A picture is worth...

You are holidaying. You are always creative. Autumn’s looming and a new start to the teaching year. So collect postcards! You don’t have to travel far – find fascinating postcards at galleries and museums. How to use them?  There are many possibilities. But first, variations in distribution.

EXERCISE METHODS: IMPERATIVE -- Distribute the postcards and instruct students to (bubble and) write the exercise. CHOSEN -- Lay out a generous selection and let students choose a card that calls to them. AMBUSH -- Part way through a given writing exercise go round and drop a postcard at each student’s place – they now have to swerve to incorporate something from this picture. 

EXERCISE: POSTCARDS OF PLACES. Travel postcards of streets, landscapes, buildings, foreign scenes; atmospheric photos; also postcards of paintings of land, sea or interiors.  Someone has just walked through/been in this place, who is it? Where was he/she coming from, going to?  Why?  What’s on his or her mind?

EXERCISE: SURREAL POSTCARDS. Strange abstracts; angled photos of weird items; mysterious, surreal, bizarre, funky or otherwise odd paintings or photos.  States of Heart – this picture represents someone’s feelings and thoughts, write an interior monologue.

EXERCISE: SITUATION PICTURES. People doing things, the more puzzling or busy the better. What’s going on in this picture?  Who are these people, why and what are they doing?  OR Choose one person in the picture and write his or her thoughts, feelings, dialogue.

EXERCISE: PORTRAITS. Painted or photographed. Describe this person’s life.

EXERCISE: MYTHICAL PICTURES. Fairytales, myths, legends, Bible tales, saints, heroes. Write one scene of the story, as vividly as you can.  OR Write a scene of this story that is unknown to the rest of the world.  OR Write the thoughts and feelings of a person in this story.

EXERCISE: SEASON AND ELEMENT PICTURES. Nature; close focus on rocks, water etc. Put a character in this place/experience, why is he/she there, what thoughts, feelings and senses? OR Explain this to a child who has never seen it.

EXERCISE: ANIMAL PICTURES. Especially wild animals in the outdoors. You are a photographer or a scientist observing this animal, but at the same time it is reminding you of somebody else; write the train of thoughts.

EXERCISE: WRITING WITH THE SENSES. The 8 Senses exercise (see Mini-Lecture 2) works well with any of the above postcards and pictures.  Describe the smells, sounds, textures, movements in this picture.

8 categories and 3 methods, multiply that! This post is just a snippet from Creative Writing: the Matrix paperback and :the Quick Matrix ebook. ‘A lifesaver for creative writing tutors’ – Amazon uk & .com Click here to see more.

Ways to open a story

January opens the new year... how about exploring ways to open stories? Of course an opening is only relevant to the story that follows, and every piece your students have written so far has an opening. Still, once you have stimulated some story ideas you can have students practice openings with this bossy exercise I call Imperative Opening. But first, a list:

Some Ways to Open a Story

• Dialogue
• Setting -- geography or weather
• Setting -- interior
• Monologue, first person
• Character description, third person
• Characters in action

Imperative Opening Exercise 
Prepare the above list as a handout. Give students a stimulus (ideas below) or get them to have a story in mind, then give them the handout -- which is also a taskslip. Go round and tick one opening on each person's list -- a different one for each student. (Repeat the cycle for however many students you have.)

Instructions: With your story in mind, write an opening in the mode I've ticked, about half a page long. Remember to bubble first (my word for jot or list ideas) to help you expand and gather your thoughts.

After reading out and discussing the effects of the different openings you can extend the exercise by doing a new round of ticks. Like an absolute monarch you are imperatively forcing students to stretch themselves into devising a different manner of opening with the same story in mind. Or you can generously let them choose their own option from the list. When they moan, say: Yes, you must stick with the same story, the better to explore the effect! Further reading out and discussion follow of course.

Imperative Opening is in Section 3 VI, Craft: Storytelling Devices. It's Exercise 70 in Creative Writing: the Matrix paperback. It's Exercise 65 in Creative Writing: the Quick Matrix ebook.

