“Flip it!” –Kip Jones’ most frequent workshop advice

Attendants at the Creative Writing for Academics Workshop at Bournemouth University. Some hold copies of the photograph from which they created a story.

-->The most frequent advice from Kip Jones to participants was “Flip it!”

“Flip it!” –Kip Jones’ most frequent workshop advice 

Recently, 27 academics, some from as far away as upstate New York and Dublin, gathered for the 

 Creative Writing for Academics with Kip Jones at Bournemouth University (BU). 

Their goal was two days of experimentation with writing techniques to engender more creative 

outputs in their academic writing.

The conclusion of one participant reflected the sentiments of many:  

"The Creative Writing for Academics workshop turned out to be a great experience, more than expected!!"

The two-day workshop was organised by BU’s Centre for Qualitative Research, 

and was promoted thusly:

“This unique event isn’t a typical writing retreat (with trees to hug and lots of time to ruminate), but a very active experience with exercises, suggestions and supportive feedback on participants’ work…”

Instead of taking 30 minutes or more to go round the room and let
everyone make an introduction (listing job titles, universities, 
theses topics, etc. ad infinitum), Jones asked attendees to take 
15 minutes and write their life story on a postcard instead. 
This is an exercise that comes directly from Michael Kimball’s 
work,  Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story (on a postcard).   

Kimball is an American novelist whose writing Jones admires.  
A few examples from Kimball’s postcard book were shared 
with the group.   Each participant then wrote her/his own life story 
on a postcard; afterwards, some of the attendants then shared 
their stories with the group. 

Jones then explained tags, log lines and treatments—copywriting techniques used in 

advertising and film-making.

The Workshop as a Logline: Participants were challenged to write their “Life on a postcard”, 

they were introduced to creating tags and log lines; homework was to write a poem based on a dream. 

Next, they created a story from a photograph.  Finally, they shared their stories with others 

who had used the same photo. (50 words)
 

Tag: “Artistic types take their time … in an Italian trattoria.” 

Participants then had a go at creating tags and loglines for academic articles that they brought with them.   

This was an exercise in using simple sentences, reducing content to its essence and creating copy 

that could be used in titles and the body of articles, in blogs and on Twitter.

Jones used a relaxed and open-ended process throughout the workshop. Francesca Cavallerio’s 

extended feedback report captures the essence of the responses of many to this approach to the workshop:

I enjoyed the freedom that came from writing creatively, without prescriptions. Having no other goal than the story/poem itself was intimidating initially, but then turned into an amazing experience. I think (the workshop) allowed me to discover a few things about myself and the way I write. Also, by listening to what others wrote, and realizing how many different ways of writing exist, and how much I enjoyed each of them, gave me an increased sense of freedom and possibility

I was expecting more “directions”, tips on “how to use creative writing in academia”. But now that we are at the end of the workshop, I think I can see  why it was organised in this way.  Yesterday, I would have said, “Yes, I wanted to be guided more”. Today, I am actually very happy of the structure and everything I learned, felt and experienced here. –Francesca Cavallerio, St. Mary’s University, Twickenham.

The last morning of the workshop consisted of reading some of the poems  that were written overnight. 
Attendees then chose from amongst 11 black and white photographs. The brief was to write a story 
about what the photograph was about. The only instruction was that often a photograph could represent 
the moment between what led up to the event captured and what might happen next. The group took 
the rest of themorning to write the photo-based 1,000 word stories. After lunch, they assembled in 
groups of three (each group having chosen the same photo) andcompared stories and outcomes.

 “I feel a sense of satisfaction in having written a life-story postcard, a poem and a short story—all very personal.” –Anne Quinney, Bournemouth University

The workshop was envisaged as a way to help academics with publishing in the wider world of blogs 

and online outlets, moving work to mixed media, auto-ethnography, and even fiction, radio and film. 

Jones gave ideas of the kinds of blogs and even journals that are receptive to creative academic work. 

He shared experiences with his own outputs and finding like-minded editors with whom to work.

The intellectual exchanges encouraged joint exploration on how academics can engage with principles 

 and tools from the arts in order to expand and extend their possibilities of dissemination of their work. 

 Concepts of creativity itself evolved and were transformed by participants’ outlooks and willingness 

to engage with unfamiliar territory. These processes comprised a ‘facilitated learning’—in that 

knowledge was gained as a secondary goal through a process of developing new relationships. 

