Myth and Creative Writing is a unique and practical guide to the arts of creative writing. It: Gives a historical perspective on the storyteller's art Takes a wide view of myth, to include: legends, folklore, biblical myth, classical myth, belief myths, balladry and song. Considers all aspects of the creative process, from conception to completion Provides tips on seeking inspiration from classical and mythic sources Shows how myths can be linked to contemporary concerns Enables beginning writers to tap into the deeper resonances of myth Guides students to further critical and creative resources A secret that all writers know is that they are part of a long tradition of storytelling - whether they call it mythic, intertextual, interactive or original. And in the pantheon of storytelling, myths (those stories that tell us, in often magical terms, how the world and the creatures in it came to be) are the bedrock, a source of unending inspiration. One can dress the study of literature in the finest critical clothing - or intellectualise it until the cows come home - but at its heart it is nothing more - and nothing less - than the study of the human instinct to tell stories, to order the world into patterns we can more readily understand. Exploring the mythic nature of writing (by considering where the connections between instinct and art are made, and where the writer is also seen as a mythic adventurer) is a way of finding close links to what it is we demand from literature, which is - again - something to do with the essences of human nature. Further, in the course of examining the nature of myth, Adrian May provides a very practical guide to the aspiring writer - whether in a formal course or working alone - on how to write stories (myths) of their own, from how to begin, how to develop and how to close.

As digital reading has become more productive and active, the lines between reading and writing become more blurred. This book offers both an exploration of collaborative reading and pedagogical strategies for teaching reading and writing that reflect the realities of digital literacies. This edited scholarly collection offers strategies for teaching reading and writing that highlight the possibilities, opportunities, and complexities of digital literacies. Part 1 explores reading and writing that happen digitally and offers frameworks for thinking about this process. Part 2 focuses on strategies for the classroom by applying reading theories, design principles, and rhetorical concepts to instruction. Part 3 introduces various disciplinary implications for this blended approach to writing instruction. What is emerging is new theories and practices of reading in both print and digital spaces-theories that account for how diverse student readers encounter and engage digital texts. This collection contributes to this work by offering strategies for sustaining reading and cultivating writing in this landscape of changing digital literacies. The book is essential for the professional development of beginning teachers, who will appreciate the historical and bibliographic overview as well as classroom strategies, and for busy veteran teachers, who will gain updated knowledge and a renewed commitment to teaching an array of literacy skills. It will be ideal for graduate seminars in composition theory and pedagogy, both undergraduate and graduate; and teacher education courses, and will be key reading for scholars in rhetoric and composition interested in composition history, assessment, communication studies, and literature pedagogy.

For many years now the professional "creative writer" within universities and other institutions has encompassed a range of roles, embracing a plurality of scholarly and creative identities. The often complex relation between those identities forms the broad focus of this book, which also examines various, and variously fraught, dialogues between creative writers, "hybrid" writers and academic colleagues from other subjects within single institutions, and with the public and the media. At the heart of the book is the principle of "creative writing" as a fully-fledged discipline, an important subject for debate at a time when the future of the humanities is in crisis; the contributors, all writers and teachers themselves, provide first-hand views on crucial questions: What are the most fruitful intersections between creative writing and scholarship? What methodological overlaps exist between creative writing and literary studies, and what can each side of the "divide" learn from its counterpart? Equally, from a pedagogical perspective, what kind of writing should be taught to students to ensure that the discipline remains relevant? And is the writing workshop still the best way of teaching creative writing? The essays here tackle these points from a range of perspectives, including close readings, historical contextualisation and theoretical exploration. Professor Richard Marggraf Turley teaches in the Department of English and Creative Writing, Aberystwyth University.BR Contributors: Richard Marggraf Turley, Damian Walford Davies, Philip Gross, Peter Barry, Kevin Mills, Tiffany Atkinson, Robert Sheppard, Deryn Rees-Jones, Zoe Skoulding, Jasmine Donahaye

Digital Storytelling, Applied Theatre, & Youth argues that theatre artists must re-imagine how and why they facilitate performance practices with young people. Rapid globalization and advances in media and technology continue to change the ways that people engage with and understand the world around them. Drawing on pedagogical, aesthetic, and theoretical threads of applied theatre and media practices, this book presents practitioners, scholars, and educators with innovative approaches to devising and performing digital stories. This book offers the first comprehensive examination of digital storytelling as an applied theatre practice. Alrutz explores how participatory and mediated performance practices can engage the wisdom and experience of youth; build knowledge about self, others and society; and invite dialogue and deliberation with audiences. In doing so, she theorizes digital storytelling as a site of possibility for critical and relational practices, feminist performance pedagogies, and alliance building with young people.