Story stimulus exercises Above I promised you some starters if your students haven't yet got a few stories in mind. There are loads in the Craft section of the Matrix books -- Character's Journey, Opening with an Ending, Rainbow Tale, Agony Letter, Character Profile. See Exercises in the Labels list of this blog. There's always the trusty Postcard method: give each student an interesting picture postcard for story stimulus.

'It was a dark and stormy night...'? Maybe not. I wish you a bright and sunny season of teaching creative writing.

Quote-match

'I'm not happy when I'm writing, but I'm more unhappy when I'm not.'
Who said that? The answer is Fannie Hurst, but the point is: Quote-match, a great way to get your class mixing and mingling. And groaning and laughing. And raising questions and discussions about writing -- this early in the year that's good fodder for your class planning.

Quote-match 
Type, cut out and paste on index cards, or simply print out and cut in strips, quotes from writers on writing. Sources? The above is from W.O.W. Writers on Writing, selected and complied by Jon Winokur. Or go to Goodreads quotes on writing -- if you are not a member, join! Goodreads is a good thing.

You distribute the quotes (how-to tips below) and the task for your class is to Find the person who has the same quote you've been given. Task ideas: the pair agree or disagree with the quote (three reasons why), reinvent the quote, what did the speaker's spouse say, brainstorm a story... 

General Guidelines for All Pairing Exercises

• Keep the pair devices in two separate identical sets to give out on opposite sides of the room, doing a quick count to check your numbers, so your distribution will get people moving and mixing as they search for their match.
• Be sure to explain the task before they rise -- you'll never be able to shout over the noise once the happy chatter begins.
• Stroll about, dropping the match-cards randomly at people's places. As they find each other, write task-point reminders on the board. Some students do not fully heed or remember verbal instructions.
• Watch the clock. Allow about 10 minutes for the paired task. Give a countdown at two minutes, then one minute, reminding pairs to cover the task points.
• What if your numbers are uneven? Have a third match-quote up your sleeve. Designate one pair as a threesome, the 'odd' one finding his or her way to the matching quote. This is also a solution for a late-arriving student. The trio just have to make do with the time allotted.
• When time's up the pairs report to the group at large. Or you may have them write for 5-10 minutes as an individual exercise. I have students return to their original seats for the whole-group work, so partners may be across the room, not adjacent -- it's less routine, sharpens attention.

Variations on matching: famous quotes, proverbs or sayings. If your group is widely read and confident you could leave out the attribution and have pairs guess the author of the quote, but generally I feel it's best to keep simply to the quote itself as the focus.

Quote-match is in Section II, Stimulus: Sparking the Writer, Exercise 43, in Creative Writing: the Matrix paperback. In Creative Writing: the Quick Matrix ebook it's Exercise 37.

Listen out to the discussion and you'll get the measure of your writers' woes, worries and joys to help you plan and nurture your class.

And here's one to wish you well for the term: 'The best time for planning a book is while you're doing the dishes.' -- Agatha Christie.

Stone Writing

I said stone, not stoned! Here is a stimulus exercise I love to teach. A good one for early in the start of a new term because it's a bit mystifying, but always gets results. What's more, it makes use of those mementos from your holidays if, like me, you can't resist picking up stones or shells when out in nature. 

Stone Writing
So, out walking or in a gem shop or natural history museum, collect a small boxful of semi-precious stones in their wondrous variety of colours, textures and patterns. Add stripey, sparkly or textured stones picked up at the seashore and rocky streams. Or run a variation on this, using seashells.

Find a good container, say of rattan or woven grasses for an elemental feel, or of velvet or lacquer, associating with valuable treasures. Proffer the container, letting students choose one of nature’s objects, then contemplate, bubble (my word for brainstorming on paper) and write for 10 minutes -- whatever comes to mind.

This usually brings excellent freewheeling results. Some spontaneously go the non-fiction way of science or nature, others go into memoir mode, others into fiction. Another time you can prompt them if you wish, for instance:

• Where has this been?


• What does your stone remind you of?


• Who found, or who treasures this natural item, and why?


