Write with the Great Writers: English Literature and Creative Writing

1. Creative Writing Introduction : Thank you so much for enrolling in this course on English literature and creative writing. And I hope you're excited to get started because in this course we're going to be looking at the work of some great writers and learning from their technique. My name is Eve Williams. I'm, I hope two degrees in English from the Queen's University in Belfast. On, I'm also a published short story writer, a memoir writer. I'm under professional lyricist. So I'm hoping to be able to guide you in this course and to really working on what were the techniques of some great writers and putting those into practice in your own writing. So there is a diagnosable scrap, but in the next video of the course, which contains all the exercises for the course, I've some background reading material and you can dip and an entrepot algae like, I know some of you probably liked to use good old-fashioned notebook. That's fine tape. So what are we going to cover on this course? We're going to look at poetry, the different forms of poetry. We're going to look at high William Wordsworth approach, writing a lyric emotional poem based on the theme of nature. And we're going to try doing the same thing. We're going to look at high Lord Byron developed a character that a poem on my own character poem. And then we're going to look up Sylvia Plath, Blackberry Yang and write an auction poem of our own. We're also going to look at drama and harder to format a stage play and a screenplay. And we're going to look at high. Arthur Miller, Great American playwright, wrote dialog and developed character three dialogue. I'm going to look at high Shakespeare haunted plot exposition because handling plot exposition is the tricky part of writing drama. We're also going to look at novel writing and hardest structural novel. And again, we're going to look at characterization with Jane Austin and with JK Rowling and some grit downloadable texts available at MCC section of the course. There is a section that's purely on thumb exercises to get your creativity flowing. And a little section on publishing your work on Kindle. I thought something but you'd like to do. So I hope you're excited to get started and let's begin. 2. Creative Writing Scrapbook: Included with this video is your creative writing scrapbook, which contains all the exercises from the course. So it starts off with asking you to describe your identity as a writer slightly, we're gonna talk about bats sing, and then goes on to cover each section of writing within the course. Neither poems that we look at on the course are included and this graphic, but the longer texts, such as scenes of dialogue from novels and plays, are included as separate downloadable resources. So I hope that you're going to have some fun with your scrapbook. It's being attached as a Word document to make it easy for you to edit. 3. Your Identity as a Writer : I'd like you to think about is, who are your favorite writers and why? What is it a boy or their work that really inspires you? So, take your scrapbook or maybe a note back and think about that for a moment. And then we're gonna look at a few other things that might affect your writing. So just before we get started, there are some important things to consider about your identity as a writer. And I'd like you to write this dial and umm, nope, Becker and your scrap. Ok. So the first question to ask yourself, what is your message? What is it that you want to get out there into the world? Is there something you feel really strongly about or maybe something that's happened to you that you want to share with the world. Have a little thank you, bought. The second thing to think about is who needs to hear that message or who's going to be interested in hearing about message. Because working on who your audiences will help you to write for that audience in terms of the kind of vocabulary you use, the imagery you use, really relating and connecting to that audience. Then what genre would you like to write? And we're going to cover several genre in this course. But out of course, you can write in more than one. But what is your man area of interest and terms of literary genre? So once you got to think about those things, let's move on. 4. Poetic Forms: In this section on writing poetry, you can actually choose what form of poem you want to write. But we're going to have a little look first at different kinds of poems on poetic styles. Blank verse is when you have no rhyme, but you do have a very solid matter or rhythm. And usually the mater is what's called iambic pentameter. Shakespeare used this all the time. And I am is basically an unstressed followed by a stressed syllable such as hello. That would be unstressed followed by stressed. And pentameter means there's five of them. That little unstressed stressed, five times that, that gives you iambic pentameter little example here. What a piece of work is, man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving high express and admirable in action. How like an angel in apprehension, how like a god. So let's clap this. There's a little bit of a typo here, but we're going to clap. Rather. Walt up piece of work is man high noble in reason, high, infinite in faculties. Cba domain, very clear rhythm. The next is free verse, which is more associated with very modern poetry. It has no rhyme scheme or rhythm. So here's an example here. A poem by AMI Ludwig von der Walter. I was not happy with the ran until my I caught five wet leaves and mysterious autumn Walter Keller gift here on this broken road. So you're not really tied into any rhyme scheme or any rhythm and free verse. An epic, not an Epic is a length eight narrative poem. Meaning it tells a story quite often based on the distant past. Unwritten and with grander and examples of English would be Beowulf and Paradise Lost. Of course, the poetry of the ancient world, such as the needs on the Odyssey are famous epics. So Paradise Lost as possibly the most famous ethic and English. So here's a little quote from Paradise Lost. All is not lost. The unconquerable will and study of revenge, immortal hit and courage never to submit or yield. And what does else not to be overcome. So very grand themes, very grandiose language that gives you an APIC. Narrative poetry as poetry that tells a story. So a couple of examples of this would be the Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and malaria a lot by Alfred Lord Tennyson, both quite long poems. So here's a little quote from the Liddy of Sherlock. Willows whiten Aspen's quiver, little braces, Dustin shiver through the wave that runs forever by the island in the river flowing dawn to Camelot. For gray walls and for gray tars overlook a space of floors. And the silent Ireland bars, the Lady of Sherlock. So it's very much a story poem. I'm not actually makes it quite long. Pastoral poetry as poetry on a favorite niche or, or the rural life. And an example we all learned that skill is the very famous poem by William Wordsworth, data models. I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high or veils and hills when all at once I saw a cried a host of golden dof, Adele's beside the lake beneath the trace flutter Eigen dancing in the brace. So we're actually going to be looking at this poem and its entire day a little bit later on. And writing our own nature poem, following some of the principles. And allergy, is a poem on the theme of death or loss, for example, to Edison's in memoriam, which contains the very famous line, it is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. That was written the pole, the death of his friend Arthur Hallam. So here's another little quote from in memoriam. Behold, we know not anything. I can't trust that good shall fall at last, far off at last to all, and every winter change to spring, so runs my dream. But well, am I on infant crying in the night and infant crying for the light and with their language, but a cry. So a mournful poem and a poem quite often written in archaic poetic language, rather than being sort of day to day conversational style. A ballot which we may recognize that term from pop music as well as from poetry. But it's basically musical storytelling and n i ballads, for every four lines, lines 13 on 24 usually rhyme. There are some great examples to be found in this end, lyrical ballads, which is a collection of poems by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge. So here is a quote from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, which is the most famous poem and lyrical ballads by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. All in a hot on Kulper sky. The Bloody Sunday at noon, right up above the masthead stand, no bigger than the moon. Day after day. Day after day, we stuck nor breath nor emotion, as idle as appendage ship upon a painted ocean. So it's not completely following the rhyme scheme I've just described. And that 13 don't rhyme. But to E14 to you. So if you're writing a ballot, you can have a 13200 for a rhyme scheme, or you can leave one on three blank. But to unfortunately have to rhyme to MC the poem at Balad. An ODE as an address to a person or an object in praise of that person or object. An example being Kate says, ode to a nightingale or William Wordsworth, ode, intimations of immortality. Notice the immortality owed. So here's a little quote from Oda Nightingale. My heart aches and a drowsy numbness pins my sense as though of hemlock. I had drunk or empty some LDL opiate to the trans, one minute past and lazy words had sunk. It is not enough empty of die happy lot, but being too happy and my happiness. But thigh, light wing a dry it of the trees and some melodious plot of beach and grain on shadows numberless, sing us to summer and praise. So syngas of summer. In Keats's time, it would be more common to say sings of summer, so it's purposefully and an archaic style with archaic vocabulary. So that concludes this short introduction to the forms of poetry that you may have encountered. How you decide to write the poems and this section of what forms the EU's is completely up to you. 5. Wordworth's 'Daffodils' and Writing Nature Poems: We're going to look at a really famous poem by William Wordsworth. No, I call daffodil. And it's a lyric poem in that it deals with emotions and it's a pastoral, and it deals with themes of miniature. So we're going to read this poem and then we're going to write one very similar ourselves. Maybe not very similar, that's completely done to you. But anyway, here is the poem to start off with. I wandered lonely as a cloud that flute Songhai or veils and hills when all at once I saw a cried, a host of golden daft Erdos beside the lick, beneath the trees, fluttering and dancing in the breeze. Continuous as the stars that shine on twinkle and the Milky Way, they stretch to never ending line along the margins of a bay. 10 thousand cyanotic labs tossing their heads and spritely dance. The waves beside them danced, but they did