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Books > Language & Literature > Literary & linguistic reference works > Creative writing & creative writing guides
Drawing on contemporary histories of film and screenwriting, as
well as American screenwriting manuals from the 1910s and 1920s,
this volume breaks new ground in thinking about the nature of
screenwriting and its shape as a particular kind of practice. The
author examines such topics as the notion of the script as
blueprint, the emergence of the screenplay, and the politics of
writing for the screen. Bringing an accessible academic approach to
practitioner-oriented discussions of craft, the book provides new
perspectives on auteurism, processes of funding, digital
technology, and the future of screenwriting. Focusing primarily on
American style and practices, this book builds on a wide range of
writings by filmmakers and screenwriters and the work of different
critics and theorists, including Sergei Eisenstein, Pier Paolo
Pasolini, Janet Staiger, and Dudley Nichols. Arguing that the study
of film has yet to come to terms with screenwriting and the script,
this work will be a vital contribution to debates on film and the
critical analysis of screenwriting.
Completed just weeks before his death, the lectures in this volume
mark a critical juncture in the career of Roland Barthes, in which
he declared the intention, deeply felt, to write a novel. Unfolding
over the course of two years, Barthes engaged in a unique
pedagogical experiment: he combined teaching and writing to
"simulate" the trial of novel-writing, exploring every step of the
creative process along the way. Barthes's lectures move from the
desire to write to the actual decision making, planning, and
material act of producing a novel. He meets the difficulty of
transitioning from short, concise notations (exemplified by his
favorite literary form, haiku) to longer, uninterrupted flows of
narrative, and he encounters a number of setbacks. Barthes takes
solace in a diverse group of writers, including Dante, whose La
Vita Nuova was similarly inspired by the death of a loved one, and
he turns to classical philosophy, Taoism, and the works of
Francois-Rene Chateaubriand, Gustave Flaubert, Franz Kafka, and
Marcel Proust. This book uniquely includes eight elliptical plans
for Barthes's unwritten novel, which he titled Vita Nova, and
lecture notes that sketch the critic's views on photography.
Following on The Neutral: Lecture Course at the College de France
(1977-1978) and a third forthcoming collection of Barthes lectures,
this volume provides an intensely personal account of the labor and
love of writing.
This is the first book to critically examine the recruitment and
working practices of screenwriters. Drawing on interviews with
screenwriters and those that employ them, Natalie Wreyford provides
a deep and detailed understanding of entrenched gender inequality
in the UK film industry and answers the question: what is
preventing women from working as screenwriters? She considers how
socialised recruitment and gendered taste result in exclusion, and
uncovers subtle forms of sexism that cause women's stories and
voices to be discounted. Gender Inequality in Screenwriting Work
also reveals the hidden labour market of the UK film industry,
built on personal connections, homophily and the myth of
meritocracy. It is essential reading for students and scholars of
gender, creative industries, film and cultural studies, as well as
anyone who wants to understand why women remain excluded from many
key roles in filmmaking.
Anxious to write that Great American Novel but don't know where to
begin? Help is on the way with our "Writer's Block" This guide to
beating writer's block comes packaged in the shape of an actual
block: 3" x 3" x 3," with 672 pages and more than 200 photographs
throughout. Next time you're stuck, just flip open "The Writer's
Block" to any page to find an idea or exercise that will jump-start
your imagination. Many of these assignments come straight from the
creative writing classes of celebrated novelists like Ethan Canin,
Richard Price, Toni Morrison, and Kurt Vonnegut: Joyce Carol Oates
explains how she uses running to destroy writer's block. Elmore
Leonard describes how he often finds ideas just by reading the
newspaper. E. Annie Proulx discusses finding inspiration at garage
sales. Isabel Allende tells why she always begins a new novel on
January 8th. John Irving explains why he prefers to write the last
sentence first. Fresh, fun, and irreverent, "The Writer's Block"
also features advice from contemporary editors and literary agents,
lessons from the awful novels of Joan Collins and Robert James
Waller, a filmography of movies concerning writer's block (e.g.,
"The Shining, Barton Fink"), and countless other surprises. With
this chunky little book at your side, you may never experience
writer's block again
You've written a book, triumphantly typed 'The End', but now, it seems, no-one wants to publish it. What do you do next?