• If it could talk (or if it had a smell, or if it was once a person)

Stone Writing is in Section II, Stimulus: Sparking the Writer, Exercise 19, in Creative Writing: the Matrix paperback. In Creative Writing: the Quick Matrix e-book it's also #19. If you and your students are really really beginners exercises 5 - 9 are the sparking essentials. 

The whole academic year of planning lies ahead. Enjoy! And remember there are teaching ideas and exercises in the archived posts here -- scroll the Labels list, a treasure trove. Note, too, the final section of the Matrix book (both e and print) is called Running the Course. Combines with Section I: Nurture -- A Safe Place in which to Grow to get you up and, well, running. And writing. 

Character Challenge

Spring into Summer, wheee! And more demand from your creative writing students, whether it's a new class or the rag-tag end of your year. This character writing exercise is fun AND enlightening.

Characterization Challenge
Prepare a set of word cards, each with a single character trait. Explain before you distribute one to each student:

We want to bring characters alive by showing them to the reader. The following descriptions are excellent character traits, BUT, how would the reader know without being told in a summary word by you that a person is like this?

Without using the word or phrase on the card, write a half page showing a character with this trait -- include dialogue, make it a scene. Afterwards we'll read out and see if the class can determine the original trait.

Words for the cards: vain; shy; laid back; needs to be centre of attention; brave; a poseur; principled; cynical about life; scatter-brained; ambitious... (Tutor, go on and add as many as you need).

Reading out usually includes lots of laughter as a troupe of exaggerated characters peoples the room, and each writer gets the fun of playing quiz master to his/her character sketch.

Characterization Challenge is in Section III, Craft. In Creative Writing; the Matrix paperback it's Exercise 74. In Creative Writing: the Quick Matrix e-book it's Exercise 70. It follows a Mini-Lecture: Characterization which includes a handout and explains the importance of SHOWING over telling.

Got a short-course summer school coming up? As well as the Matrix books there are more teaching ideas and exercises in the archived posts of this blog. Just scroll down the Labels list and call up Exercises or Class Planning.

Happy teaching, happy creating! I'll be back before September start of term, happy summer,
Susan

Hyper-Awareness Writing

New Year, new lessons to plan. Where can you take your writers, and yourself? Try writing with the 8 senses. And then follow with an exercise. The senses are an absolutely essential element of creative writing, and a review of them plugs into almost any writing stimulus, any writing level.

 

Ask students to call out the senses. Write them on the whiteboard as they do so. The obvious come first, and then I add three others I've identified. As a demonstration I like to halt everything for a whole long minute for Sound, so we all listen: the hum of a computer, talk in the corridor, drone of a plane, a distant siren, one's own breathing... Invite your students to stretch their senses, along the lines of:

Sound – peel off layers of sound

Taste – temperature and feel of food in the mouth, nuances, memories (and as smell)

Smell – familiar, unknown, indescribable (new combinations of familiar)

Sight – panorama, close-up, middle distance; above, below; colour, texture, shape, pattern; straight, curved, angular; banish the word beautiful – what kind of beautiful?

Touch – feel under fingertips, soles of feet, bottom; hot/cold, rough/smooth; things that touch you (breeze, raindrops, rim of glass); things you touch (yak's coat, palm trunk, kelim rug)

Kinetic – body position:  awkward, comfy, stretched, cramped, turned, straight...

Inner/visceral – body organs, gut reactions:  churning stomach, tight throat, full bladder, scratchy eyes, prickling scalp, gooseflesh, genitals responding (or not)

 

Time – night/day, evening; light, shadow (Monet's cathedral); time creeps, time whizzes

 

The above is Mini-Lecture 2 from the Stimulus section of Creative Writing: the Matrix. Now for an exercise. This is Hyper-Awareness (surprise) which is number 12 in the paperback book and number 13 in the Quick Matrix ebook.

 

After introducing 8 Senses, before a break (coffee or lunch) instruct students to be hyper-aware of all senses, but no other instructions.  On return to class, give one of these writing exercises.

 

• Sheer observation Bubble and write, describing the café break, using as many of the senses as richly as possible.

