Travelling in Time - Writing History
Date:
With:
Sophie Cunningham
Rating:
EMERGING, ESTABLISHED
Summary:
When you write about history, you become a kind of time traveller. And the research, which requires you to inhabit the ideas, customs and culture of another time, becomes akin to method acting.
Details
However, it’s unrealistic to imagine you can write about the past without also being of your own time.
How do you balance past and present in your work? This course, a follow on from last year’s ‘Writing History’, will develop ideas of history as character and the importance of getting voice right – both your own voice and the voices from the past. There will be an emphasis on writing exercises to explore these ideas, and on the writers sharing their work when they feel comfortable.
Tuesdays 2, 9, 23 and 30 October, 6pm – 9pm. Note that there is a one-week break in between the second and third sessions.
Please note that this workshop was published with an incorrect price. The price on this web page is correct.
You will learn
- Key research skills,
- how to use historical timelines to develop plot and structure,
- about developing voice,
- ways to make historical writing relevant to a modern day audience,
- a framework for an ethical approach to working with other people’s stories.
About Sophie Cunningham
Sophie Cunningham is a former publisher and editor. She is the author of two novels, ‘Geography’ (2004) and ‘Bird’ (2008) and two books of non-fiction: ‘Melbourne’ (2011) and ‘Warning: The Story of Cyclone Tracy’ (2014) which was shortlisted for several major literary prizes. Her book of linked essays, ‘Tree of the Day’, is due out with Text Publishing in 2019. Her third novel, 'This Devastating Fever’ inspired by the life of Leonard Woolf will be published in 2020. She is an Adjunct Professor of RMIT University (non/fictionLab), in the School Media and Communication in the College of Design and Social Context.