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Sounds dangerously radical, I know. But that,
I'm afraid, is today's burning question. It surfaces here because a fabulous writers' conference
is coming to Toronto and I play a small part in it.
The annual gathering of the Creative Nonfiction
Collective will take place at the University of Toronto (Emmanuel College) from
May 8 to 10. Born in the Wild West (OK, Banff) some 16 years ago, the CNFC will
attract writers from across the land.
The Friday night keynote speaker is Ian Brown,
whose books include Sixty and The Boy in the Moon. Trust me, he is one heckuva speaker. And the program is jam-packed with CNF writers of all kinds -- memoirists, essay-writers, narrative historians -- as well as a public relations consultant, a
publisher-agent, an online marketing strategist, you name it. Here, check it out.
As for F*cking With Narrative, well, that’s what we'll explore in my Saturday workshop. When research-based story-telling drives you towards third-person omniscience, suddenly you find yourself facing stop signs and roadblocks. You can’t
do this, you can’t do that.
Narrative is f*cking with you.
Or maybe your story
cries out for scene but the biographical record presents nothing. Nada. What to do? No worries. These problems have technical solutions. In this craft-oriented
workshop, we’ll look at best strategies, among them transparency, implied
stream of consciousness, multiple flashbacks, and The Rolling Now. We’ll do
some on-the-spot freewriting. Master these moves, it says here, and you’ll be break-dancing with story. Yup, you’ll be f*cking with narrative.
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