 

• Character-based in two stages.  Tutor, don’t reveal the second stage til the first is written.  Stage 1. Describe the café break as seen by a character who has just had a row with a lover – a paragraph or half-page.  Stage 2.  Same break, same character, but he/she has just declared love and learned it was mutual. Describe the break experience.

Read out and enjoy the sensations. Hope you'll be revelling in rich writing all term!

 

PS To help you through the term there are loads of other teaching ideas and exercises in the archived blog posts here. See the Labels list. I'll be back after spring break.

 

 

 

 

Life Listing Exercise

Back to school! Start of the new year! Got to plan a wonderful series of creative writing classes. Try starting with an exercise that works wonders for both timid newbies and experienced writers and also can lead to further inspiration and production.

LIFE LISTING

This is a particularly good way to get students into their own private store of writing sparks.  In two stages, the process stirs, then stirs again, allowing the writer to discover more to say than he or she thought possible.

Stage 1.  List six objects you remember from childhood.  (Someone will ask, I usually say under the age of ten).  Give 5 minutes for this; if some get only to three or four that’s fine. 

Stage 2.  Sit back, study the list.  Choose one to write on, the one that speaks to you most at this moment.  Another time it might be another one, but right now, choose one and start writing.  You might want to bubble first, or maybe it’s ready to come flowing out, just write.  A paragraph is fine, more if you want to.  Allow 10, 15 or even 20 minutes for this.

What’s the point?  These can be left as riffs only, or they can be a springboard to evocative short stories, poems or plays.  Students are often amazed at the excellence of their own and their classmates’ pieces.

From the Stimulus section, Life Listing is exercise 7 in paperback and 8 in ebook versions of Creative Writing; the Matirx/the Quick Matrix. Beyond that there are other exercises not in either book here in this blogsite. Just scroll to the Labels list and call up Exercises. Happy teaching -- and writing -- see you later in the year.

NEWS! MATRIX PAPERBACK NOW HALF PRICE

ONLY £7.00

Special half-price reduction, on Amazon, click here. Paperback only for UK distribution.

 Quick Matrix ebook is £2.99 available everywhere.

 

Reviving rant exercise

Summer term -- revving up? Or running out of steam? Or some of each? Here's some fuel and some news.

NEWS first: on my Paxton Publishing website I used to post a termly freebie extract exercise from Creative Writing the Matrix (or Quick Matrix in ebook). But that site has now morphed into a more pukka independent author-publisher website. It features the two Matrix books and the 9th May 2016 publication of The Extraordinary Dr Epstein paperback. click here to have a look. It's pretty, with photos of the Chiswick House and Gardens famous camellias and magical glass house. Gardener par excellence Joseph Paxton is my inspiration.

So... I will now put the termly freebie exercise extracts here on this blogsite. Starting with...

THE RANT

This is a short, energy-filled exercise that requires absolutely no preparation on your part. Have students list five pet peeves, things that really bug them, like people who litter, marketing phone calls etc. Or tell them to list household chores you loathe. Then direct students to choose one, and let rip in a rant, pen on paper (much more freeing than fingers on keyboard). Encourage them to be as wild and exaggerated as they like. If you wish, start them off: I can't stand people who... OR I really hate it when...  

What's the point? This is great fun for letting off steam. And when read out, good for laughter in class. There's a lot of power in the negative. The extremes could also be the basis for a neurotic, eccentric or weird character.

The Rant is exercise 36 in paperback and 38 in ebook; PS you can see lots more on Amazon's Look Inside feature here. The print book, with 116 exercises and lectures, is available only in the UK. The ebook, worldwide. Besides that, there are loads of exercises not in either book here in this blogsite. Just scroll down to the blog archive and call up Exercises on the Labels list. Have a good end-of-year and a happy creative summer. See you in September -- early enough for prepping.

Author enrichment

How to rev up your creative writing students, and yourself, midway through the year? Curriculum enrichment. As a writer who teaches creative writing (yes? that's you?) or a teacher of creative writing who loves writing, surely you go to literature and writing festivals. Locally -- there are so many these days -- or the bigger ones (Hay, Chichester, Brighton etc). And among your friends and former students you know authors, too...? From these sources, invite an author or several to come to your college or wherever it is you teach to talk about their writing and publishing experiences. Many authors will happily do this for no fee (so long as they can sell their books at the mini-event), or possibly for expenses. Many will be thrilled to be asked!

