The Walk: Exploring Local Stories and History

1. Project ii: THE WALK: exploring local stories and history GENRE AND TONE: Travel Writing, Crime, Science Fiction & Horror

2. Learning Aims and outcomes • PROJECT 2: THE WALK. • To explore and create narrative, with emphasis on setting, place and genre/tone. • To lay the foundations for the audio, visual and multimedia elements of Projects 2 • To understand the conventions of genre: travel writing, horror, sci-fi, crime etc. • To explore narrative styles (recap on character need, setting and plot) • To begin research into a chosen setting. • TO FIND NARRATIVES FROM YOUR LOCAL AREA THROUGH RESEARCH AND IMAGINATION AND/OR BOTH • By the end of the sessions you will have at least three ideas for stories to use in the audio session next week.

3. Quick Write, Warm up. • Complete the following sentences in 10 different ways: • “It was then that something odd happened”. Or “I couldn't’t believe what was in front of my eyes”, or “they would never believe me when I told them.” • Aim to conjure up a different place, setting, event or situation in each of your 10 sentences. • Practise writing in three genres on the theme of landmarks and buildings • Now turn one of them into writing for children • Keep these, they might be the start of something…

4. More Exercises to get you thinking of possibilities • Take an existing piece of writing and rewrite it in a different tone or to reflect a different genre e.g. take something written for adults and write it for children, turn something horrific into humour. (there are numerous extracts on the blogs) • Consider the word choice and syntax to reflect the tone, character and setting. • Recap on specificity, Tone and Genre to help you.

5. Points to ponder • Did you find one genre easier to write than the other? • Does the tone of each piece of writing reflect and/or contrast different genres? • How was your choice of language and sentence structure influenced by the genre in which you were writing? • Would a reader be able to recognise and anticipate the genre based on your paragraph?

6. Travel Writing • What is the travel writing? • They are often associated with tourism, and includes guide books, meant to educate the reader about the destination, provide advice for visits, and inspire readers to travel. Travel writing may be found on web sites, in magazines and in books. Definition • Travel writing is a form ofcreativenonfiction in which the narrator's encounters with foreign places serve as the dominant subject. Also called travel literature. • "All travel writing—because it is writing—is made in the sense of being constructed, says Peter Hulme, "but travel writing cannot be made up without losing its designation" (quoted by Tim Youngs in The Cambridge Introduction to Travel Writing, 2013). • Notable contemporary travel writers in English include Paul Theroux, Susan Orlean, Bill Bryson, Pico Iyer, Rory MacLean, Mary Morris, Dennison Berwick, Jan Morris, Tony Horwitz, Jeffrey Tayler, and Tom Miller, among countless others.

7. “To travel is to make a journey, a movement through space”. • "To travel is to make a journey, a movement through space. Possibly this journey is epic in scale, taking the traveller to the other side of the world or across a continent, or up a mountain; possibly, it is more modest in scope, and takes place within the limits of the traveller’s own country or region, or even just their immediate locality. Either way, to begin any journey or, indeed, simply to set foot beyond one’s own front door, is quickly to encounter difference and otherness..." (Thompson, 9, emphasis in the original) • The key words are journey – a movement in space which can lead to discovery –, alterity, identity, difference, similarity… " (Thompson, 10)

8. Writing a travel article • Travel writing is part craft and part art. Travel writing is part reporting, part diary, and part providing traveller information. Travel writers create their art using a multitude of different styles and techniques but the best stories generally share certain characteristics, notably: • 1) Clear writing style, without affectation, used by a writer who knows the point of the story, gets to it quickly and gets it across to the reader strongly and with brevity (concise and exact use of words in writing or speech) and clarity. • 2) Strong sense of the writer’s personality, ideally demonstrating intelligence, wit and style. • 3) Use of the writer’s personal experiences, other anecdotes and quotations to add life to the piece. • 4) Vivid reporting — the ability of the writer to convey to readers, using as many of the senses as possible, the travel experience through the use of words alone. • 5) High literary quality and the accurate use of grammar and syntax. • 6) Meaty, practical and accurate information that is useful to the reader.