the sparkling waves in glee. A poet could not but be gay in such a jock and Company. I gazed and gazed, but little thought what wealth the show to may have brought for oft when all my college I lie and vacant or impulsive mode, they flash a poem that inward i, which is the bliss of solitude. And then my heart with pleasure fails at dances with the daffodil. So looking at the theme of daffodil, so we're not going to work on our own poem too, a very similar theme. So the first thing I want to ask yourself is what was or is your favorite childhood floor something that maybe has some memories for you? And does this Florida remind you of anybody in particular? So that's the first thing to ask yourself. That, how does it make you feel? Do you feel happy when you remember this flower? Is it actually a sad memory? Maybe lilies at a funeral high. Does this make you feel? Describe the color, texture, size on smell of the floor, like the host of golden daffodil and Wordsworth's poem. Where does it grow? Beside the lick, beneath the trays fluttering, dancing in the breeze, waltz your equivalent of that? Where does your chosen floor grow or where is it put within the heist possibly. And last but not least, is this fluorophore you or would you give it to someone else? So you can choose the form of your poem. You don't have to follow the rhyme scheme of Wordsworth. You can write it in free verse if you like. But let's take these elements and write our own poem. 6. Sylvia Plath's 'Blackberrying' and Writing Rhythm Based Poems: In this video, we're going to look at Black burying by Sylvia Plath and we're going to write a poem about an activity after we've looked at a few things that she does here. So first of all, let's read the poem. Nobody in the land on nothing, nothing but blackberries. Blackberries. And either side though on the right, manly, a Blackberry, Ali, going dine and hooks on the say somewhere at the end of it, heaving Blackberries because the ball of my thumb on Damas eyes, Evan and the hedge is thoughts with blue wrap Jesus. They say squander all my fingers. I have not asked for such a blood sisterhood. They must love me. They accommodate themselves to my milk bottle flattening their sides. Overhead go the chalks and black cacophonous flux, but some paper wailing and a blown sky. There's is the only voice protesting, protesting. I do not think the C will appear at all. The high green matters are glowing as it's lit from within. I come to one bush of black brace so ripe it as a bishop flies hanging there, blue-green bellies and their wings pin and the Chinese screen, the honey face to the berries has stunned them, they believe, and have him one more Hook and the berries ambitious and the only thing to come NIH, is the sea. Between two hills. A sudden wind funnels that may slapping it's Fontan laundry and my fist. These hills or to Greenland suite to have tasted salt. I follow the shape path between them. I last hook brings me to the hills northern face. And the face is orange rock. That looks like I'm nothing nothing but a grid space of white. I'm Peter lights and a den like silver smiths aiding and beta and add an intractable metal. So very much like words were stuffed dose, which we looked at in the last video. This describes an emotion through the kind of imagery of going on looking at the blackberry bushes. Some of the imagery here is quite disturbing. Hanging there, blue-green bellies on their winged pins is as one kind of a moment which is a little bit of an uncomfortable image. Slopping, it's phantom laundry and my face not quite as positive in the subtext. Staff Erdos, there's better discomfort, hair on the whole sort of image of the sea and never getting to the say that there's a little element of depression about this poem. Other, there doesn't have to be in yours. So we've seen in Sylvia Plath poem, but the whole concept of going black burying has a deeper emotional subtext. So I would like you to pick, unlike door activity noise, maybe running, make it maybe walking, running away from something running towards something, walking away, walking with your head toll something that has some kind of emotional resonance. And also think of the rhythm of that activity. For example, running would be very fast, very rapid fire words, walking has that 121212 rhythm, which might inform the rhythm of your poem. Or of course you can write it in free verse. That's completely up to you. So there is another poem that I would like to quote here, even though we've been talking mostly about Sylvia Plath, This is a much older poem by Rudyard Kipling, and it's called six honest serving man. I keep six honest serving man. They told me all I knew. Their names are Walton, why and when and high and where and who and where going to ask all these questions and coming up with a story. And the theme behind this poem, Walt, is the activity waters the sane here. Why is it happening? Why is the person or doors running away from something or indoors walking upstairs? Why has this happened? When in the sense of is this in the morning, is it lit at night in the dark? And also when in history isn't happening in the medieval period or isn't happening right now today. And which kids the vocabulary that you choose is going to be very different is going to be associated with the era in which your poem as set. So high is the character carrying the activity? Are they running quite fast or walking very slowly? You are, they may be a bit pans when they walk high. Are they carrying out this activity? Where is it happening? Sylvia Plath poem was sort of country land with blackberries and either side. Whereas your action happening on who, who is the person carrying out the activity? Who is the narrator? Are there may be several characters involved in the same of this poem. All this is up to you, but if you want to get your notebook, I'm right, Dawn the walt on why and when on high and where on her. That would be grit. Then start forming some images in your head. Because as I say, the central image is going to have unemotional subtexts. And Sylvia Plath poem, there was also the subtext of the sea. So you might want to think of a similar image that has some kind of meaning. As a song writer, I'm very aware of the concept of show. Don't tell. It's much more emotional to talk about the lilies and vases lying wrong, the highs, than to just come out and say there had been a funeral and a lot of people have been visiting. And emotions are quite often triggered by images. So I'd like you to take a few and then include the best ones in your poem. And I can't wait to read some of your work. 7. Byron 'She Walks in Beauty' and Writing Character Poems: This is a poem by George Gordon, Lord Byron, which also makes his physical attributes with something deeper. But this isn't about the poet's own internal world. He describing a character here. And we're going to read this poem. And then we're going to create a character poem of our own. As she walks in beauty. She walks in beauty like the night of cloudless climbs and starry skies and all that's best. Dark and bright mated HER aspect and her eyes thus mellow to that tender light, which heaven to GAL80 day denies. One shade. The more one ray the less had half impaired the nameless gris, which waves and every raven tress of softly lightened his or her thesis. Where thoughts serenely sweet express high, pure hard dare there dwelling place and all not shaken or that broad, so soft, so cam yet eloquent. The smiles that when the tents that globe but tell of days and goodness spent a mind at pace with all below a heart whose love is innocent. So let's look at some of the imagery here. She walks in beauty like the night plied this climes, starry skies. So the dark and bright as something that runs throughout the poem with the raven trusses, for example, which is a dark color. And so comparing this woman to the firmament, the sky, a very dramatic image actually. So we have the ribbon trusses on the tender light we might look at when we're writing our own poems and having back kind of mirror image of dark and light is what's being used here. You can also use dark and light or you can create something completely different. So this actually describes the appearance of the woman quite well. We know that she's got dark hair, that she has a sweet, innocent phis. The words, the soft, describing the character of the woman. You know, all these words paint a picture of a very sweet, innocent, pleasant, beautiful girl. So we are going to think if a character, and then think of some images that we can use to describe that character. So now we're going to create our own character poems. So let's ask ourselves a few questions. And it's her character, likable or unlikeable. And think of a set of contrast I can ideas that might convey something about the character. Lighten dark was what byron used. Perhaps you might want to use hard, unsolved, hot and cold. Or YouTube could use lighten dark. And then thinking a powerful image which can convey something about the nature of the character. For example, the sky, the say, Maybe mountains and valleys. I've gone with niche or images, but perhaps you might want to go with something that's not micelle, that's totally up to you. Just an image that means something to you. And then if it works with your poem, I'm with what you're trying to do. Also think if describing the physical attributes of the character, which is something that Byron does, but in a way that convey something about their nature or personality or how other people react to them. So, you know, kind of describing them. But to describe something that's deeper than just well, they look like. Once again, I'm really looking forward to reading your poems. I'm, I hope that you enjoy this exercise. 