Every story inherits a structure: plot arcs, narrative voice and literary tradition that shape how novels are written and read. But some of the most effective writing begins when those structures are bent or broken. Learn how to break them effectively in this workshop.
In this session you learn the conventions of storytelling so you can challenge them. Together with the other participants, you look at how writers use and disrupt form: fragmenting narrative, bending chronology, playing with the visual aspect of the book form, or long voice lead structure rather than plot. Ideally, you come with an existing piece of writing you are willing to ‘break’ or ‘disrupt’.
Note: This workshop best suits writers of long-form fiction.
You will learn:
- How to develop your original work by engaging with experimentation of the key narrative structures and literary conventions commonly used in contemporary fiction
How to apply techniques of formal experimentation, such as fragmentation, nonlinear structure or hybrid forms, in your own writing.
How to analyse a writer’s experimental techniques that strengthen narrative effect
How to evaluate the way structural choices shape meaning, voice and reader experience within a text
About the tutor:
Jamie Marina Lau is the author of the internationally acclaimed novels, Gunk Baby and Pink Mountain on Locust Island published by Hachette, Astra House and CoffeeHouse Press. Her prose has been praised by the New York Times Book Review for its exquisite precision and immersive world-building. Jamie has taught and practised fiction around the world. In 2022, she was selected for a full scholarship at the Iowa International Writers Program. She was an Emerging Writers Festival Ambassador, Red Room Poetry Ambassador and a National Writers Conference Keynote Speaker.
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