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For years now, well-meaning organisations have run "workshops" where they invite writers to share their experiences with aspirant writers. This all sounds well, but does it work? None of these interventions can prove any results, so patently they are not effective. Workshops are only effective as "Master Classes". This means that established writers sit in a workshop together with an outstanding writer, so that the "not quite the best" learn from the "very best". Under all other circumstances, training has to follow the usual processes, and the aspirant writers have to learn craft first. No script has ever been written by a committee, and no writers have ever learned under the committee system. Training writers is a simple matter. They first learn the craft: genre, format, style, dialogue, tension, suspense and plot. These are simple, but in an African context, it is important that they learn the crafts as they apply in a number of cultures. The next step is not so simple. We call it 360 degree training. It is a process of honing the skills of visualisation. A writer may express herself in words, but all she is doing is describing what she has visualised. It's in her mind. She has to "see" the characters, the scenario, and most important, she has to "see" the structure as if she were looking at the plan of a building. The process of developing visualisation comes ONLY when the writer has mastered the craft. The process of 360 degree training looks like this;
Think of it this way: While the writer is writing, he is looking from above and "seeing" a picture of the structure, form and layout. At the same time, from below, he is "seeing" the ways in which he has targeted his audience. At the same time, he is seeing it projected onto a screen or acted out on the stage.
The process of visualisation is happening simultaneously in 360
degrees.
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