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Digital Storytelling, Applied Theatre, & Youth argues that theatre artists must re-imagine how and why they facilitate performance practices with young people. Rapid globalization and advances in media and technology continue to change the ways that people engage with and understand the world around them. Drawing on pedagogical, aesthetic, and theoretical threads of applied theatre and media practices, this book presents practitioners, scholars, and educators with innovative approaches to devising and performing digital stories. This book offers the first comprehensive examination of digital storytelling as an applied theatre practice. Alrutz explores how participatory and mediated performance practices can engage the wisdom and experience of youth; build knowledge about self, others and society; and invite dialogue and deliberation with audiences. In doing so, she theorizes digital storytelling as a site of possibility for critical and relational practices, feminist performance pedagogies, and alliance building with young people.

Film Genre for the Screenwriter is a practical study of how classic film genre components can be used in the construction of a screenplay. Based on Jule Selbo's popular course, this accessible guide includes an examination of the historical origins of specific film genres, how and why these genres are received and appreciated by film-going audiences, and how the student and professional screenwriter alike can use the knowledge of film genre components in the ideation and execution of a screenplay. Explaining the defining elements, characteristics and tropes of genres from romantic comedy to slasher horror, and using examples from classic films like Casablanca alongside recent blockbuster franchises like Harry Potter, Selbo offers a compelling and readable analysis of film genre in its written form. The book also offers case studies, talking points and exercises to make its content approachable and applicable to readers and writers across the creative field.

The Writing Experiment demystifies the process of creative writing, showing that successful work does not arise from talent or inspiration alone. Hazel Smith breaks down writing into incremental stages, revealing processes that are often unconscious or unacknowledged, and shows how they can become part of a systematic writing strategy. The book encourages writers to take an explorative and experimental approach to their work. It relates practical strategies for writing to major twentieth century literary and cultural movements, including postmodernism. Suitable for both beginners and experienced writers, The Writing Experiment covers many genres including fiction, poetry, writing for performance and new media. Each chapter is illustrated with extensive examples of both student work and published writing, and challenging exercises offer writers at all levels opportunities to develop their skills.

Assuming no prior knowledge, books in the series offer an accessible overview of the subject, with activities, study questions, sample analyses, commentaries and key readings - all in the same volume. The innovative and flexible 'two-dimensional' structure is built around four sections - introduction, development, exploration and extension - which offer self-contained stages for study. Each topic can be read across these sections, enabling the reader to build gradually on the knowledge gained. Written in a clear and accessible style, Stylistics, Second Edition is a comprehensive resource which covers all the major theories, concepts and methods required for the investigation of language in literature. From metre to metaphor, dialogue to discourse, the main topics are introduced and fully elaborated, as are the key research paradigms of this important and exciting field of study. Stylistics is richly illustrated with many examples from literary texts, including writing from the established literary canon alongside more contemporary work in poetry, prose and drama. Each of the book's twelve chapters contains clearly framed suggestions for practical work and is accompanied by an original reading on the relevant topic by a world-renowned scholar. This exciting new second edition builds on the strengths of the first by adding many fresh exercises and worked examples. It captures the latest major developments in stylistics, such as corpus, cognitive and multimodal approaches to the study of style, and its accompanying website has also been substantially revised to feature, amongst other things, useful links, worked examples and a new web strand on style and humour. In addition to the classic readings in stylistics contained in the first edition, the new edition includes a number of recent, stimulating readings by key figures in the contemporary field. Written by an experienced teacher and researcher, this accessible textbook is an essential resource for all students of English language, linguistics and literature.