8. Writing Plays and Screenplays: In this video, we're going to talk about writing plays. Screenplays, both in the sense of how you format a play on a screenplay. Things like how long it should be, where there should be capitals hide the pitch should be laid out, as well as looking up the artistic side of writing plays and screenplays, handling things like dialogue on plot, exposition. And we're going to go on in this section on look at how Shakespeare, and we'll plot exposition. And high. Arthur Miller handled characterization via dialog. So talking about some of the practicalities when you're writing a play or a screenplay cannot realistically be staged or failed? Or does it have so many changes of saints on some elements of the story that just could practically be brought to the stage or to film. So you think about a Shakespeare in writing, Antony and Cleopatra couldn't get a golden barge on the stage back in those days. So he gave a beautiful speech to Ada bar bas, a bite. The day that onto me first behalves Cleopatra. And it was all done with words. So there can be ways rind things that count based, staged or films. Are there a lot of locations are seeing changes. That doesn't necessarily mean that no one will pick up your script, but it might add to the expense of producing it. And so that's something to think about. Isn't too long or too short. So a screenplay is generally between 7180 pages out of 55 lines per pitch, written that in a very specific way and a play around the Sam it, you know, if you've got some copies of any place in your hi Sunny copies of Shakespeare or more modern playwrights. Maybe a good idea to just look and see how long those plays are high, much text is involved. I'm familiarize yourself with that. Well, any special equipment be required to, for example, I really love the Phantom of the Opera, but it just couldn't be stitched in my local theater because it has to have that falling chandelier, the boat, which is radio controlled. And actually, you know, that has to be in a certain kind of venue. So is the play that you're writing reliant on NA kinda very specialized equipment to that. Something to think about. When you're actually writing the dialogue and other aspects of the script. Be sure to use vocabulary that's fitting to the time period on the location of the story that kind of goes without saying, but if something comes across as anachronistic or it doesn't really sound like the kind of language that character would use them not will be jarring to an audience. So the words are meant to be performed that something that you really have to remember when you're writing for the stage of screen, but also when you're reading Shakespeare was never meant to be read from the page, it was meant to be performed. So Shakespeare, of course, used iambic pentameter, which we will talk about a little bit more in this course, but An iamb is basically short unstressed syllable followed by a stressed symbols such as hello. And a pentameter means five sets of those, but that gave his words our rhythm. So think about how the words actually side. Of course, you don't have to use iambic pentameter, which might sound crazy and a boulder and play anyway, but think about the sign of the words and the rhythm of the words. If you have monologues and your play, do you they advance our understanding of the character? Or do they move the action on in some way? And are they too long? Because it's hard for an audience to take in a really long monologue. Plot. X position can be a very difficult thing. And writing drama there start and information are backstory which you need the audience to know. Hi, are you going to get that across? And Greek theatre, there was a chorus to do this, you could use a narrator. You can have a conversation between different characters. We're actually going to lick a tie. Shakespeare handle plot exposition in Hamlet very shortly. But if you think of the first episode of Game of Thrones, if you've seen Game of Thrones, if you haven't, I'll describe what happens. We need to know something up ICT they wore for the throne. That has happened before the action of the series begins. They has been rebellion. Whenever the set of the King has fallen in love with the daughter of one of the powerful Lords who's been engaged to another Nobel b_1. And this nobleman basically begins our abelian to overthrow the ruling family when he thinks that his love is going to be taken from him. We need to know this. It's very important to the action that's a byte to follow. And it's actually revealed to us through a series of conversations between characters. And that way we get several different views on the same story, which is untrusted item. So that can be one way of handling it. But pluck exposition is tricky, but very important when writing drama. So now let's go on and look at the formatting of place and screenplays. So let's start out by looking at high, you format a stage play. And this is a Dine load which I've included with this lecture, which was created by Mach car lasts, which is available on the BBC website, which just tells you hi to lay ITA play. So he's telling you here that you have a title page, you have one contact to dress in the bottom left-hand corner. It's telling you you should include a phone number if you're aiming to pinch the thing. And if you have an agent than their address and contact details go on the right-hand side. So you'll have noticed if you've ever read any Shakespeare and Arthur Miller, Any other playwrights that before the play begins you get a list of characters. The characters named as usually written in upper kiss on the left-hand side, with a little description of who they are. On the right-hand side, I'm characters are generally listed in order of importance, as it says here. So you'll notice here the setting is given an upper kiss. And then describes the time. And there will be before the play began, some kinda brick dawn of ox that tells you the location of H and why this is important, because if this plays are actually going to be staged, a direct or looking at, it needs to know how many changes of same. There will have debate on whether or not that's possible to pull off. So this is high. The play is actually written act one, scene one. So act numbers are specified in Roman numerals with St. numbers and Arabic numerals. So character names in the middle of the page and uppercase with the dialogue beneath. But as basically Jaime layout and write a play with things like stage directions, of course included in italics, but something else that would have to be included. Play, I would say a rod the same length as a screenplay. So somewhere between seven day a 180 pages with a bite, 55 lines on each page. As a general rule of thumb, nine, we're going to look at high to format as screenplay. And I've actually included downloadable resource which links to a really good website on this topic. But a few things to bear in mind. As we've mentioned before, a screenplay is generally between 7184 pages long. I'm maybe scripts usually come in at about a 110 pages. And there is software called Studio binder, which actually does the formatting for you if you're writing a screenplay. But here's some rules to observe. You can see them on the screen here. It should be written in 12 Courier font. There should be a 1.5 inch left-hand margin. This is to ally directors and actors to make notes. There should also be a one-inch space at the top and bottom of the page. Each paycheck content about 55 lines. Character nims, generally written in uppercase and page numbers are put on the top right hand side with a nought 0.5 inch margin on a full stop after they pitch halving. And same headings should be an uppercase on bold. It's also very important to include things like directions where there's a change of same transitions. For example, like FID ICT might be something you would want to include in the script. Again, there is a downloadable resource, so if you want to peruse that, that would be absolutely grit. And wishing you every success in your stage and screenwriting, if that's something that you want to accomplish. 9. Hamlet & Plot Exposition: In this video, we're going to talk up by something quite tricky and writing a play or a screenplay, and that is plot exposition. And one playwright who handled exposition with a degree of genius, walls, Shakespeare. So we're gonna talk about the first scene of the tragedy of Hamlet to prince of Denmark. So we all know that near the start of Hamlet, the ghost of Hamlet's father appears and tells Hamlet that he has been murdered by Hamlet's Uncle. And this precipitates the action of the play. But there's a few things that Shakespeare needs us to know. Before that can happen. We have to understand Hamlet's father walls and who fought and breast the King of Norway is. And, and some of the action that has precipitated the story. So we're going to look at the very start of Hamlet here. L is a nor a platform before the castle. So remember at this point, imagine you've never seen the play before. Maybe you haven't, or you've never heard anything about it. You don't know anything about his story. So it starts with Bernardo and Francisco team minor characters, guards. Bernardo saying, Who's there, may answer me. Stand on, unfold yourself. So Bernardo replies, long live the king. So we start to realize that their guards for the king. So we have the conversation between the two guards. Then. Marsalis on her ratio enter the fray. And her issue is of course a more major character. And so he actually gives us a little bit of background into what has been happening that the ghost of the former King has been saying by the guards walking about the palace. And there's some debate whether this is imagination or it's really happened, but it does lead to a discussion of the recent history of the goings on in Denmark. Yeah. So here's her issue talking about the appearance of the ghost. What art though about usurps this time of night, together with that fair on warlike form in which the majesty of buried Denmark did sometimes march. By heaven, I charge the spake. So this is her issue talking to the ghost. So volume zaps this time of night. So you zap. That's an important word because basically Claudius, Hamlet's Uncle as a US efforts, it's powerful web within the play. But together with that fair on warlike forum in which the majesty of buried Denmark. In other words, the dad King of Denmark did sometimes March. But the ghost isn't there to speak to her issue and disappears. So Bernardo says to her issue, high noise ratio, you tremble and look pale. Is not this something more than fantasy? What Thank you want? And her issue replies before my God, I might not this belief without the sensible and tree of arch, of mine own eyes. So he sang, he has to believe it because he sees it. So that is. Telling the audience that this really is the ghost of Hamlet's father. We can believe that noise ratio gives up, gives us an important bit of backstory. Such was the very armor he had on, when he, the ambitious Norway combatant, whenever he thought with the King of Norway who was plotting to take over Denmark. So Ferrante once when and an angry parley, he smoked this sled and Pollak's on the ice. Tis strange. So we know from this that Hamlet's father was a very warlike character. Here we have the information, what Shakespeare really needs us to note, at least the whisper ghosts. So our last king, whose image even but now I appear to us walls, as you know, by 14 bras of Norway, they're too predictable by most emulate pride. In other words, he was picking a fight. Dare to the combat in which our valiant Hamlet for, so this side of our known world esteemed Him. So Hamlet's father was also called Hamlet, did slay the sport and brass who buy a sealed Compact was ratified by law and Harold rate did forfeit with his life all those lands which he stood seized off to the conqueror. So there has been a dispute over territories. Hamlet Senior has slang for it, and brass senior, who by a sea of compact. So there had been an agreement, then, four-fifths those lands over to Denmark. So this is actually something that we need to know for future reference. So nicer young fort and brass of unimproved metal hot on Phu. So he's a bit of a hothead half in the skirts of Norway here and they're shocked