AustLit

'In a sea of endless stories of corporate ethical scandals, many of which are attributed to ‘failed leadership', this article examines how creative writing research is being used as a way of inspiring – or suggesting – new forms of leadership behaviour. In the processual nature of being in our lives, if experience is valued as primary to consciousness as a way of active belonging, then it will be argued that creative writing – here, scriptwriting specifically – is a powerful medium to examine organisational experiences. This research practice occurs through the lens of affect in embodied responses to such experience, as distinct from the singular, scientific mode of cognitive analysis that can cause us to habitually jump too quickly to conclusions about our experiences. By employing the affective methodology of creative practice research, which in this case forms the basis for a PhD currently in candidature, this article speculates how creative writing might disrupt habitual thinking through the elevation of emergent data from our physical senses. Creative writing can, we argue, provide a balance for science to work with art and craft, and in doing so encourage new thinking in the fields of organisational behaviour, relational leadership and creative practice research.' (Publication abstract)

'Sarah Krasnostein’s The Trauma Cleaner has won many awards since it was published in 2017, including the Victorian Prize for Literature and the Australian Book Industry Award General Non-Fiction Book of the Year.'  (Introduction)

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'Comedy writers use their practice to raise questions and create awareness about social, political and cultural issues, but can these practitioners be considered academics? With creative modalities of enquiry now commonplace in universities – where research is used to shape one’s practice, resulting in creative work that embodies that research – when does comedy writing start to take on a different function? In this article, we discuss comedy screenwriting in an academic setting, arguing that it has potential as a rigorous mode of research that can sit happily alongside art, design, creative writing and media practice. Much has been written about creative practice research, yet not so much has been written about the form this type of research takes; specifically, why one might choose comedy to express, embody or otherwise perform the findings of research. Here, then, we draw on our experiences of undertaking screenwriting projects using comedy to discuss the ways in which researchers might use the comic mode to present their findings in imaginative, innovative and fun ways that can expand understanding and, potentially, garner impact.' (Publication abstract)

'One of the major considerations when creating an ongoing television series is its “story world”, made up by its place, people, themes, style and tone. Central to this world is the setting, known in television writing as the “hub” or “precinct”, which serves the need for constant generation of characters and storylines.' (Introduction)

'Why do we tell stories, and how are they crafted? In a new series, we unpick the work of the writer on both page and screen.'

This article argues that, for Australian comedy series creators, the web platform has opened a new space in which the 'rules' of script development are being expanded, enhanced or othenoise refashioned through having direct connection  with and input from their audience. With the audience's potential as a 'comedy gatekeeper, the web series audience becomes integral to the ways in which these texts are developed, namely skipping the erstwhile second-guessing of demographic tastes by more traditional broadcast development executives and commissioners. Referring to a range of well-known Australian comedy web series, such as Bondi Hipsters (2011-2017) and The Katering Show (2015-2017) — including what their creators, writers and audiences have said about them — we investigate the processes behind the success of these series...'  (Publication abstract)

'Scholarly contributions to this issue of TEXT include a broad range of topics from reflective practice, improvisation, and collaborative writing as method, to questions of examination, experimentation, misinterpretation and activism.' (Source : Editorial)

'A university professor with a reputation for creative practice research finds himself at a crossroads when, en route to an international conference, he meets a younger and somewhat modest dementia researcher whose work is clearly having an impact on people’s lives. A keynote at a creative writing conference in Hawaii, the professor is impelled to reflect on his own research practice and piece together fragments of his work history to reassure himself that what he does is not only valid as research, but also that it has rigour. With flashbacks to a variety of painful and often comic encounters with colleagues trying to articulate their practice as research, he is able to overcome his midflight, mid-career crisis and come to a renewed and satisfactory understanding of what good creative practice research is, and how that can be articulated clearly and confidently to others. Originally performed at the University of Southern Queensland’s inaugural ‘Scriptwriting as Research’ symposium in 2016, A Vacuous Screenplay in Search of Rigour thus interrogates not only the very mode of creative practice research, but also the broader (and varied) institutional research cultures within which it operates.