The essays compiled in Poetry in Pedagogy: Intersections Across and Between the Disciplines offer praxes of poetry that cultivate a community around students, language, and writing, while presenting opportunities to engage with new texts, new textual forms, and new forms of text-mediated learning. The volume considers, combines, and complements multiform poetry within and beyond existing Teaching & Learning paradigms as it traverses Asia, The Atlantic, and Virtual Space. By virtue of its melange of intersecting trajectories, across and between oceans, genres, disciplines, and sympathies, Poetry in Pedagogy informs interdisciplinary educators and practitioners of creative writing & poetry involved in examining the multiform through international, cross-disciplinary contexts.

Ever struggled to write a critical essay? Ever wondered what critical thinking actually is and how you can apply it in your academic work and practice?This bestselling guide takes you through every stage of becoming a critical thinker, from approaching your subject to writing your essays or dissertation in health and social care. Each chapter tackles a different aspect of critical thinking and shows you how it's done using examples and simple language. Beginning with an overview of the importance of critical thinking, the book goes on to cover: How to think critically about different types of information as potential evidence, including books, journals, articles, websites, and, new to this edition, social mediaHow to demonstrate critical thinking in written work and presentations How to adopt critical thinking in practice Updated with more references to online resources and critical appraisal tools, this fully revised second edition includes: The key tool 'Six questions for critical thinking' which will assist you in developing your skills for academic work and practice - updated for this edition in response to student evaluation An expanded worked example of critical analysis New exploration of the connection between theory and practice This book is an essential purchase for students and qualified healthcare staff alike and was highly commended in the BMA Medical Book Awards 2012."This is an amazing book that I recommend to all levels of students as there is something in it for all. It is written in an easy to understand and friendly style that is accessible to anyone has an interest in critical thinking whether they are studying or not. It puts a different perspective on one's thinking and has even turned it on its head for some students. I love this book and the sound of the penny dropping for my learners!" Liz Rockingham, Adult Field Lead / Teaching Fellow, University of Surrey, UK"In my estimation this is the definitive beginner's guide to critical thinking and writing in health and social care. After reading this book any student should understand why and how critical thinking underpins professional practice and the highest endeavours in academic work and research. Within the book are three invaluable checklists: 1) 'Six questions for critical thinking',2) 'Critical thinking skills in your written work' and 3) 'Critical thinking, or relying on routine'. A wonderful book for both Undergraduate and Masters' students and a must for hard-pressed academics who wish to encourage and endorse the need for critical thinking at all levels in all of their students". Dr Ruth Davies, Associate Professor Child and Family Health, Swansea University, UK"I did not intend to read this book cover to cover but it was such a pleasure I did. The book by Aveyard, Sharp and Woolliams achieves exactly what it sets out to do and is a comprehensive and highly readable guide. In this little gem the mysteries of critical thinking and writing are unpacked. Useful tools, resources, activities and worked examples are included and the reader is guided to develop their own skills. From the initial challenge to explore their personal values, beliefs and assumptions, through to how to adopt critical thinking in practice, the reader is left in no doubt as to the valuable contribution this book will make to developing their skills of critical thinking and writing for professional practice." Ailsa Espie, Senior Lecturer, Division of Nursing, Queen Margaret University, UK "Health and social care professionals navigate through extensive quantities of information in the course of their work. The ability to think clearly and critically is fundamental for appraising and implementing evidence and knowledge in practice. This book is an excellent place to start learning these vital skills and I recommend it to my students and to you." Dr Martin Webber, Anniversary Reader in Social Work, University of York, UK"I would recommend this book to any health care student, not just nurses, that require help in starting out how to write critically in essays, presentations, literature reviews and dissertations." Jade Day, Student Nurse at Anglia Ruskin University, UK

Writing begins before students even pick up a pencil, but there are many reasons to stop and rejoice between the idea and the finished project. By helping students celebrate each stage of the writing process and applauding success, we help our students persevere through what can be an extended and challenging process.

