Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Handbook of
Creative Writing
My husband and I make 'experimental dinners': we open the cabinets and create some
thing from whatever we find. We never know what's going to come of it and often we don't
even know what to call the results other than 'tasty' or 'barely edible'. It doesn't hurt that
Edited by
Steven Earnshaw
we have experience with traditional cooking, we know what to expect with foods or how
to take a shortcut when needed. But when it comes down to it we enjoy the challenge and
surprise of meeting the kitchen head-on. When I was asked to think about experimental
writing, this is what immediately came to mind.
When it comes to writing, I often wonder if designating something 'experimental' is
more a public, critical or personal act? Most attempts at defining 'experimental' dead-end
into 'you know it when you see it' tautologies, or result in descriptive catch-all-isms where
'experimental' means 'non-traditional'. Tradition in this context mostly implies formally
recognisable poetry and fiction oriented toward epiphany, closure, and a neat and tidy nat
uralism where visual details correlate to psychological ones and the author and characters
are clear and coherent. In the opposite corner and equally generalised, the qualities of
experimet'ttal writing include writing which is polysemous, indeterminate, polyphonic,
multi-genre, documentaty, meditative and puts the reader in an unstable position vis-a-vis
somewhere in between these extremes. Still, lists of attributes tell us more about the past
than the present, so is there a less forensic and more useful way to determine a literary
experiment? Are there material differences between experimental and other writing prac
tices in terms of creative process? Let's get back to this in a minute.
Looking historically, there have certainly been normative aesthetic traditions against
which various experimental avant-gardes positioned themselves. Staging innovative liter
ature as a critique of dominant art practice, and by analogy a critique of dominant culture,
requires faith that language takes action, that writing functions as a privileged social gest,
or mirror. In this way the history of aesthetic forms can be read as the dialectical content
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ties which are useful in social interaction but deadening in art. This formulation of aes
thetic revival through fresh language reveals a link between experimentalism and roman
ticism. When the critique is made that experimental writing feels perfunctory or empty of
felt experience, this indicates both the critic's longing for this mmantic aspect as well as
what may be the writer's allegiance to form over practice. Bad experimental writing, like
bad writing generally, fails to create the sublime shock of something surprisingly and sud
denly true.
I introduce the word 'true' as a gamble, a provocation. Though experimental literature
has been aligned with post-structuralism and often foregrounds the non-essentialism of
identity or the complex features of post-colonial cultures, its practitioners put forth the
possibility that theirs is a more genuine literature in the sense of 'filled with the shock of
truth' even if that truth presents itself as non-sense or new-sense. That experimental prac
tice engages the complex, multifarious, non-generic world does not necessarily exclude the
role of radical subjectivity. In fact, bringing together a writer's unique experimental process
with the material givens of the world results in what Gertrude Stein called the 'continu
ous contemporary'. In this condition, an and/both phenomenon occurs between self and
world relieving the pressure of previously intractable binaries into a new and productive
interdependent space and time.
So now we may ask again: what makes experimental practice different from other habits
of writing? Certainly many writers confront the infinite and open possibilities of their art
and world. Still, traditional writers take their discoveries only as far as normative limits of
form or material allow. Where a poem reaches some sort of crisis, a more experimental prac
titioner makes an important swerve away from the habitual approaches to material and
toward a radical 'not knowing', allowing the work to stay open, to be completed in the
encounter with a reader. So perhaps what makes a writing practice 'experimental' is the
intention of the writer to continually re-open their ways of proceeding, their habits, as they
encounter the world. A text held open may go beyond the parameters of both familiar
forms and habitual creative process. The results do not necessarily have to be complex or
difficult, but they are surprising.
The blank page has been the location of much excitement or trepidation. Fear of it can
result in a writer's retreat into stale and prefabricated choices. Confronting the blank page
in a traditional practice is just as challenging as for the experimentalist, and yet I think the
traditional writer filfs in the blank page as though it were a pre-formatted space awaiting
content. A sentence makes sense. A character emerges in a situation. A concrete detail, a
situation to describe ('the objective correlative'). Pretty soon, one finds oneself in a con
ventional fiction or poem, a single human protagonist described in adjectival prose, 'life
like' against a scenic (cinematic) backdrop. The frame of the camera's view provides the
scale and time of the action, an antagonist will be there, a tragic flaw. The conflict will take
the hero into some revelations, the resolution will provide a catharsis from the event.
