Writing Seminars 1
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The Cambridge Companion to Canadian Literature Edited by Eva-Marie Kröller Frontmatter More Information
Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-15962-4 — The Cambridge Companion to Canadian Literature Edited by Eva-Marie Kröller Frontmatter More Information The Cambridge Companion to Canadian Literature This fully revised second edition of The Cambridge Companion to Canadian Literature offers a comprehensive introduction to major writers, genres, and topics. For this edition several chapters have been completely re-written to relect major developments in Canadian literature since 2004. Surveys of ic- tion, drama, and poetry are complemented by chapters on Aboriginal writ- ing, autobiography, literary criticism, writing by women, and the emergence of urban writing. Areas of research that have expanded since the irst edition include environmental concerns and questions of sexuality which are freshly explored across several different chapters. A substantial chapter on franco- phone writing is included. Authors such as Margaret Atwood, noted for her experiments in multiple literary genres, are given full consideration, as is the work of authors who have achieved major recognition, such as Alice Munro, recipient of the Nobel Prize for literature. Eva-Marie Kröller edited the Cambridge Companion to Canadian Literature (irst edn., 2004) and, with Coral Ann Howells, the Cambridge History of Canadian Literature (2009). She has published widely on travel writing and cultural semiotics, and won a Killam Research Prize as well as the Distin- guished Editor Award of the Council of Editors of Learned Journals for her work as editor of the journal Canadian -
GCWC WAG Creative Writing
GASTON COLLEGE Creative Writing Writing Center I. GENERAL PURPOSE/AUDIENCE Creative writing may take many forms, such as fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, playwriting, and screenwriting. Creative writers can turn almost any situation into possible writing material. Creative writers have a lot of freedom to work with and can experiment with form in their work, but they should also be aware of common tropes and forms within their chosen style. For instance, short story writers should be aware of what represents common structures within that genre in published fiction and steer away from using the structures of TV shows or movies. Audiences may include any reader of the genre that the author chooses to use; therefore, authors should address potential audiences for their writing outside the classroom. What’s more, students should address a national audience of interested readers—not just familiar readers who will know about a particular location or situation (for example, college life). II. TYPES OF WRITING • Fiction (novels and short stories) • Creative non-fiction • Poetry • Plays • Screenplays Assignments will vary from instructor to instructor and class to class, but students in all Creative Writing classes are assigned writing exercises and will also provide peer critiques of their classmates’ work. In a university setting, instructors expect prose to be in the realistic, literary vein unless otherwise specified. III. TYPES OF EVIDENCE • Subjective: personal accounts and storytelling; invention • Objective: historical data, historical and cultural accuracy: Work set in any period of the past (or present) should reflect the facts, events, details, and culture of its time and place. -
The Ontology and Literary Status of the Screenplay:The Case of »Scriptfic«
DOI 10.1515/jlt-2013-0006 JLT 2013; 7(1–2): 135–153 Ted Nannicelli The Ontology and Literary Status of the Screenplay:The Case of »Scriptfic« Abstract: Are screenplays – or at least some screenplays – works of literature? Until relatively recently, very few theorists had addressed this question. Thanks to recent work by scholars such as Ian W. Macdonald, Steven Maras, and Steven Price, theorizing the nature of the screenplay is back on the agenda after years of neglect (albeit with a few important exceptions) by film studies and literary studies (Macdonald 2004; Maras 2009; Price 2010). What has emerged from this work, however, is a general acceptance that the screenplay is ontologically peculiar and, as a result, a divergence of opinion about whether or not it is the kind of thing that can be literature. Specifically, recent discussion about the nature of the screenplay has tended to emphasize its putative lack of ontological autonomy from the film, its supposed inherent incompleteness, or both (Carroll 2008, 68–69; Maras 2009, 48; Price 2010, 38–42). Moreover, these sorts of claims about the screenplay’s ontology – its essential nature – are often hitched to broader arguments. According to one such argument, a screenplay’s supposed ontological tie to the production of a film is said to vitiate the possibility of it being a work of literature in its own right (Carroll 2008, 68–69; Maras 2009, 48). According to another, the screenplay’s tenuous literary status is putatively explained by the idea that it is perpetually unfinished, akin to a Barthesian »writerly text« (Price 2010, 41). -
