Project Proposal

The aim of my asset is basically to improve my narrative style (improve the maturity of my writing from the time I’ve started), but also I would like to primarily focus on my photographic abilities. Throughout the project I will be focusing on the narrative style: “Photographic Narrative”, this style falls in between the classic structure of ‘photojournalism’ and ‘narrative writing’.

As explained on the David Campbell (2010) website, “we need a return to storytelling in Photography as rigorous in thought and research as it is beautiful in construction and execution”. I will be using the means of interviewing to research into an individuals life story, in which I’ll turn into, perhaps, a 500-1000 word short prose. As I am mainly going to focus on improving my storytelling from the help of both photographs and my writing. The Article goes on and outlines the elements of a common/ traditional narrative structure, which is called the ‘linear structure’, the type of structure I am willing to incorporate in my writing:

• exposition– facts about the character
• conflict– the turning point in their life, the struggle in their life (i.e. immigration from one country to another)
• climax– high peak, interesting part of the individual’s life
• resolution– how’d they resolve their problems, what actions did they take. if not resolved what are they planning to do, that’ll resolve the issue?

This will help my course, BA in Creative Writing through various ways. This reflective practice will improve my narrative structure, in order to give maturity to my writing. it will help me interact with the individual/s I interview in a personal way- so I would be working through developing character profile- though in a very limited way, since this is a life story prose, so I cannot really make things up completely. I would be able to develop my vocabulary, play around with new words, emotions discovered through the interview/s. I can analyse the individuals body language, being able to apply storytelling characteristics through series of images and prose writing.

I would also like to work closely with the theme ‘life story’: In order to execute this, I will research life-story writers for motivational/inspirational purposes; picking out several ideas from here and there to help me form my narrative piece/s.

 

Project Plan
Weeks	Tasks	Criteria	Links/Sources	Reference/s
5	– Interview an Individual. – Come up with photographic ideas I could use to identify the Individual. – write min 500 words for my first narrative.	– post the interview questions and answers on the blog. – post inspiration photos on the blog.	https://nz.pinterest.com/
6	-First shoot in the beginning of the week – write another min 500 words -reshoot photograph if necessary	Post draft of the completed work for feedback
7	– edit narrative and publish – research techniques I can use to improve my narrative next time. – further feedbacks	I will use Grammarly* to check for any grammar mistakes as well as ask tutor, friends and families for formative feedback.	www.grammarly.com
EVALUATION ONE
8	-interview individual no. two -photographic ideas/ research -min 500 words	i will play around with new words and vocab/ grammar techniques to try make my work more interesting		dictionary.com ‘word of the days’ have different and playful styles of words, that you wouldn’t possibly use on a daily basis.
9	-another min 500 words – shoot photographs -edit and publish	both weeks text side to side analysis and feedback
EVALUATION TWO
10	-interview individual no. three -min 500 words
11	-additional min 500 words -feedback
EVALUATION THREE
12	Re-edit all three interviews- so each has two drafts and a final piece to review on the progress.	At the end of the week I will publish three finished works with relevant photographs on my e-portfolio
13	EVALUATION FOUR (OVERALL)

*Grammarly is a website used by students- it detects various amounts of grammar mistakes, attempts to make your vocabulary better and provides you with a plagiarism detector.

The following links would guide me through my project as a benchmark/ criteria, in which I’d reflect back to during reflection weeks:

David Campbell. (2010, November 18). Photography and narrative: what is involved in telling a story? – david campbell. Retrieved from http://www.david-campbell.org/2010/11/18/photography-and-narrative/ – this will help me through the structural preference of Narrative Writing, also this article encourages something new, an argument that pictorial narrative should come back as one of the writing forms. 

Legacy Projects. (n.d.). Life interview questions. Retrieved from http://legacyproject.org/guides/lifeintquestions.pdf – this will help me with some ideal questions to ask my interviewee.

University of Lapland, M. A. (2015). Reading pictures, constructing, narratives. Retrieved from https://lauda.ulapland.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/61931/ProGradu_AlataloM_2015.pdf?sequence=5 – this gives me insights of how to produce a narrative through still images. but also what kind of literacy ability to use to approach photographs. It also involves chapters on Narratology (science of narration) and Photography.

The Write Practice. (n.d.). 10 steps to becoming a writer. Retrieved from https://s3.amazonaws.com/becomingwriter/10+Steps+to+Become+a+Writer.pdf – this is just another encouraging book I found on the internet to encourage me through this project if I ever fall behind.

University of Oxford. (n.d.). Guide to editing and proofreading. Retrieved from https://www.learning.ox.ac.uk/media/global/wwwadminoxacuk/localsites/oxfordlearninginstitute/documents/pdg/managingyourself/1_guide-to-editing-and-proofreading.pdf –Guidance to editing and proofreading

The Write Practice, K. M. (2015). The proofreading technique that will change your life. Retrieved from http://thewritepractice.com/proofreading-technique/ – Proofreading technique that is suggested by all (not an academic ref)

The Criteria/s I will apply for this project to mark my progression would be through my weekly plans. I will try obtain everything I had set during weeks 5-13. The Write Practice (n.d.), basically writes that writers work better under deadlines, as it induces them to work with both discipline and focus, that most writers tend to not achieve. I will send some of my “writing friends” and creative writing teacher: James George, my narrative piece/s for feedback, to get their views on where I can improve and where I need to stop. I will then reflect on it showing their feedback, and a before and after piece, on my reflective writing weeks (weeks 7, 9, 11, and 13). The only way I can show biased reflection through my own writing is through everyone else’s feedback. I will reflect my Photography and Interview skills through sharing my inspirations on my e-portfolio and give a little description about ‘what happened behind the scenes’.