This was achieved through individual and small group problem-solving and self-examination, 

grounded in personal past experience and knowledge.

Recently, 27 academics, some from as far away as upstate New York and Dublin, gathered for the Creative Writing for Academics with Kip Jones at Bournemouth University (BU). Their goal was two days of experimentation with writing techniques to engender more creative outputs in their academic writing.

The conclusion of one participant reflected the sentiments of many: “The Creative Writing for Academics workshop turned out to be a great experience, more than expected!!”
The two-day workshop was organised by BU’s Centre for Qualitative Research, and was promoted thusly:

“This unique event isn’t a typical writing retreat (with trees to hug and lots of time to ruminate), but a very active experience with exercises, suggestions and supportive feedback on participants’ work…”

- See more at: http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2016/02/25/flip-it-kip-jones-most-frequent-workshop-advice/#sthash.hR1DqZja.dpuf

Recently, 27 academics, some from as far away as upstate New York and Dublin, gathered for the Creative Writing for Academics with Kip Jones at Bournemouth University (BU). Their goal was two days of experimentation with writing techniques to engender more creative outputs in their academic writing.

The conclusion of one participant reflected the sentiments of many: “The Creative Writing for Academics workshop turned out to be a great experience, more than expected!!”
The two-day workshop was organised by BU’s Centre for Qualitative Research, and was promoted thusly:

“This unique event isn’t a typical writing retreat (with trees to hug and lots of time to ruminate), but a very active experience with exercises, suggestions and supportive feedback on participants’ work…”

- See more at: http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2016/02/25/flip-it-kip-jones-most-frequent-workshop-advice/#sthash.hR1DqZja.dpuf

The most frequent advice from Kip Jones to participants was “Flip it!” “Flip it!” –Kip Jones’ most frequent workshop advice. - See more at: http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2016/02/25/flip-it-kip-jones-most-frequent-workshop-advice/#sthash.hR1DqZja.dpuf

The most frequent advice from Kip Jones to participants was “Flip it!” “Flip it!” –Kip Jones’ most frequent workshop advice. - See more at: http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2016/02/25/flip-it-kip-jones-most-frequent-workshop-advice/#sthash.hR1DqZja.dpuf

Attendants at the Creative Writing for Academics Workshop at Bournemouth University. Some hold copies of the photograph from which they created a story. - See more at: http://blogs.bournemouth.ac.uk/research/2016/02/25/flip-it-kip-jones-most-frequent-workshop-advice/#sthash.hR1DqZja.dpuf

Swimming Pool Mélologue

The brief was thus: "Each participant gives a maximum 5 minute ONE SLIDE presentation about their research aspirations for the coming years". I chose Scene 1. from "Copacetica", a feature-length film that I am writing. A 'mélologue' is a spoken declamation with musical accompaniment or a soundscape, developed by the composer, Berlioz. I liked this idea. I have also been thinking a lot about Michael Haneke's use of lingering shots and stillness past the action or dialogue of a scene, so wanted to play a bit with that here. Rewriting the script directions, etc. for a narration definitely helped in refining the script itself.

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Set in the 1960s, Copacetica's themes include being different, the celebration of being an outsider, seeing oneself from outside of the “norm”, and the interior conflicts of “coming out” within a continuum as a (gay) male in a straight world. These observations are set within the flux and instability of a period of great social change, but which are often viewed in retrospect as consistent and definable. Being straight or being gay can also be viewed in a similar way within the wider culture’s need to set up a sexual binary and force sexual “choice” decision-making for the benefit of the majority culture. Through the device of the fleeting moment, the story interrogates the certainties and uncertainties of the “norms” of modernity.

View the short film here 

Read the Five-minute Script here 

Centre for Qualitative Research Approved and Moves Forward

The Centre for Qualitative has received approval to continue as a Research Centre within Bournemouth University and will be led by  Kip Jones as Centre Director and Caroline Ellis-Hill  as Deputy Director. The Centre will be part of the new Department of Health Sciences & Public Health in the Faculty of Health & Social Sciences. Members are welcome from across departments and faculties at BU.