In their innovative new book, "Celebrating Writers," Ruth Ayres and Christi Overman discuss dozens of ways to respond, reflect, and rejoice along the journey to a finished project. This type of celebration nurtures students, makes them better writers, and helps them recognize that writing is a process filled with notable moments, not simply a result where publication is the only marker of success. From traveling notebooks to lunch-table writing, from author interviews with a writing partner to silent reflection, from swapping stories around a "campfire" to tweeting favorite lines, Ruth and Christi share dozens of fun and effective ways for you and your students to commemorate their progress as writers. As the authors write, "It's time to expand the idea of celebration to include the process of writers and the products they create. Let's build an approach that weaves celebration into the heart of all writers. Be ready to learn to refuel the writers in your classroom, even on the tough days."

An invaluable collection of essays and interviews exploring the business of interactive storytelling, this highly accessible guide offers invaluable insight into an ever-evolving field that is utilizing new spatial and interactive narrative forms to tell stories. This includes new media filmmaking and content creation, a huge variety of analog story world design, eXtended realities, game design, and virtual reality (VR) design. The book contains essays written by and interviews with working game designers, producers, 360-degree filmmakers, immersive theatre creators, and media professors, exploring the business side of interactive storytelling - where art meets business. Contributors to this book share their perspectives on how to break into the field; how to develop, nurture, and navigate business relationships; expectations in terms of business etiquette; strategies for contending with the emotional highs and lows of interactive storytelling; how to do creative work under pressure; the realities of working with partners in the field of new media narrative design; prepping for prototyping; writing analog and digital. This is an ideal resource for students of filmmaking, screenwriting, media studies, RTVF, game design, VR and AR design, theater, and journalism who are interested in navigating a career pathway in the exciting field of interactive storytelling.

* An original, accessible book on the unique challenges and benefits of teaching creative writing to nonnative English writers * Equal emphasis on teaching in ESL and EFL environments, to appeal to English immersion and EMI contexts in Asia and Europe * This book provides practical advice and assignments to help preservice teachers and instructors develop their classes, and offers guidance on evaluation and provides exercises tailored to the needs of L2 writers * This book breaks from tradition ideas of creative writing in the sense of genre and instead focuses on concrete writing skills

A streamlined, step-by-step instructional approach provides flexible lesson plans to help teachers plan and deliver their lessons, with the option to use suggested extension activities as needed. Includes best-practice routines and instructional support; multi-level strategies to support students at different levels of English proficiency; and optional extension activities for vocabulary, literacy, listening, speaking, and writing

Teaching Creative Writing is designed to showcase practical approaches developed by practitioners in the ever-growing community of writers in higher education. Aimed at enabling those who teach the subject to review, borrow, and adapt ideas, the emphasis throughout is on diversity. Contributions from an international team of writers cover a variety of forms and genres and include traditional and innovative components of creative writing courses.

Hotel Rwanda. Philadelphia. Silkwood. Some of the most important films ever made have tackled real-world social issues, from genocide to homophobia to corporate greed. As storytellers, activist screenwriters recognize that social issues make great stories that can be gut-wrenching, heart-tugging, funny, tragic, and interesting to watch. The Screenwriter Activist helps screenwriters tell those stories in compelling, non-preachy, and inspiring ways.

The Screenwriter Activist is an in-depth, practical guide, appropriate for students in intermediate or graduate screenwriting courses in Film and English Programs as well as professionals who want to write a movie that can make a difference in the world. Using examples from classic and recent popular films, The Screenwriter Activist

• Explores the motivation and sensibility a screenwriter needs to embark on a social issue project
• Gives techniques for choosing compelling subjects
• Provides historical context for social issue movies
• Explains how characters legitimize social issue themes
• Puts forward specific models for structuring advocacy screenplays

• Lays out a roadmap for how screenwriters can get a social issue movie made

If you care deeply about social issues and recognize that films can be highly effective platforms for motivativng audiences to civic involvement and social action, this is the one screenwriting book you need to read.

Grammar Books/Grammar Workbooks include additional presentation and practice for grammar topics covered in the Student's Book.