Language is only that which delivers this content in a clear and descriptive way from author
to reader with a minimum of confusion. There is a tidiness to the symbolism, the events,
and no messy confusion for a reader to grapple with. Language does not intrude upon the
telling, but stays grammatical and 'transparent' to the intention of the author. Formally
there are paragraphs or line breaks and type left-justified between wide margins. There is
dialogue and there is plenty of visual and psychological description. Characters, plots, lan
guage remain stable and constant throughout the piece. You need to dream up the specifics,
which constitutes the main writing practice. Perhaps you brainstorm on the blank page,
troll for details and clues as you 'discover' the piece, even your 'voice' (your style within
308
the larger constraints of this overall style) and probably your characters, conflicts or
themes. This describes the sort of psychological naturalism prevalent in our time. Yet many
writers spend a lot of hard work and joyous exploration in the brainstorming/dreaming
309
Other languages
traditionally consid
is the use of discourses or languages
Related to mixed genre writing
of the writer squir
igm
parad
with 'creative writing'. T he
ered unsuitable or incompatible
muse does not
and
rce
resou
as
on
inati
, dreams and imag
reled away with only their mind
or vocabulary and dis
incorporates multiple languages
easily give way to writing which
on, science, etc.).
religi
s,
plines (such as television, sport
course methods from other disci
le enough to
flexib
book
the
.to
ach
l began with an appro
Though the history of the nove
ed with the rise
reced
ness
open
this
etc.
ises,
gues, treat
contain letters, found texts, dialo
ible' author and seam
l and the convention of the 'invis
of the naturalist psychological nove
ct languages or texts.
distin
four
or
with a collage of three
less narrative. Instead, try playing
untranslated parts
and
s
edge
ed
braid
the
let
whole but
Don't smooth them over into one
form of writing
one
ther experiment might be to take
create fortuitous connections. Ano
and the so
one
of
form
lled
another such that the so-ca
and try filling it in entirely with
approach is
ther
Ano
.
both
in
rent
appa
new meanings
called content of the other make
ds of words
soun
by the
text from English to English only
through translation. Translate a
what you
wing
follo
by
know
n from a language you don't
(homophonic), or do a translatio
r words
othe
by
s
word
g
itutin
subst
by
translating a piece
think is the sense. You could try
appear
that
s
by word
onary (a procedural approach) or
which appear near them in the dicti
asking
by
text
te
priva
very
Perhaps you could translate a
in the same place in a second text.
s and
word
in
certa
hear
they
when
word comes to mind
a random sample of people what
even
t
migh
gers. You
public 'translations' done by stran
then make a number of these
in
dable
unrea
ely
entir
is
her to make something which
collage different languages toget
thing
some
is
there
erns,
conc
local
world with ongoing
only one language. In a globalising
ted to some of the
nts in multi-lingual form. Rela
rime
expe
these
t
abou
rich
potentially
which contain
essay
lyric
called 'documentary poetics' or
above are writing practices often
nt events or
curre
on,
mati
infor
rial or 'outside' sources of
a high degree of researched mate
a hermetic
into
them
ming
subsu
out
(with
ative sources
news. Work which uses these altern
work, and
their
alone with
the process model of the writer
authorial style) again challenge
by new
ed
iliaris
defam
rials to be redeployed and often
allow historical or cultural mate
context.
resources gets overlooked. For example, could a story be written from an array of digital
sounds? How about poetry as radio play, CO-Rom or site-specific installation?
Experimental practice has long embraced multiple genres within a given work: photogra
phy and poetry create visual and aural images that abut, collide, overlap, or sculptural
writing moves text away from two-dimensional pages and the conventions of the book form
and brings print into social space and time. Perhaps a short story could gain poignancy by
being printed on a length of fabric and read by being gathered in one's arms or sorted
through in piles, like laundry. Perhaps there is a piece in which writing and digital images
are alternately projected on a dancing body. Any inter-genre experiment proceeds through
1
variety of drafts in which the expressive material takes different forms. These expansive
estures entice an audience to consider the act of 'reading' in surprising and poignant ways.
