For those who aren’t hung up on finding their ‘voice’ but don’t necessarily wish to promote their work was ‘uncreative writing’, these supportive but rigorous workshops offer the perfect opportunity to develop a novel or short story at great speed. Receive in-depth feedback and benefit from detailed group discussions on the art of using old fictions to create new ones. As Isidore Ducasse wrote 150 years ago: “Plagiarism is necessary. Progress implies it. It holds tight an author’s phrase, uses his expressions, eliminates a false idea, and replaces it with just the right idea.”
What are the workshops about?
These are supportive but rigorous workshops for those who aim to go beyond the bourgeois limits of literary fiction, ideal for individuals who have never written anything or those with a novel or two under their belts. Shortcuts to producing finished texts with be discussed and the mass of material produced circulated and revised. You will benefit from an in-depth exploration of approaches to anti-art, jujitsu, art writing and plagiarism. All forms of fiction – but especially those that entail copying and plagiarism – are supported in these workshops.
Your host: Stewart Home is the most out there writer on the planet – the only person on earth who is visible to the naked eye from outer space! He really does burn that brightly. The London Review of Books has praised Home by saying: “I really don’t think anyone who is at all interested in literature has any business not knowing the work of Stewart Home.” However, this notorious egg bagel eater prefers to liken himself to “a proletarian comedian with Tourette’s spewing obscenities”. He much prefers standing on his head and reciting sexually explicit passages from his work at public events to courting the literary establishment.
Students at other workshops and courses Stewart Home has run say: “The atmosphere was open, critical, but friendly and helpful and I learned the art of verbal self-defence”; “Rigorous and incredibly useful guitar feedback from the tutor and the class, as well as some classy aikido moves”; “Outstanding teaching and genuine warmth and constructive criticism, what Home didn’t like he fed into a paper shredder”; “I received useful, actionable feedback on my writing but lost the court case I took out against Home after he instructed me to do the ancient Welsh Dong Llew exercise of standing like a tree for 30 minutes to develop my inner vision and subtle powers.”
Stewart Home reserves the right to send someone who is merely pretending to be an avant-garde pornographer to run these workshops on his behalf.
What will we cover aside from Louie Louie, Gloria and 96 Tears?
– Constructive workshopping of short stories and novel excerpts.
– Craft issues, which will usually arise through workshopping, such as deciding what are the best sources to rip-off to and how to edit and adapt them to put across revolutionary points of view.
– The process of revision.
What will I achieve?
By the end of these workshops you should be able to…
– Assess and respond to pieces of writing with acumen and thievery.
– Identify the basic issues involved in plagiarising fiction, short stories, novellas, novels, etc.
– Apply your critical and editorial skills to other people’s work which you’ve ripped-off.
– Stand like a tree for 30 minutes at a time to cultivate your inner vision and subtle energies.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
The course is aimed at those who are smart enough to have avoided conventional ‘creative’ and ‘uncreative’ writing workshops and courses, as well as those who need to overcome the handicap of having delved into literary matters. You will need to be an enthusiastic iconoclast who wishes to reinvent world culture in its entirety. The workshops will be in English but the content can be applied to constructing fictions in any language.
How will I be taught?
Through discussion, peer evaluation and tutor feedback. You will be expected to read your peers’ workshop submissions online and to provide them with constructive feedback in the comments sections of their blogs.
Workshop means that work will be produced and discussed in an open and constructive environment with the host and other participants. Constructive criticism and feedback can be balanced with negative criticisms of literary bores like Martin Amis and Ian McEwan.
Is there anything I need to bring?
Plenty of attitude! A laptop or tablet may help, or a pen and notepad, or both.
When I’ve finished, what course should I do next?
When you’ve completed these workshops you should be finished with instruction and ready to unleash an endless stream of invective against the powers that be.
The workshop takes place on 3, 4 and 5 October respectively, from 18:00 to 20:00. Please email info@oddweb.org to register.
Biography
Stewart Home
Stewart Home is an artist, filmmaker, writer and cultural activist living in London. His art anti-art practices have given rise to seven published books of solo cultural commentary and four edited anthologies, alongside fifteen novels as well as poetry and short story collections. Since 1980 Home has developed a body of ongoing performance, prank and film works, exhibiting at everywhere from City Racing in London to White Columns in New York, alongside collaborating on projects with Imprint 93. His cultural output forms a significant archive of counter-cultural activities, unearthing and collecting unknown radical histories such as ‘Black Mask – Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers’, the reworking of Lettrist Cinema, and developing writing projects, such as Book Works ‘Semina series’ of experimental novels.