Adrian May – författare

Myths and Heroes in Creative Writing: Re-Reading and Remaking offers a comprehensive overview of myth throughout history. Exploring a variety of forms, Adrian May provides a framework for the practice and process of writing myths.

This accessible guide discusses a rich and diverse range of literary examples across myth, theatre, poetry, and criticism to make a clear and compelling case for a reimagining of the epic and heroic. It celebrates the depth and subtlety of myth and its ability to overcome clichés, while offering essential advice on plotting, editing, and retelling classical myths. It features practical advice and exercises for a complete writing experience.

Inspiring creativity and advancing comprehension, this book is for anyone interested in the creative use of myth. This includes writers, artists and all who seek to see beyond the surface of things and gain new insights into mythology.

Myths and Heroes in Creative Writing: Re-Reading and Remaking offers a comprehensive overview of myth throughout history. Exploring a variety of forms, Adrian May provides a framework for the practice and process of writing myths.

This accessible guide discusses a rich and diverse range of literary examples across myth, theatre, poetry, and criticism to make a clear and compelling case for a reimagining of the epic and heroic. It celebrates the depth and subtlety of myth and its ability to overcome clichés, while offering essential advice on plotting, editing, and retelling classical myths. It features practical advice and exercises for a complete writing experience.

Inspiring creativity and advancing comprehension, this book is for anyone interested in the creative use of myth. This includes writers, artists and all who seek to see beyond the surface of things and gain new insights into mythology.

In this engaging guide, teacher, poet and lyricist Adrian May shows how magic is a tool used by writers to generate creativity, where concepts of magic are seen as portals of creative power. This unique book features approachable chapters on aspects of magic and writing - such as the Tarot and the creative methods of W. B. Yeats.  Blending literary criticism with practical exercises, this text will enable readers to understand the magical nature of creative writing, giving them a sense of wider possibilities and equipping them to improve their creative writing.

This an ideal resource for undergraduate or postgraduate students taking courses on Creative Writing, as well as established or budding writers working independently.

Myth and Creative Writing is a unique and practical guide to the arts of creative writing. It:

A secret that all writers know is that they are part of a long tradition of storytelling - whether they call it mythic, intertextual, interactive or original. And in the pantheon of storytelling, myths (those stories that tell us, in often magical terms, how the world and the creatures in it came to be) are the bedrock, a source of unending inspiration. One can dress the study of literature in the finest critical clothing - or intellectualise it until the cows come home - but at its heart it is nothing more - and nothing less - than the study of the human instinct to tell stories, to order the world into patterns we can more readily understand. Exploring the mythic nature of writing (by considering where the connections between instinct and art are made, and where the writer is also seen as a mythic adventurer) is a way of finding close links to what it is we demand from literature, which is - again - something to do with the essences of human nature. Further, in the course of examining the nature of myth, Adrian May provides a very practical guide to the aspiring writer - whether in a formal course or working alone - on how to write stories (myths) of their own, from how to begin, how to develop and how to close.

Myth and Creative Writing is a unique and practical guide to the arts of creative writing. It:

A secret that all writers know is that they are part of a long tradition of storytelling - whether they call it mythic, intertextual, interactive or original. And in the pantheon of storytelling, myths (those stories that tell us, in often magical terms, how the world and the creatures in it came to be) are the bedrock, a source of unending inspiration. One can dress the study of literature in the finest critical clothing - or intellectualise it until the cows come home - but at its heart it is nothing more - and nothing less - than the study of the human instinct to tell stories, to order the world into patterns we can more readily understand. Exploring the mythic nature of writing (by considering where the connections between instinct and art are made, and where the writer is also seen as a mythic adventurer) is a way of finding close links to what it is we demand from literature, which is - again - something to do with the essences of human nature. Further, in the course of examining the nature of myth, Adrian May provides a very practical guide to the aspiring writer - whether in a formal course or working alone - on how to write stories (myths) of their own, from how to begin, how to develop and how to close.

Tradition in Creative Writing: Finding Inspiration Through Your Roots encourages writers to rediscover sources of creativity in the everyday, showing students how to see your writing as connected to your life. Adrian May addresses a key question for many beginning writers: Where do you get your ideas from? May argues that tradition does not mean anti-progress—but is instead a kind of hidden wealth that stems from literary and historical traditions, folk and songs, self and nature, and community. By drawing on these personal and traditional wellsprings of inspiration, writers will learn to see their writing as part of a greater continuum of influences and view their work as having innate value as part of that cultural and artistic ecology. Each chapter includes accessible discussion, literary and critical readings, creative examples, and writing exercises. While the creative examples are drawn from song lyrics and poetry, the writing exercises are appropriate for all genres. Undergraduates and practitioners will benefit from this guide to finding originality in writing through exploring sources of creative inspiration.