Fake News or True Stories? Blurring the Lines
Between Fact and Fiction
A
Creative Writing Workshop by Alison Taft, who writes:
Ideas
are everywhere, but how does an idea become a story? Thanks to funding from The
Arts Council, I got the opportunity to develop a workshop on this very theme,
which took place at this year’s Headingley LitFest. We looked at real life stories from the newspapers and then asked the question all
fiction-writers ask:
‘What
if?’
The
questions ranged from the deep, to the sublime. ‘What if history could be
written as an equation? What if the pope was converted to Judaism by his Jewish
counsellor? What if a bomb went off? What if she wanted revenge?
Juxtaposition
Once
you have a compelling question to answer, you have a story. We looked at how to
fictionalise further by setting the ideas in different periods, locations and
cultures.
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I
came away, as I always do from working with other writers, uplifted and
inspired. Thanks to everyone who came.
Comments from the people
who came:
·
The best I’ve attended!
·
Amazing, Inspiring and fascinating! So good to meet other people
who think like me. Really enjoyable – learned a lot as new to writing. Can’t
wait to get writing.
·
Excellent, inspiring and highly innovative. Provided many good
ideas. Overall refreshingly creative. The atmosphere was pleasant
·
Well-conducted workshop. Learned from it
·
A welcoming workshop for all levels and full of good ideas to
take away. Thank you
·
Good session, very packed. No time wasted. Good way to link
unrelated ideas.
·
Great! A positive and interactive workshop that gave me lots of
information and inspiration.
·
Thought provoking. Good pointers for a person new to creative
writing. Met some interesting people. Leader was excellent
·
A fascinating workshop on the connection between truth and
fiction
·
The group was big (19) and there were pluses and minuses to this
– it left less time for writing but some people’s views were interesting in
regard to the writing process
·
Very good. Alison is so entertaining. Would attend one of her
workshops again
·
Excellent workshop – could have been 30 minutes longer
·
Lively with some useful insights. Very inclusive, in spite of
large numbers
·
Excellent short workshop looking at creative writing from an
interesting perspective. Very useful insight into novel writing
·
Excellent – well organised and plenty of creative suggestions
·
This workshop was as interesting and inspiring as I had
expected, having attended Alison’s creative writing group previously. We had to
work hard and I learned a lot. Great!
·
Great workshop. I’ve always enjoyed everything I’ve attended
that Alison leads. She’s an inspiration as a writer and teacher. Being a
creative writing teacher myself, it’s great to be a student for a change!
