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!

Creative writing & technology -- effects?

In for a penny, in for a pound. Having woven in some Interactive White Board (IWB) [see 23/02/11 blog] for this term's run of Hero's Journey/Writer's Journey I am having a go at PowerPoint.

Here's the question for you: what effect does I.T. have on teaching creative writing?

Now, I ask you, doesn't your heart leap with joy at the word PowerPoint? Not. We have all been to talks/presentations using it, and well know that it's still the talk, the content that matters. However, as we HAVE all been to presentations using it, it's now regarded as standard professionalism. And, actually, our college's classroom technology is now v up-to-date -- ceiling-mounted IT projector, remote control, light pen (for the IWB, not PwrPt), so it's pretty whizzy. And, dear reader, I've done it.

Good effect: in prepping, and determining to do very few slides and to keep the lecture short, I found PwrPt helpful. Looking over my notes and the handout I boiled down to about 2 or 3 main points... just to pop them up there on the screen on hold while I talked. Doing it really focussed my thinking and -- I hope -- my talking. Then on to the writing exercises ASAP.

Not so good effect: by second session I had a couple of rather anxious queries from students saying that their stories did not have, say, a Mentor, or a Threshold (or other of the archetypal elements).

Whoah! For one thing, we hadn't yet covered these, except in the brief overview I gave in the intro about the course. For another, I had said at least twice that there is no such thing as a 'map' or 'writing by numbers' and that these archetypal elements are merely aids or tools.

So, does seeing things projected in B&W make students think in B&W -- that is, does it interfere with creative freedom? Does it inhibit creative writing?

Next session I talked up creative freedom loud & clear. Also brought in a short story, Rosendo's Tale, by Jorge Luis Borges. It's a fine little story, not great, but certainly satisfactory, and has a number of archetypal elements -- not all, and not 'in order'. We discussed and will continue to refer to it -- creative freedom, I hope, illustrated in this use of heroic quest archetypes.

I've told my students that use of PwrPt in this course is new, and so is use of a 'text', and will be asking them for feedback.

Use of the story raises another question for us tutors of creative writing -- does lit-crit help or hinder creative writing in a class?

Next class session: IWB again. Next I.T. challenge for me: moodle?? Experiences, opinions, anyone?

Exercises for outcomes: person point-of-view views 2

Apologies for late start to this term's blog. For one thing, my college delayed term by a week to allow for the holidays and Royal Wedding. For another... the faction story of my ancestor's life is steaming ahead and I gave in to the desire to write, write, write. And my Hero's Journey teaching began.

So, I was talking about Point of View as a rich seam of storycraft and last installment (1 April) covered 1st, 2nd, 3rd person. This time the Learning Outcome is 'Learner should be able to recognise storytelling angle point of view.' Obviously it would be very good if the learner would also use various points of view in her/his own writing.

Now, you can do a whole lit-crit analytical thing with this... as tutor, search out a few stories, novels, texts, explain a bit and get students in pairs or groups to read the texts and figure out who is telling the story... moving on to examples where the story is seen from different characters' angles. But that is the lit-crit way... how much will it help writers DO it?

I suggest, instead, one of my favourite exercises. [As you know I like a lot of chatter and enthusiasm in my classes -- as well as a lot of silence: the sounds of pen on paper (or tapping on keys).] This means some fun prep for you: go through magazines to find 'agony aunt' columns or features. You may have to adapt or rearrange, but what you need is 4 or 5 problem situations which involve three or four people, possibly more.

Maybe the web has 'I need help' situations like this, I don't know. Or maybe you can borrow some storylines from Coronation Street or The Archers or even the news. Mind out for copyright infringement. But effectively you want a person with a problem, an unsolved domestic or relationship issue. It could be as simple as the situation I give below.

In small groups of four or so, give each group copies of one of the situations. They briefly read and discuss and each person in the group chooses one of the 'characters' in the story. Each student then writes in the voice of his/her character. So in the situation below, the mother-in-law, the mum, the husband... and even the toddler, even the dog.

Yes, yes, you'll get questions -- first person seems to be easiest but third person is fine, and each student can do whichever, the group does not have to agree (so illustrating/practising the other kind of POV). Some groups or individuals like to develop the story, or tell from later on in the story, and that's okay too. The main thing is to WRITE. They don't share with others in their group. Allow 15 mins of writing. Then each group reads out to the whole class (after reading out the initial situation).

