This short book is the final volume in a trilogy on writing, building on many years of research into writing and writing processes that began with the launch of HKU's Writing for Performance bachelor's programme in 1992.
Which lesson did I hold back?
After decades of teaching writing for the theatre, professor of applied research and playwright Nirav Christophe asks himself: Which lesson did I hold back? Which lesson did I ultimately never teach? Een Leeg Vel (meaning A Blank Page) is the concluding volume in his trilogy on writing.
Nirav's first book, Het naakte schrijven, explores how to begin writing. It argues that you learn to write more quickly and more effectively by dismantling your own myths and assumptions about writing than by absorbing rules, tips and conventional wisdom.
The second book, Ten Thousand Idiots, is about writing strong theatre texts. It explores the multivocality that shapes the writing process – the countless voices that inhabit us as we live, write and make theatre today. Learning to recognise these inner voices, play with them and move effortlessly between them forms the basis of the creative writing process.
And now, this final volume examines what happens when you radically break free from the conventions of theatre writing and begin writing in methods and contexts that are completely different. Is there still something within us beyond all those voices? And could we write from that place of emptiness? This final lesson on writing and the pedagogy of writing reveals how to let go of the writer's ego.
About the author
Nirav Christophe is a writer, theatre scholar, Dutch language and literature scholar, and an internationally recognised writing teacher and writing pedagogue. He specialises in the pedagogy of playwriting and is an expert on creative processes, particularly transdisciplinary creative practices. In 1992, he founded the Netherlands' first four-year bachelor's programme in writing at HKU, where he served as Artistic Director for nine years. From 2006 to 2026, he was also Professor of Applied Research at HKU.
(Note that this is a Dutch publication)
The book is also available as part of a luxury boxed collection, together with Nirav Christophe's Het naakte schrijven and Tienduizend idioten. It now comes at a special price to honour his retirement as professor of Expanding Artistic Practices.
Order the collection
(Note that this is a Dutch publication)