Why Does the Screenwriter Cross the Road…By Joe Gilford 1
WHY DOES THE SCREENWRITER CROSS THE ROAD…BY JOE GILFORD 1 WHY DOES THE SCREENWRITER CROSS THE ROAD? …and other screenwriting secrets. by Joe Gilford TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION (included on this web page) 1. FILM IS NOT A VISUAL MEDIUM 2. SCREENPLAYS ARE NOT WRITTEN—THEY’RE BUILT 3. SO THERE’S THIS PERSON… 4. SUSTAINABLE SCREENWRITING 5. WHAT’S THE WORST THAT CAN HAPPEN?—THAT’S WHAT HAPPENS! 6. IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE THIS STORY—WHO WILL?? 7. TOOLBAG: THE TRICKS, GAGS & GADGETS OF THE TRADE 8. OK, GO WRITE YOUR SCRIPT 9. NOW WHAT? INTRODUCTION Let’s admit it: writing a good screenplay isn’t easy. Any seasoned professional, including me, can tell you that. You really want it to go well. You really want to do a good job. You want those involved — including yourself — to be very pleased. You really want it to be satisfying for all parties, in this case that means your characters and your audience. WHY DOES THE SCREENWRITER CROSS THE ROAD…BY JOE GILFORD 2 I believe great care is always taken in writing the best screenplays. The story needs to be psychically and spiritually nutritious. This isn’t a one-night stand. This is something that needs to be meaningful, maybe even last a lifetime, which is difficult even under the best circumstances. Believe it or not, in the end, it needs to make sense in some way. Even if you don’t see yourself as some kind of “artist,” you can’t avoid it. You’re going to be writing this script using your whole psyche. -
Writing Here1
WRITING HERE1 W.H. NEW n 2003, for the BC Federation of Writers, Susan Musgrave assembled a collection of new fiction and poetry from some fifty-two IBC writers, called The FED Anthology.2 Included in this anthology is a story by Carol Matthews called “Living in ascii,” which begins with a woman recording her husband’s annoyance at whatever he sees as stupidity (noisy traffic and inaccurate grammar, for instance, and the loss of his own words when his computer apparently swallows them). This woman then tells of going to a party, of the shifting (and sometimes divisive) relationships among all the women who were attending, and of the subjects they discussed. These included a rape trial, national survival, men, cliffs, courage, cormorant nests, and endangered species. After reflecting on the etymology of the word “egg” (and its connection with the word “edge”), she then declares her impatience with schisms and losses, and her wish to recover something whole. The story closes this way: “If I were to tell the true story, I would write it not in words but in symbols, [like an] ... ascii printout. It would be very short and very true. It would go like this: moon, woman, woman; man, bird, sun; heart, heart, heart, heart, heart; rock, scissors, paper. The title would be egg. That would be the whole story.”3 This egg is the prologue to my comments here. So is the list of disparate nouns – or only seemingly disparate, in that (by collecting them as she does) the narrator connects them into story. -
Radio 4 Listings for 2 – 8 May 2020 Page 1 of 14
Radio 4 Listings for 2 – 8 May 2020 Page 1 of 14 SATURDAY 02 MAY 2020 Professor Martin Ashley, Consultant in Restorative Dentistry at panel of culinary experts from their kitchens at home - Tim the University Dental Hospital of Manchester, is on hand to Anderson, Andi Oliver, Jeremy Pang and Dr Zoe Laughlin SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m000hq2x) separate the science fact from the science fiction. answer questions sent in via email and social media. The latest news and weather forecast from BBC Radio 4. Presenter: Greg Foot This week, the panellists discuss the perfect fry-up, including Producer: Beth Eastwood whether or not the tomato has a place on the plate, and SAT 00:30 Intrigue (m0009t2b) recommend uses for tinned tuna (that aren't a pasta bake). Tunnel 29 SAT 06:00 News and Papers (m000htmx) Producer: Hannah Newton 10: The Shoes The latest news headlines. Including the weather and a look at Assistant Producer: Rosie Merotra the papers. “I started dancing with Eveline.” A final twist in the final A Somethin' Else production for BBC Radio 4 chapter. SAT 06:07 Open Country (m000hpdg) Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Helena Merriman Closed Country: A Spring Audio-Diary with Brett Westwood SAT 11:00 The Week in Westminster (m000j0kg) tells the extraordinary true story of a man who dug a tunnel into Radio 4's assessment of developments at Westminster the East, right under the feet of border guards, to help friends, It seems hard to believe, when so many of us are coping with family and strangers escape. -
Introduction Screenwriting Off the Page
