Photo by Liam Anderson
For quite some time now, I've been meaning to create some online creative writing tutorials. Well, what better time than while we're all trying our best to self-isolate during this Covid-19 era! So, with some help from my kids, I finally got around to doing it. Similar to my in-person workshops, in these two tutorials I demonstrate how to develop a strong story line and characters with depth.
I have to admit, although a pandemic is a horrible thing, I've been lucky to be able to spend so much time with my family as we self-isolate together. I can't imagine being alone during this period, and I hope my tutorials can help bring a bit of light into the lives of those who are self-isolating alone. Creative writing can be a great source of therapy, as creating a story puts your imagination to work and in doing so distracts the mind from negative thoughts. For more on using writing as therapy, read my opinion piece in HuffPost.
As my daughter Zarya (18), a student at U of T, is currently studying from home and my son, Liam (12), is homeschooling, my tutorial project became a family affair and both jumped onboard with ideas and offers of help. Liam is fascinated with cinematography and has made some excellent short family films, so he made all the filming decisions concerning filming location, lighting, setting, and angle. He had two cameras set up because he had plans to edit the film too, but as it happens we ran into technical glitches with film format (that were out of his control) and the film could not be edited. Zarya was my awesome 'stage make-up' artist and she helped with keeping me on track with cue cards.
I would like to extend a huge thank you to Neighbourhood Small Grants Golden and Golden & District Community Foundation for funding these tutorials.
For more about me and my writing projects, be sure to check out my webpage: www.janepowell.org
Story Development Tutorial : https://youtu.be/9XockUX8waU
Character Development Tutorial: https://youtu.be/Row5OeWVuxU