9. Be Fresh Give your story a fresh point of view and, if at all possible, cover some out-of-the-ordinary subject matter. Be creative in your writing. Strive for the best and strongest use of English and the most original and powerful metaphors and similes. Be Personal Take your own approach to a location you’ve visited, an activity you’ve tried or an adventure that thrilled you. What was it that really excited or inspired you? Identify it and get it across to your readers. To stand out from the crowd, your story must have a personal voice and point of view. Remember that most places you write about will already have been written about before. Your challenge is to find something new and original to say. Be Funny Travel writing should mostly have a light, bright, lively and fun tone. Travel, the process of leaving the familiar to go to the foreign and unfamiliar, is often rich in comedy and comical events. Incorporate comedy into your writing where appropriate and don’t be afraid to make your readers laugh. Also, don’t be afraid to incorporate mishaps into your pieces. These can be just as worth reading about, maybe more so, particularly if they also incorporate an element of comedy or humor. Be Surprising Surprise your reader. Give the reader something out of the ordinary; something that only someone who has been to the location would know. Do this by trying unusual activities, meeting new people, and getting involved in strange scenes as you travel.

10. Be Balanced Travel writing must blend your personal observations, descriptions and commentary with practical information that is useful to your readers. Be a Quoter Work in quotes from visitors to locations, or participants in activities. Let them express their thoughts about how they feel about a place or activity. Quotes lift stories. Think Like You’re a Reader You need to develop as clear an impression as possible of what readers of the publications you are targeting want to read, their travel aspirations, how they like articles written and what information they want to know. You want to be able to think like your reader. Only then will you be able to identify how you can help your reader. Only then should you start writing your article. The Big Picture: What is the Main Point You Want to Get Across to Your Reader? Good travel stories have a definite, central theme and it will greatly improve your writing if you can identify the central themes of your articles before you try to write them. This is the “big picture” and you then work your impressions and facts around it. Identifying the big picture early on will also help you structure your piece sensibly and help you decide what information you need to include and, equally importantly, what you can and should leave out.

11. Write a short Travel piece • In no more than 300 words write a piece on your home town, a place you have visited or would love to go.

12. Crime: Here lies the body of the murdered man, a death never solved…. Name as many Crime conventions as you can:

13. Conventions of Crime. An old mansion and mysterious disappearances compelling and immediate hook SeeminglyUnsolvable Red herrings whodunit Bodies Suspects Danger an tension Clues and solutions Detectives Unsavory characters Suspense, intrigue and inference

14. Themes with crime plot • Ian Rankin used crime eventually not because that was a genre he was drawn to, but because it allowed him to explore a place, Edinburgh. Rebus his detective in his detecting explores the city: from the richest to the poorest. Edinburgh is as much a characters as those with flesh on their bones.

15. Crime Genre: not just about plot. Ian Rankin: Is trying to understand John Rebus helping you to understand Edinburgh? “He’s my way of going through the city and John Rebus gets access to parts of the city that I would never get access to. He can go into jails and talk to the prisoners. He can go down into the really rough housing schemes and talk to the dealers and the prostitutes hanging about outside. I go near any of those people now and I get my name in the paper. He’s got the power and the anonymity that I just don’t have. That’s one reason I chose a detective as a character. I wasn’t a huge fan of detective fiction when I started writing the books. I just thought a detective was a great way of getting access to every nook and cranny. He can be talking to the politicians and the judges and the business people who run the city one minute and the next minute he can be down in the stews talking to the prostitutes and the down-and-outs and the people who have absolutely nothing. He’s a great tool for that dissection of society.”

16. Horror: AHHHHHHH!There’s a monster in Margate! • Name as many horror conventions as possible. • http://www.slideshare.net/hippo1/codes-and-conventions-of-a-horror-5671280

17. Writing Horror • “The three types of terror: The Gross-out: the sight of a severed head tumbling down a flight of stairs, it’s when the lights go out and something green and slimy splatters against your arm. The Horror: the unnatural, spiders the size of bears, the dead waking up and walking around, it’s when the lights go out and something with claws grabs you by the arm. And the last and worse one: Terror, when you come home and notice everything you own had been taken away and replaced by an exact substitute. It’s when the lights go out and you feel something behind you, you hear it, you feel its breath against your ear, but when you turn around, there’s nothing there …” — Stephen King

18. Working with genre: Horror • Research the genre you're interested in: look at how key elements are used. I'll use horror as a model, with Alien, a horror/sci-fi hybrid, as an example: • ·Story world: Are there characteristic locations? What are the rules of the story world? Horror uses places where the protagonist expects to feel safe or knows what the dangers are; they become traps once the antagonist appears. (The Nostromo spaceship.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjLamj-b0I8

19. Stakes: • What is usually at risk? How are the stakes habitually raised? Is there a "ticking clock" timeline? Horror places the protagonist in mortal danger, closing off her escape routes as the antagonist draws near. (The Nostromo crew have to prevent the spaceship reaching Earth with the alien on board; Ripley barely escapes.)

