An update from our sixty-eighth Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday, May 27 In the last workshop of our spring season, Conner outlines six ways a scene can fail. Number one: it starts too early. It’s better to start late, to skip greetings, and to start when the events actually become important to the reader. Number two: it ends too late. It’s better to end the scene before there is a conclusion and to end on an emotional note. Number three: it has “a predictable present story.” In other words, the scene has a setting that has often been used before and has a character that fits into the setting rather than stands out in it. An example Conner gave was “a soldier on a battlefield.” Number four: it employs “narcissistic central intelligence.” This is when a writer humiliates or belittles a character to make some kind of statement. Characters should be treated as human beings, not props. Number five: it doesn’t have an arc. The scene should have some kind of structure. Number six: its ending is an answer. It is better to ask another question rather than offer the answer to a previous one. The Challenge: Write a scene. The Participants: Emma, Seva, Anushka, Yueling, Stella, Samarina, Liesl, Philip, Aaron
Conner Bassett
How Stories Work—Writing Workshop #67: Translation
An update from our sixty-seventh Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday, May 13 We began the workshop by discussing the etymology of translation. Translation comes from the Latin phrase, “to be carried across.” Conner encouraged us to adopt a more “experimental view of translation.” He told us that there were many types of translation, such as ekphrasis, and that it is important to think of translation outside the boundaries of translation cliches—that things are “lost in translation” and that the translator is a traitor. We looked at some examples of translation. We read an excerpt from Dante’s Inferno in the original Italian and then three translations of it into English. The translations by John Ciardi, Robert Pinsky, and Clive James all focused on the rhyme scheme. However, Mary Jo Bang’s version had no rhyme scheme and used more colloquial language, focusing more on writing a poem that sounded just as good in English as it did in Italian rather than on literal translation. We thought about the question, “What matters most in translation?” Is it word accuracy, or conveying a feeling? The Challenge: Write a homolinguistic translation of Tomaz Salamun’s “Ships” and a homophonic translation of “Catullus 70” by Gaius Catullus. The Participants: Emma, Anushka, Stella, Samarina, Yueling, Philip, Catherine, Amaya, Aaron, Madeline, Seva, Nova
How Stories Work—Writing Workshop #65: Long Sentences
An update from our sixty-fifth Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday, April 29 In this week’s workshop, we talked about long sentences. First, Conner showed us two paintings. The first one was Christ Breaking Down the Gates of Hell by Hieronymous Bosch and the second one was The Flight Between Carnival and Lent by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. We concluded that both paintings were full of chaos, with a lot going on in both of them. Then we looked at some examples of long sentences, all similar in some way to the paintings. Some used polysyndeton, lists, or had a turn. All of them were one long sentence, full of action and description. After talking about the examples, we were asked to write our own story or poem in one sentence and to try to make it as long as possible without worrying about making sense. Afterwards, we shared our work. The Challenge: Write a poem or story in one sentence. Try to make it as long as possible. The Participants: Emma, Stella, Anushka, Seva, Philip, Catherine, Liesl, Samantha, Yueling, Ananya, Aaron, Madeline, Josh, Amaya, Samarina