up a list of lawless resonates. So he's planning to take revenge with a bunch of ruffians for food and diet to some enterprise that half a stomach in it, which has no other, as it does well appear onto our state. But to recover of us by strong hand, I'm terms compulsory for sad lands so lost by his father. So we know by this that the younger fort bras EMS to make war on tape those lands back. So this is background information that we need to know. There are other ways in a play of giving background and formation. Someplace. Use underwriter to get the same information across. Or it could have been in the context of a conversation between k characters, but that's what's going to happen next. Whenever Hamlet meets the ghost of his father and discovers the truth of his father's death. So this information is given to us in a way where It's not just filling in the blanks for us. We can see the fare of the characters that the thought of the ghost high they'd been left on AZ BY recent events. So it's not just dry information giving, it has some kind of emotional impact on that is the genius of Shakespeare. So we apply a byte to carry out an exercise where you'll have a little bit of backstory and you'll decide how you're going to convey this Buck story to your audience in a way that they can understand the story of the play, but also have emotional impact. So the information you need to get the audience is this Sali, who is the protagonist of your play, has just fine right? That she is the daughter of a GIC. Her mother who recently died, has never told her this. And she discovers the information from letters she find and the attic. So high are we going to give the audience this information? There are three different options. I'd like you to choose one of them. The first is the mids are discussing the story. So similar to Shakespeare strategy, having some minor characters gossiping about what's been going on as one way of conveying this information. Or sally herself could be discussing the story with her friend. The benefits of that approach would be that we could actually see Sally's emotional response to having find this information. Or you could use an a retro perhaps sally herself as an older person looking back. That's quite a common form with nourished and drama called The Midwife, of course does that all the time with the older Janice generator. If you've ever watched ICT lander, Claire and her, it's her own story. This is quite common practice and modern screenwriting. And this is a way of giving the audience the information and you may or may not choose to include they emotional reaction of Sally. Rather than just giving the information is fine today, perhaps just giving the information from NIH and developing Sally's reaction to overtime is more what you want to date. It's completely up to you. 10. Arthur Miller Dialogue Exercise: In this video, we're going to talk a little bit apart writing dialogue. And we're going to look at a scene by one of the great American playwrights, Arthur Miller. And this is a scene from a play called the crucible. The crucible is on one level about the Salem witch trials and on another level, a bite, the McCarthy era, so-called witch hunts in the United States. So There's a lot of things going on in this play and this scene that we're a byte to rate, we have a same between John Proctor and his wife, Elizabeth. John Proctor has cheated on Elizabeth with a 17-year-old called Abigail, whose NIH accusing people of witchcraft. I'm basically getting people hang to him. She doesn't particularly like it's obvious that at some point she well, that go after Elizabeth. There's a lot of tension, there's a lot of danger going on. So let's read the same proctors highs it days later, Elizabeth is heard softly singing to the children. John Proctor enters from the right, carrying his gun and leans it against a batch, crosses to the wash. Stan pours water into it from a picture. As he is washing, Elizabeth's footsteps are heard. Elizabeth enters from the left. So you could actually watch this same if you Google the crucible act one S2, I couldn't actually include a video of it here for copyright reasons. And also I want you to see what it looks like printed on a shape. So Elizabeth says, well, it keeps you so that it's almost dark. Proctor says, I, we're planting far right to the forest, adds, Elizabeth, oh, you're done. Then. I the farm is sated, the boys asleep. So note the use of the word I. So, writing around the 19 fifties, Arthur Miller as writing a byte, the period of the Salem Witch Trials a couple of centuries before. So he's trying to use that kind of vocabulary and also a colloquial vocabulary to New England. So dip sounds and water wipes them. Elizabeth, rockets from wastewater and tile goes out left on returns with dish of j. So just notice high stage directions are written in brackets so that actors can understand them. They will be saying, serves G in a dish of steel, in a dish, praying only for a fair summer. So she goes left and returns with another dish. I so you can see the dialog here is very stilted. So with ICT being told, we know that something is happening between these characters. There's some anger on resent what they are. And we can feel that there are things that are not big talk to bite between these tape. So again, this is a great example of show. Don't tell. The way they walk in the light. They concentrate on objects. They're not looking each other in the eye. Their conversation is on a very superficial level, such as Procter saying, Are you well today? And Elizabeth saying, I am, it's a rabbit. Oh, is it cider? I guess, jug from the last pores drink into Peter mug, brings it to him. You come to LET, I thought you'd go on to say love this afternoon. And this is where things are going to start to maybe kick off a bit and promptly says Why I have no business in Salem. You did speak ago and earlier this week? I thought better of it since Mary Warren's there today. Why did you letter? Mary Warren is the household servant and she is a friend of ABA gales and there's some trouble kicking off a rind Abigail. You heard me for bed her to go to Salem anymore. I forbid her go. And she raises up Virgin like the prints and says to me. I must go to Salem giddy proctor. I am an official of the court. So giddy Proctor Mrs. Proctor, using the language of the day, Court walked court. So now we're starting to see that something dangerous is happening in Salem. I it's a proper court. They have NIH they sent for judges out of Boston, she says with the magistrates of the general court and that the head sits the deputy governor of the province. Okay, so this is plot x position. This is information that we really need to understand the story, that it's being given to us in the form of dialogue. A bit like the first scene of Shakespeare's Hamlet, has to go somewhere. And it's actually being told to us here in a way that we have the information we need. But it's also, we're observing the character's emotional reaction to the information. Proctor brackets astonished why she's mad. I would to God she where there'll be 14 people in the jail NIH. She says, I'm there'll be tried and the court have parts a hang them to you. She says they'd never hang the deputy governor, Governor promise Haganah if they do not confess, John, The Times Gone Wild, I think. So. Looking at this saying, there is so much going on here. The relationship between Elizabeth and John proctor. The danger that starting in the time and on a technical level here, we say that wall does not sad and dialogue often tells us as much as what sad, you know, they're, they're not talking about what's happening between them, but we can see from their actions that something has happened between them. We're going to apply that story to unravel so that it can have a bit more resonance. The plot exposition is really expertly handled. We know that there's a dangerous situation going all. These young girls are gathering par and the time that a court has been appointed to try people for witchcraft. And we're being told here straight line. Those people could hang, I mean, they could die. And Elizabeth Proctor, whom we're seeing is quite a sensible character, thinks that this is entirely possible. This could happen. And I'm Procter response, Oh, it's a black mischief. So he is opposing the accusers, the people who are accusing people of witchcraft. That puts him in a dangerous situation, so on awful lot has been set up here. That's going to be important as the play unravels. We are not going to look at writing some dialogue between two characters, also a husband and wife, and also whether it's being some fidelity. Similar to Arthur Miller story. This story is going to be a vital husband. He has been unfaithful to his wife and he's sorry, at Beida. She's actually known that it's being going on, but she's pretended to be unaware. So this secret husband buried so far. So where is this action happening? Are they alone and the highs? Are they at a party or they end the park? Any number of places they could be. And what has preceded this sate, they've both been pretending that this hasn't been going on. They decided not to talk about it. What has suddenly brought it out into the open, and what will happen next, because you may want to make reference in the S2, something that will happen down the line and set something up for the audience. What other characters, edges there, nationality on their backgrounds because these are all things that will impact on the vocabulary that they use. And you want to be sure that the characters vocabulary doesn't jar, that it actually signs natural for those characters. And what era is the story set because that will also affect vocabulary. So you can go with another story if S1 doesn't appeal. But another thing that you might think of doing to complete this exercise is maybe take some aspects from Arthur Miller's passage in the crucible and move it into another era, maybe the modern day 2020, or maybe the 19 forties somewhere else in history. A similar story in a different time. That's something else that you could do it. And I'm really looking forward to reading what you come up with. 11. Novels: What is the big idea?: Quite obviously the first thing that you need to write a novel as an idea of what you're going to write a byte. And quite often, a great ideas suddenly hits writers, either the blades that can happen. But let's look at a few places where you might get inspiration and coming up with your big idea. It could be based on your own experience on something thoughts happened to you. The war poets such as safe frayed system on Wilfred Owen. Much writing about their own experience of the war on JRR Tolkien used his experiences of the First World War to write The Lord of the Rings that those are in there. So that was, you know, based on experience, whether it was an old autobiography or actually worked into a fantasy work. It could be inspired by something you have read. For example, Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein after reading Shelley's Prometheus on bonds on it was almost her answer to that. So it could be inspired by another text. It might be inspired by the folk tradition of your community from legends or fairy stories. That is a great place to find a wealth of stories on. You can write a tale that is a fantasy tail, like a fairy tale, or actually bring some of the things very much into the modern day. It might be inspired by someone known to you on something, but as happened to someone that you know. Or it could also be inspired by. History. History is of course, a huge inspiration for novels. We look at say, in McKinsey, atonement, writing a byte, the Second World War. You know, historical novels are still very, very popular and they quite often date with themes that are relevant today. The idea might actually come from your hobbies and interests. For example, TH White wrote the Balkan because, because of course he was interested in bulk and right. If you're interested in hiking, motorbike, getting something that you're passionate about, which also is an area in life where you meet other people that can be a great place to find inspiration. And it could actually come from somewhere you have visited, somewhere that was magical to you. I know that I once visited done lace castle in Northern Ireland and I've always meant to write a screenplay. I bite the Macdonald family who lived there ever since. I've never actually done it, but I felt inspired by the place. So if you're looking for inspiration, radar, having hobbies, and going light on visiting nucleuses are old grip things today. 