Author of over thirty novels, stories and screenplays, and tutor on the prestigious creative writing course at Bath Spa, Fay Weldon has a lifetime of wisdom to impart on the art of writing.
Why Will No-One Publish My Novel? will delight and amuse, but it isn't just another how-to-write handbook: it shows you how not to write if you want to get published.
'Weaves literary lore with Weldon's considerable experience as a successful writer' Evening Standard.
'Contains lots of interesting advice' Daily Mail.
'Tips and emotional support for the would-be novelist' Sunday Times.
This is the first book-length study to examine the enduring
popularity of block-buster films based on DC or Marvel superhero
comics properties. It argues that the success of superhero movies
is rooted in aesthetic practices unavailable to other types of
film, and suggests that the multi-dimensional seriality of these
movies, combining practices of serialisation, adaptation, and
transmedia storytelling, endows them with an unmatched potential to
engage audiences over time and to actively intervene in the
discourses of online fandom. The book develops a critical theory of
digital-era popular seriality, examining the narrative strategies
of superhero movies and their evolution, from 1978's Superman to
2018's Avengers: Infinity War and beyond. It discusses textual and
extra-textual practices of fan mobilisation, and considers the
genre's shared political imaginary and its purchase on contemporary
political debates.
?For anyone who has ever stared at a blank page or screen?(Kaylene
Weiser, organized consultant, The Wiser Way)? the revised third
edition of the bestseller that offers ?a crisp, elegant way to say
everything.?(Vivian Jenkins Nelson, founder, The International
Institute for Interracial Interaction)
The ?exceptional, wonderful, amazing?(Vivian Jenkins Nelson,
founder, The International Institute for Interracial Interaction)
book that has sold nearly one million copies
How to Say It(R) provides clear and practical guidance for what to
say?and what not to say?in any situation. Covering everything from
business correspondence to personal letters, this is the perfect
desk reference for anyone who often finds themselves struggling to
find those perfect words for:
? Apologies and sympathy letters
? Letters to the editor
? Cover letters
? Fundraising requests
? Social correspondence, including invitations and Announcements
This new edition features expanded advice for personal and
business emails, blogs, and international communication.
This book examines Uncreative Writing-the catch-all term to
describe Neo-Conceptualism, Flarf and related avant-garde movements
in contemporary North American poetry-against a decade of
controversy. David Kaufman analyzes texts by Kenneth Goldsmith,
Vanessa Place, Robert Fitterman, Ara Shirinyan, Craig Dworkin, Dan
Farrell and Katie Degentesh to demonstrate that Uncreative Writing
is not a revolutionary break from lyric tradition as its proponents
claim. Nor is it a racist, reactionary capitulation to
neo-liberalism as its detractors argue. Rather, this monograph
shows that Uncreative Writing's real innovations and weaknesses
become clearest when read in the context of the very lyric that it
claims to have left behind.
We evaluate poems constantly: as workshop leaders, competition
judges and journal editors. But how do we judge the success of
verse in these contexts? The authors propose an innovative method
by which anyone involved in the assessment of poetry can be more
transparent about how they value verse. This book foregrounds the
ethical and professional obligations of poets, teachers and critics
to conduct axiological inquiry so they can discover and publish
what they value. We Need to Talk suggests why and how people who
care about poetry should communally explore and document their
shared (and conflicting) values. This is the first book to provide
the background and theory, as well as a practical, working model,
for the communal, empirical evaluation of creative writing.
