Writing Backstage at the Aquarium The Imagination of Nature Top Down and Bottom Up: From Concept to Story Mechanics to Sentence How Do You Know? Research and Beyond Worldbuilding Traps and Techniques: Exposition, ‘Infodumping’ and ‘Incluing’ Why a Story Is a Journey This Is Your Brain on Fiction: Beyond Reality References Chapter 6: Adaptation: Essence, Originality and Radical Transformation Introduction Breaking Free of the Original Re-visioning the Source Text Certain Women (Reichardt 2016)—Case Study Radical Transformations Fear Eats the Soul (Fassbinder 1974) a Case Study Far from Heaven (Haynes 2002) The Television Scene—Comparative Scene Analysis Conclusion References Part II: Practical Challenges: Starting, Stopping and Failing Chapter 7: The Writer’s Notebook References Chapter 8: Prompting Creativity: Revisiting Aristotle’s Advice on Plot and Character Introduction Theory Example Exercises Plot Versus Character Plot Structure Plot Complexity Conclusion References Chapter 9: Trading Hours: Time, Order, and Narration in Lucky’s Causation, Time, Order Narration and Time References Chapter 10: Writing Without Frames References Chapter 11: The Corrections: Succeeding at Failure in the Creative Process Introduction Creative Corrections Completion Rejection: Losing the Fight with One’s Own Imagination Uncertainty Failure of Language References Part III: Consolidating the Process: Success and Resilience Chapter 12: Counting Coco Pops: On Constraint and Creativity Reading ‘Riting ‘Rithmetic Appendix References Chapter 13: When Your Subjects Do Not Agree: An ‘Idiosyncratically Australian Perspective’ References Interviews Chapter 14: Critical Distance: Creative Writing as a Critic-Fan Critic-Fans as Critical Creative Writers Creativity Versus Criticism—Is It a Battle? So What Does All of This Mean for the Creative Writer Who Is (or Wants to Be) a Critic? How I Approach Creative Writing Work as a Critic-Fan A Final Note on Critical Writing, Fandom and the Problem of Gender and Identity References Chapter 15: Art, Design and Communicating the Story: The Cover of Coach Fitz References Chapter 16: Behrouz Boochani: Writing as Resilience and Resistance Introduction Cultural Activism in Ilam Writing from Manus Prison Victory References Index