12. Structuring a Novel: Let's look at some of the structures that have been used and very famous novels. And think about how you might be able to use those structures in your own writing. So one of the most famous novels in the English language, as grit expectations by Charles Dickens, My, It's first-person narration. And the pip who is the protagonist of the novel, tells us the story. And it's pretty much a linear story. It goes from his childhood right the way through to the kind of culmination of his relationship with a Stella, if you know the novel, so it goes from beginning to end. There is a significant twist, a certain expectation as Setup which is then messed with the Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner, the American modernist writer, basically tells the same story of a family from four different perspectives. It tells the story from the perspective of a member of the family who has a learning disability, his two brothers on the families made and we learn new things and every telling of the story. So the information gradually unfolds to us. And it's quite an emotive way of writing, a character based way of writing. While during heights by Emily Bronte follows an interesting structure and the action is set in the past. The novel begins with a young man coming to live and an old heist. And Nelly Dane, who as a servant at the old ties, tells him the story of what has happened to air. There's actually two narrators in that sense, to weathering heights. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin is omniscient narration. And it begins with that famous line. It is a truth universally acknowledged that a young man and possession of a large fortune must be in a want of his wife. And that's pretty linear storytelling from beginning to end. Very traditional storytelling to the light hottest by Virginia Woolf, moves between time periods significantly. So it's clear sections, one set and one time periods before the first World War, one after the First World War and on much has happened in between. So it kind of blocks and it uses what's called stream of consciousness, where it's not so much about describing auction and story as the internal processes going on and a character or characters minds. So here are some different ways of creating a structure for your story and a style for your story. And of course, certain roles that a novel follow generally on novel will be split up into chapters, may or may not have an introduction on to conclusion. But in some way divided into sections that, that makes sense within the story is something else that often Homs, there is no real guidelines as to how long a novel convey. And although it could be a 100 pages or it could be a thousand pages, a thousand pages might be pretty hard to pitch to a publisher if you're just starting out though, which is something to think about. And then of course you think about something like the Harry Potter series, where the novels started quite short on, got longer as the series progressed. So I don't think you really need to em, for a certain word kind when you're writing a novel, if you're pitching it to a publisher, it would be traditional to sand a synopsis of the novel, including its structure and general outline of the story and sample chapters as well. 13. Relatable Characters : Greg, works of fiction are often really well loved because they have relatable, likable characters or sometimes really plausible, unlikeable characters. So we think of Harry Potter series. So many brilliant characters lead a love, good Molly Weasley, several snip. There's a brilliant character. Jane Austen's novels, you don't go Elizabeth Bennett, who has her faults, but people warmed her. The really Odious Lady Catherine, to bark. At recent big hit on TV, gave a throat. People loved Tyrion Lancaster out by really, really hit a Joffrey, you know, emotional reactions to characters. Our big part of our experience when we're reading a text. So what I would like you to do is think of perhaps two or three of your favorite characters in literature. And what is it a biped, those characters that you like? What aspects of their personality or their interaction with other characters causes you to feel a connection with them. And hi, is this achieved with m, the text? There are different ways within a text or portraying a character. Sometimes we get on all light passage describing the character, character description. We can tell a lot of Beida character from dialogue with other characters or from their actions. So high is it that this character has been conveyed to you? That's something to think about. 14. Lady Catherine de Bourgh: So we've talked a bit abide high. A great novel depends on grit, characters. And most people view Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin as a grant novel. So I want to talk about one of its most memorable characters, not very likeable character, Lady Catherine de Berg. So her character and this same Israeli portrayed via dialog. So she's turned up at the bandits highs. She has completely ignored any social nice days. She's made it clear that she's in a higher class and the bandits and that she likes dawn on them. And I, she's about to have a pretty terse conversation with Elizabeth Bennett, who has been proposed to buy her wealthy nephew, Mr. Darcy. But unbeknownst to Lady Catherine, Elizabeth has turned Mr. Darcy dine, so she says, you can be at no loss. Ms. Bennett, to understand the reason of my journey hither your own heart, your own conscience must tell you why I come. Elizabeth looked with unaffected astonishment. So she's so rude, she's so out there, out also, Elizabeth has no idea what she's talking about, but her arrogance assess such that she just SIMs the Elizabeth bus. No. Indeed, you are mistaken, Madam. I have not been at all able to account for the honor of seeing you here. So Elizabeth, despite Liddy, Catherine de bags, redness, is actually quite polite back about that, just a noise harm or Ms. Bennett replied her lady ship and an angry tone. You ought to know that I am not to be trifled with. But however insincere you may choose debate you shall not find. So my character has ever been celebrated for its sincerity and frankness. Now that's quite interesting because she's actually being abrasive on-road. But she sees this as a virtue, sincerity and frankness. And in a cause of such moment is this. I shall certainly not depart from it, or a port of a most alarming nature reach me two days ago, I was told that not only your sister was on the point of being most advantageous, Lee married, not not that much was trade. Her sister had gotten engaged to Mr. Darcy's brand. But that you that Miss Elizabeth. But note the kind of licking dine on Elizabeth, Miss Elizabeth Bennet. She's not a lady than it would in all likelihood be soon afterwards united to my nephew, my own nephew, Mr. Darcy. Though I know it must be a scandalous falsehood, though I would not injure him so much as to suppose the truth of it possible. I instantly resolved in Senegal for this place that I might make my sentiment known to you. So I'm going to include this passage is a downloadable resource so that you can read it all for yourself. But let's ask a few questions about this character. Obviously, she's not coming across well here. But why is it that her unlinkability is being conveyed? What words and phrases on elements of her vocabulary are showing her arrogance. You know, just for example, my nephew, my own nephew. You know, there's something special about us, but as you read the passage, you might find a few more. And the idea of status, she's a higher status. Elizabeth is a lower status, high is that been conveyed? And overall, what is the sense of this woman that we get? And also other characters react to her. Elizabeth is up first, quite polite Bach to her, but we know that some other characters in the novel are very obsequious to hire. But what is her impact on the people around her? That's a few things to think about before. We write a character of our own. So, as we've mentioned before, creating a work of art that really resonates with people who work of literature that resonates with people can be all the byte creating lovable characters that we can relate to or characters whom we love to hit, such as Lady Catherine do Berg. And here is a picture of Lady Catherine de Berg in the BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. And then moly Weasley from Harry Potter night, the genius of the writing and hurry Paltrow is that we have such realistic characters in fantasy worlds. And there were so many to choose from Severus Snape, but amazing character, Hermione grandeur. Lena left. Good. Where do I stop on then? To the far right, a very popular character of recent years. Tyrion Lancaster, popular for his sense of humor, his intelligence on his warmth. So we're going to look at what's involved in creating a memorable character. And we're gonna do a little exercise. So creating your character. The first thing I want to ask yourself is, is your character likable or unlikeable? What are their goals in the context of the story and in life in general? And what are their key values because those are big factor and making us relate to character or dislike the character. What's their manner when they're speaking? Why did they come across? What kind of vocabulary do they use? And also their physical attributes. And when we were writing up quite a character and the context of a poem, we mentioned tie. Physical attributes shouldn't just be a description of, oh, well, she has dark hair and the small nose on Brian eyes. It should be within the context of causing us to have some kind of reaction to the character. So write a character description using all this information, a straightforward description of this person on what they're like. And then write a dialogue between this character and someone who actually opposes their goals are their man m's, because we can tell an awful lot about a person from the way that they do with conflicts or with someone who doesn't see eye to eye with their key values. 