Workshops and Conferences

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Из курса от партнера Wesleyan University

Capstone: Your Story

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Wesleyan University

Capstone: Your Story

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Курс 5 из 5 — Specialization Литературное творчество

Everything comes together in the Capstone. You will draft a complete story, narrative essay, or memoir of 8–15 pages. With the advice of your peer readers, you will revise, rewrite, and complete it. The skills you’ve learned of plotting, setting, physical description, characterization, and stylistic clarity and innovation will culminate in an original work of art all your own. We’ll discuss the steps that professional writers take to bring their work into the public world. Along the way you’ll learn the patient habits of revision that make up the writer’s life.

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Where to Go From Here?

By the end of this week, you will finish the final version of your story. We’ll discuss ways of continuing the creative momentum that’s brought you this far—whether through writers’ groups or conferences, or just through a daily writing practice. Once you turn in the final version of your piece, you’ll perform final critiques of the stories of three of your fellow writers and will likewise receive their evaluations of your work. Congratulations: you will have completed the Specialization.

Workshops and Conferences3:30

Interview with Anne Greene about Conferences12:03

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Salvatore Scibona
Frank B. Weeks Visiting Professor of English

[MUSIC]

Welcome to week seven, the final version of your story, and where to go from here.

Writing is a craft that you can keep on working on for the rest of your life.

Now that you've gotten that head of steam, after taking all of these courses,

you probably don't want it to lapse.

I certainly hope that you don't.

Momentum is everything.

So, I thought it might be useful to discuss some ways you

might formalize your practice to keep growing as a writer.

Let's put aside that romantic idea that writers need no company or

that writing happens only when people are all alone and

they benefit not at all from other people's advise or encouragement.

Consider the analogy with other forms of art, music, with sports,

with anything really that you're trying to learn over a period of time.

The advice and solidarity of another group of people also

engaged in the process that you're engaged in can be really invaluable.

The key thing is that it's hard to keep doing something like this if it's divorced

from the rest of your life.

So, here's some things that people do to keep their momentum going.

Some of you might have the advantage of going to an under graduate institution or

you've been to a graduate program where this in the United States you can

get a master's degree in fine arts.

This is usually a two or

a three year degree completely devoted to honing the craft of creative writing.

Different kinds of programs exist all over the world.

In the United States, there's such a thing as a Low Residential MFA Program where

people, rather than living in a particular town or on campus at a university.

Work at home, work with a mentor over correspondence, and

then periodically travel to a university for a condensed period of coursework.

But that's by no means the only way to do this.

You might want to go on working with a small cohort of people you've assembled

either through correspondents, friends at a distance or

people in your local community.

The great advantage of having a long term group of readers is I think that they get

to know your language, they can reflect on your strengths and growth over time.

But, how do you meet such people?

Well, this leads to the next couple of possibilities.

You might entertain the idea of enrolling in a short workshop program.

These can be as short as one day, a couple of hours, or a week or two weeks.

You might also consider enrolling in a writer's conference.

These are often five days or a week long where writers get together

to take short master classes, to participate in panels,

to go to readings and most crucially, to get to know other writers.

You can really form strong bonds with people very quickly.

And have the benefit of those people's advice over the long term.

Later on in this module we'll talk with Anne Green who has for

a long time directed the Western Univeristy writer's conference and

ask her a couple of questions about workshops, conferences and

what attracts students to them and what they get out of them.

[MUSIC]

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