Write Now Online: The Narrative Triptych w/ videos by Lidia Yuknavitch

Write Now: The Narrative Triptych—a 4-week creative incubator launching October 16

A painted or carved triptych typically has three hinged panels, and the two outer panels can be folded in towards the central one. A literary or musical triptych generally consists of three closely related or contrasting themes or parts. Triptychderives from the Greek triptychos (“having three folds”), formed by combining tri– (“three”) and ptychē (“fold” or “layer”).

Although triptych originally described a specific type of Roman writing tablet that had three hinged sections, it is not surprising that the idea was generalized first to a type of painting, and then to anything composed of three parts.

The triptychs most etched on my brain are Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, Ruben’s Elevation of the Cross, and Bacon’s Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion. There are MANY religious triptychs as well as some amazing contemporary triptychs painted by women, POC, and LGBTQ artists. Modern triptychs occur in photography as well as painting, and really in all art forms including theater, dance, etc…

A Narrative Triptych draws from the concept of the three-paneled image creating a 3-section sequence with language. There are endless ways to create a triptych: by topic, theme, image, interlocking parts, circularity, etc…The main idea is that the story/poem/whatever happens in three pieces, or acts, or layers, or however you want to think about it.

In this Write Now Creative Incubator we will explore examples of narrative triptychs, develop a variety of strategies for creating narrative triptychs, and within a four week incubation period, BOOM, emerge with a triptych either under development or complete.

• Week One :: welcome zoom on Monday, October 5th at 6pm Pacific time.

  Examples and dialogue, homework experiments

• Week Two :: strategies for creating triptychs, homework for real

• Week Three :: more strategies for going deeper into your triptych, micro generative revision strategies

• Week Four :: Behold the Triptychs! celebrate your triptych, BUT ALSO, some “what else”strategies to consider

INTROVERT // EXTROVERT

• Introvert’s Narrative Triptych: For $99, you’ll receive access to the four “weeks” of videos that Lidia has created for this series, and you will take them each on your own time from the safety and security of your writerly hidey-hole (OH BOY DO WE GET IT). The Introvert option is live all the time. Once you purchase it, you will have access to the videos in perpetuity.

• Extrovert’s Narrative Braid: ***EXTROVERT MODULES WILL LAUNCH October 16th!***

  For $150, you’ll receive these videos in the framework of an online community space with up to nine (9) other writers. Think of this as a playpen, a creative incubator to support you as you generate writing. A facilitator (one of Lidia’s longtime collaborators—Domi Shoemaker, Katie Guinn, or Daniel Elder) will be in the space for logistical help and to answer clarifying questions as well as hosting two ZOOM happy-hours. These facilitators won’t be offering feedback—we want you and your fellow writers to turn to each other for that. Together, you’ll have space and time each week between videos launching, to bounce ideas off each  other and form a temporary community. And who knows? We certainly hope some of these communities will last beyond the course’s end date. Haven’t you been looking for a writing group? (After the class ends, you will maintain access to the videos should you wish to revisit them.)

The Write Now collaborations are process-based, time foreshortened, collaborative incubation spaces. They are meant to get your creative juices firing while working with a small group or alone. The weekly process-oriented creative portals and practices are meant to generate material that you can work with. This is a micro feedback oriented space, as opposed to a more heavy feedback focused space. Micro feedback is completely different in that it is generative revision and not at all corrective critique. We will get deeper in to that inside.

We do not currently have scholarships available for this online offering. We are always open to accommodating payment plans. Please contact Daniel Elder at registration@corporealwriting.com to set one up.