This collection of essays offers twelve innovative approaches to
contemporary literary criticism. The contributors, women scholars
who range from undergraduate students to contingent faculty to
endowed chairs, stage a critical dialogue that raises vital
questions about the aims and forms of criticism- its discourses and
politics, as well as the personal, institutional, and economic
conditions of its production. Offering compelling feminist and
queer readings of avant-garde twentieth- and twenty-first-century
texts, the essays included here are playful, performative, and
theoretically savvy. Written for students, scholars, and professors
in literature and creative writing, Reading and Writing
Experimental Texts provides examples for doing literary scholarship
in innovative ways. These provocative readings invite conversation
and community, reminding us that if the stakes of critical
innovation are high, so are the pleasures.
In this compelling collection of essays contributors critically
examine Creative Writing in American Higher Education. Considering
Creative Writing teaching, learning and knowledge, the book
recognizes historical strengths and weaknesses. The authors cover
topics ranging from the relationship between Creative Writing and
Composition and Literary Studies to what it means to write and be a
creative writer; from new technologies and neuroscience to the
nature of written language; from job prospects and graduate study
to the values of creativity; from moments of teaching to persuasive
ideas and theories; from interdisciplinary studies to the
qualifications needed to teach Creative Writing in contemporary
Higher Education. Most of all it explores the possibilities for the
future of Creative Writing as an academic subject in America.
Winner of the 2020 Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger, France's best
foreign book of the year. In this genre-defying book, best-selling
memoirist and critic Daniel Mendelsohn explores the mysterious
links between the randomness of the lives we lead and the
artfulness of the stories we tell. Combining memoir, biography,
history, and literary criticism, Three Rings weaves together the
stories of three exiled writers who turned to the classics of the
past to create masterpieces of their own-works that pondered the
nature of narrative itself. Erich Auerbach, the Jewish philologist
who fled Hitler's Germany and wrote his classic study of Western
literature, Mimesis, in Istanbul... Francois Fenelon, the
seventeenth-century French archbishop whose ingenious sequel to the
Odyssey,The Adventures of Telemachus-a veiled critique of the Sun
King and the best-selling book in Europe for one hundred
years-resulted in his banishment... and the German novelist W. G.
Sebald, self-exiled to England, whose distinctively meandering
narratives explore Odyssean themes of displacement, nostalgia, and
separation from home. Intertwined with these tales of exile and
artistic crisis is an account of Mendelsohn's struggles to write
two of his own books-a family saga of the Holocaust and a memoir
about reading the Odyssey with his elderly father-that are haunted
by tales of oppression and wandering. As Three Rings moves to its
startling conclusion, a climactic revelation about the way in which
the lives of its three heroes were linked across borders,
languages, and centuries forces the reader to reconsider the
relationship between narrative and history, art and life.
William F. Nolan, using the knowledge acquired by writing more than
90 works of fiction, analyzes some of his and others' best work to
help the reader with construction of characters, dramatic
development, and dialogue. The writer will learn how to hook the
reader on the first page, how to develop conflict, the craft of
revision, and more.
No matter who you are, your story is a part of something big-the
fabric of history and the human experience. Once written and
shared, your story will change someone. And that someone is most
likely you. A Story that Matters offers an accessible and
simplified way to get your stories written. Each chapter is divided
into three sections: the first discusses memoir writing in the
context of themes-motherhood, childhood, relationships,
professional life, and spiritual journey; the second provides basic
writing and editing prescription, with a focus on common beginner
mistakes and roadblocks; and the third provides a sample story
related to the life theme discussed in the first section of the
chapter. Chock full of writing and editing lessons that focus on
how to get a first draft written and how to craft the draft into a
compelling story, A Story That Matters explores our ability to
help, heal, and connect to others through story, reminding us of
the greater need for a broader array of authentic voices in the
story-sharing universe.
Stories are everywhere... Exploring the great plots from Plato to
The Matrix and from Tolstoy to Toy Story, this is a book for anyone
who wants to unlock any narrative and learn to create their own.
With startling and original insights into how we construct stories,
this is a creative writing book like no other. It will show you how
to read and write better.
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