☰ Architecture of Writing Course

Outline for a collaborative Learning Groups exploring the ʘ Architecture of Writing

How can the techniques of architecture, cinematography, gardening, or game development be used to inform one's writing practice? What new styles and techniques could emerge from this exploration? And in turn what could these disciplines learn from writing? Together we will explore the ocean of possibilities and seek to discover the unexplored territories of the written word.

Prerequisites

• Have a writing project in mind before signing up, this could be to write a poem, essay, script, or be part of a longer term writing-related project such as a book, hypertext textbook, or digital garden

Who should sign up

• You have a keen interest in writing or communication and wish to expand writing repertoire. Perhaps you want to explore new approaches to writing, play with new techniques. If you are at heart an adventurer or explorer of new ideas, then you might certainly enjoy embarking on this learning journey together.

Goals

• Explore and invent new writing techniques inspired by any discipline or practice other than literature: architecture, game development, cinematography, biology, mathematics

Structure

• Research → Play → Output
• First week: walk through a couple examples or choose a specific discipline to explore as a group. Brainstorm a couple ways we can gain inspiration from this medium to inform our writing practice, and do a couple short group writing session to come up with examples
• Second + third week: each participant brainstorms and develops inspiration and writing techniques based on a discipline of their choosing, these are collaborative explorations and conversations but primarily led by the participant in charge of researching that specific discipline
• Near the end of the third week, each participant will present their research and discoveries to the rest of the group. In between these short presentations, rapid writing sessions for everyone to try out the techniques described
• (third +) fourth + fifth week: finally participants must write a piece (or multiple shorter pieces) using some of the techniques they have explored together. They may choose to stick with the discipline they were researching, or pick and choose ideas from any of the disciplines discussed.
• The final meeting we will read each other's work and each participant presents how they used each technique and reflect together on what worked well and what didn't
• (optional) sixth week: collect distilled ideas and reflections into an artifact to leave behind, much of this distillation will be an active process throughout the course.

Artifacts

• I hope that by the end of the course, we can compile some of the very best ideas and takeaways and create a lasting artifact. This could be a blog post, video, or even a short book/chapbook collecting both writing pieces and descriptions of the techniques explored. Not only will this serve as an artifact of what we have learnt together for future reference but can also serve as a launchpad for future cohorts to build upon these ideas and explore in new directions—furthering the collective conversation.