Annotated Bibliography of Creative Writing Resources

This was an address (put into text form and then published in the New York Times) given by the author of the play “Night Mother” and is the most inspiring article to change how one might think about approaching writing drama that I have ever come across. Although some of it does digress to talk about problems in the contemporary theatre world (as least as it existed in the mid-eighties) she discusses the concept of how an individual is not writing a play, but the whole society is doing it. Her message is that when one approaches writing for the stage, it is important to channel the voices of an entire people, otherwise the play is not meaningful. Unlike fiction, playwriting is not a solitary craft or something borne of a personal idea that is the author’s alone; she is suggesting that playwriting takes tuning into the zeitgeist—that playwriting invokes a multitude of voices and should always strive for this inclusiveness and leave exclusivity to the fiction writers.

These assumptions that Rivera discusses shoot holes in all of the things I’ve been telling myself for years that have ended up keeping me from writing. All of the ideas I’ve had that “it will never be performed, so what is the point” and “who will ever relate to what I’ve said here” are shot down, leaving me, or anyone else with a penchant for drama writing, without any excuses left to put off picking up what I’ve been working on off and on for years. The author has taught playwriting for a  number of years and among some of his most valuable bits of advice—all of which are given in neat one-sentence diatribes are”: “Good playwriting is a collaboration between your many selves;; the more multiple your personalities, the further, wider, and deeper you might be able to go” (which is number one)… I also like, “If you’re not prepared to risk your entire reputation every time you write, then it’s not worth your audience’s time.”

One topic in articles about creative writing in any genre—whether its drama, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction—is that we often overlook opportunities to express important ideas and fully serve the idea of the function of art to invoke and inform us in favor of being politically correct. This articles address how our knowledge of the sensitivities of our readers can hinder us and how this is a flawed approach to creating art or any kind.
Shapiro, Herbert. Writing Fiction: An Introduction to the Craft. New York: Independent Pubs. Group Ltd., 2003.
There is not much about this book that differs from many other introductory texts on the art of writing fiction in terms of general content, but two elements do make it remarkable. First of all, the tone is very approachable and instead of spending a great deal of time talking about the mechanics of writing fiction and the “business” side of constructing point of view, narration, characters, dialogue, etc. the author spends a much-needed amount of time talking about inspiration and finding one’s pace when writing. He does not take the full point of view that a writer should be able to sit down at any given moment and work to the best of ability, but admits that there are times where you can’t (and shouldn’t try) to write because many other times there will be nothing to break your stride. This is a conversational piece and the author does not pretend to be a literary master—he comes across as having much practical advice for those who find writing enjoyable but not natural.

One thing these authors have in common in writing creative works, whether drama or non-fiction, is that they think moving outside of one’s comfort zone is critical. Without doing so, a writer will stagnate—all for the reason of being unwilling to confront issues that make them uncomfortable or might bother their readers. They see artistic progress as being part of discovering how you feel about topics that are hard to understand or address and through writing one can find meaning and help others do so to when discussing topics that cause squeamishness or present unpleasant ideas or concepts.

This articles offers an extended definition of what creative non-fiction is by providing practical examples that highlight different ways of approaches the genre. The articles not only shows how this is used by newspaper authors to present a story (that might be as interesting if reported in a strictly fact-based manner) in a way that is truthful but has an impact that goes far beyond mere expository writing. More importantly, it uses some examples (most notably from one of my favorite authors—Tom Wolfe) from fiction to show how the gap between fiction and non-fiction can be bridged and how something can be easily disguised as fiction when it is truth. Recalls some of the issues in the Mills article about the ethical implications of bridging this gap in my own mind when I read it.

Far too often we are taught to view writing in different formats as entirely separate. For instance, we see writing fiction as its own independent form of creativity or as writing plays as entirely different than poetry. This article discusses how all forms of writing creatively are intertwined and how this is particularly the case with the intersection of poetry and creative non-fiction. Since a good poem communicates a reality or an idea, it would not be suitable to describe it using interesting language alone—a firm idea of the creative but true story is essential, thus the intersection becomes clear.

This article is rather scholarly in tone and reflects on the nature of performance as it exists during the actual process of writing. Whether one is writing a work of drama with the intent of having it performed for an audience or if the intent is actually more private with a limited audience who is reading it (as opposed to seeing it) all works of writing have an element of performance with a context dependent on author intent, whether that intent is implicit or explicit; conscious or unconscious.

Grammar, English, And Language

Purpose of a Literature Review