Date/Time
Date(s) - 04/11/2022 - 23/12/2022
12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Location
Wensum Community Centre
Life Writing – Finding Your Voice with Andrew McDonnell
*Please note that there is no class in the half-term week
Want to write about real life but not sure where to begin? Then this course is for you. Over eight weeks we will explore different approaches to writing from life. We will look at how we can take novel approaches to telling stories, examples of life-writing by published authors and talk about their creative approaches, and undertake writing exercises.
WEEK 1 – Where we write from
In this first week we will play with some approaches to introducing who we are, adopting exaggeration and hagiographic positions as well as thinking about who we are and what power we have as narrators. What is our voice and how do we use it?
WEEK 2 – Narrative views
How can a narrative point of view bring us close or distance us from a topic we are writing about? Who sees and who tells the story? What methods can we adopt to tell our stories?
WEEK 3 – Setting the scene
Writing is magical. When we read a piece of well written prose or poetry, in our minds the place comes to life in our heads, but how do we create place effectively in writing?
WEEK 4 – Vignettes
How can a brief evocative description, account, or episode placed beside others bring a story to life? We will lok at contemporary writers who use the vignette to tell their story.
WEEK 5 – Poetry to prose
In this session we will look at how poets write from life and the details they use in their writing. How might form contribute to meaning?
WEEK 6 – Travel writing
How do we bring travel to life? How do we place the reader in the situation so they are experiencing the journey. We will look at how narrative shapes can power a story and keep readers invested until the end.
WEEK 7 – Plotting out longer stories
How do we undertake research and consider what facts are important and which to let go of? What themes can we explore in more detail? Where might we ficitonalise the fact?
WEEK 8 – Editing and polishing + where next?
In the final week you will bring along a piece from a previous session and consider how editorial changes can improve a piece of writing.
About the Tutor
I’m a writer and professional tutor of Creative Writing, English Literature and Publishing. I write both poetry and prose and my collection The Somnambulist Cookbook was published by Salt in 2019. I am also the editor at Gatehouse Press and teach for UCP where I am course leader for degrees in English Literature and Creative Writing, as well as sessional teaching of modules for both the UEA and Anglia Ruskin, Cambridge.
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