PORTFOLIO OF WORK
Below is a journal of relevant work completed during First Semester, 2021. All work is related to the Situated Creative Practice Unit, Creativity in The Time of Climate Change.
Below is the chronological order of work.
MAINTAINED A RESEARCH JOURNAL AND ADDED CONTENT TO SYMBIOCENE ARCHIVE
https://www.notion.so/Climate-Fiction-Research-117a35c2f78346469fe6586338f92ace
20+ Articles, both academic and online
4 novels
2 collections of short stories
3 individual short stories
1 Phd Thesis
3 Textbooks
ATTENDED WEEKLY GROUP MEETINGS
Attended two weekly meetings, both for 1 hour. One was for the website and one for the digital narrative.
WROTE 5 BLOG POSTS REFLECTING ON MY PRACTICE
Most of the non-fiction writing is unfinished as the creative writing side of the project was more important for the group. I plan on finishing up these pieces in the following weeks.
Wrote 5 blog posts detailing my experience with SERF and my critical research.
Blog Post 1 — What to Write at the end of the World (2,918 words). https://www.chrisholdsworth.com/post/scp-week-1-blog
Blog Post 2 — A Week of Science and Reading (800 words) https://www.chrisholdsworth.com/post/early-draft-scp-blog-post-2
Blog Post 3 — Lost in the Cthulucene (2,000 words) https://www.chrisholdsworth.com/post/blog-post-3-draft-week-4
Blog Post 4 - 10 Must Read Books About Climate Change (400 words) https://www.chrisholdsworth.com/post/10-must-read-books-about-climate-change
Blog Post 5 – Memoir of the Apocalypse: An Abandoned Story (360 words) https://www.chrisholdsworth.com/post/memoir-of-the-apocalypse-an-abandoned-story
Draft for major non-fiction piece:
“Should We Be Optimistic About Climate Change”
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mch6-PTXqS-PnQCurqfen-bILo9_5rU7N6rSJD_n1Fc/edit?usp=sharing
This is a piece I’m working on where I explore whether optimism is justified for Climate Change. Is it realistic to be hopeful? Or is it just wishful thinking?
22,944 WORDS OF SCRAPPED WRITING
The ‘Grandfather Tree’ short story went through multiple re-writes and extensive editing. Including the re-writing, the total amount of original writing produced amounted to 16,000 words. When looking through the google doc, press the burger menu on the left side of the google doc for easier navigation of my drafts.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z_FJwuM7UvqDjk6A-Ocq9SlAYXjVxfTUfHFWyRr5a0M/edit?usp=sharing
‘Become Ashes’ went through many re-writes and edits. It originally began its life as a story titled ‘transitions’ and through collaboration and workshopping with members of the SCP team and other writers, progressed through 4 major structural edits before going onto line editing. The total word count of these 4 major edits amounted to 6,944 words of original writing.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/19eHKRFq4e2slNc5MWQhoNexvN07Q_b_egu3UdDfgPqs/edit?usp=sharing
SHORT STORY: 'BECOME ASHES'
A 2,500-word short story which is to be published in the next edition of ScratchThat Magazine. This story uses the death of a loved one to transition the reader into grieving the loss of the natural world due to climate change. It also asks whether hope is justified despite the worst-case scenario seeming likely.
SHORT STORY: 'MEMOIR OF THE APOCALYPSE'
A 2,000-word short story taking the form of a fictional memoir from a person in the future as they think back on the people of the current era and why they acted in the way they did towards the environment.
SHORT STORY: 'THE MISMEASURE OF TREES'
The first half of a short story which became the inspiration for the digital narrative. The story follows two characters, Holly and Alex, as they fall in love and discover the issue of climate change. As they learn about how impending of a disaster climate inaction is causing, they struggle to decide on what is the justified response. Is it to spread the word and trust in capitalism and democracy to listen to science and the people, or has that already proved futile, and the only reasonable response is revolution?
Because this story became the inspiration for digital narrative, I put completing it on hold to focus on collaborating with the website group. I’m hoping to finish this story in the future and publish it.
EDITED AND DEVELOPED SYMBIOCENE WEBSITE
Edited content for the website, including the ‘Library’ section. I also provided all sources from my research journal and uploaded them to the website myself.