A..s technology and new media increasingly impact cultural production and as questions of
Jerformativity become prevalent, one can see artists foregrounding how poetry. or story-
310
in the world which is not intended to be either a story or a poem but which could be, and
find a way to 'publish' this on a page. Another set of potential experiments might come
311
tice
Writing as Experimental Prac
is performed by
t through the mail? Or
ut a piece which gets sen
cards, stamps? What abo
day?
e in the same spot every
actors at a particular tim
from asking oneself what the parts and pieces of genres are, and examining what happens
if these are radically altered or removed. Let's say you feel a story must have at least one
character. Try writing a story in which there is nothing that could conventionally be called
a character. Or a story with at least a million characters. Do you think a poem must contain
at least one image? Try a poem which has only sound. Any of these experiments would,
through association to common understanding of aesthetic expectations, make visible a
rupture in the expectations for that form. Rather than being merely oppositional, this
rupture can provide a point of awareness, a way to reveal the habits of our story- and
meaning-making culture.
Procedural writing
n they step
d they hear every day whe
they will take the first wor
ides
dec
er
er name
writ
a
prop
aps
a
en
Perh
h sentence of a story. Wh
it as the first word of eac
ent in
erim
exp
s
onto the subway and use
Thi
rd.
er name is hea
appears until the next prop
language
that
way
is heard, that character
a
such
in
t
acciden
bination of intention and
storytelling becomes a com
abulary, preferences of
language (habits of voc
er's
writ
the
tes
etra
ome. Thi s
from the world interpen
eterminate regarding outc
of narrative, certainly ind
ds surpris
yiel
ch
style) to create a new form
whi
n
atio
ent
experim
edural writing, a form of
proc
of
e
mpl
exa
ple
because they
is a sim
gate a method such as this
k. A writer might investi
ve able to
rati
nar
a
ing and often riveting wor
subway is integral to
nd language' from the
the found
rks'
'ma
have a suspicion that 'fou
er
writ
this
ld. How
ded and anonymous wor
crow
a
of
nce
erie
exp
'game' is one
enact the
er can participate in the
constraint) so that the read
ing not only
writ
language (the procedural
the
ng constraint to impact
cedural writing. Allowi
of acci
ness
rich
of the challenges of pro
the
s
loit
red genius, but exp
of the writer as unfette
esent the con
repr
challenges the notion
ch
whi
s,
tice
prac
-based
non-intention and rule
dents and obstructions,
ch the writer sets up
initial consmiint (in whi
the
,
ting
wri
l
ura
ced
pro
ning and impact of
tours of freedom. In
mea
large part of the
of proceeding') forms a
the material and the 'way
at'.
'wh
the
as
as much
ch matters to the reader
the piece, the 'how' whi
horship; collaborations
Alternative forms of aut
role of the writer
s where the traditional
e other creative practice
writer with a
the
From procedural work com
ent
lage or cut-ups pres
troubled or redefined. Col
p of artists,
grou
a
as sole creator/genius is
h
Wit
ing.
ve forms of writ
aborations and collecti
g the outcome
inin
different role, as do coll
stra
con
out
with
y
ate full
in which all can particip
le can produce per
come up with a project
' or indeterminate ensemb
'jazz
ing
writ
s
Thi
r.
the
ch re-enacts the
whi
or impeding one ano
form
t
else create a prin
different every time or
work remains
the
t
formance work which is
tha
is
nt
orta
most imp
on for readers. What's
rati
abo
coll
the
of
e
trac
a different kind of world.
vision and thus models
beyond a single perso'n's
about a
ental insofar as they are
practice are only experim
ing
writ
to
hes
e for
roac
com
to out
These app
ing to forego attachment
givens of their world, will
er
exp
of
ory
hist
writer at play with the
I realised that both the
material. In writing this
ainly
cert
are
re
the
the sake of following the
and
s
totally up for grab
se suggested exercises are
ical versions of an
imental writing and the
public, private and crit
ns,
stio
que
er
oth
ask
would
who
ts
alis
ent
ental practice is
erim
exp
from writing as experim
what ultimately comes
m, and yet are
the
unsolved riddle. Perhaps
ed
gin
ld as you hadn't ima
ing yourself and your wor
the surprise of present
shocked to recognise.