Writers Researching: Fact and Fiction
Other
2014-09-29
Permanent link to this Item
Authors
Journal Title
Link to Journal
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Publisher
University of Cape Town
Series
University of Cape Town Summer School 2014
Abstract
What is the relationship between research and the writing process and
between historical ‘truth’ and fictional ‘truth’? Are there boundaries
which should not be crossed? In this course writers will talk about the
research that resulted in their recent novels. Ron Irwin, author of Flat
Water Tuesday, will discuss how he researched people, places and real
events and the challenges associated with turning the events of one’s
own life into a novel. Helen Moffett, one of the trio behind the Girl Walk
In series, will explain how she and her co-authors research and write
erotica novels, providing insight into collaboration, champagne and
condoms. Award-winning Lauren Beukes will describe how she ‘kinks’
reality in relation to the real-world research that informed The Shining
Girls and Zoo City. Angela Makholwa will explore the process of writing
the criminal mind, including interviews with a serial killer for Red Ink,
and research about women who killed their husbands for Black Widow
Society. Readers always assume that everything that happened in your
book happened to you, complains Finuala Dowling, so what’s the point
of trudging uphill for five hours in search of one sentence? Referring to
both Homemaking for the Down-at-Heart and her latest manuscript,
The Fetch, she discusses the price of authenticity.
Description
Reference:
Irwin, R., Moffett, H., Beukes, L., Makholwa, A., Dowling, F. 2014-09-29. Writers Researching: Fact and Fiction. Recorded lecture. University of Cape Town Summer School 2014. University of Cape Town.