Artificial intelligence is better at writing poems than William Shakespeare, a bizarre new study has found
thesun.co.uk – Friday November 15, 2024
PEOPLE prefer poems written by artificial intelligence to works by famous writers like Shakespeare and Lord Byron, a study has found.
Readers rated virtual verse as more emotional, creative and beautiful — until they found it was churned out by a bot.
Scientists think rhymes written by algorithms use simpler language, so people enjoy them more than complicated old classics.
They tested the effects on 2,300 people who were not poetry experts — and found readers could not tell the difference.
Writing in the journal Scientific Reports, Pittsburgh University’s Brian Porter said: “Like AI-generated paintings and faces, AI poems are now ‘more human than human’.
“We find people rate AI-generated poems more highly. However, they evaluate them more negatively when told the poem is AI generated.”
Fun and useful Christmas gifts for writers
scottishbooktrust.com – Friday November 15, 2024
A few fun ideas for treating the writer in your life this festive season
Picking out Christmas gifts for writers can be tricky. After all, it’s not possible to pop a literary agent or massive book deal under the tree. Luckily, there are lots of other brilliant ideas for making the writer in your life feel special over the holidays. Here are a few of our favourites.
Books about writing
Even the most experienced writers sometimes need a little boost and that’s when books about harnessing creativity or examining the writing process are perfect. We’ve gathered together a few great suggestions in our writing about writing book list. I can also guarantee that if you walk into your local bookshop and ask what the staff recommend, they’ll be able to pick out something inspiring for you.
New Literary Agent Listing: Abi Fellows
firstwriter.com – Thursday November 14, 2024
For fiction, please send your cover letter, one-page synopsis and first three chapters. For non-fiction, please send a proposal (including overview of book's main idea, information about you the author / why you are the person to write the book, an outline of full book with chapter breakdowns / descriptions and sources, a sample chapter and, if these are available to you, media links, advance praise, comparable titles).
'Three Women' Writer Lisa Taddeo Offers 3 Writing Insights Every Aspiring TV Writer Should Know
screencraft.org – Thursday November 14, 2024
In ScreenCraft’s new interview with author and showrunner Lisa Taddeo, we dive into the art of adaptation and screenwriting. The writer recently brought her acclaimed book Three Women to the screen, and she has quite a few things to teach us about her process.
The Starz series features Shailene Woodley, Betty Gilpin, DeWanda Wise, and Gabrielle Creevy, and it’s based on Taddeo's bestselling exploration of desire, intimacy, and vulnerability. In the show, an author (Woodley) tells the complex stories of three women as they navigate the highs and lows of love and life.
It’s nonfiction—a true depiction of these women’s relationships and (at times, shocking) sex lives.
Elements of Style: How You Write What You Write: Creative Writing Workshop with Jennifer Landretti
orionmagazine.org – Thursday November 14, 2024
Style, one could say, is how you write what you write. It’s the discrete way that any sort of writing unites the most common elements of the craft: word choice, sentence structure, the organization and order of whatever the writer is expressing. While an evocative style tempts us to imitation, the results are rarely anything more than a self-conscious study on the path to developing our own authentic style. All accomplished styles seem to hide their gifts in the open. They are bewitchingly sly— “insincere” Oscar Wilde would say—often multivalent, always with an eye toward what they’ve left out. Skillful stylists such as Elizabeth Strout, Mary Oliver, or Wendell Berry seem to produce without effort the singular way that a story, poem, or essay should unfold, while the voices that grace their pages—that of a character or narrator—seem to materialize in our imaginations as a complete person with spiritual heft, a thriving sensibility, arrested there in art and shimmering for as long as the words exist. At its finest, style is a sort of gestalt of soul.
So, how do we understand and craft our own styles? We’ll explore that question. We’ll do so by working primarily with the personal essay while dipping periodically into poetry. We’ll examine the effects of word choice and sentence structure, as well as consider some of the organizational strategies that essayists use. Always, we’ll keep alive the question of style: What’s yours? How so? Why so? We’ll sample a range of writers, from Joan Didion and Elizabeth Bishop to Vladimir Nabokov, John Updike, and Patricia Hampl, distinguished stylists all. Rather than map out a set curriculum, I’ll use a more organic approach: beyond the first couple of classes, I’ll adapt the course to the direction that class members seem most interested in going. Whatever direction we do go, we’ll undertake a variety of eye-opening, generative exercises and, I hope, enjoy several lively discussions, each centered on a particular aspect of style. This course is open to writers of all skill levels.