Here Comes the Bogeyman is an essential text focussing on critical and contemporary issues surrounding writing for children. Containing a critically creative and a creatively critical investigation of the cult and culture of the child and childhood in fiction and non-fictional writing, it also contains a wealth of ideas and critical advice to be shared with writers, students of children s writing and students of writing. With scores of published children s fiction books and films to his name, Andrew Melrose shares his extensive critical, teaching, writing and research experience to provide:

• a critical and creative investigation of writing and reading for children in the early, middle and pre-teen years
• an accessible and critically important challenge to the latest international academic research and debates in the field of children s literature and creative writing.
• an evaluation of what it means to write for a generation of media-savvy children
• encouragement for critics, writers and students to develop their own critical, creative and writing skills in a stimulating and supportive manner
• guidance on writing non-fiction and poetry
• creative writing craftwork ideas which could be used as seminar topics or as individual reflections

This one-stop critical and creative text will be an indispensable resource for critics, writers and students interested in the cult and culture of writing for children; on Creative Writing BA and MA programmes; Children's Literature BA and MA programmes; English BA and MA programmes; Teacher Training, PGCE students and for those studying at Doctoral and Post-Doctoral level who are interested in writing for children.

New Playwriting Strategies has become a canonical text in the study and teaching of playwriting, offering a fresh and dynamic insight into the subject. This thoroughly revised and expanded second edition explores and highlights the wide spread of new techniques that form contemporary theatre writing, as well as their influence on other dramatic forms.

Paul Castagno builds on the innovative plays of Len Jenkin, Mac Wellman, and the theories of Mikhail Bakhtin to investigate groundbreaking new techniques from a broad range of contemporary dramatists, including Sarah Ruhl, Suzan Lori-Parks and Young Jean Lee. New features in this edition include an in-depth study of the adaptation of classical texts in contemporary playwright and the utilizing new technologies, such as YouTube, Wikipedia and blogs to create alternative dramatic forms.

The author 's step-by-step approach offers the reader new models for:

• narrative
• dialogue
• character
• monologue
• hybrid plays

This is a working text for playwrights, presenting a range of illuminating new exercises suitable for everyone from the workshop student to the established writer. New Playwriting Strategies is an essential resource for anyone studying and writing drama today.

A simple journal that offers one question per day, to be answered on the same day for five years in a row. The questions range from the prosaic ("What did you have-for lunch today?") to the contemplative ("Can people really change?")', giving readers a comprehensive look back at their thoughts and feelings over a five year span. For anybody who has ever given up journaling after being intimidated when facing a blank page, this book makes it easy to take a snapshot of your inner life in just a few minutes each day. The beauty of this journal is that it enables readers to track their emotional growth as well as keep track of memories, and provides an interesting walk down memory lane a few years later. The simple one question prompts make this book to journaling as adult colouring books are to art - a gateway product with built-in creative inspiration. The specially sized package features a printed flexi-bound cover, four-colour endpapers, quality paper, and bookmark ribbon.

The Rhetoric of Videogames as Embodied Practice offers a critical reassessment of embodiment and materiality in rhetorical considerations of videogames. Holmes argues that rhetorical and philosophical conceptions of "habit" offer a critical resource for describing the interplay between thinking (writing and rhetoric) and embodiment. The book demonstrates how Aristotle's understanding of character (ethos), habit (hexis), and nature (phusis) can productively connect rhetoric to what Holmes calls "procedural habits": the ways in which rhetoric emerges from its interactions with the dynamic accumulation of conscious and nonconscious embodied experiences that consequently give rise to meaning, procedural subjectivity, control, and communicative agency both in digital game design discourse and the activity of play.

An essential guide for every aspiring novelist!

The thought of writing a full-length novel can be daunting. But in "A Novel in a Year," Louise Doughty makes a seemingly vast and unconquerable task manageable by walking aspiring authors through the different aspects of writing technique in eminently accessible bite-size chunks. Here are fifty-two chapters offering useful advice on all the facets of writing and exercises designed to help writers of all levels develop confidence and style. Read a chapter a week, and by year's end, you will have accomplished your goal and made it to "the End."