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Deconstructing and Connecting the Arts GEN 230 Creative Expression: Literary Arts - Fall 2008 this page vocabulary and concepts | intro to the process elements of fiction | poetry connections how to write stories and poems Andy's Volleyball Story revise a story | revise a poem

Vocabulary and concepts

The pages linked below, mostly to the Wikipedia, are designed to get you started by providing quick, condensed treatments of these terms as well as links for you to explore further. The words in the Wikipedia entries will provide you with search terms for your own exploration and discovery.

Write Thing writers

[ to come when Fall schedule is available ]

Fiction, poetry and other arts

Poetry-Films and Film Poems
By William C. Wees

Rather than making a film to “illustrate” a poem or using a poem to “accompany” a film, a number of avant-garde film and video makers have created a synthesis of poetry and film that generates associations, connotations and metaphors neither the verbal nor the visual text would produce on its own.

Online Newsletters and RSS feeds

to come, suggestions welcome

Webs

SUNY Buffalo's Electronic Poetry Center

Project Gutenberg - public domain poetry

Internet Archive's Text Archive and Audio Books Poetry Archive

Plagiarist.com

Archive of the world's finest poetry. Besides the archive, we maintain the Plagiarist Poetry Discussion Forum, Plagiarist Poetry Resources (such as essays and lectures), and other things related to the writing and appreciation of poetry in general.

Darknet: Darknet mini-book: Introduction
by

Technology is shifting the balance of power between big media and regular people. The rise of “personal media” is throwing the old rules into disarray.

We are no longer couch potatoes absorbing whatever mass media may funnel our way. We produce, publish, reinvent, and share personal media. We make our own movies. We create digital photos, animation, niche news sites, hyperfiction, and online picture albums. We program our personal video recorders so that we watch programming not on the networks’ schedule but on our terms. We capture TV shows and stream them from one room to another on home networks. We listen to Web radio or satellite stations that cater to our personalized tastes. We download music from the Net to our MP3 players and burn music to our own CDs. And some of us record music and distribute our works on the Internet.

We make our own media. In many ways, we are our own media.

Real People Network

Introduction to the process

Walter Fisher's Narrative Paradigm (add systems thinking?)

narrative coherence

Does the story hold together and make sense in our world? Is it probable or at least plausible? Is it implausible but enjoyable or interesting?

narrative fidelity

Does the story match our own beliefs and experiences? Does it portray the world we perceive that we live in?

Which world sounds more like the one you live in?

In this course, I am asking you to work the right side of your brain, the intuitive storytelling side. Indeed, poetry doesn't seem real or useful. And fiction sounds like permission to lie. In this course, that's ok. Whether or not you're comfortable with yours, creativity is part of the human condition. Question: Is your creativity a burden to bear or a benefit to share? Is it an opportunity or a threat?

Some helpful ideas and advice:

Art is a process, not a thing.

The journey is more interesting, and more important, than arriving at a destination. A story or poem is a snapshot of the process, a station on the journey to be left behind.

Here is a chart and brief description of the phases of the creative process as we will follow it in this course:

Note how closely this chart follows our syllabus.

The cream color is for parts of the process that are mostly words: concept, property, treatment and pre-distribution pitch.

The blue color is for parts that are mostly oral: the concept and property pitches.

The brown color is for parts that are mostly digital and hands-on: producing the vehicles for distribution.

Concept

The concept or premise of a property is the fundamental core idea that drives the plot and sustains audience interest. A "high concept" is an intriguing idea that is so simple and pure that it can be stated in ten words or fewer, one sentence at most, and is easily and completely understood by all. "Scientists discover that an asteroid the size of Texas will hit Earth in 48 hours" is high concept.

High Concept Defined Once and For All
by Steve Kaire

Yours will probably be closer to the more common: a potentially intriguing idea that is still forming and can be stated in fifty to a hundred words but can't stand alone. It needs you there to explain it.

Pitch

The pitch is the gateway to the next phase of the process. A concept is pitched, as is a property. The pitch for the distributed product is the trailer, the database info, the blurb for the movie listings.

Wikipedia's Pitch

A pitch is a concise verbal (and sometimes visual) presentation of an idea for a film, generally made by a screenwriter or director to a producer or studio executive in the hope of attracting development finance to pay for a screenplay to be written. Pitches are usually made in person, although they can be made over the phone or, occasionally, pre-recorded on audio or videotape.