The Centre for Qualitative Research (CQR), a long-standing resource for research practice and postgraduate learning at BU, has recently undergone a ‘refit’ of its web pages.  Content from the old site has been moved over to the new platform for Bournemouth University groups and centres. The new format now makes it possible to link with work taking place in other Schools and research sites. In addition, Impact, Public Engagement and Postgraduate Research links feature on every page.
CQR is held in high esteem globally for its innovative work and commitment to qualitative research. The refreshed web pages provide an international ‘shop window’ for CQR, School of Health & Social Care and BU more generally in regards to cutting-edge qualitative work. CQR has always engaged across Schools at BU and welcomes new opportunities for collaborate efforts.
The new CQR pages include information, resources and links organised around the following areas of research:

• Humanising Health and Social Care
• Novel and Innovative Research Methodologies
• Performative Social Science

In addition, areas such as Biographic Narrative Interpretive Research, Cut-up Technique and Appreciative Inquiry are covered. A new page outlining the ‘Gay and Pleasant Land? Project and Rufus Stone’ has been added. The recently organised, cross-Schools ARTS in RESEARCH (AiR) collaboration is also featured.
The new web pages include new information and resources, links to further information and even videos for viewing pleasure! Last but not least, a photo has been added as a ‘Featured Image’ highlighting the essence of each page.

Have a look around this interesting site!

“Social Media for Academics” Lunchtime Taster Session

Ever wondered about social media for academics? Join us for an informal chat about the possibilities on Friday 8 January in Room 508 Royal London House, Lansdowne Campus, Bournemouth University 12:30-2:00 p.m. 

Feel free to bring your lunch.

This will be a great way to finish up HSS’s ‘Writing Week’ with some practical tips on reaching wider audiences with your outputs through the likes of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc/ and/or your own personal blog or other blogs and web-based publications already up and running.

This will also be a ‘Taster Session’ for the upcoming “Creative Writing for Academics” two-day workshop in February. It is not necessary to be booked for that, however, but rather an opportunity to get an idea of what you might explore further at that workshop.

Kip Jones, who made London School of Economics’ list of favourite academic tweeters, will run the Taster Session. Kip was also listed among JISC’s 50 most influential UK higher education professionals on social media.

What they say at JISC: “Kip’s blog, ‘KIPWORLD’, covers a wide range of topics from advice on writing a PhD thesis to insight into his creative process. He regularly uses his blog, Facebook and Twitter to share his research (with) others.

Kip also contributes to the LSE Impact blog, LSE Review of Books, Discovery Society, Sociological Imagination, Creative Quarter, The Creativity Post and the Bournemouth University Research Blog.

Mark your calendars today so that you don’t forget the date over the holidays!

Social Media for Academics: Friday, 8 January, 12:30 RLH 508

Note: This session is mostly for academics at BU, but feel free to crash it if you'd like.

Further reading:
“Q&A: Kip Jones on the Art of Academic Blogging”

Proustifications on Paris

The first time I went to France (by way of winning a small prize) I was teeming with
anticipation and a sense of adventure. I had never been away from my native America
before and was filled with expectations. If I lived frugally, I surmised at the time, I would be

able to stay in Paris for more than three months. I prepared for, consequently, the luxury
of exploring Paris in an unhurried way that would allow the city and its occupants to reveal
themselves to me in a natural, unfolding way.


Paris unveiled itself to me gradually. I spent a lot of time camped out in cafés, watching
and meeting people. It was in observing passers-by that I particularly noticed other
Americans on ‘holiday abroad’ charging from place to place, trying desperately to make all
the appropriate stops at the necessary high spots of Paris, attempting to take everything in
and doing all this within a very short visit. In the throws of this often-frantic process, my
countrymen and women would frequently become quite annoyed with the Parisian French.
Annoyed because they (the French) did not speak English, annoyed because their ways of
doing things –their culture—was not the same as the American way. Surely they (the
French Parisians) understood that they (the Americans) had a lot to accomplish in a short
time and that they (the French and their culture) were only making the process that much
more difficult!


The reality of the experiences of many Americans abroad is subsequently reinvented when
they return home. Like art museum visitors who are more comfortable with the
reproductions found in the museum shop (they can buy them) than the art in the galleries,
the narratives of Americans’ trips abroad are typically reconstructed through photographs
stateside. They are, habitually, not assured that their journey was a success until they
assemble their holiday photographic slideshow, reconstructing the story of their journey
into a perceived reality. The defining moment, crucial to their reconstruction of reality, is
the moment when they are reassured that they visited, in this instance, the right Paris.
This is accomplished when family and friends agree that yes, they were at the right places
because those were the same places that they too visited or certainly would visit. At last,
after a long journey fraught with unexpected inconveniences, language barriers, unfamiliar
terrain and food, peppered with what many American tourists misconstrue as the French
penchant for rudeness, they can finally sleep restfully in their American beds. Paris was a
success.