15. Harry, Luna & the Thestrals: Now I'm not going to look at a very, very moving scene from JK Rowling's novel Harry Potter, the Order of the Phoenix. Now JK Rowling as just a genius I characterization, which is why people really love her books about on, of course, the storytelling, on the language. But we're looking at characterization in the same. So just to give you a little bit of a backdrop, there are magical creatures called festivals, and the only people who can see the festivals are people who've witnessed death, who have experienced death and their lives. So Ron and Hermione, Harry Potter spreads, can't see the festivals. In fact, at the start of the book, he says the fastest pulling the carriages that are taking them to school. And Ron and Hermione think he's mad and say there's nothing there. And a lunar love goods is another character who can say the festivals, but she's often dismissed as being a bit of a crockpot, a bit eccentric. So no one really pays attention to this. During the course of the novel, harry loses someone. He really loves his godfather, Sirius Black. And it's only in this passage right at the very end of the novel that he comes to realize that lunar can see the festivals too. And that actually there must be a reason for that, but something must have happened to Lena. He's been having a bit of a teenage hormonal thing through the course of this novel being a bit selfish. And in this scene we say a lovely moment and his character and that he has empathy. He starts to think about what Luna is failing. But we also see some more depth to the character of Luna who is picked on by her schoolmates, who's thought of as a bit of a figure of thumb. But here we see her as a character with some real depth and very likable, unreliable. So I'm going to read you this passage and you might need to zoom in if you want to read it from the picture. Very sorry about that, but this passage is just amazing. So I wanted to cover it here, not at the feast. Harry asked, well, I've lost most of my possessions, said Luna serenely. People take them and hide them, you note. But as it's the last my I really do need them back. So I've been putting up signs. She gestured towards the notice poured upon which she sure enough, had pending list of all our missing books and close with a plea for their return. And all feeling rows and hiring and emotion quite different from the anger and grief that had felt him since serious his death. It was a few moments before he realized that he was feeling sorry for Luna. Has people hide your stuff. He asked her frightening. Well, she shrugged. I think they think I'm a bit ology note, some people call me loony loved good. Actually, hari looked at her and the new feeling of pity intensified rather painfully. That's no reason for them to take your things. He said flatly, do you want help finding them? Oh, no, she said smiling attempt. They'll come back. They always do in the end. It was just that I wanted to pack tonight anyway. Why aren't you at The faced Harry shrugged. Just didn't feel like it. No. Said Luna observing him with those ugly mistake protuberant eyes. I don't suppose you do. That, man, the data faders killed was regarded father wasn't a Ginny told me. How are you noted currently, but find that for some reason he did not mind lunar talking about serious hit. Just remembered that she too. Could see festivals. Have you he began I mean, who has anyone ever died? Yes, settling is simply my mother. She was a quite extraordinary which you know, but she did like to experiment on one of her spouse went rather badly wrong one day, I was nine. I'm sorry. Harry mumbled. Yes, it balls rather horrible. Settling or conversationally. I still feel very satisfied it sometimes, but I've still got Dad. And anyway, it's not as though I'll never see him again. Is it or isn't it said Haiyan certainly. She served shook her head and disbelief. Oh, come on. You heard them just behind the veil, didn't gee, you mean in that room with the archway, They were just lurking out a site. That's all you heard them. They looked at each other. Luna was smiling slightly higher. He did not know what to say or to think. Lunar believes so many extraordinary things. Yet, he had been sure he had heard voices behind the veil to are you sure you don't want me to help you look for your stuff? He said No, said Luna, No. I think I'll just go down and have some pitting and wait for it all to turn up. It always does in the end. Well, it's holiday Harry. Yeah. Yeah. Youtube. She walked away from him and as he watched her go, he find that the terrible wit and his stomach seemed to have less than slightly? No, I, I don't know about you. You may or may not be a Harry Potter fan, but I actually slightly won't cry when I read that passage because of the empathy between the characters. Harry, who's lacked empathy for part of the spec, is sorry for Luna because she's being bullied by her fellow students. On Luna, feels a sympathy towards Hari because he's lost someone that he loves and so has shaped. And you'll notice in the depiction of lunar hare, I've lost most of my possession. She said serenely, people take them and hide them. You know, it's the matter of fact statements that people are picking on her and she seems to have a total lack of bitterness of AI that's and literal. When she talks about the death of her mother, she says, I still feel very satisfied at sometimes. So there's a condor on an honesty there. That's really quite likeable. So she knows that people call her loony love good. And actually Ron Hermione, Harry might have been slightly guilty of propagating this unkind nickname. And it's just both the characters available here of both the characters, high-res empathy. Harry, he's actually got the ability to feel sorry for other people to want to help other people. I'm Luna, who has been thought of as a bit of a crockpot, actually has emotional intelligence hair. She knows that Harry is experiencing a sense of loss. She knows why it is that he's not at the face day, hasn't gone to the party. And both the characters are very well described in this passage through something very deep that they have in common and that is death and loss. So JK Rowling here is dealing with a very, very heavy universal theme of death and loss and the idea of being beyond the veil. Semiotically and semiotics are the symbols of literature. Beyond the veil is something that we associate as being with death. But what's lovely is up the end of this passage. Harry, who really has been devastated by the lowest, his godfather fails, comforted by his interaction with Luna. So a very, very moving passage. So we're going to look at why that is and why it's being set up so that we, we really do feel for these characters. And the things that I'd like you to think about it as high Are these two characters, the Sam, what they haven't called them night. It's quite obvious that the loss is what they have in common. What else do they haven't called them? How are they different from each other? You know, Luna is very uncool. Hari Is he is the boy that lived. He's a bit of a celebrity High else do they differ from each other if you know the book, if you don't, just from this one passage. How do they differ from each other? And what does each character won't from the other? What does each character expecting to get from this interaction? And how does it turn out? I mean, how are you when he sees Lena and he says to her, You know, why aren't you out the party? Is he looking for comfort over serious? I think not. He thinks he's just going to have a sort of social conversation with hair. What about Luna? Do you think she purposefully wants to engage Harry and the conversation because she thinks she can comfort him or is she just being conversational? No right or wrong answer. But what is your perception from this passage? What is the situation between these characters? We've talked about a BI, Hi, Lynn is considered to be a bit of a crack pot and high is it resolved? I mean, if you've never read the book, Hardy, imagine these characters are going to relate in the future. After this, if you have read the book, hires this pivotal moment and their relationship to think about all those things. And then write some dialogue between two characters of your own. Where one has experienced a horrible situation and the other one is surprisingly able to comfort them. And we're going to look at the sand things. I mean, how are they the same? Are they different? What does each character won't from the other? Do they actually get that? Or do they get something quite different? 16. The Right Vocabulary: In this video, we're going to look at finding the right words and phrases that go with your style and signed right for your characters. I looked up the term unrequited love. And here's a couple of quotes that I find arrived unrequited love just by way of example. The first one is from Thomas Hardy's tasks of the carbons. So this is Victorian writing. They were simple and innocent girls on whom the unhappiness of unrequited love had fallen. They had deserved batter at the hands of fit. She had deserved worse yet she was the chosen one. It was wicked of her to take all without paying. So I'll, Thomas Hardy is here as being slightly critical all Victorian morality. But you'll notice where it's like fit, undeserved, worse on wicked. These all create a certain atmosphere in the book. If you've ever read it, tests, unfortunately becomes pregnant out of wedlock, which is a disaster for a young woman of her time. She falls in love with a man who later deserts her. So it's quite a sad story, but you can say that the kind of use of language here does, did it? I think we would rate this on know that this was an older texts, or at least a text that set. And in Victorian times. So another quote on the same thing. This is from a song called You belong with me by Taylor Swift. You're on the phone with your girlfriend. She's upset. She's going off about something that you said because she doesn't get your humor like I do. I'm in the room. It's a typical Tuesday night and listening to the kind of music she doesn't like and she'll never know your story like I do. So just with the fact that you're on the phone with your girlfriend, it's obviously a more modern setting, but she's going off about something you said. She's going off. Colloquialism. You know, it's idiomatic English. It belongs to insert an