And voila, a real live demonstration of how many angles can tell a story. And then on to discussion as to which one way they'd choose for this story, or would it be a patchwork of various voices, and what effect this has on the feeling and impact of the story, and what surprises/discoveries they made in writing from their person's POV. And awareness of all of this as their authorial creative choice in writing their own stories.

My mother-in-law comes to visit with her wheezy old dog,
I'm worried about my toddler, both germs and possible snappishness. I want her
to leave her dog at home but she's devoted to it and my husband says it's
her lifeline. What can I do about this?

Assessment Critera: Tutor goes around and listens in to groups and answers questions or explains further. Hearing the reading out allows you to assess understanding. The further discussion also clarifies things. At this point, if necessary to show evidence of understanding, you could distribute a handout or worksheet with texts to identify or further discuss, as in lit-crit. But for me, writing's the thing.

End of term

Break time. Sorry I missed the final week of term -- due to the course I have been attending. Will resume blog the last week of April. My college has cleverly decided not to begin my course that week, being realistic about adult learners' priorities... a Bank Holiday one end and royal wedding the other.

If you are new to this blog and looking for exercises or other juice, just look at the labels below and browse through to find useful stuff. Look at the Matrix book's own website too, as there's a new extract each term with an exercise and tutor support tip. http://www.paxtonpublishing.co.uk

Exercises for outcomes: person point-of-view views

Apologies for this dense layout; somehow paragraphing will not work. I just re-blogged as if a new blog and the same bog blog effect occured. Maybe google blogger does not like POV? Hope it improves for next entry.SLK Point of view is a rich seam of storycraft that new creative writers need to understand and can have useful fun exploring. Three of the Learning Outcomes in the Narrative Devices course I wrote are about point of view (let's just call it POV from here on). I'll talk about two here. The Outcomes were Learner should be able to: Recognise person POV and Describe the uses of various person PsOV. So, work for you: dip into your fav fiction and find paras of the various 1st person, 3rd person, close-3rd (how about Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall for that!), the challenging 2nd (Jay McInerney, Bright Lights, Big City the best example I've come across), multiple-3rd person. Assessment Criteria: If you had to prove students understood you'd probably do another handout. First one is a talking/discussing sheet. Second one is theirs to figure out which is which, in pairs/groups, with discussion, whatever. Writing exercise (see below) can also be used to assess learning. Discussion aspect is not just noticing I, he, you, of course, but what effect this has on tone/mood, and how author went about writing it. Exercise: Similar to last week, you could do better to discuss later and DO FIRST. Hand out the paras and get students to transpose... how would the 2nd person sound written as 1st, as 3rd? Have them turn 3rd into 1st, and take the 1st person example and make it 3rd. LOTS of technical challenges and YES they have to change words and all sorts of things. It's all about the power of words, the feel, the effect, the limits, the advantages... Next week, the other kind of POV.

Exercises for outcomes: fooling around with tenses

I was blogging recently about my course subtitled Narrative Devices (10 March 2011) and think it could be useful to go on. One Learning Outcome is Define verb tenses and their effect on narrative. Sounds so basic, yet I really only arrived at it because I was forced to break down creative writing into specific craft skills; turns out to make for some good exercises.

I invented two Criteria for Assessment.
1) Recognise present, past and past-perfect verb usage in published or own writing.
2) Evaluate strengths and weaknesses of different verb tenses in narrative effect.

Sneakiest way to get into this is to set an exercise, probably starting with a stimulus of listing or even a given list of words to choose from, where you ask students to write a paragraph or two about something (place, object, pet, person, event...). Or it could just start with 'I remember...' and go on.

Why is this sneaky? Because you want them naturally and unselfconciously to write in past tense. This is your (their) raw material. And now you talk a bit about present tense, maybe read out an example, and ask the students to transmute (or maybe we should say timeshift) their own piece into present tense.

They set to it... and then they start to say it is hard to do! Urge them to soldier on. Also some 'ask permission' to leave things out or change things because it won't work otherwise. Aha! Now they are seeing the craft differences in the two modes. Of course it's okay.

Then read out and share and comment and discuss. Good to prepare a handout of excerpts from published works in both past and present tenses to read out to further support the discussion. There's no right answer, it's just... how does it feel? what does it convey? is this the effect you want? have you considered the effect?

A variant or addition is to have students transcribe (transmute? timeshift?) the published excerpts into the other mode; again -- to sense the effect on the reader. Effect on the writer might be considered too -- some people love to write in present tense, some hate it, some can only flow in classic past-tense storytelling, some feel paralyzed by it.

Hmm, all this and I didn't even get to past-perfect, otherwise known as the had-hads.