V O L U M E 6 | 2 0 2 0 writing in practice THE JOURNAL OF CREATIVE WRITING RESEARCH Writing in Practice: The Journal of Creative Writing Research Volume 6 (May 2020) ISSN: 2058-5535 Issue Editors: Celia Brayfield, Francis Gilbert and Andrew Melrose Principal Editor: Derek Neale Interested in contributing? Submission deadlines: 2021 Volume: 26th June 2020 (published end May 2021) 2022 Volume: 25th June 2021 (published end May 2022) For submission guidelines please refer to: www.nawe.co.uk/writing-in-education/nawe-magazine/submissions.html Publications Manager: Lisa Koning, [email protected] Writing in Practice is published by the National Association of Writers in Education (NAWE) All work is copyrighted to the author or artist. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used or reproduced without permission from the publisher. 2 Writing in Practice From the Editor Welcome Volume 6 of Writing in Practice offers an exciting Roman Catholicism in England during the Reformation, blend of exegetic reflection, essential and individual also referring to literary and cultural theories to examine research approaches that consider the writing process fiction’s relationship to historical discourse and the idea both in minute detail and in multiple and far reaching of the archive. More recent history comes in Edward contexts, including cultural, experiential, educational Hogan’s subject, the impact of oral accounts on the and publishing settings. The essays reflect wide-ranging development of a novel, specifically in relation to 20th engagement and critical analysis in considering what it is century police history; his article also reveals a history of to write, what it means to encourage and teach others to cinema-going during the same period and how the rolling write, and how it might be possible to seek different ways film programmes of the time might echo a contemporary of investigating the creative process. The angles of focus novel’s narrative disruption. brought to bear in this issue reveal the subject area to be alive and healthy. Writing is an activity that demands Liz Mistry investigates diversity, considering inclusion many hours, days and weeks of lockdown-type solitude. and representation in the genre in which she writes, Yet it is an activity, as we are aware, that also demands crime fiction, scanning publishing statistics and writing a working knowledge of social, emotional, artistic and approaches for more expansive narratives. Graham Mort every-day spheres. Writing as an activity, in this sense, emphasizes the inherent diversity of our discipline’s seems to speak to and of our times. research possibilities, focusing on the methodology of a funded, multilingual writing project in South Africa, This volume’s guest article comes from Australia: Jen with antecedents in several other international practice- Webb discusses the material, linguistic and physical led initiatives; he reflects on the inter-disciplinary elements of narrative, the philosophical provenance research potential of Creative Writing as a subject. Rose of such perspectives, and how we might lead writing Michael, Ronnie Scott and Michelle Aung Thin share students towards an intellectual as well as a creative fascinating insights into their research and editing approach to their work. Joanne Reardon’s article processes, approaches that inform ethics and aesthetics in considers material along with visual aspects, in revealing relation to point of view and voice; they offer three case the interplay between collaboration and ekphrasis in a studies: a literary speculative fiction, a novel concerning site-specific work. Sean Fitzgerald critically examines sexuality and a young adult novel set among Rohingya scientific knowledge via a combination of critical children experiencing the 2016-17 military operations in reflection and a type of fiction which is science-informed, Myanmar. specifically focused on genetic science. Leanne Bibby uses the prism of a ghost story and its setting, along with Megan Hayes and Sophie Nicholls examine the web of her own writing practice to explore the painful history of related roles encountered by the modern writer; within Writing in Practice 3 the contexts of writing and wellbeing, combining interests The Next Issue in writing, researching and facilitating can be essential The submissions deadline for the next issue, Vol.7, is 26th and require integrative approaches. Kevan Manwaring June 2020 – you will note that this will be a special issue investigates experiential research, advocating location focused on multimodal writing, but we are also accepting visits but also oral history and song in the creation of a articles on other topics as usual. In Volume 6, we have transmedia fantasy novel. Michael Fox explores folktale again been delighted to showcase essays from Creative types and motifs as aids to identify the building blocks Writing PhD students. We welcome such work, along of stories, further deploying such research and reference with work from