edge group, a certain location, perhaps a kind of American way of saying thanks that though I don't know, maybe it might be used in other parts of the world as well. But we can definitely did this AS being more modern, more contemporary. And it does have a certain American vibe to it. So these are things to think about when you're writing. Who is the intended audience of the text? Are they going to be able to gel with your style and is the vocabulary that you're using appropriate to them? Who are the speakers? Because of course, not every character in your text will speak in the same way. So what are the characters and in which era did they live? That's going to impact the kind of vocabulary use as their geographical location will do. There may be a dialect in that part of the world. You might have a skull Daesh character or a Northerners character. If you have a northern ours character, you use the word weigh a lot, doesn't weigh ten of Diet Coke. You know, all these kind of things come into play. What is the economic background with a character? That's another factor that can impact on their vocabulary, economic background, and level of education. So here is a great exercise for you to carry out. First of all, write the story of a nineteenth-century women in love with a man whom she can never married him, she can never have. And you can fill in the details there of why she can never marry him. What might've happened between them? Then write exactly the same story featuring 21st century characters and in 21st century settings. And note the differences in vocabulary that you'll have to use in order to create a 19th century backdrop out a 21st century backdrop. 17. Creating a Short Story: In this section, we're going to look at creating a short story. I'm, we're going to consult to master storytellers, JRR Tolkien on Rudyard Kipling. Short stories are still very popular in women's magazines, on the blogs and in literary publications. So it is good to have a selection of writing short stories. And it can't be a good idea to attempt writing short stories before you take on the longer form of the novel. So some things to think about when writing a short story. Quite a thousand words, because there are magazines and publications that ask for stories that are 502 thousand words. Keep your sentences short and punchy, and create memorable characters the same way you would in a novel. Your story needs to have a clear structure that readers can follow. Memoirs are actually very popular at the moment, I published a set of memoirs that has so decently for me on candle. People are interested and hearing the stories of other human beings basically. 18. Baa Baa Black Sheep: Included as a downloadable resource with this video is a short story by Rudyard Kipling called Bhabha black shape lie. In real life. As a child, Rudyard Kipling and his sister were sent to stay with an English family while his parents lived in India. He had a very, very bad time there. They were traded quite cruelly. They only brick that they thought was going to stay with their amped for a bump over Christmas. Eventually, Kipling's mother returned to England and rescued them from this horrible situation. And Kipling was sent to a military school. So the story is called baobab black shape. It's a short story and it's a really great story to rate. I'm going to quote you a little bit of it here. All this time with not aware to white, black sheep. He came later on, Hari, the black haired boy, was mainly responsible for his coming. Judy, who could help loving little GET passed by special permit into the kitchen. And that strand to AMT roses heart harry was AMT roses one child and punch was the extra boy, a byte behind ice. There was no special place for him or his little affairs. And so when he was forbidden to scroll on sofas, unexplained his ideas about the manufacturer of this world and his hopes for the future. Sprawling was lazy, I'm worldwide sofas and little boys were not expected to talk. They were talked to and they're talking to was intended for the benefit of their morals. As the unquestioned desk boat of the Hyslop Bombay punch could not understand how he came to be of no account of this new life. So this very much feels rail like a real experience. He's being important in his home in India. He's Bain, his parents beloved son. And he finds himself in a household where he's not particularly wanted a not particularly cared for it not I hope that you don't have experiences like that. But I would like you for the purpose of this short story exercise, to think of something that happened to you perhaps and childhood perhaps or the mat, which was a situation which was later resolved and write byte high, that situation came a bite. What it was like at the time was Results and perhaps what you feel about it at NIH. 19. Leaf By Niggle : Leaf by ego, which is included as a downloadable resource, is the only work of fiction by JRR Tolkien, which was actually set in contemporary times that he wrote in his own day. He of course, most wrote, mostly wrote fantasy fairy tale works, such as The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion. So this short story, unlike Bhabha black shape by Rudyard Kipling, which is very much based on real life experiences. This story is based on a metaphor and it has something to say about the power of art to depict life. The late character, Nagel is a painter and his panting really represents his life and the things that he's done with his life. So here's a little passage here that summarizes that. Of course, painting has uses, said Tompkins. But you couldn't make use of his painting. There's plenty of scope for bold young man, not afraid of new ideas and new methods, not for this old-fashioned stuff, private daydreaming. He could not have designed a telling poster to save his life, always fiddling with leaves and floors. I asked him why once he said he felt they were pretty, can you believe it? He said pretty. What? Digestive and genital organs of plants. I said to him, he happened to have nothing to answer. Silly fiddler, hitler side Atkins. Yes, pro Ban. He never finished anything. Well, his canvases have been put to better uses since he went. But I'm not sure Tompkins, you remember the large one? The one that I used to patch the damage has next door to his After the gales and floods, I find a corner of that toward all flying in a field. It was damaged but legible. A mountain peak and a spray of leaves. I can't get it out of my mind. So please do read the story. It's an exceptionally beautiful and it is all about the par of art. And then I would like you to think of a metaphor of your own and this story, the image as the panting but per highs come up with an image that represents something to you. And write a story that is basically a prose poem that uses a central metaphor. A metaphor or a symbol which represents something else that you're talking about. For example, in the song Hotel California. When they talk about the hotel, it's really a bite. The life of celebrity on drug-taking that's being discussed. So come out with a metaphor, write a short story based on this metaphor. On your metaphor can be something in art, something in nature that's completely up to you. 20. Teddy, Candle, Lightbulb: This is an exercise like quite often do when I'm doing songwriting workshops. And it really helps get your creativity flowing and help you create a story. So I'm going to present you with three objects. First is a TeddyBear, second is a candle, and third is randomly light bulb. Okay, I want you to pick one of those objects. But all of these three objects could have some kind of emotional resonance. A teddy bear may have associations with childhood. For example, this pair is called cheeky knows he's actually 70 years old. He's beta my family for a long time. He's witnessed a lot of things. So he could tell a lot of stories. A candle could be candles on a birthday cake. We might light accountable for someone who is unwell or to remember someone a candle could be associated with Christmas time. There's a lot of emotional resonance to the idea of a candle. So third item, a light bulb, rather mundane, everyday practical household object. But imagine in a really, really important moment where some kind of important meeting between two people or maybe more than two people is happening. And suddenly the lights go white. So there's emotional potential to all these items. I want you to pick one of the items, the barrow, the candle, or the light bulb. And I won't you to describe the IDA. It's edge, its color, its size, its smell, its texture, all that kind of thing. Then come up with some kind of backstory of Ron, this item. Hi, did this item and up in the character's voice. When did this item? And up and the characters highs. Where in the ice is this item? Why hasn't been put there? And what happens next? So we're using Rudyard Kipling's six starving man. Who, what, where, why, when. To form a story about one of these objects. So you can write that DOD and your scrapbook or you can put that down in a notebook of your own. I hope you enjoy this exercise. 21. Using Google: In this exercise, we're going to use good old GIGO to come up with a short story or a poem, perhaps a bit of dialogue, whatever genre you want to write this and this is Harvard gonna go in the min I did, I want you to go to Google and type of big emotional word such as happy. So I'm typing in the word happy and then I'm going to images. So of course we got to love a smiley faces. Oh, we've got a guy there and the RAD top helix, quite happy could be a story there. Let's keep going. Some floors. Girl in a field. Just keep going until you find an image that particularly appeals to you. So I saw a little wild buck that particularly appealed to me. Let me find it again. Don't scroll through to fast. Let's go with this one. So we'll make it bigger. So a family with a kite. So let's make up a story about this family with a kite. Why are they white flying this kite? Who are they? Where in the world are they? Why did they get there? What's going to happen next or what has happened just before this story. This is the kind of question to ask yourself to make a story out of the image. Also, you can describe the image within your writing. We can see here the sun behind the trees as it sunset or sunrise, but comes into what time of the day is. But the colors of the sky, the colors of the failed, the colors the characters are wearing. They seem to be quite a tall family. You might want to mention that, you know, the presumably the mother other perhaps she's an older sister, and the little girl both have long hair. The kite is many colors. I can see blue, pink, and yellow. You describe all these things in your story and answer the who, what, when, why, where on high. And you could come up with something grit just using Google. 