In this workshop, students will be introduced to the short story as a genre and to some examples of outstanding short stories. Key elements of short story writing technique will be discussed. Short stories brought to the workshop by students will be critiqued in a positive and supportive atmosphere. A selection of writing exercises, designed to stimulate the imagination, identify wellsprings of creativity, and hone literary craft, will be carried out in class.
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Want to keep fit as a writer? This workshop will concentrate on toning language skills, developing character and building plot with particular reference to the short story. A certain amount of in-class writing will be involved as well as light reading and short assignments for homework.
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How do writers transform personal experience into the artistic representation of life? How and why does the individual become the universal through the literary process? In these workshops, novelist and memoirist Rachel Cusk will examine the function of personal material in the creation of fictional reality, and likewise of fictional techniques in the creation of autobiography. The aim of the course is to encourage students to make better use of experience and personal material, and to gain more control over both the style and the substance of their fiction.
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Each participant will start with a blank page, or screen. By the end of the first session they will have started their novel. Problems, questions, tips will be discussed, suggested, dismissed and stolen while the first pages of each participant's novel are being written.
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This course will focus on the process of completing a first draft of a novel. It will be of best use to people who have already begun a long piece of writing or feel they are ready to start. Each participant will have the chance to present their work to the group.
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A practical, interactive workshop on building a popular fiction, covering characterisation, story development, writing skills and editing. The workshop will also include advice on how to get published and how to work with a publisher.
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The American poet Robert Frost said "Poetry is a fresh look and a fresh Listen", by which he meant, of course, a fresh look at the world around us and a fresh listen to the language people are using. In this workshop you will be looking at poems that do this and taking your cue from them, writing in a way that might surprise you. 'If you surprise yourself,' Frost said, 'You just might surprise your reader.'
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Where film and poetry meet... "Everything written is as good as it is dramatic" - Robert Frost. The screenwriter Waldo Salt spoke of thinking like a poet in order to visualise the Dustin Hoffman character in Midnight Cowboy. This workshop will explore film techniques as a way of creating lyrics that are vivid compressed narratives.
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Finding your story. This workshop will deal with the following aspects of writing for theatre. What is the best starting point for a story? How do you examine and present characters and the world of the story? How do you shape your story, including how to structure and shape a play for theatre? What are the essential rules and principles of the craft, and of making your story work on the stage? How do you examine the personal and socio-political aspect of your story and how it must serve the requirements of the audience?
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This workshop will concentrate on the beginning of a screenplay. Refining the idea, exploring the central characters, describing the setting and identifying the tone.
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How to tell a story in song? In his search for his own narrative voice Mick Hanly has developed a songwriting style that is unique among Irish songwriters. His work is dominated by stories and recollections from his own personal experience, and in this, Mick's first visit to Writers' Week, he will offer insights into the approach and practical implications of his very special songwriting style.
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Anatomy of a Crime Novel. Crime writing forensically examined through character, dialogue, action, plot and structure.
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Becoming a Weeble - how to succeed as a freelance writer. The discipline, deadlines and variety of a freelance life. What commissioning editors like and hate. How a writer can keep afloat in a sea of rejections.
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Based on her Memoir Writing Workbook, Irene will guide the participants through the elements of memoir writing while engaging the writer in right-brain/left-brain exercises and techniques - which enhance and evoke memory recall. There will be sessions on truth, theme and structure as the participant discovers how to think like a writer and learn how to draw upon the well of life experience to focus a creative memoir. Open to new and established writers.
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How can you turn a good joke into a good piece of fiction? Is it possible to write funny without turning out cartoons? What's the difference between comic hyperbole and just plain old melodrama? These workshops on writing comedy will explore developing comic characters, using point of view and structure to tell stories that are sure to amuse and entertain.
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Pat's enthusiasm for storytelling is contagious! Pat has created a three day workshop to introduce story telling to beginners and improve the skills of existing storytellers. During the course of the workshop, he cultivates in the participants an awareness of the interaction of the storyteller with an audience.
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