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
how stories work
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 #66: Ekphrasis
An update from our sixty-sixth Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett and special guest Emma Catherine Hoff A summary of the workshop held on Saturday, May 6 This week, winner of the Stone Soup 2022 Annual Book Contest Emma Catherine Hoff instructed the workshop. To start, Emma told workshop participants that ekphrasis is “when you write a poem or story about or based on a work of art.” Then, we looked at three examples of ekphrastic poetry (“The Man with the Blue Guitar” by Wallace Stevens, “Hunters in the Snow” by William Carlos Williams, and “Edward Hopper and the House by the Railroad” by Edward Hirsch) and talked about them. Emma explained that there were different ways to write an ekphrastic poem or story; one can describe the painting, or use it as a way to develop one’s own ideas. One can even place the artist in their piece! The Challenge: Write a story or poem using ekphrasis based on one of three paintings: The Peasant Wedding by Pieter Bruegel the Younger, The Football Players by Henri Rousseau, or Coffee Table by Ernst Ludwig. The Participants: Anushka, Yueling, Liesl, Philip, Ananya, Seva, Josh, Stella, Aaron, Catherine