Like me. Along with three other authors, all of us former tutors or students at this local college, we are giving an evening's panel discussion on How to Publish Your Book I no longer teach there, but I still love the place. And hope that we provide 'yes, you can' inspiration for current and future aspiring writers.

Clockwise from top left: Diane Chandler (The Road to Donetsk), Jacqui Lofthouse (The Modigliani Girl), Susan Lee Kerr (The Extraordinary Dr Epstein) and Stephanie Zia (Self-Publishing EBooks and Blackbird Digital Books publisher)

Published!

Just in time to uplift you through the first weeks of the new teaching year: the ebook version of Creative Writing: the Matrix, called the Quick Matrix, is now available via all the usual ebook outlets. What's more the paperback was available only for UK distribution, but ebook's selected exercises & ideas for creative writing teachers is worldwide.

On your kindle or ibook or whatever, the 104 exercises and mini-lectures are of course linked right from the table of contents, so it's easy-peasy to come up with content and planning for your classful of eager writers. Enjoy! And please do feedback, review and spread the word.

Have I mentioned yet that I've started a new blogsite in my name on the writing and creative life? Drop in for juice outside your teaching gig. Meanwhile, elsewhere on this site, do scroll down and look at the labels list of previous postings for other teaching support. Class planning, first class and exercises probably most useful to you at this time of year.

Quick Matrix: Advance Cover Peek

Hot off the cyber-waves, here's the cover of the NEW ebook, coming soon through all the usual ereader sources. As it says on the tin, Creative Writing: the Quick Matrix is exercises and ideas selected from the original print paperback. Watch this space for release date.

Meanwhile, scroll down to the archives to find yet more, on the spot, exercises that are not in either Matrix book. Collected and invented as I went along. Class planning is a good category for this time of year, of course!

Creative writing exercises galore

Published! The Extraordinary Dr Epstein -- check it out here -- but meanwhile, on with the teaching show. Two good newses: Creative Writing: the Matrix, that is this paperback, is now in its 3rd printing!

And it is soon to have an ebook variation:  Creative Writing: the Quick Matrix, Selected Exercises for Creative Writing Teachers. Scout's honour, if you already own the paperback no need to opt for the digital version. That's because I'm culling the print to provide a whizz-bang selection of the goodies so that MORE writer-teachers can access the book at LESS cost. So watch this space for announcement of its publication.

Meanwhile, there are over 112 entries in this teaching creative writing blog's archive. Just go to the list of Labels below. Some of the most useful: Creative Process, Critic Within, Exercises (24 entries), First Class, Lesson Planning (6 entries) etcetera

"geographic, spiritual and psychological... compelling, surprising and carefully researched"

...that's a bit of praise for The Extraordinary Dr Epstein. Hope it tempts you!

Creative juice

There are over 112 entries in this teaching creative writing blog and meanwhile I am deep in the formatting throes of The Extraordinary Dr Epstein -- to be published in 2015. It's the story of my great-grandfather's life -- his many lives, as he reinvented himself so many times: Russian, American, doctor, pastor, Jew, Christian, poet, sailor, scholar, farmer, founder of a university... check him (and me) out here.

I'm also learning the ins and outs of self-publishing, but this term YOU are teaching creative writing. Besides my Creative Writing: the Matrix book -- nearly out of print! -- there are loads of exercises and ideas for your class planning in this blog's archive.

Here's my shortcut to the best of the best for you and your students in the long list of Labels below: CREATIVE PROCESS, CRITIC WITHIN, DIFFICULT STUDENTS, ENDINGS, EXERCISES (24 entries!), FIRST CLASS, LESSON PLANNING (6 entries), START OF TERM, WORKSHOPPING etc etc.

Let the creativity flow!

Rev up to countdown

Half-term's almost over, one last run to go before it's all over for the year. You just have time to inspire your class to pull together work (or write new work) and publish a class booklet.

