The Same Story Twelve Ways - Retellings at the Typewriter

What happens when you take a single story and tell it a bunch of different ways? Swing by and find out. Should it be "A man walks down the street" or "Down the street came a man, and he was walking"? Retelling is one of the oldest and most foundational writing exercises there is. Back in ancient Greece students were drilled on retelling fables and expanding famous sayings. Erasmus wrote 150 versions of one sentence, and in 1947 Raymond Queneau showed the world how satisfying it could be to describe one dull bus ride ninety-nine ways. What we'll do Everyone starts with a short tale. Bring your own or use one of the starters. You get some suggestions for how to spur it in a different direction, or run with your own. Why? What should writers do now that AI makes output cheap? A machine can retell a story in any style you like, can't it? This is about homing in on the part that was always the point, which is doing it. Put your hands on the keys and feel your way through the creative process from start to finish. Typewriters make it easy to put the funk back into your writing, even when you're starting with something flat. 8:00 - Arrive, get a drink. Quick intro to the machines for anyone who hasn't used one before. 8:15 - Warm up: remixing sentences. 8:40 - Short break. 8:55 - Tonight's piece. 9:00 - First round. Retell it however you like, or start from one of the ideas on the table. 9:20 - Share. 9:30 - Second round. 9:45 - Share, hang out, type more.