Duration: This online course meets from January 12th – March 2nd over eight consecutive Sundays from 6-8 pm ET (5-7 CT, 4-6 MT, 3-5 PT).
Application window: November 1-15
New Writing North announces winter programme
atvtoday.co.uk – Thursday November 14, 2024
New Writing North has announced its winter programme, featuring a range of opportunities for aspiring and emerging writers across the region…
The Newcastle-based charity supports the development of professional skills for writers in the north, as well as encouraging writing and reading for pleasure and wellbeing. This winter sees an array of career development opportunities for emerging creatives, including paid work placements in publishing and professional industry workshops.
Anna Disley, Executive Director of Programme and Impact at New Writing North:
“This winter, there’s a chance for emerging creatives to kick-start, explore or develop careers with our far-ranging programme of workshops, courses, awards, and work placements. Our mission is to practically support and nurture talent from across our communities, and remove barriers to transformative creative opportunities. Thanks to our partners and supporters, there are a number of bursaries for career-making prospects on offer too.”
New Media Writing Prize open for entries
bournemouth.ac.uk – Thursday November 14, 2024
The 2024/5 New Media Writing Prize is now open for entries, with cash prizes for the best in interactive digital narrative, literature, and journalism.
The NMWP is seeking original works of “born-digital” storytelling (fiction or non-fiction): works created on digital devices, for digital devices. These include hypertexts, participatory films, i-documentaries, Twine stories, transmedia novels, and more.
The competition is free to enter. The main prize of £1000 is sponsored by if:book, with £500 prizes for best journalism (sponsor: FIPP media) and a “people’s choice” category (sponsor: Wonderbox Digital). Winner of the student prize will win a year’s membership from sponsor Writers Online.
In 2023-24 we also introduced a NEW prize category, sponsored by the associated NMWP Unconference: the Interactive Digital Narrative for Social Good award, celebrating creative works that endeavour to improve the world around us, our communities, our wellbeing, and our future generations. The winner of this prize will also receive £500.
IALA to Host a Virtual Panel on ‘The Business of Writing’
asbarez.com – Thursday November 14, 2024
The International Armenian Literary Alliance will host “The Business of Writing,” a free and virtual panel discussion with literary agents and editors Arevik Ashkharoyan, Aram Mrjoian and Patricia Mulcahy. The event will take place on Zoom on November 23 at 9 a.m. Pacific | 12:00 p.m. Eastern | 9:00 p.m. Armenia Time.
Ashkharoyan will discuss the process of submitting, accepting and rejecting work as well as speculate about publishing trends. Mrjoian and Mulcahy will explain what authors should consider before submitting work to a publisher, the most common mistakes authors make when pitching or submitting their work, and how they approach the craft of editing. The overall purpose of this panel is to provide insight about publication success from the perspective of experienced agents and editors.
The panel discussion, to be moderated by IALA board member J.P. Der Boghossian, will be followed by a brief Q&A session to offer Armenian writers an opportunity to ask questions to the panelists. A recording of the event will later be available on IALA’s YouTube channel. Register for the event online.
Oliver Malcolm launches eponymous publishing transformation agency
thebookseller.com – Wednesday November 13, 2024
Ex-Hodder & Stoughton managing director Oliver Malcolm has launched his own consultancy, Oliver Malcolm Publishing Transformation.
Designed to empower publishers, agents and authors, the consultancy “aims to help navigate the rapidly changing world of publishing” and includes free support for neurodiverse individuals.
The announcement follows news of Malcolm’s departure from Hodder & Stoughton after two years as managing director.
National writing competition for sixth form students open now
girton.cam.ac.uk – Monday November 11, 2024
Girton College’s annual Humanities Writing Competition is now open for submissions.
The competition is an opportunity for students in Year 12 (or equivalent) to research and write beyond the curriculum, using one or more of five selected objects from Girton’s on-site museum, the Lawrence Room Museum as their focus. Essays or creative responses (such as dramatic monologues, short stories, or poems) are equally welcome.
Focusing on Girton’s museum collection in the Lawrence Room, the Humanities Writing Competition aims to use ancient objects as a starting point for thinking across curricular divides – about the varieties of human experience that these survivals from the past can embody and reflect and the trains of thought they can set off.
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