Description
Book SynopsisInvestigative Creative Writing is Mark Spitzer's lively and original treatment of creative writing practice and teaching within a college/university environment. The author presents an experiential, discovery-based approach that builds on teaching theories of established writers and scholars as well as current innovators and his own extensive experience as a creative writer, editor, and university academic. Teachers, students, and writers in the fields of English, literary studies, composition and rhetoric, applied linguistics, and education should find this book, written by a prolific creative writer and enthusiastic writing teacher, not only enlightening and engaging, but also useful. Investigative Creative Writing can be envisioned as a practical tool illustrating ways of overcoming hurdles that impede writers from venturing into unknown territory where discoveries take place. In addition to assisting in developing and honing cutting-edge creative writing programs, this book will be helpful for writers in getting to the meat of the matter, generating narratives and dialogue, identifying arguments, fleshing out character traits, discovering direction for plots, and developing a host of other skills that foster and embolden a literary freedom of the imagination. The text includes examples of teaching techniques and assignments from the author's classes which are intended for instructors to adjust according to their needs, along with extensive discussion of his own practices of investigative creative writing and experience in teaching and developing writing curricula.
Trade Review"I am pleased that Mark Spitzer, in Investigative Creative Writing, has expanded the call of my manifesto on Investigative Poetry, that poets should investigate and write history, to urge that all creative writers should utilize Investigative techniques and practices." Ed Sanders, author of Investigative Poetry "Mark Spitzer's Investigative Creative Writing is one of the funniest, most charming and most useful books on the teaching and process of writing that you are likely to find. Spitzer shows us that any creative writing can be an investigation, and thus be transformed into "something else" - something that alters the world of both writer and reader. He believes in getting students to participate in the workshopas-event and getting them into the field to connect their writing with the natural world. Mark Spitzer will engage, inspire, and empower you." Joseph Harrington, University of Kansas, and author of Poetry and the Public: The Social Form of Modern U.S. Poetics
Table of ContentsSeries Editor's Preface Introduction Discover Creative Writing Superpowers through Investigative Teaching Techniques Part 1 Discovery-Oriented Basics Chapter 1 Teaching Students to Show Not Tell Chapter 2 The New Weird: What Happens to Creative Writing When the Truth Is Stranger than Fiction Chapter 3 The Ten Commandments of Incorporating Dialogue: For Those Seeking to Inform the Unprepared, the Disengaged, and the Thoroughly Confused Part 2 Investigative Theatrics Chapter 4 Multiple-Personality Pedagogy: A Hybrid Teaching Tool for Varying Voice in the Classroom Chapter 5 Extreme Puppet Theater as a Tool for Writing Pedagogy Chapter 6 May the Farce Be with You: Reflections on Extreme Puppet Theater as a Vehicle towards Something Else Chapter 7 Pointers for Performance of Poetry and Prose Part 3 Programmatic Discoveries Chapter 8 How to Sell a Creative Writing Program Based on the Question "Why Study Creative Writing?" Chapter 9 Ten Recommendations for Growing Creative Writing Programs Chapter 10 Dealing with Diverse Issues in Creative Writing Programs: A Polemic Part 4 Eco-Investigations Chapter 11 Introducing "Eco" to the Homies: A Liberal Professor's Activist Approach Chapter 12 Experience Investigative Eco-Fiction Chapter 13 From Wild People to Wilderness: An Education in Investigating Monsters in Our Midst Part 5 Experiential Exercises Chapter 14 Seven Investigative Group Exercises Chapter 15 Four Investigative Exercises for Individual Discovery Chapter 16 Six Investigative Homework Exercises for Encouraging Literary Citizenship
