Arvon creative writing workshop 2
Nov. 6th, 2009 06:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lobelia321I can't find the notebook that I wrote everything in! All my Arvon notes! I looked everywhere!
So, in desperation and before senility sets in, I will attempt to recreate as much as I can remember. This is not my Arvon what-happened-day-by-day debriefing but a jumbled set of How-To-Write-A-Novel notes, as gleaned from the novelists Adam Thorpe, Susannah Waters and Michèle Spring.
DIALOGUE. From Adam Thorpe's session.
• It's interesting if A and B are of a different status. Every speech made is an attempt to raise or lower one's own status. It's most interesting if the person expected to pull rank, suddenly reverses things and attempts to lower status, and vice versa. It's also interesting if the status-raising-and-lowering continues throughout the dialogue, in a back-and-forth.
• A dialogue consists of offers, counter-offers, acceptances, and blocks. One can also over-accept, under-accept, over-offer and under-offer.
• Dialogue reveals character and propels the action forward.
• Avoid 'um'. A dialogue is not real speech. It is artifice.
(Me: I love 'um'. It is a fanfic thing. *g*)
SCENE. From Susannah Waters' session.
• A scene reveals character, propels the action forward and creates atmosphere.
• A novel is a string of scenes with filler in between (summary), like sausages on a string.
• Write a scene, using FILTERING. E.g. start with the sentence 'I walked home' and filter it through 'yellow'. Avoid using the word 'yellow' but put as many associations with yellow in as you can, e.g. daffodils, sun, pus, sickly. Other ideas for filters: red, microscopic precision, filth, purity.
• Write the scene, using short declarative sentences, without 'and', without secondary clauses.
• Write the scene, using only sentence fragments (i.e. no complete sentence with finite verb and subject).
• Write the scene, using just one long but grammatically correct sentence.
• Write a scene, using TEMPLATING. That is, choose a paragraph in a novel and write out what the paragraph is doing. E.g. person A DOES ACTION in a SETTING with an OBJECT. Person A meets Person B. They MOVE into another SETTING, in which there is an OBJECT, another OBJECT, and some PEOPLE. And so forth.
Then put away the novel. Look at just your rewritten version. Write a paragraph, filling in the details, e.g. John fucks Rodney in the puddle jumper with a dildo. (Um. Example not taken from Arvon. The example we used was from Tolstoy! War and Peace!)
• SCENE SOUP.
Write the dialogue only. Then add in actions. Then add in setting. Then (optional) add in internal thoughts and feelings.
SCENE WITH SACRED OBJECT. From Adam Thorpe's workshop.
• Remember a scene when you were happy. Write a paragraph, describing the setting. Then choose one object that is most representative of that scene for you. Write a separate sentence that distills that object's significance. Pass it on to your neighbour who must write a scene that finishes with this sentence, making the style transition seamless.
And bugger. That's all I'm remembering for now. :-( *stomps foot*
So, in desperation and before senility sets in, I will attempt to recreate as much as I can remember. This is not my Arvon what-happened-day-by-day debriefing but a jumbled set of How-To-Write-A-Novel notes, as gleaned from the novelists Adam Thorpe, Susannah Waters and Michèle Spring.
DIALOGUE. From Adam Thorpe's session.
• It's interesting if A and B are of a different status. Every speech made is an attempt to raise or lower one's own status. It's most interesting if the person expected to pull rank, suddenly reverses things and attempts to lower status, and vice versa. It's also interesting if the status-raising-and-lowering continues throughout the dialogue, in a back-and-forth.
• A dialogue consists of offers, counter-offers, acceptances, and blocks. One can also over-accept, under-accept, over-offer and under-offer.
• Dialogue reveals character and propels the action forward.
• Avoid 'um'. A dialogue is not real speech. It is artifice.
(Me: I love 'um'. It is a fanfic thing. *g*)
SCENE. From Susannah Waters' session.
• A scene reveals character, propels the action forward and creates atmosphere.
• A novel is a string of scenes with filler in between (summary), like sausages on a string.
• Write a scene, using FILTERING. E.g. start with the sentence 'I walked home' and filter it through 'yellow'. Avoid using the word 'yellow' but put as many associations with yellow in as you can, e.g. daffodils, sun, pus, sickly. Other ideas for filters: red, microscopic precision, filth, purity.
• Write the scene, using short declarative sentences, without 'and', without secondary clauses.
• Write the scene, using only sentence fragments (i.e. no complete sentence with finite verb and subject).
• Write the scene, using just one long but grammatically correct sentence.
• Write a scene, using TEMPLATING. That is, choose a paragraph in a novel and write out what the paragraph is doing. E.g. person A DOES ACTION in a SETTING with an OBJECT. Person A meets Person B. They MOVE into another SETTING, in which there is an OBJECT, another OBJECT, and some PEOPLE. And so forth.
Then put away the novel. Look at just your rewritten version. Write a paragraph, filling in the details, e.g. John fucks Rodney in the puddle jumper with a dildo. (Um. Example not taken from Arvon. The example we used was from Tolstoy! War and Peace!)
• SCENE SOUP.
Write the dialogue only. Then add in actions. Then add in setting. Then (optional) add in internal thoughts and feelings.
SCENE WITH SACRED OBJECT. From Adam Thorpe's workshop.
• Remember a scene when you were happy. Write a paragraph, describing the setting. Then choose one object that is most representative of that scene for you. Write a separate sentence that distills that object's significance. Pass it on to your neighbour who must write a scene that finishes with this sentence, making the style transition seamless.
And bugger. That's all I'm remembering for now. :-( *stomps foot*
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-06 07:18 pm (UTC)I know this as an improvisation exercises for actors. Mind you, I think acting and writing have an awful lot in common.
I'd hate trying to use most of these suggestions to write, though!
Arvon creative writing workshop 2
Date: 2009-11-06 09:12 pm (UTC)b.x :)
Re: Arvon creative writing workshop 2
Date: 2009-11-07 10:00 am (UTC)Is this Johnstone book a theatre/acting type of book (as could be deduced from the title?). Because Adam Thorpe used to be in mime. *g*
Re: Arvon creative writing workshop 2
Date: 2009-11-07 10:02 am (UTC)Impro (Performance Books): Improvisation and the Theatre by Keith Johnstone (Paperback - 31 Jul 2007)
and
Impro for Storytellers: Theatresports and the Art of Making Things Happen by Keith Johnstone (Paperback - 17 May 1999).
Which one would you recommend??
(no subject)
Date: 2009-11-07 10:16 am (UTC)Thanks!!
Arvon creative writing workshop 2
Date: 2009-11-08 08:37 am (UTC)weirdly, it was rec'd to me by a guy in my russian class, when he found out about what i do as an artist. i have little interest in theatre or mime, but in it's been an incredibly useful book in all kinds of other contexts.
b.x :)
Re: Arvon creative writing workshop 2
Date: 2009-11-08 03:29 pm (UTC)