Introduction Screenwriting off the Page The product of the dream factory is not one of the same nature as are the material objects turned out on most assembly lines. For them, uniformity is essential; for the motion picture, originality is important. The conflict between the two qualities is a major problem in Hollywood. hortense powdermaker1 A screenplay writer, screenwriter for short, or scriptwriter or scenarist is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media such as films, television programs, comics or video games are based. Wikipedia In the documentary Dreams on Spec (2007), filmmaker Daniel J. Snyder tests studio executive Jack Warner’s famous line: “Writers are just sch- mucks with Underwoods.” Snyder seeks to explain, for example, why a writer would take the time to craft an original “spec” script without a mon- etary advance and with only the dimmest of possibilities that it will be bought by a studio or producer. Extending anthropologist Hortense Powdermaker’s 1950s framing of Hollywood in the era of Jack Warner and other classic Hollywood moguls as a “dream factory,” Dreams on Spec pro- files the creative and economic nightmares experienced by contemporary screenwriters hoping to clock in on Hollywood’s assembly line of creative uniformity. There is something to learn about the craft and profession of screenwrit- ing from all the characters in this documentary. One of the interviewees, Dennis Palumbo (My Favorite Year, 1982), addresses the downside of the struggling screenwriter’s life with a healthy dose of pragmatism: “A writ- er’s life and a writer’s struggle can be really hard on relationships, very hard for your mate to understand. -
UC Riverside UC Riverside Previously Published Works
UC Riverside UC Riverside Previously Published Works Title “Short Story Collections and Crowded Selves: Madeleine Thien’s Simple Recipes and Jeremy Tiang’s It Never Rains On National Day” Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7w141141 Author Gui, W Publication Date 2017-05-18 Peer reviewed eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Crowded Selves — Singapore Unbound https://singaporeunbound.org/blog/2017/5/16/rsa... HOME ABOUT LITERARY FESTIVAL READING SERIES G AU DY BOY SP BLO G OPPORTUNITIES PRESS JO IN US Crowded Selves MAY 18, 2017 IN FICTION, CRITICIM “Short Story Collections and Crowded Selves: Madeleine Thien’s Simple Recipes and Jeremy Tiang’s It Never Rains On National Day” by Weihsin Gui Introduction How does a short story collection create connections between the different stories contained between its covers? And how do these connections represent the knotted relationships between North American and Asian cultures and the people who live and move between them? This essay examines two short story collections, Simple Recipes by Madeleine Thien and It Never Rains On National Day by Jeremy Tiang. Thien, whose parents came from Malaysia and Hong Kong, is a Canadian writer whose latest novel Do Not Say We We Have Nothing was shortlisted for the 2016 1 of 18 1/2/18, 9:31 AM Crowded Selves — Singapore Unbound https://singaporeunbound.org/blog/2017/5/16/rsa... Man Booker Prize. Tiang is a Singaporean currently living in both the USA and UK who has translated several works of fiction from Chinese into English and whose debut short story collection was a finalist for the 2016 Singapore Literature Prize. -
Radio 4 Listings for 29 February – 6 March 2020 Page 1 of 14
Radio 4 Listings for 29 February – 6 March 2020 Page 1 of 14 SATURDAY 29 FEBRUARY 2020 Series 41 SAT 10:30 The Patch (m000fwj9) Torry, Aberdeen SAT 00:00 Midnight News (m000fq5n) The Wilberforce Way with Inderjit Bhogal National and international news from BBC Radio 4 The random postcode takes us to an extraordinary pet shop Clare Balding walks with Sikh-turned-Methodist, Inderjit where something terrible has been happening to customers. Bhogal, along part of the Wilberforce Way in East Yorkshire. SAT 00:30 The Crying Book, by Heather Christle Inderjit created this long distance walking route to honour Torry is a deprived area of Aberdeen, known for addiction (m000fq5q) Wilberforce who led the campaign against the slave trade. They issues. It's also full of dog owners. In the local pet shop we Episode 5 start at Pocklington School, where Wilberforce studied, and discover Anna who says that a number of her customers have ramble canal-side to Melbourne Ings. Inderjit Bhogal has an died recently from a fake prescription drug. We wait for her Shedding tears is a universal human experience, but why and extraordinary personal story: Born in Kenya he and his family most regular customer, Stuart, to help us get to the bottom of it how do we cry? fled, via Tanzania, to Dudley in the West Midlands in the early - but where is he? 1960s. He couldn’t find anywhere to practice his Sikh faith so American poet Heather Christle has lost a dear friend to suicide started attending his local Methodist chapel where he became Producer/presenter: Polly Weston and must now reckon with her own depression. -
Rewriting Aristotle: the Uses and Misuses of the Poetics in the Teaching and Practice of Screenwriting