A good pitch is generally between five and ten minutes long and lays out the premise, hook and essential beats of the story, along with thumbnail sketches of the principal characters (often including the names of actors who might play the roles), and a clear idea of the genre, tone, likely audience, and budget level.

What you do in class on September 10 will be somewhere between a concept and a short pitch. We will have only two minutes for each of you to give three quick pitches, so run through them quickly and leave time for questions.

Script

The script is the foundation -- the verbal description, the dialogue and instructions -- for a creative project that will involve many people over a long period of time. The script will change and evolve and develop, of course. But after listening to the pitches, the people who will be involved in the project want to read the script. They want to be guided verbally through a visualization of the finished project to help them decide whether to commit to it.

To use an architectural analogy, the script is like the floor plan and the sketch. You haven't actually built the thing, but the script shows the intention: the structure, the characters, and the overall movement.

What does a script look like? It can look and read like an essay, paragraph following on paragraph. It can look more like this web page, with lots of short sections with subheadings. It can have lists. It can look like a Shakespeare play, all dialogue with a few stage directions. It can be a poem, with short lines.

It can be a combination of all the above. It doesn't matter what it looks like as long as it uses words to help the reader see and hear the final project.

Treatment

storyboards, flowcharts, mock-ups, outlines, and site maps

Storyboards Inc.

Wikipedia's Treatment

A film treatment (or treatment for short) is a piece of prose, typically the step between scene cards (index cards) and the first draft of a screenplay for a motion picture. It is generally longer and more detailed than an outline (or one page synopsis) and shorter and less detailed than a step outline but it may include details of directorial style that an outline omits. They read like a short story.

pre-production

Plan, prepare. Get all your equipments and materials together and your people committed. Make lists, and think through all the scenarios.

Wikipedia's Pre-Production

The script is broken down into individual scenes and all the locations, props, cast members, costumes, special effects and visual effects are identified. An extremely detailed schedule is produced and arrangements are made for the necessary elements to be available to the film-makers at the appropriate times. Sets are constructed, the crew are hired, financial arrangements are put in place and a start date for the beginning of principal photography is set. At some point in pre-production there will be a read-through of the script which is usually attended by all cast members with speaking parts, all heads of departments, financiers, producers, publicists, and of course the director.

production

While this can be the most intense and fun phase of the whole process, it is the most expensive in terms of time and other scarce resources. Good pre-production maximizes the potential of the production phase.

post-production

Personally, this is the part I enjoy most. You take your media assets and assemble, edit, and polish them into the video and web presentations that your audience will experience.

pitch

Several pitches accompany distribution. Some are words-only. All are short.

preview/trailer
press release synopsis
online database descriptions and meta-data
program listings

distribution / publication

If you want to bury something, print it. If you want people to experience, read, see it, then put it online.

Every computer on the Internet is equidistant from every other computer. It's a world of ends, and you don't need permission.

It's a great brave new world. Enjoy!!!!

Deconstructing fiction and poetry

The Wikipedia has good enough resources for our purpose here -- accurate, short, and neutral. All the links in the table below will take you there.

Fiction

Soulmates? Quiet Library's Perfectly Aligned

Two strangers meet in a coffee shop and realize their whole lives have been leading up to this moment.

MySpace profile of the male actor: Greg Tuculescu

Poetry

Baghdad Exceeds Its Object
by Kent Johnson (bio | photo on right)

Here's another poem, by a student. What are the differences between it and the Hughes and Johnson poems? The student poem wastes too many words, is not closely observed: best part, whole thing, I love you, really, it seems that, etc. Vague and dreamy. The reader doesn't see much except cherry blossoms or hear much except the hummingbirds. That's a lot of words for only two visual images. When I read "nature's heart" in this poem, I don't see anything.

Cherryblossoms are in bloom in the springtime
opening the season for love, holding nature's heart.
The park is the best part about the whole thing
it seems that our love is bloomin all over again.

And I love you, I really, really la-la-love you
And I love you, I really, really la-love you,
Love you.

Hummingbirds are singing their tune in the sunshine
mother nature reveals her heart through lovers hearts
The church is the best part about the whole thing
it seems that our love is bloomin' all over again.

And I love you, I really, really love you
and I love you, I really, really love you
I love you, I love you.

