Literary mentoring

LITERARY MENTORING

 

“So okay – there you are in your room with the shade down and the door shut and the plug pulled out of the base of telephone. You’ve blown up your TV and committed yourself to a thousand words a day, come hell or high water. Now comes the big question: What are you going to write about? And the equally big answer: Anything you damn well want.”
Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

 

Literary mentoring is designed for individual learning following a tailor-made curriculum at the convenient time. These individual consultations focus on writers of different types. Some of the former students sought for the basic knowledge of creative writing to start writing in general. Others simply wanted to improve their skills in private.
 
Photography: Shelby Miller
 
Often literary mentoring is necessary for the writers who want to discuss a
particular piece of their work (novel, short story or etc.). They intend to analyse, study and master writing with the help of the professional and the provided theoretical and practical literary knowledge.

Duration of the regular consultation is 1 hour.
 

FEEDBACK

“I remember taking along a final draft of my latest text to the first literary mentoring consultation. I had a feeling that a story might lack some clarity, so I hoped that Gabrielė could help me edit the text and extract the main idea. I had developed the tendency to wrap the text in a way that it was becoming too complicated to the reader. I noticed it while attending creative writing courses with Gabrielė. She has always been honest and humbly advised me where to focus on, what to unwrap to make a story coherent and clear.

After our first individual meeting I left frustrated. Gabrielė advised me to try to divide my so-called final draft into two stories. I had a different feeling: dividing the narrative in two threatened with the loss of meaning. I had that feeling until I sat down to write. I kept meeting with Gabrielė for mentoring and after a few months I had two stories – ready-to-publish novels.”
Dovilė Raustytė, chief of communication at International Film Festival „Kino pavasaris“, writer


“Gabrielė provides literary mentoring consultations, where she actually embodies the subtle equilibrium. She manages to balance sensitive, empathetic and unconditional support with professional, careful and precise insistence. I think these are the qualities of the real teacher! What fascinates me is that Gabrielė also combines learning process with a game. I had even suprised myself coming to the realisation that this childish approach and the inner hazard enabled me to write hypnotic and profound stories.”
Rosita Pipirienė, psychotherapist



For more information contact Gabrielė Labanauskaitė[email protected]

Creation & Development of Characters

CREATION & DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHARACTERS

There is at least one character in every poem, novel, short-story, fairy-tale, myth, advertisement, news reportage, comic or joke. Upcoming situations usually depend on the characters, once they get a chance to unfold and evolve in certain circumstances. Characters drive a narrative forward. It is usual to indentify with the likeable characters, to go through experiences together, we worry for them, we love them and wish them the best. How to create and develop a character, which would appear closer to a reader than a best friend, relative or a lover?

David IskanderPhotography: David Iskander

Gabrielė Labanauskaitė seeks to help the group members to enhance existing creative writing and narrative construction skills, focusing on the development of characters: principles of creation, evolution of the individual story and inclusion into the final narrative.

Duration: 21 academic hour

OBJECTIVES:

      • to introduce the group to the techical means of character development;
      • to analyze the journey of the main characters in the plot;
      • to continue previous creative practices, stimulate the imagination and fantasy through the certain exercises, focused on the development of characters and the story;
      • to become aware of the existing character archetypes;/span>
      • to discuss about favourite and unpopular characters;
      • to take a playful approach to the theory;
      • to establish a relationship with other group members and expand an individual friend circle;
      • to look into the provided information and share creative work accomplished during the courses.

QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED:

      • why do readers still crave for the heroes?
      • what is the most important thing when developing a recognizable and interesting character?
      • what does character dossier consist of?
      • why the endless fight between the antagonist and protagonist is still relevant?
      • what are the differences between foreground, anthax and peripheral characters?
      • why do some characters arise compassion and empathy within, while the others do not look interesting at all?

Organizers of creative writing courses maintain a right to change the curriculum.


Dates of the upcoming courses and additional information can be received by email [email protected]or found on social media pageIŠ TYLOS

The Basics of Creative Writing

THE BASICS OF CREATIVE WRITING

Everyone has a right to write despite the sex, age or occupation. So, creative writing courses are designed for anybody, who seek to develop, renew or improve writing skills. It is pretty hard to describe a term of creative writing, because the picture does not fir the frame. Creative writing has many techniques, styles that can be combained and harnessed to help the writer express himself. The primal purpose of these courses is a creativity-oriented development of daily writing habit. No matter where the muses hide, where the inspiration lays.

yannick-pulverPhotography: Yannick Pulver

Gabrielė Labanauskaitė seeks to introduce the group to the basics of creative writing, focusing on the creativity and search for the personal style.

Duration: 21 academic hour

IN THE COURSE:

  • you will do exercises that stimulate your imagination and fantasy;
  • learn how to establish a writing routine and discipline;
  • learn about the expressive tools that make storytelling interesting and engaging;
  • overcome the fear of a white sheet of paper or a blank screen;
  • learn to recognize and befriend your inner critic;
  • widen your circle of like-minded creators.

QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED:

  • is it possible to learn to write?
  • how to know if I have what it takes to become a person, who writes?
  • how to make peace with the inner critics and harness their energy for work?
  • how to cultivate imagination?
  • what are the elements of a good story?
  • how to employ the theory into everyday life practice?

EXCLUSIVITY:

  1. The course programme is exceptional in its depth and breadth of study, enriched by numerous practical exercises and tips;
  2. The continuity and coherence of the course, where the knowledge acquired during the course can be further developed in specific courses on characters, narrative structure or the creation of monologues, dialogues and polylogues;
  3. The course is playfully taught in a small group by associate professor Gabrielė Labanauskaitė, a playwright with 15 years of teaching experience in textual analysis and production at Lithuanian higher education institutions.

Organizers of creative writing courses maintain a right to change the curriculum.

 We also have an online video course for creative writing.

Video course contains 26 videos (2 hour duration in total) + online Q&A session with dr. Gabriele Labanauskaite. Language of the videos – Lithuanian with English subtitles.

After the course, you will also have the opportunity to join the Facebook group of the IS TYLOS writers’ community (alumni). If interested contact us at [email protected]

FAQ


Dates of the upcoming courses and additional information can be received by email [email protected] or found on social media pageIŠ TYLOS