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Books > Language & Literature > Literary & linguistic reference works > Creative writing & creative writing guides
A study at many levels of Scott's long poem Coming to Jakarta, a
book-length response to a midlife crisis triggered in part by the
author's initial inability to share his knowledge and horror about
American involvement in the great Indonesian massacre of 1965.
Interviews with Ng supply fuller information about the poem's
discussions of: a) how this psychological trauma led to an
explorations of violence in American society and then, after a key
recognition, in the poet himself; b) the poem's look at east-west
relations through the lens of the yin-yang, spiritual-secular
doubleness of the human condition; c) how the process of writing
the poem led to the recovery of memories too threatening at first
to be retained by his normal presentational self, and d) the
mystery of right action, guided by the Bhagavad Gita and the maxim
in the Gospel of Thomas that "If you bring forth what is within
you, what you bring forth will save you." Led by the interviews to
greater self-awareness, Scott then analyses his poem as also an
elegy, not just for the dead in Indonesia, but "for the passing of
the Sixties era, when so many of us imagined that a Movement might
achieve major changes for a better America." Subsequent chapters
develop how human doubleness can lead to an inner tension between
the needs of politics and the needs of poetry, and how some poetry
can serve as a non-violent higher politics, contributing to the
evolution of human culture and thus our "second nature." The book
also reproduces a Scott prose essay, inspired by the poem, on the
U.S. involvement in and support for the 1965 massacre. It then
discusses how this essay was translated into Indonesian and
officially banned by the Indonesian dictatorship, and how
ultimately it and the poem helped inspire the ground-breaking films
of Josh Oppenheimer that have led to the first official discussions
in Indonesia of what happened in 1965.
"The Pleasures of Structure "starts from the premise that the
ability to develop a well understood and articulated story
structure is the most important skill a screenwriter can develop.
For example, good structure requires a great premise and rigorous
character development. Without clear character motivations and
goals--which are themselves indicative of key structural
beats--your story is going exactly nowhere. Using the simple and
flexible 'W' model of screenplay structure developed in the prequel
"Write What You Don't Know," Hoxter sets this out as its starting
point. This model is tested against a range of examples which are
chosen to explore the flexibility not only of that model but of
movie storytelling more generally. Writers and students often worry
that they are asked to work 'to formula'. This book will test that
formula to breaking point. For example, the first case study will
offer the example of a well written, professional, mainstream movie
against which our later and more adventurous examples can be
compared. So the lessons we learn examining the animated family
adventure movie "How To Train Your Dragon "lead us directly to ask
questions of our second case study, the acclaimed Swedish vampire
movie "Lat den Ratte Komma In "("Let The Right One In"). Both
movies have protagonists with the same basic problem, the same
goal, and they use the same basic structure to tell their stories.
Of course they are very different films and they work on their
audiences in very different ways. Our linked case studies will
expose how simple choices, like reversing the order of elements of
the protagonist's transformational arc and shifting ownership of
key story beats, has an enormous impact on how we respond to a
structural model that is otherwise functionally identical.
Explore the world with your students and discover its wonders - all
while developing the English skills they need to become successful
global citizens. Through spectacular National Geographic video and
inspiring photography students will travel the globe, learning
about different countries, cultures, people, and their customs.
With clearly structured methodology and explicit grammar
instruction, this six-level primary series is packed with
fascinating facts that spark curiosity, personalisation activities
that get your students talking and new online resources that make
it even easier to bring the world to the classroom and the
classroom to life.
Explore the world with your students and discover its wonders - all
while developing the English skills they need to become successful
global citizens. Through spectacular National Geographic video and
inspiring photography students will travel the globe, learning
about different countries, cultures, people, and their customs.
With clearly structured methodology and explicit grammar
instruction, this six-level primary series is packed with
fascinating facts that spark curiosity, personalisation activities
that get your students talking and new online resources that make
it even easier to bring the world to the classroom and the
classroom to life.
What we intend to do in this book is to explain, and exemplify, in
a nuts-and-bolts way, what we are calling Scholarly Personal
Narrative (SPN) writing. This is a genre created over 15 years ago
by Robert, one of the co-authors of this book. The other co-author,
DeMethra, has actually written a thesis and dissertation using this
genre, so she brings an author's direct SPN experience to the
table. Both of us co-teach a course that we call "Scholarly
Personal Narrative Writing for Pre-Professionals and
Professionals." In the chapters that follow, we will present a
step-by-step approach for composing an SPN manuscript. The book
will be comprised of four general parts, consisting of several
short, practical chapters, written in non-technical language. We
will write each of the chapters as a way of responding to the most
common questions that our students have raised about SPN writing
through the years. We will attempt to write as we teach, with no
frills and with clarity, empathy, and understanding. We will also
provide several SPN writing examples, as well as authorial toolbox
tips, throughout the book. In addition, we will conclude with a
bibliography of the most relevant personal narrative writing guides
we have been able to muster. Our desire is to minimize the number
of in-text citations and references in order to maximize the space
for us to present a useful, nuts-and-bolts guide to writing, as
well as a realistic, down-to-earth rationale for scholarly personal
narrative writing in the academy. After reading the book, and
practicing the writing exercises, undergraduate and graduate
students will be able to author research papers, theses, and
dissertations using the Scholarly Personal Narrative research
genre. Hundreds of students have done this already throughout the
country.
With the globalization of business, American snack maker Boltz
Foods is expanding into world markets and a naive American
businessman who's never traveled abroad is selected to lead the
way. Pursued by a Japanese competitor bent on sabotage, this comic
adventure weaves in and out of different time- zones through a
Japanese resort, Russian sauna, French restaurant, German
barbershop, Westminster Abbey, Spanish bullring and the Tower of
Babel. Going Global is a slapstick portrait of a clueless American
caught up in a whirlwind of wacky multi-cultural gaffes, who at the
end, finds there's no place like home."
Simultaneously a handbook and a critique of one, Beyond Craft
combines an orientation to the field of creative writing with an
insight into current scholarship surrounding creative writing
pedagogy. A much-needed alternative to the traditional craft guide,
this text pairs advice and exercises on composition with an
illuminating commentary on the issues surrounding these very
techniques. Teaching the craft whilst apprising students of the
issues of craft pedagogy, this book allows them to gain an
awareness of how current pedagogy comes at the expense of larger
and increasingly relevant cultural concerns. Westbrook and Ryan
bring emerging writers into the larger conversations that define
the field, inviting them to: - Contextualize their own writing
practices and educational experiences in relation to the history of
creative writing as an academic discipline. - Determine how New
Critical lore and Romantic mythology may affect-even distort-their
understanding of literary production. - Critically examine their
notions of authorship, collaboration, and invention in relation to
contemporary literary and rhetorical theory. - Understand and
evaluate the economic, social, political, and professional
challenges facing creative writers today. - Analyze the
contemporary literary marketplace not only to identify potential
publication contexts but also to understand how issues of diversity
and bias affect writing communities. - Reflect on how increasingly
rapid technological developments may affect their own writing and
the future of literature. Earnestly self-aware throughout, Beyond
Craft both inducts new writers into the field of creative writing
and infuses them with an understanding of the wider dialogue
surrounding their craft.
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