In fact, these days, you are probably remiss if you don't get your students exploring self-publication. Whether it is Smashwords, Lulu, Amazon, Kindle or whatever, anyone can e-publish these days. But will it be good? Get students, or perhaps small groups within the class (nothing like the competitive spirit) to decide on theme, content, length, format (just e? Print on Demand?)... or you set the theme/themes for them.

Even just asking students to browse the web and report (with print outs or screen show-n-tell) on poetry, flash fiction, fiction, memoir or whatever is a good practical exercise. If they don't rise to producing their own group collection at least this might inspire individuals eventually to go it alone.

Some other end-of-year ideas to be found under the label called that (see labels list at bottom). Strangely enough I like having a session on creating titles this time of year. Must be something about in our end is our beginning...

New creative term, new creative year

Ah, January, when we book -- or dream of -- holidays. But you are instead jumping into the next creative writing term. What a great excuse for looking through your postcards -- you do succumb to postcard temptation, don't you?

Travel Postcards, Surreal Postcards, Mythical, Animal... images are fantastic (I used that word purposely) stimulus. I have just put on the Matrix book website the how-to for using postcards/pictures in class exercises. It's a sneak-peek and free-for-you sampling with 4 subject categories and 3 methods with which to charm, bedazzle and encourage your students.

Treat your writers to a postcard exercise once a month -- that'll help you get through the term. The book, Creative Writing: the Matrix, has other tips on planning and running a course. Right here, this blog offers further exercises and support. See the post of 4 July 2011 where I listed particularly practical Labels like Exercises, Lesson Planning, Start of Term... or just go right to Labels and dip in.

I am now in re-revise stage of the epic docu-novel that is the story of the life of my great grand-father Ephraim M Epstein. It takes him from Belarus to Dakota Territory to the hills of West Virginia, through two marriages, ten children, careers as a missionary, a doctor, a university founder, a journalist, and back and forth between Judaism and Christianity. Because of this last my original title was Testing the Gods, but a recent discovery triggered a change of title to The Notorious Dr Epstein. Exciting! Last minute! Will it ever end? I am building a blog for him/it... but as all true writers know, I must first and foremost dedicate myself to finishing the book.

Still have some room to coach-buddy writers and creative writing tutors -- see column right. Meanwhile, treat yourself to an Artist's Date (thank you, Julia Cameron). Go out to a gallery or museum exhibition, then to its shop and indulge yourself in postcards that evoke a response in you.

Back to school -- creatively

So you are planning your creative writing course, or wondering what exercise to start with. You're experienced, confident... but would like some more ideas please. Or you are brand new and feeling panicky. There are 112 entries in this blog, archived, from my frontline teaching experience. They are an adjunct to my book, which has 95 exercises and 21 mini-lectures (see outline and a free sample on the the book's website).

But right here in this blog, see the 4th July 2011 post where I've listed Labels under various useful topics. Like... Exercises, Lesson Planning, Start of Term etc etc.

As for me, I have finished the epic that is Testing the Gods, The Story of the Life of Ephraim M Epstein. An epic in fact through the second half of the 19th c and taking us (and him, my great-grandfather) from Russia to the American Wild West. And epic in the writing -- years of my life! Now in final corrections and then... agent and/or self-publication.

I continue to coach-buddy writers and creative writing tutors; see column right.

And for you: enjoy your teaching!

Planning your course

There are 112 entries in this teaching creative writing blog and I am currently on a break. But do not despair! All the entries are in the archive -- especially see the 4th July 2011 blogpost which lists Labels to find practical, useful stuff. Or just go direct to the Labels, such as CREATIVE PROCESS, CRITIC WITHIN, DIFFICULT STUDENTS, ENDINGS, EXERCISES (24 entries!), FIRST CLASS, LESSON PLANNING (6 entries), START OF TERM, WORKSHOPPING etc etc.

Meanwhile I am 90,000 words into my great grandfather's dramatic life, Testing the Gods, which has turned into an epic sweeping through continents and history, and I am finally in the last section.

My new venture: coaching writers and creative writing tutors. See sidebar.

Tips, exercises & ideas

This is the 112th entry in the teaching creative writing blog and I'm going to take a break.