22. Your Earliest Memory : In this exercise, I would like you to think of your earliest memory or an early memory if you're not sure what your earliest memory actually is, which is totally possible. So how old were you when this happened? Else was involved in the memory. Who else was there? What happened and why did you fail, abide it at the time? And can you describe the textures, smells, colors, some of the words that were sad, the signs, the place where this happened, as much detail as you can possibly get. Dawn just jumped on in a notebook. I'm hired to. You've failed memory. Not all these years later. So you can write this story in the form of a prose passage of a poem, or perhaps of a short story, or perhaps as a saint and a clay with dialogue or a model lug. Whatever way you choose to write the story. I hope that you enjoy this exercise. 23. Intertextual Writing: Intertextual writing is when you take an idea or theme from one work of art and incorporated into another. And this isn't pure plagiarism. It's using another text as inspiration. Shakespeare, for example, never wrote an original story. He always relied on older stories and texts. There was a play called hom that, which was considered to be an inspiration to Shakespeare. There are books such as kits Chopin's, The Awakening, which is based on bass, Madame Bovary. It's quite common in literature for writers to take their lead from other writers. Another example would be Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. What she wrote in response to Shelley's poem, Prometheus on bonds. Because she really actually didn't agree with what he was saying in Prometheus onBind, which was a bite. A character who stole fire from the gods to create himself on incurred the wrath of the gods. And he was in sympathy with that character. Whereas in Frankenstein, Mary Shelley makes the point that it's not always wise to play God. So we're going to write something based on a very famous text. This is a very famous quote from, in memoriam by Alfred Lord Tennyson. It's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. So think up a light your own response to that. But at the time that tennyson wrote these lines, he had lost a very good friend, Arthur Hallam. He actually named his eldest son Halem. And he wrote this as an allergy, which was very much a memorial for someone he loved who had died. So you might want to apply the sentiment to your own experience or the experience of someone you know. And think about whether or not it holds true in that situation. So as we've mentioned, the first place to start is, what is your reaction to the sentiments? And you can actually write something and either defense or opposition of the sentiment. I actually wrote a song with a co-writer, cold oblivion in memoriam, being something you won't to commemorate or keep in memory and oblivion, of course, being totally forgotten. On the first line of the song walls, they say it's better to have loved and lost. I don't believe that to be true now than it was in the context of a song I wrote. I actually do have sympathy with the sentiment, but you can go either way. You can actually quotes in memoriam outright unused those words because their odds of copyright. Or you can just hint at them. So create a story containing the love and loss to demonstrate your point on you can do this and whatever genre you want to write n, you can write some dialogue. You can turn this into a poem or a short story. You can mimic the style of the poem which is an allergy and uses quite archaic and grand duos language. Or you can make it more modern and a little bit more down to earth. It's completely up to you. 24. Selling Your Book on Kindle: Some of you may be writing just for your own personal pleasure, and some of you may be seeking like a traditional publisher, which is a great thing today. But I thought I'd talk a little bit about selling your book on candle because that's something that I do. Just bear in mind. That Kindle is a very, very cried of market and it's very hard to trend. And it does take awhile to form a readership. So alpha suites that it's a crowded market, it's hard to trend, but let's look at some tips to help you to do that. First of all, use Kendall create to form up the book. You can upload a PDF to kindle, but it doesn't look very professional. And it could put Kendall raiders off because it's not the format that they're used to on Kindle. So kendall create is free software which helps you format your book if you want it to look very professional, very slick, you can get someone to format it for you quite cheaply on freelancer websites such as fiber on Upwork. The cover is very, very important on the general guidance is not to do it yourself because it's quite specialized. As people bribes three lists of books on Amazon. They're likely to be drawn by the appearance of the cover and it should represent the theme of the book. The faults are very important in conveying your style. Again, it's something that you can have quite cheaply done on fiber F I V R, R.com or Upwork.com. Up WOR k.com, where you can find someone to do this for you at a reasonable rate. And you can sort of be Prize two or three different covers on and pick the one that most appeals to you. You use searchable keywords and the book description. And if you don't do this, people are basically not going to find your book on task ICT keywords by searching on Amazon. And at the head of H search, say hi, many reviews the top books have gotten. So if you search for, say, romantic epic poetry collection, if the top three books only have a handful of reviews, dot shows you that there isn't a lot of demands on that topic. If they have thousands of reviews, then you've hit quite a popular genre for your book. You count, of course, include key works from several searches in your description on it's wise to do that. Also include reviews on endorsements and the description. Especially if you're a new writer, people have never read your work before. You have to really give them a reason to do so and to span the time perusing the free sample. So if you've got someone whose opinion matters, say something good about your work, it's definitely the place to put it on, even if you've just got a quote from someone who's read it and loved it, you know, put it in the description. Kindle select is grit to join and that if you don't, raiders gotta find it pretty hard to find your book. If you join Kendall select, you can run promotions on your book. You can run short-term free promotions or cut price promotions that are time-limited. And your book will be included in the Kindle lending library. And if you've never used a candle lending library, it's grit. You can read a book and return ups and then take out another BEC you can have. I think it's seven bucks at a time that might have changed recently. You're probably wondering, but why would I want people to just borrow my Beck with ICT, buying it? Well, you do actually get paid royalties for every page that they read. Ask raiders for reviews at the end of your book, just put in a little note that says, enjoyed this book. Please leave a review because active readers want to see the other people have reviewed your book, have rats on, enjoyed your book or have had a strong reaction to it, maybe negatively, that also encourages people to read it. But they won't to see some social briefing. You know, if it has absolutely no reviews, it's also not going to come very far up the search results. So getting reviews is pretty crucial, but don't just get your friends and family to log onto Amazon and leave you a glowing review without buying the bec, because Amazon will thank thought seems a bit dodgy. And perhaps Bon your book, thinking that you have been breaking their community guidelines by just getting fake reviews. So be a little bit careful about that. If you've got any questions up on it, selling books on Kindle or formatting, because for Kindle, please feel free to send me a message. 25. Printed Copies of Your Books: We're going to talk about a byte printed copies of your Beck's, my having copies of your books printed can be quite expensive. And so some people choose to sell their books purely digitally, which is fine, but we're going to talk about getting printed copies of your bugs if that's something you'd like today. Again, the cover of your book is very, very important in guiding people in the decision of whether or not they want to buy it. So be sure that the camera is designed by someone who knows what they're doing. And the cover of your printed but can also be designed by professional that you can find online, up fiber or Upwork. So you will need an ISBN number on Amazon can supply you with an ISBN number. You'll also need a bar code if you want to sell your book at corner shop, supermarkets, book shops, and they were commercial. If your resident in the UK, you'll need a copy for the British Library. As the British Library aims to keep a copy of every book published within the UK. So hey, we'll print them on Amazon Kindle. Can either print J, a collection of your Beck's or they can print on demand. So if someone orders a paper copy of your book, it will be printed out and sent to them. That's great because there is no west edge that way. You won't end up having books printed that aren't going to be sold. There are local printers, on, on-line printers whom you can find who print up copies of your books for you and deliver them to you. So where can you sell books if you choose to have them printed up? Well, you can give talks and lectures. For example, I give a lecture every year in the CS Lewis Festival in Belfast on I promote my books. There are, of course, you can arrange talks and lectures yourself. If there isn't a festival going on locally that you feel you could speak out. You can give but gratings and orange but gradings. You can sell your bucket, but clubs and give talks a bit. Clubs, churches and social events are places where you can sell books, an organization's interests is the topic of your beck, For example, I happen to have rheumatoid arthritis. And of course, the issue of rheumatoid arthritis comes ends my memoirs. So some rheumatoid arthritis publications were entrusted my Beck MIC days. You can also sell your book at bookshops, local bookshops, specialist bookshops who deal in your genre or the topic of your book. Or there's no reason why you shouldn't pitch your book to chins if that's something that you won't today. 26. Conclusion : Thank you so much for taking part in this course. I really do hope that you've enjoyed it and that you'll continue to write on that you'll develop some of the ideas that you might have come up with during the course. I'm always happy to raid students materials. So if you want to send me a message here for feedback or just to share what you've written, that would be great. You can share your pieces and the Q and a and the course, which would actually be really grit. And so the other students can read the work as well. And you know, we can all comment on each other's work. So if you have any questions or comments on the course, please do. Let me know as well. I hope that you've enjoyed the course and I'm looking forward to seeing you on another course.