Conflict sits at the heart of great fiction and non-fiction writing.
In this course, we will look to nature to understand where some of our most fundamental conflicts come from — including those associated with courtship, parental investment, and sibling rivalry — and how these conflicts manifest in displays, fights, even murder. Over three one-hour lessons, novelist and scientist Dr Amanda Niehaus will guide you through some of the basic principles of evolutionary theory and use examples from across the animal kingdom that will help you deepen your characters, craft great arguments, and build resonance from the ground up. This course can be used to generate new material or re-examine previous writing and, through the use of prompts, aims to inspire new perspectives on conflict and words on the page.
You will be working with Dr Amanda Niehaus, a biologist and award-winning writer living in Brisbane, Australia. Amanda was a 2013 ARC DECRA Research Fellow in Biology and a 2021 Queensland Writers Fellow; her essays have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize by AGNI and Creative Nonfiction; and she won of the 2017 VU Overland Story Prize. Most recently, she is author of the acclaimed novel The Breeding Season—a story of love, loss, and resilience based on the reproductive biology of northern quolls.
Amanda weaves scientific ideas, facts, and the lives of scientists into her creative writing. Why? Because fiction, memoir, and personal essay show us what science means in our everyday lives.
3 - 4 HRS; SELF-PACED; $150 AUD