But do not despair if you have just found your way here, or indeed if you are a regular. At the bottom of this blog you will see Labels, lots of them, so you can find all sorts of tips, exercises and ideas -- three and a half years' worth!

It's a very long list, so here is a shorter list of the likeliest Labels to find Really Useful Goodies.

Assessment, Assessment Criteria
Creative Process, Creative Writing
Critic Within
Difficult Students
End of Year, Endings
Energy
Exercises (24 entries!)
Feedback
First Class (3)
Homework
How to Critique
Lesson Planning (6)
Pitching a Course (3 -- this is pitching it to an institution, not to students)
Questionnaires
Start of Term, Starting Term, Teacher as Host
Travel Writing
Warming the Class
Workshopping
Writing Residentials

Meanwhile, there's the book, Creative Writing: the Matrix, Exercises & Ideas for Creative Writing Teachers, now in its 2nd printing. Click here to go to my website to explore and order direct from me. Each term there's an exercise and teaching tip. The book's on Amazon too (click here), but costs you more.

So what will I be doing? Getting on with Testing the Gods, the story of my great-grandfather's life, now 60,000 words in. And I want to write a companion to the Matrix, exercises and ideas for teaching creative non-fiction (travel writing, articles, memoire...) -- interested?

Emails will still come through to me; if anything exciting or extra-creativewritingteaching-puzzling arises for you, talk to me!

Creative Writing & technology: the verdict

End of course and I asked my class to comment specifically on the use of PowerPoint, having told them this was the first time I'd incorporated it into the course. As well, of course, as my usual feedback queries:

- How have you journeyed as a writer on this course?
- What has been most useful? Least useful?

Well, this ol dog has learned the new PowerPoint trick. First, it improved my focus in prepping and delivering (see blog entry of 24 May). Second, here's the verdict from students. Out of 7 responses:

3 positively liked:
'I like having a visual focus so PowerPoint helps me.'
'Good, helped with focussing'
'Seemed to work well.'


2 neutral:
'OK, not necessarily needed.'
'Fine, but not essential.'


2 said nothing, too busy with their journey and other comments.


So, I'm converted. And actually, it's kinda fun.

Weird teaching moments

All my years of teaching creative writing and I have never bumped into this before... how to respond when a student submits, in effect, a dirty joke?

I was flummoxed and weirded out when I read it. The student is middle-aged, pleasant, well-meaning, innocent or even naive, a beginner at creative writing. From a tough blokish lad affecting cynicism I'd have been annoyed and angry, but not surprised. This left me perplexed and annoyed.

Had to ask myself -- am I just being a prude? It's a silly and fairly good 'dirty joke' -- so why do I feel sullied? I dunno -- I am surprised and insulted. Or maybe challenged (is someone testing or joking me? Oh no, I'm paranoid too!) It's not what I expect from any student and especially not from this one. It's simply totally out of context.

I just have to assume it is a matter of naivety. So, what did I do next? Treat it carefully and solemnly. I emailed (in reponse to the student's suggestion it could be read out in class and get feedback) to say we would not do this for two reasons:

Genre: the class is for prose fiction and non-fiction, and this piece is (self-described by student) comedy-drama. It is a joke, which is a different genre. I suggested trying a comedy writing course.

Content: the content is not appropriate in the context of this class. (This made me stop and weigh up -- why not?) In part, it's to do with genre. Writing in this (or any other) creative writing class may include strong language, references to sex and body parts and marital squabbling, but these would be set up in prose story-telling mode with more depth and meaning to the situation than given in this piece.

So that was to explain in advance, and then I did handwritten feedback with the work, as normal creative writing critique/feedback, based on the content and context of the course. Here I pointed out that the 'story' had two or possibly three elements but did not contain other key archetypal components. Testing this piece of writing against our Hero's Journey storytelling genre demonstrated that this piece was an entirely different genre, successful in its own terms as an entertaining joke.

By treating it in a respectful manner I thus managed to praise as well as criticise. Perhaps the student just meant it as a light-hearted tale... perhaps in analysing it closely for its archetypal quest elements I am a dry old academic... perhaps I am a po-faced prude!