Rewriting Aristotle: the Uses and Misuses of the Poetics in the Teaching and Practice of Screenwriting Brian Dunnigan, Head of Screenwriting, London Film School October 2014 “ All human beings by nature desire knowledge.” Aristotle (Metaphysics) “ Tragedy is essentially an imitation not of persons but of action and of life.” Aristotle (Poetics) “The film language is the most elaborate, the most secret and the most invisible. A good script is a script that you don’t notice. It has vanished. Being a screenwriter is not the last step of a literary adventure but the first step of a film adventure…therefore a screenwriter must know everything about the techniques of how to make a film.” Jean-Claude Carrière I read with interest that amongst the early aims of the Screenwriting Research Network is that of “ interpreting documents intended to describe the screen idea” and a study of “ the interaction of those agents concerned with constructing the screenwork.” We are presumably referring here to the screenplay and the screenwriters and filmmakers working toward the creation of a film. The lively, anxious, imaginative humans who struggle to express themselves in conversation and debate, to shape a meaningful narrative for an audience. As an educator involved with curious and often confused humans trying to understand what it is they have to say about the world - I find that description of theoretical practice misses too much of what excites me about storytelling and cinema. This is partly language and partly to do with how as a writer and teacher one prefers to think about the process of filmmaking. -
A Genre Is a Conventional Response to a Rhetorical Situation That Occurs Fairly Often
What is a genre? A genre is a conventional response to a rhetorical situation that occurs fairly often. Conventional does not necessarily mean boring. Instead, it means a recognizable pattern for providing specific kinds of information for an identifiable audience demanded by circumstances that come up again and again. For example, new movies open almost every week. Movie makers pay for advertising to entice viewers to see their movies. Genres have a purpose. While consumers may learn about a movie from the ads, they know they are getting a sales pitch with that information, so they look for an outside source of information before they spend their money. Movie reviews provide viewers with enough information about the content and quality of a film to help them make a decision, without ruining it for them by giving away the ending. Movie reviews are the conventional response to the rhetorical situation of a new film opening. Genres have a pattern. The movie review is conventional because it follows certain conventions, or recognized and accepted ways of giving readers information. This is called a move pattern. Here are the moves associated with that genre: 1. Name of the movie, director, leading actors, Sometimes, the opening also includes the names of people and companies associated with the film if that information seems important to the reader: screenwriter, animators, special effects, or other important aspects of the film. This information is always included in the opening lines or at the top of the review. 2. Graphic design elements---usually, movie reviews include some kind of art or graphic taken from the film itself to call attention to the review and draw readers into it. -
Mirror Stage's 2Nd Saturday Spotlights Playwrights in July
For Immediate Release Media Contact: Anne Tobin at [email protected] or 206-686-2792 Mirror Stage’s 2nd Saturday Spotlights Playwrights in July [Seattle, WA—June 26, 2020] While COVID-19 keeps everyone out of theatres, Mirror Stage holds space for audiences and artists to come together virtually and discuss today’s pressing issues. Theatre That Gets People Talking, Mirror Stage continues the conversation online with a Playwrights Panel on July 11 at 5:00 PM, Pacific, as part of its new 2nd Saturday series. Attendees will learn more about the playwright’s process and the unique challenges of writing for Expand Upon from a panel of previous Expand Upon playwrights, featuring Holly Arsenault, Amontaine Aurore, Tré Calhoun, Stacy D. Flood, Sien Méndez, and Celeste Mari Williams. The event will also be live- streamed on YouTube, though to participate in the Q&A, attendees need to RSVP (FREE, with a $10 suggested donation) to receive log in information for the ZOOM event. For more information, please visit https://mirrorstage.org. About Holly Arsenault, playwright—Untitled Play About Homelessness in Seattle Holly Arsenault was born in Montréal, Quebec and has lived in Seattle for more than 20 years. Her play Undo received a Theatre Puget Sound Gregory Award for Outstanding New Play and a Seattle Theater Writers Gypsy Rose Lee Award for Excellence in Local Playwriting. Undo was nominated for the American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, and was a semi-finalist for the Princess Grace Award. Holly’s plays, which include Undo, 24 Pictures of a Pilot (Heideman Award finalist), The Cut, The Manor, Marvelous, and The Great Inconvenience, have been developed at Seattle Repertory Theatre and the National Winter Playwriting Retreat, and produced in Seattle, Boca Raton, Detroit, and Chicago.