Creative-Writing

Template for Activities/Workshops in Ireland:

As a workshop leader please

· do not print this out but fill it in digitally

· use the present tense in descriptions

· make sure you fill in as many answers as possible

· please replace the boxes p with an X

· send the filled-in description of activity to Thomas at:
Berger@inter-research.de

Some of the blanks can be filled in later, please regard this as the “growing ID-Card” of the activities. After the excursion we will use these to help with the final report

Title[1] of Activity	The intercultural webnovel kit
Description^[2]	The workshop mainly focuses on interactively finishing the web novel in an international group. Participants will develop their creative writing skills as well as their understanding of hypertextual structures. Fiction and Reality Converge: Following their own stories, participants have now arrived on Achill island. They will create the final part of the novel, integrating their own experiences on the island. Workshops taking place during the week will be integrated into our story, actively influencing the outcome of the story of Brian O'Donnell. This way, the novel will also be a fictional travelogue. International communication: Six participants of six different team will work together to create the ending of our web novel. Participants who do not travel to Achill will be able to suggest possible endings in advance or communicate with the group via Internet. Their ideas will be integrated into our results. Using New Media creatively: With the help of a web assitant, participants will not only create new stories but also learn how to proceed them and use the creative options given by the genre "hyptertext". Requirements: Each participants is responsible for integrating their team's storyline. Additionally, each participant will be assigned to one or two other workshops, taking part in their activities, integrating their results into the fictional stories.
Subtitle[3]	Creative Writing Workshop
Leader[4]	Alexandra Haas (Germany)
Assistant[5]	Malin Näsholm (Sweden)
Workshop specialist[6]	Web Assistant: Laurent Jossa (Luxemburg)
Time[7]	Mon/Tue/Thur/Fri 10-13
Place
Materials needed	Laptops, stationary, Flipchart (or just FC-paper) and pens, "post its"

category I SMALL INTERCULTURAL TEAMS
1. no more than 6 participants?	yes X
2. at least 3 nationalities	yes X	So far: Sweden, USA, Germany, Luxemburg
3. at least from 3 stations	yes X	So far: Cologne, Umea, Bonn, Fulda
Participants	- Malin Näsholm - Ulrike Meyn - Simone Klibingat - - -
4. which activities facilitate intercultural communication?	describe: being responsible for connecting one's own station's stories with the other stations; developing links between the different stations; being assigned to other workshops, reporting back to the group, working the results into stories;

category II CONNECTION TO THE WEB STORY
1. activity is already included in web stories	yes X no p	describe where:
2. results will be included in web stories	yes X no p	describe where: As we are writing the web story, we will work on including the other workshops' results into our fiction, as a kind of fictional travelogue
3. is extra technical support needed?	yes X no p	Describe which: we need at least one laptop, two if possible

category III CREATIVE USE OF NEW MEDIA
1. will the new media be used in a creative way?	yes X no p	describe how: The new media are used a) to develop the traditional form of fiction into the new genre hypertext and b) to cooperate with those participants of the project who do not travel to Achill but will contribute to the ending of the Web novel virtually. The creative process will largely be structured by virtual exchange via Internet and by the new creative options hyptertextual patterns offer.
2. are they essential to the activity?	yes X no p	describe why: Because we are creating a hypertext, a structure that can only exist virtually, not in print
3. will the participants learn to use the new media?	yes X no p	describe how: We will not start from theoretical possibilities, but from practical ideas. The web assistant will be there to show participants how their structures can be put on the web. In that way, participants will learn the use of new media parallel to their creative process.
4. do participants learn s.th. about the notion of new media?	yes X no p	describe what: They will learn that new media are a means of exchange and creative processes, not a solitary medium to gain authorized information.

category IV ACTIVE EXPLORATION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE
1. will participants explore in an active and creative way?	yes X no p	describe how: Like Heinrich Boell in his Irish Diary, the creative writers will try to explore another culture, new surroundings, habits etc. and work them into their fiction. In order to do that, they will have to explore the place they are writing about as well as get information from other participants and local people by talking to them.
2. are they sensitized to parallels to their own home country?	yes X no p	describe how: Taking fiction as a starting point, participants experience the literary view of other cultures, the hybrid mixture in any work of fiction describing countries and cultures different from the writer's
3. are there any innovative forms of experiencing culture (as opposed to conventional “guided tour”)?	yes X no p	describe how: Before writing about other cultures, spaces, habits etc. writers will have to collect material. Taking part in other workshops, they will always have to focus on the way they want to proceed these experiences in their fictional work.

category V BENEFIT TO THE COMMUNITY
1. will the participants share their own specialist/cultural backgrounds?	yes p no p	describe how:
2. will there be a clear benefit for the community?	yes p no p	describe how:
3. is the value of the benefit in relation of the learning experience of the participants?	yes p no p	describe how:

If an activity does not meet all criteria, this does not mean it cannot be done, of course. Activities should “largely meet the criteria”. Often other participants have good ideas how to include further aspects which are still missing.

Good luck

Laurence

[1] should be a gripping marketing title (no more than 5 words)

[2] no more than 200 words

[3] can be a longer, more academic and descriptive title

[4] any participant can be leader of a workshop

[5] assistant must be from a group/nationality different from the leader

[6] e.g. the photographer in the photo workshop (external specialists)

[7] regular times at the moment are either Mon/Tue/Thur/Fri 10-13 or Mon/Tue/Thur 14:30-17:30 or Wed all day