Note what is not on this list: intention, meaning, theme. They are more appropriate in a literature or art appreciation course, not in a writing course. What you or any media maker "intended" to do isn't terribly relevant or interesting to the audience. In the famous words of movie producer Sam Goldwyn, if you want to send a message, use Western Union, or, these days, email or text messaging. If you want to make people smile and feel other emotions, then use stories and poems.

Some ways that stories and poems overlap and complement each other:

Fiction can have poetry as document, as epigraph, and use poetic techniques (alliteration etc.)

Poetry can tell a fictional story and use fictional techniques

Prose can use fictional and poetic techniques

Drama can tell a fictional story, characters can speak poetically

Connecting fiction, poetry and the other arts: forms and techniques

connecting poetry and other arts: augments and synergies
How does it relate to visual arts?
How does it relate to performing arts?
How does it relate to other literary arts?

Yes, this table has omissions and simplifications and it implies false distinctions in a blurred, overlapping reality. I still welcome suggestions.

augments -- how do the arts enrich each other, how one makes another better

synergies -- how the arts connect to make wholes greater than the sum of the parts

example of synergy:

oral presentations as theater

acting and dance

poetry readings and performance

Example: Cutting one scene to another can have a number of different meanings in a video, like placing two similar scenes together, following the beat of the song, creating a whole different scene, setting a mood for the video (cuts play a huge part in that), or maybe just following the lyrics.

What's the difference between cutting to a new scene and starting a new paragraph?

parallels among elements / parts

parallels of structure and composition

works that combine art forms: opera, performance art

parallel ways audiences respond to art forms

uses and implications of similar terminology in differing art forms

How to write stories and poems

How to Tell a Story
by Gary Provost and Peter Rubie
Writer's Digest Books, 1998

The Story

Once upon a time, something happened to someone, and he decided he would pursue a goal. So he devised a plan of action, and even though there were forces trying to stop him, he moved forward because there was a lot at stake. And just as things seemed as bad as they could get, he learned an important lesson, and when offered the prize he had sought so strenuously, he had to decide whether or not to take it, and in making that decision he satisfied a need that had been created by something in his past.

What decisions do you need to make?

Tip | Go someplace where you won't be bothered for a few hours. Turn off your cell phone.

assemble the pieces

who, what, when, where?

why? cause and effect. He died. She died. Tragic but not as interesting as this: He died because she died. Cause and effect. Stories have it and real life often doesn't, or doesn't seem to. Real life seems more random and arbitrary where a story is purposeful and controlled.

plot

How to Tell a Story
by Gary Provost and Peter Rubie
Writer's Digest Books, 1998

Once upon a time, something happened to someone, and he decided he would pursue a goal. So he devised a plan of action, and even though there were forces trying to stop him, he moved forward because there was a lot at stake. And just as things seemed as bad as they could get, he learned an important lesson, and when offered the prize he had sought so strenuously, he had to decide whether or not to take it, and in making that decision he satisfied a need that had been created by something in his past.

action/description vs dialogue

A script is all dialogue with notes for scenery, props, and action implied.

A novel or short story is the dialogue plus descriptions of things and actions. A narrator (3rd person) or character (first person: "I") is telling the story in a voice that we like listening to or are compelled to listen to.

show vs tell

Even though we say "tell a story", there is a difference between showing and telling. More accurately, the narrator should "show the story" in the sense of let it unfold, let it reveal itself like a movie does. Don't write an essay.

Show, don't tell

example of telling:

war brings great suffering, especially to children

example of showing (from Baghdad Exceeds Its Object):

Make haste, Safia, you little scamp, you pig-tailed qasida,
put that fat flap of scalp back on your crown,
now’s not the hour for teenage pranks,
it’s time to go to school!

"OK, I'm sitting at my keyboard ready to start writing a story. Now what do I do?"

make lists

Look at all your backstory material. Make lists of characters and other types of information. Start to make groups.

let it grow out of the backstory

Place the photos of your characters next to each other in pairs, think about their biographies, and get them disagreeing about something. What are they saying to each other? Listen and write it down.

