A Creative Writing Handbook: Developing Dramatic Technique, Individual Style and Voice

An essential guide for writers of fiction, poetry, life writing and drama, A Creative Writing Handbook offers expert advice on structuring compelling narratives and cultivating distinctive voices. Writing, research and editing activities combine with rich and varied examples to help develop the skills and techniques a writer needs. This hands-on approach examines scriptwriting for different media and considers how skills and techniques from one form of writing might usefully cross over to others: how does a short story become a film? How are techniques from scriptwriting employed in novels? And how might poets and life writers fruitfully engage with the strategies of dramatists and writers of prose fiction? This second edition has been extensively updated with content that reflects current developments in forms such as life writing, flash fiction and audio drama. It includes examples of work by a wide range of writers using a variety of styles and approaches, showcasing the diversity of contemporary writing. For individual writers, writing groups and courses, and writers' workshops, A Creative Writing Handbook provides: creative techniques for developing short stories and novels detailed introductions to stage, audio and film writing strategies for incorporating dramatic techniques in poetry thought-provoking approaches to life writing practical guidance on layout and adaptation techniques for different media exciting activities to help writers discover new approaches, strengthen their writing, and develop their own practice and voice. A Creative Writing Handbook has been written by nine published authors and creative writing lecturers who have taught at institutions including the University of Cambridge, the University of East Anglia and New York University. It is edited by Derek Neale, a fiction writer and dramatist who is Emeritus Professor of Creative Writing at The Open University, and Heather Richardson, Emma Claire Sweeney and Siobhán Campbell, Senior Lecturers in Creative Writing at The Open University, who are variously novelists, short story writers, poets and authors of creative non-fiction.

Table of Contents:
Contributors Introduction Part 1: Ways of Writing 1. Playing with genre (Derek Neale) 2. Worlds of fiction (Joanne Reardon) 3. Life writing: outer worlds (Lania Knight) 4. Writing narrative poems (Siobhan Campbell) Part 2: Dramatic Writing 5. Dramatic stories (Dónall Mac Cathmhaoill) 6. Story and image (Dónall Mac Cathmhaoill) 7. Stories in sound (Joanne Reardon) 8. Dramatic journeys (Dónall Mac Cathmhaoill) 9. Adaptation (Dónall Mac Cathmhaoill) Part 3: Developing Style and Structure 10. Splicing narrative strands (Derek Neale) 11. Life writing: inner worlds (Lania Knight) 12. Dramatic techniques in poetry (Siobhan Campbell) 13. Persuasive techniques: using analogy and rhetoric (Emily Bullock) 14. Voices and voicing (Emma Claire Sweeney) 15. Time and timing (Emma Claire Sweeney) 16. The long and short of it (Emma Claire Sweeney) 17. Thematic connections (Heather Richardson) Part 4: Readings Glossary Acknowledgements Index

About the Author :
Derek Neale is Professor of Creative Writing at the Open University, UK. He is the author of the novel The Book of Guardians (2012) and is a script and short story writer. He taught both script and fiction writing at UEA before joining The Open University. He edited and co-wrote A Creative Writing Handbook: Developing dramatic technique, individual style and voice (A&C Black/Bloomsbury, 2009); co-authored Writing Fiction and Life Writing (2009) and was a principle author in Creative Writing: a workbook with readings (2006). Derek is lead educator on the OU/FutureLearn Start Writing Fiction which attracts thousands of writers. His volume Writing Talk – collected interviews with novelists, playwrights, screenwriters and life writers - was published in 2020. Heather Richardson is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the Open University, UK She has published two novels: Magdeburg (2010) and Doubting Thomas (2017). Her poetry, short fiction and creative nonfiction have appeared in journals and anthologies in the UK, Ireland and Australia, and she is a former winner of the Brian Moore Short Story Award. She has a particular interest in multi-modal writing, with recent projects combining textiles, digital art and flash fiction. Her textile art has been exhibited at the International Linen Biennale (Lisburn, 2018) and at the F.E. McWilliam Gallery (Banbridge, 2019).

Review :
PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION The teaching of the book works by reproducing extracts of successful published material, examining how and why it works, and giving exercises that will help you improve your own style by using the lessons from these examples Provides a valuable course in how to think about the art and craft of writing What is beguiling about the writing is the style - these are not academic propositions: they are translations from experience and practice