20. Protagonist and antagonist: • What are the generic characteristics of the protagonist and antagonist? How is the audience aligned with them? The horror protagonist is a victim who must find extraordinary personal reserves to save herself. Our point of view is aligned with her; we share her terror. Horror antagonists are (literally or figuratively) monsters: superior in strength, malevolent in intent. (Ellen Ripley must turn implacable warrior to defeat the alien's speed and cunning.)

21. "Trigger" and resolution: • ·What are the events that trigger stories in this genre? How are they resolved? Horror triggers bring in the monster, sparking the protagonist's jeopardy. The resolution expects the monster to be destroyed or expelled and the protagonist to escape. (Alien's trigger occurs when the crew members examine the alien eggs. It resolves when Ripley finally ejects the creature from the escape pod.) • Explore triggers in other genres.

22. The "expected scenes": • ·What scenes would audiences expect to see? Horror establishes the protagonist's normal world before admitting the monster. There is a series of attacks which the protagonist at first tries to avoid, before being forced into a climactic battle: whether or not she wins is the writer's choice. (Alien begins with the routine schedule on the Nostromo, disrupted by the discovery of the alien eggs. The first attack takes place on the planet; the injured crewman unwittingly brings the alien onboard and it kills the crew. Ripley thinks she's escaped, but finding that the alien has hidden in her escape pod, she has to fight again.) • · Style: Does the genre employ characteristic visual and aural stylistic devices? Horror's usual tone is one of threat and unease, created by a close alignment with the protagonist's point of view. Strong contrasts of light and shadow conceal rather than reveal information. Periods of calm alternate with bursts of frantic action which grow longer as the action approaches its climax.

23. Genre • Familiarise yourself with the patterns of genre; use your notes to refine your decisions about the story world, characters, events, theme and stakes of your story.

24. Science Fiction Conventions • http://www.slideshare.net/Nikchik89/science-fiction-conventions

25. Mixing genre, time, place, characters – making it extraordinary!

26. Strange creatures, • Medieval writing about travel and foreign places also had its conventions. Like so much literature in the middle ages, it drew much from its own inbuilt literary culture, which included embellishing the plain observations of travellers with material which had been handed down through chains of copying from Classical authors or oral tradition. Factual accounts could be larded with fiction and fantasy drawn from oral tradition or other literary sources. As with other genres, material from earlier authors was borrowed, reorganised, reassembled and presented anew. • Strange creatures, like one legged anthropomorphs who could use their single large foot as a parasol, escaped from Classical literature of the exotic and into the writings, visual arts and psyches of medieval people.

27. So where will you set your walk • Discuss the possibilities with a neighbour and then share with the class. • Also think about the sounds that you can explore? • Plus how would it look visually • What other multimedia aspects could you look into • What programmes will you need to use. • 10 mins

28. REVISIT Setting. • Use the Setting questions to explore/investigate/identify the place/s of your choice: home town or city, village and surrounding areas, the coastal walks, castles and other places of interest, local landmarks etc. • Seesetting questionsquestions on Year 1 Blog • https://creativewritingandjournalismstaff.wordpress.com/2018/10/01/week-4-character-and-setting/ • Once you have a setting experiment and explore the possibilities of storytelling to bring your Walk alive.

29. Writing Task • Write on the theme of landmarks or place in three different genres – include 1 non-fiction. • Crime, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Travel Writing, Local

30. Choose three of the below and write your thoughts plus an analysis exploring: The use of Sound Effects, voice and music How do we identify the genre? Crime http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084dnqp#play horror http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01nt0s0 sci fi http://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/sci-fi/isaac-asimov/isaac-asimov-caves-of-steel-3-of-3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioTYYX4pw3k War of the worlds: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs0K4ApWl4g True crime podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=crime+podcassts Travel podcasts: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=travel+podcassts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPNHguA3CWc BBC writers Room http://www.bbc.co.uk/writersroom/writers-lab/medium-and-format Travel programmes: Excess Baggage: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01gd4lh#play