Diamond, a Creative Writing Research Project
Type of Proposal
Oral Presentation
Faculty
Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
Proposal
For my final Outstanding Scholars research position, I am working under the guidance of Dr. André Narbonne on a Creative Writing project. This project, tentatively entitled Diamond, is a collection of short stories about my Pépé, Garnet (Diamond) Lozon. This is an ongoing project that will consist of eight stories once completed. Each story is written in the style of narrative fiction rather than biography or nonfiction. This allows me to create a collection of stories that focus more on meaning, character, and technique instead of word-for-word dictation. The concept of this project is to capture what it means to be human. Garnet suffers from a series of traumatic events, such as extreme poverty, the death of his mother, the loss of his siblings to orphanages, and conscription at the age of eighteen into World War II. In order to cope with trauma, Garnet drinks excessively and eventually suffers from alcoholism. Yet these stories are not about the stereotypical alcoholic husband and father who abuses or neglects his family. Instead, they reveal how close Garnet and his daughter Cindy are and why his wife Irene chooses to stay with him. Although Garnet’s relationship with his family is often strained, there are moments when characters realize how much he cares for them. Research for this project involves looking into the time period of each story to eliminate historical inaccuracies and produce realistic world-building. The cultural atmosphere of each time period has significant impact on the events of every narrative as well as the attitudes and behaviours of characters. This means that further research requires creating character sketches to ensure that each character accurately reflects who they are during different points in their lives. In addition, other works of narrative fiction must be analyzed to determine which techniques are and are not effective for this style of writing. For example, "The Quiet" by Carys Davies is referred to as an example of 'how long it takes things to happen' and "The First and Last Time" by André Narbonne demonstrates how well character can be developed through dialogue. For my presentation, I will discuss the nature of the project as detailed above and will perform a live reading for the audience. The duration of the reading will depend on the time limit of presentations at the conference and the length of stories chosen.
Start Date
22-3-2018 10:55 AM
End Date
22-3-2018 12:15 PM
Location
Alumni Auditorium B
Diamond, a Creative Writing Research Project
Alumni Auditorium B
For my final Outstanding Scholars research position, I am working under the guidance of Dr. André Narbonne on a Creative Writing project. This project, tentatively entitled Diamond, is a collection of short stories about my Pépé, Garnet (Diamond) Lozon. This is an ongoing project that will consist of eight stories once completed. Each story is written in the style of narrative fiction rather than biography or nonfiction. This allows me to create a collection of stories that focus more on meaning, character, and technique instead of word-for-word dictation. The concept of this project is to capture what it means to be human. Garnet suffers from a series of traumatic events, such as extreme poverty, the death of his mother, the loss of his siblings to orphanages, and conscription at the age of eighteen into World War II. In order to cope with trauma, Garnet drinks excessively and eventually suffers from alcoholism. Yet these stories are not about the stereotypical alcoholic husband and father who abuses or neglects his family. Instead, they reveal how close Garnet and his daughter Cindy are and why his wife Irene chooses to stay with him. Although Garnet’s relationship with his family is often strained, there are moments when characters realize how much he cares for them. Research for this project involves looking into the time period of each story to eliminate historical inaccuracies and produce realistic world-building. The cultural atmosphere of each time period has significant impact on the events of every narrative as well as the attitudes and behaviours of characters. This means that further research requires creating character sketches to ensure that each character accurately reflects who they are during different points in their lives. In addition, other works of narrative fiction must be analyzed to determine which techniques are and are not effective for this style of writing. For example, "The Quiet" by Carys Davies is referred to as an example of 'how long it takes things to happen' and "The First and Last Time" by André Narbonne demonstrates how well character can be developed through dialogue. For my presentation, I will discuss the nature of the project as detailed above and will perform a live reading for the audience. The duration of the reading will depend on the time limit of presentations at the conference and the length of stories chosen.