Online Writers' Workshop
The San Antonio Public Library and the San Antonio Library Foundation are uniting readers throughout San Antonio with The Big Read, a community reading project with events and activities surrounding Ray Bradbury’s sci-fi classic Fahrenheit 451. In March, the San Antonio Library hosted a two-session Freedom to Write Workshop led by Library Assistant Lyle Rosdahl, MFA, Creative Writing. Rosdahl’s discussion focused on the themes of the novel, and offered writing prompts for those with a burning desire to express themselves through the written word.
Now, Texas Public Radio continues the process by partnering with the San Antonio Library for a creative writing workshop online. Read the guidelines below, and get started! E-mail your stories to Lyle Rosdahl. He’ll select pieces to be recorded by their authors for a creative writing podcast produced by Texas Public Radio.
Creative Writing, Using Fahrenheit 451 as a Guide
By Lyle Rosdahl
Fahrenheit 451 (the title is the temperature at which books burn and so indicative of transformation of ideas, individuality, dialog to ash -- in other words, the temperature of intolerance and tyranny) written in 1953 by Ray Bradbury is a book about a dystopian society in which censorship is brought to its logical conclusion. This censorship is conceived and perpetuated through mainstream, tacit agreement. This is not a tyrannical take-over by a single individual, but a popular uprising -- and though it is ultimately maintained through a despotic government, it is supported by the masses. It has similarities to the Nazi regime in Germany as well as the strong-arm tactics of Cold War politics.
The novel suggests that the televised walls are, at least partly, to blame for this general support. It offers only vacuous entertainment instead of relevant, important ideas and relationships (does the family really love you?). And though I don't believe that T.V. is inherently evil or empty, mainstream media often induces in us a complacency. Instead of being active in our communities or being critical about the world around us, we turn on the television and, as the old adage goes, "tune out."
In order to assure that we aren't ever in the same situation and country as Guy Montag (Fahrenheit 451’s protagonist), we have to think for ourselves. We have to create. We have to disseminate ideas outside of the mainstream. We are individuals, but our freedom is hard fought even now -- we must express ourselves. Alain Robbe-Grillet, a French novelist of the Nouveau Roman school, wrote, "There is nothing new to say, only a way of saying it." And when we lose our own ways of saying whatever it is we have to say (and we all have something to say), then we lose our freedom and ourselves.
This workshop, then, is about generating ideas, creating a space for dialog and hopefully, inspiration for further creation. It is about freedom.
I have a particular fondness for a group called Oulipo. Their interest lies in constraints. They are interested, for example, in the crossover between mathematics and creative writing. I find that, paradoxically, one's creative freedom is released through constraints. So I've brought in some visual aids as ways to begin something original. Not all the prompts are visually oriented, and they may not all talk to you individually, but the point is that you're trying something different, something new.
Finally, there are no restrictions on themes or subject, but for an added challenge (and reward), try to move your stories in a manner that bears some relevance to the novel at hand (e.g. use a distopian society as setting).
1. Photos -- a picture is worth a thousand words, they say, but I think they're worth more than that. They are fantastic places to pull characters, settings, symbols and even structures from: pictures imply stories -- we are as humans, after all, story-tellers.
2. Games -- games have a particular escapist quality in Fahrenheit 451, but their structures are interesting to think about when writing. I think, when applied to writing, they actually open up the creative process and help us think about structure in story.
3. Create a scene in which two subversives in some kind of dystopia meet secretively. Use dialog and setting to further the story without giving too much away -- remember these people are meeting in secret.
4. Come up with a chase scene without thinking about who's chasing who. Use setting to get the idea of where it's set and what's happening. When you're done, write some back story to explain what happened.
5. Animals used as propaganda. Salamander. Come up with an animal that does not have overt psycho-cultural meaning (like the eagle or snake) and start a short piece with it showing how the society in the story sees this animal. Conversely, pick one of the animals that have cultural significance for us and show it in a different light. In other words, how would a different culture maybe see it differently?
6. Write a short piece with a similar theme as Fahrenheit 451.
*Seeing as how this book is largely about your choices: Create your own prompt and e-mail it to me to possibly post on the Internet.
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