Wikipedia's Backstory

the history behind the situation extant at the start of the main story. This literary device is often employed to lend the main story depth or verisimilitude. A back-story may include the history of characters, objects, countries, or other elements of the main story. Back-stories are usually revealed, sketchily or in full, chronologically or otherwise, as the main narrative unfolds. However, a story creator may also create portions of a back-story or even an entire back-story that is solely for his or her own use in writing the main story and is never revealed in the main story. In role-playing games, a character’s back-story is usually called his or her background.

ring the changes

"ring the changes" (origin of this phrase)

Model another story; repurpose other media

Retell another story. First, re-situate a story from its time and place to your time and place. Reverse the gender of all the characters. Now re-write the story, word for word, making the changes you need to to fit the new time, place, and people.

Example | If the model story has two old women in 1980 in a New York City penthouse drinking vodka tonics while talking about their husbands, you change it to two young men in 2007 in Delaware Park jogging while talking about their girlfriends. Where the model story has two sentences describing the penthouse, you write two sentences describing the park. Where the model story has a sentence describing the vodka tonic, you write a sentence describing the guys' running shoes.

Do the same thing with a movie. Re-situate and retell. In another class, the students watched Ibsen's A Doll's House, which takes place in Norway over a hundred years ago. Resituate it to South Buffalo in 2007.

For example, illustrate/film on of these old-time radio shows

plant a seed

Let the story grow organically.

Let's ring the changes on the Gary Provost quotation above. First, we'll change it from 3rd person to first person singular.

Once, something happened to me, and I decided I would pursue a goal. So I devised a plan of action, and even though there were forces trying to stop me, I moved forward because there was a lot at stake. And just as things seemed as bad as they could get, I learned an important lesson, and when offered the prize I had sought so strenuously, I had to decide whether or not to take it, and in making that decision I satisfied a need that had been created by something in his past.

Now first person plural.

Once, something happened to us, and we decided we would pursue a goal. So we devised a plan of action, and even though there were forces trying to stop us, we moved forward because there was a lot at stake. And just as things seemed as bad as they could get, we learned an important lesson, and when offered the prize we had sought so strenuously, we had to decide whether or not to take it, and in making that decision we satisfied a need that had been created by something in our past.

Now let's ring the changes, layering in your backstory.

Example | The way this season could have turned out.

This year, we got a new coach and we decided we would aim for winning the conference championship. So we devised brutal conditioning and practice regime, and even though we played some strong teams, we got into the play-offs as the eighth seed. Then our freshman point guard and second leading scorer got cut from the team for violating the rules of the brutal regime that we had all agreed to ...

a triggering incident

Write out from the center.

Example | Hurricane Kaminski is the trigger. Take a snapshot of Joe looking up and seeing the Freon 113 beginning to blast from the sprinkler head. There's the center. Make lists of who, what, when, where, how, why. Then make a timeline of what led up to that snapshot moment and also what happened because of it.

Then you have two choices:

give yourself permission to lie, to change what really happened to what could have or should have happened

tell it as it really happened and then ring the changes (see above) on it

write backwards from the ending

Example | Start with the wedding and work back to when they first met.

start with a timeline (aka outline)

Especially good for historical events

make storyboards

Sketch it out, sort of advanced doodling. Sketch out flashes and snapshots of action, then assemble them chronologically.

Tip | Don't even think about a "thesis statement" or "topic sentence" or "theme". Think conflict, think people under stress.

The Thirty-six Dramatic Situations - short list | expanded list
by Georges Polti

http://www.smalladdictions.com/Skateboard/articles/NFW-031.htm

Andy's Volleyball Story

What's the story of this game? who, where, when, what?

lists

characters

two teams

good guy / hero
bad guy / villain

coaches

refs

spectators

scorer's table personnel (officials and media)

places

net
serve
sidelines
scorer's table
locker room?

time - chronological order

pre-game

game

time-outs

post-game

shaking hands with opponents
locker room with peers
interviews with media

story boards / outlines

Scene by scene or camera shot by camera shot

This outline will answer the what? question. It will lay out how the characters will conflict with each other in this time (during the game) and space (gym).

For each scene, look at your lists and decide:

who's is in it?
where is it?
when is it?
what happens?

parts

name
title
topic
hero/protagonist
villain/antagonist
conflict/goal
plot

Similar example: Lego WM Final of 74 (Germany vs. Netherlands)

How to revise a story

dialogue article in Wikipedia

How to revise a poem

structure - line length, stanza length

rhyme - pattern

punctuation (incl capitalization) - for what purpose?