the broader field of practice, research points to inform teaching; he focuses on the story features and scholarship. Creative work itself is welcome when and shapes underlying both Beowulf and The Hobbit. integral to an article. Writing in Practice is not Creative Another approach to solving the blank page is addressed Writing’s only peer-reviewed journal but it is one of few by Amina Alyal and Oz Hardwick who consider visual internationally. By reading it, submitting work to it and hallucinations and pareidolia, while speculating that joining its peer review college, you are helping to enrich writers might, as part of their creative process, access pre- your subject community. existing texts, as suggested in the testimony of a poem’s evolution. Dr Derek Neale, Principal Editor, Writing in Practice; Such rich scope and flexibility of critical attention is to Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, The Open University be applauded, as is the new format, colour and layout in the journal. You may note the addition of images and the potential to download a complete volume. These innovations are all thanks to Lisa Koning, NAWE’s new publications manager: Volume 6 is her first issue of Writing in Practice. Welcome, Lisa! The Issue Editors Our three Issue Editors (all on the NAWE HE Committee) offered an expert eye and consideration throughout. My gratitude to: Dr Celia Brayfield is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. Dr Francis Gilbert is Senior Lecturer in Education at Goldsmiths University of London Professor Andrew Melrose is Emeritus Professor of Children’s Writing at The University of Winchester and occasional Editor, Axon: Creative connections, Axon Capsule (Special Issues). Reviewers Thank you to all our peer reviewers for their excellent support, for the quality of their analysis, and for the positive manner in which they offered their judgement and suggestions for improvement. We are always looking for more reviewers. If you are interested, please be in touch via the email address on the Writing in Practice webpage. 4 Writing in Practice Contents Let the writing be of words from writing stories to writing materials by Jen Webb Pages 6-12 Loops and Reels Narrative disruption in film, fiction, and cinemagoing history by Edward Hogan Pages 13-24 Taking Liberties Ideals of freedom in contemporary South Africa: a practice-based approach to research with multilingual writing communities by Graham Mort Pages 25-39 Ekphrasis in Still Life with Black Birds Finding a new space - art and prose in collaboration by Joanne Reardon Pages 40-52 A Ghost in the Archive Rewriting Perceval Landon’s “Thurnley Abbey” as Contemporary Historical Fiction by Leanne Bibby Pages 53-62 Expanding the Creative Narrative Why it Matters by Liz Mistry Pages 63-80 Writing Science-as-Fiction to examine practice-led research in creative writing as science communication by Sean Fitzgerald Pages 81-98 Summoning Ghosts and Releasing Angels Challenging the Tyranny of the Blank Page by Amina Alyal and Oz Hardwick Pages 99-105 First Pages Questions for Editing by Rose Michael, Michelle Aung Thin and Ronnie Scott Pages 106-119 Writer-researcher-facilitator An integrative model for creative writers working in wellbeing contexts and beyond by Megan Hayes and Sophie Nicholls Pages 120-130 From Folktale to Fantasy A Recipe-Based Approach to Creative Writing by Michael Fox Pages 131-144 Walking Between Worlds in defence of experiential research by Kevan Manwaring Pages 144-153 Writing in Practice 5 Let the writing be of words from writing stories to writing materials Jen Webb ABSTRACT Across the Anglophone world (and elsewhere), creative writing courses are proliferating. A remarkably high number of tertiary education institutions now offer to train students at undergraduate, graduate coursework and postgraduate research levels. While few such courses enjoy the huge numbers who enrol in, say, the business or communication faculties, there is a steady and growing number of people who believe they have a story to tell in prose, poetry or script, and who want to be trained in the techniques and in the field. Not many of our graduates go on to work as professional published writers; and not all of our graduates are sophisticated users of narrative; or even of language. Writing is not alone in this; all disciplines produce graduates with uneven skills and capacities. But I suspect that in the case of writing, we tend to confuse means and ends – to focus on the book inside the person, and not on the material that is used to make it. By “material” I mean ideas and the interest in narrative, and also language – vocabulary, syntax, punctuation, organisation – and ideas. In this paper I discuss ways of engaging with these two different, but related, aspects that should be part of the attributes possessed by our graduates at all level. 6 Writing in Practice Let the snake wait under his weed and the writing be of words, slow and quick, sharp to strike, quiet to wait, sleepless.