'In the ‘Screenplays as Research Artefacts’ special issue of TEXT (Baker & Batty 2018), which is the fourth in a line of those focussed on scriptwriting as research, but the first to focus exclusively on writing for the screen, we present a range of stories, worlds, characters, visual scenarios and dialogue exchanges that function as vessels for theories and ideas. The eleven screenplays included in this issue use creative practice approaches to research across a wide variety of discourses, from archival work on historical subjects, to notions of gender, sex and sexuality, to more meta concepts regarding screenwriting craft and researching in the academy. But all of these screenplays have one important aspect in common: the use of fiction to do this research work. Whether parody, speculative biography or straight-forward drama, all of the works in this special issue embrace fiction as an important method to convey their respective critical concerns. Perhaps this is one of the hallmarks of screenwriting (as) research when compared with associated forms in creative writing and screen production: fiction as a staple of its storytelling. There are, of course, those who use non-fiction in screenwriting (as) research; but comparatively, and considering the affectual nature of screen drama and comedy, is fiction one of the defining features of this creative practice research endeavour? Let us consider this idea before we outline the works that appear in the issue.'  (Introduction)

'Here the authors discuss the role of fiction in screenwriting practice research. The screenplays included in the ‘Screenplays as Research Artefacts’ special issue of TEXT present a range of stories, worlds, characters, visual scenarios and dialogue exchanges that function as vessels for theories and ideas. These eleven screenplays all use creative practice approaches to research across a wide variety of discourses. All of the works embrace fiction as an important method to convey their respective critical concerns, which, the authors argue, evidences an emerging hallmark of screenwriting (as) research when compared with associated forms in the creative writing and screen production disciplines: fiction as a staple of its storytelling, creative practice and research methodology. The authors suggest that the use of fiction to perform research and present findings illuminates the ways that knowledge can be affective, not merely textual or verbal, something that is exemplified in the selected screenplays.' ( Craig Batty and Dallas John Baker : introduction) 

'There is general agreement that doctoral research should show ‘originality’, but there is less agreement about what that means or how it is distinguished from ‘contribution’. There is also a strand in the literature that attests that different disciplines, especially relative newcomers to the doctorate such as the creative arts, privilege different qualities of originality and forms of contribution. This prompts the question: what constitutes an original contribution in the field of creative writing? Drawing on the growing literature on creative doctorates, reference to a number of examiner reports collected for a larger project, and reflections on supervising and examining creative writing PhDs, this paper explores the various forms of contribution that characterise the discourse on knowledge creation and dissemination in creative writing research.'  (Publication abstract)

'This article explores ‘the exegesis now’ from the perspective of the screenwriting practice PhD. Using as a playful homage to traditional screenplay structure, the archetypal Hero’s Journey, it maps the landscape and offers examples of how the screenwriting exegesis/dissertation is occurring at RMIT University. This includes a comedy feature film about gender and perspective; a multiple-protagonist feature film set in the world of avid Doctor Who fans; and a hybrid form, the screen novel, set in the politically corrupt world of contemporary Melbourne transport infrastructure. Guided by their supervisor ‘mentor’, two candidates and one recent graduate embark on a collaborative journey that probes, prods, prises open and proposes what the screenwriting practice PhD can do and look like, and by doing so raise important points about the purpose and form of the dissertation. Collectively, the authors assume the simultaneous roles of the candidate who is doing, completing and has completed; the experienced supervisor; and the in-training supervisor.' (Publication abstract)

'This Special Issue asks: what does the creative writing PhD exegesis look like today? Related questions include whether it is still – and, indeed, if it ever was – called an exegesis across all, or most, institutions; and does it still primarily exist as a separate, written document that accompanies the creative work? Representing a series of key institutions and creative writing academics across Australia, this Special Issue of TEXT draws together supervisors and candidates to reflect upon and provide rich, experience-based accounts of what the exegesis looks like and how it functions today. One of the aims of this is to start to think about the future of the form; indeed, where the exegesis might go next.' (Introduction)

'This Special Issue asks: what does the creative writing PhD exegesis look like today? Related questions include whether it is still – and, indeed, if it ever was – called an exegesis across all, or most, institutions; and does it still primarily exist as a separate, written document that accompanies the creative work? Representing a series of key institutions and creative writing academics across Australia, this Special Issue of TEXT draws together supervisors and candidates to reflect upon and provide rich, experiencebased accounts of what the exegesis looks like and how it functions today. One of the aims of this is to start to think about the future of the form; indeed, where the exegesis might go next.'  (Craig Batty and Donna Lee Brien : Introduction)