Paris for me was different from that. Perhaps it was the luxury of the time available to me
to slow my pace down to fit the pace of Parisian life. Perhaps it was by finding the
timeframe in which to generate discovery and allow Paris to reveal itself to me. I recall
that at the end of my stay there, I did rush around to some of the tourist spots that I had
never bothered to visit (even the Louvre, I must admit!) and snap photos of myself posed
in front of miscellaneous monuments of French culture. I did this, ironically, in order to
have photos to show family and friends back home. Yes, they too might wonder if I had
ever been to Paris at all, if I had no photos of the places they had attended on their trips.
A few days before my departure from France my lover at the time, whom I had met in a
Parisian café, said, “You haven’t even been outside of Paris the whole time you’ve been
here! We must take the train to Versailles!” We departed the following morning, arriving at
Versailles in a light but steady rain. We walked the crunchy gravel grounds of Versailles
for a while, noted the long queues for the palace and made a dash back to the village of
Versailles and a small bistro/café. We sat for hours at a table talking, just under a window,
the rain beating its steady rhythm on the leaded panes. It was not exactly Madeleines
dipped in tea, but it very well might have been. We sipped slowly these last moments,
savouring them for memories. We both knew that the palace of Versailles would have to
wait for another time; the pain of imminent separation was far more monumental than any
French palace could be. I have been glad of that day since, and retell the story often.


When one approaches a journey slowly and with a sense of expectation at every turn, the
journey is never really completed. Fortunately, I was able to return to Paris many times
after that first visit. I believe today that it was the way I approached my first stay that
provided the longing to return, the opportunities to return.




Copyright Kip Jones 2007



Creative Writing for Academics with Kip Jones

Creative Writing For Academics with Kip Jones

Bournemouth University
Friday 19th and Saturday 20th February 2016

Summary: The Creative Writing workshop will be a unique event in that it will not be a typical 'writing retreat' (with trees to hug and lots of time to ruminate), but rather a very active experience with lots of exercises, suggestions and supportive feedback on participants’ work from Kip Jones and other participants.  The point is to encourage both students and academics who would like to include more creative writing in their outputs, particularly those whose writing includes reporting on narrative and other qualitative methods of research.  It also helps immensely in the move to publishing in the wider world of blogs and online outlets, moving work to media and film, auto-ethnography and even fiction.

 

Justification: The important point of Creative Writing for Academics is to help academics and students achieve the goal of achieving more of their work read by wider audiences; in other words, impact. By providing an intense two-day experience for participants to engage in developing writing skills, the playing field is levelled and opportunities for facilitated learning developed. By engaging in creative writing, it becomes possible for all to write more clearly, more simply, even more creatively, when writing not only for academic publications, but also for outlets previously unimagined.

Methods: The workshop will present opportunities to work with academic material and expand its means of production and dissemination to new and creative levels through interfaces with techniques from the arts and humanities, including blog and magazine writing, film treatments and scripts, and poetry and fictional exercises. These intellectual exchanges encourage joint exploration of how researchers can engage with principles and tools from the arts in order to expand and extend the possibilities of dissemination of research data. Concepts of creativity itself will evolve and be transformed by participants’ outlooks and willingness to engage with unfamiliar territory. These processes comprise a ‘facilitated learning’—in that knowledge will be gained as a secondary goal through a process of developing new relationships through small group problem-solving and self examination, grounded in personal past experience and knowledge.

 

 Kip Jones BA MSc PhD is Reader in Performative Social Science and Qualitative Research in the Faculties of Media & Communication and Health & Social Sciences at Bournemouth University. Jones has produced films, videos and audio productions and has written many articles for academic journals and authored Chapters in books on topics such as masculinity, ageing and rurality, and older LGBT citizens. His groundbreaking use of qualitative methods, including biography and auto-ethnography, and the use of tools from the arts in social science research and dissemination, are distinguished internationally.

Workshop Price: £120. for two days. £90. for students/BU staff

Academics and students at all levels welcome!

Register online at: 

http://creative-writing-workshop.eventbrite.co.uk