4. Circular | Kill Your Darlings

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Writing Fiction in Absurd Times with Ennis Ćehić

Introduction

Welcome
Course Structure & Materials
Meet Your Teacher: Ennis Ćehić (2:13)

Part One

Defining the Absurd
The Philosophy
Searching for Meaning
Finding Patterns
Exercise: Search for Meaning in Meaninglessness
Conclusion to Part One (1:38)

Part Two

A Literary Lineage
A Deeper Look
Exercise: Tracing the Absurd
Exercise: Imitate Ancestors
Conclusion to Part Two (1:32)

Part Three

Characteristics of the Absurd
Before You Jump In (0:49)
Illogical Plots
Exercise: Break the Plot
Strange Dialogue
Exercise: What’s Strange?
Exercise: Disconnect the Conversation
Alienated Characters
Exercise: Analyse a Passage
Exercise: Make Someone Out of Sync
Meaningless & Futile Actions
Exercise: Give a Character a Futile Task
Deadpan Tone
Exercise: Report the Impossible Calmly
Senseless Humour
Exercise: Laugh at the Wrong Time
Conclusion to Part Three (1:32)

Part Four

Structuring Your Stories
Brevity is Everything
Narrative Structure
1. Episodic
2. Fragmented
3. Repetitive
4. Circular
5. Contained
The Power of Structures
Pushing Your Stories to Their Limits
Exercise: Map the Absurd
Conclusion to Part Four (2:19)

Part Five

Absurdist Characters & Voice
Characters
Exercise: Review the Ending
Character Traits
Traits & Voice
Exercise: Change the Voice, Not the Event
The Voice of Sadvertising
Is the Situation Absurd or the Response?
Conclusion to Part Five (1:50)

Part Six

Absurdism in an Age of Uncertainty
Reacting to the World
When I Began Writing
Bananas (2:06)
How I Continued My Writing
Absurdism and the Rise of Bureaucracy
What Can Writers Do?
Exercise: Look for Material
Conclusion to Part Six (1:42)

Part 7

Practise, Practise, Practise
Exercise: Exaggerate the Mundane
Exercise: Write Nonsense Dialogue
Exercise: Create New Consequences
Exercise: Contradict Consequences
Exercise: Personify the Abstract
Exercise: Make Up Absurd Rules
Conclusion to Part Seven (1:38)

Part 8

Why Write the Absurd?
How This All Fits Together
The End (2:08)

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