creative writing classes online

creative writing classes online

Enhancing Your Creative Writing Skills

1. Introduction to Creative Writing

So what is plot? The events that make up a story, particularly as they relate to one another in a pattern, in a sequence through cause and effect, how the reader views the events, and often in terms of dramatic structure. Plot is similar to storyline and has a series of causal events. It can include a sequence of patterns, character thoughts, or changes in a setting. Cause and effect is a continuous series of events where one thing leads to another. This will form a causal chain. How the reader views the plot is also known as story structure. This can be done through flashbacks or beginning from the beginning and relating to the end. During the sequence of events and structure, the writer may be faced with a character change. This can be the transformation of a character’s behavioral pattern, personality, belief, or their outer appearance. Nothing is permanent, and change can add depth and understanding to the reader.

What you find as you read and write is that characters and events can often get out of hand and start to take on a life of their own. This can lead to a story taking on an unexpected direction. During this process, you may meet other writers who have found that they can write and tell stories in a way that is different and unique. Oftentimes, those with the knack find that they are simply doing what they’ve always done: telling a story, but believe they have just now evolved to the point that writing it down is the next logical step. During the creative writing residencies, we will be spending time exploring these declared identities as writers and the stories that are emerging.

Creative writing encompasses a wide array of writing types. Everything from poetic works to works of nonfiction can be found in the creative writing genre. The style of creative writing focuses on writing style and self-expression, but the subject of the writing can come from any literary genre. Creative writing can be fiction or nonfiction and often categorized as poetry, play, or short story. Many have also written creative works in the form of a blog.

What is creative writing? It is broad to begin with. It’s true, but it’s also horribly boring. What do you consider creative writing to be? Can we, for instance, divide creative writing into areas that are more specific? We can therefore identify creative writing as writing that expresses the writer’s thoughts and feelings in an imaginative, often unique, and poetic way.

2. Developing Characters and Settings

It is also important to consider that no character, person, or living thing is static. Change is a fundamental aspect of life. People are constantly growing and adapting. It is the same for characters in a story. This concept is often referred to as character development. A static character will not have much of an impact on a story. Character development can be a planned or unplanned event. Creating conflict or struggle for a character will often lead to development. Various life experiences will also shape and change a character’s personality and outlook on life. An author should take these factors into account when creating a character. Throughout the course of a story, a character should ‘grow’ significantly from what he/she was at the beginning. This kind of change is what makes a story interesting. It gives the reader a reason to become attached to the character, or hate the character. Often a reader will feel emotion for a character and the events surrounding that character, and this is a good sign that the character has been well created and developed.

Creating characters may be the single most important thing an author can do in order to develop a successful piece of fiction. A well-written character can carry a plot to its conclusion in a most satisfying manner. A developed setting will give weight to the characters and story. This chapter will help you get started on creating characters and settings. A character can be described as a ‘person in a story’. A good character can become ‘more than a person’ in the mind of the reader. He or she can become real. He or she can seem alive. He or she can have personality, morals, thoughts, emotions, physical attributes, and social and economic standing. These are the primary building blocks in creating a character. It is important that a writer knows every detail regarding a character, even though not all of the information will be explicitly stated in a story. An author should construct a biography for each character.

3. Crafting Engaging Plots and Storylines

Good plots involve the reader and focus on the character’s attempts to resolve the dilemma. The events of the plot provide a platform for the characters to act and the reader to see the consequences of their actions. High and low points in the action should be planned in order to give the audience a breather. Too much constant action can be wearing. A strong story line is vital in grabbing your readers’ attention. But the best story in the world will be ruined by bad storytelling. A good story is not reported, it is witnessed. Storytelling lies at the very heart of what we do as fiction writers. We tell lies in order to show a greater truth. In order to get our readers to suspend their disbelief, we have to make them believe. A story is made up of a sequence of events that are witnessed by the reader. This differs from a backstory, which is a sequence of events that the reader is told about. You may have a brilliant idea for a plot, but you will never tell it to anyone if you cannot find a way to make it into a story.

Plots and storylines are the foundation on which a successful piece of creative writing is built. Novels, short stories or scripts are about creating an illusion, and for the reader or audience to suspend their disbelief in the world the writer has created, they need to be involved in the characters and the situations they find themselves in. An involving plot is a sequence of events linked by cause and effect. Its aim is to create an emotional involvement in the reader and keep them interested in the story. This involves creating a dilemma for the character. If a character has a strong desire and finds it thwarted by an opponent, you have the basis of a good plot.

4. Mastering Descriptive and Figurative Language

Similes and metaphors are figurative language techniques that compare one thing to another. A simile will use the words ‘like’ or ‘as’ to make a comparison, while a metaphor will state that one thing is another. Both are useful tools for making your writing more vivid and expressive but they can be difficult to get right. With a bad simile, your reader may become confused as to why one thing is like another, and with a bad metaphor, the image created may be too ridiculous to take seriously. Keep your comparisons simple and make sure they really do create a stronger image in the reader’s mind.

Appealing to emotion is a fantastic method of encouraging readers to become involved with what they are reading. To create an emotional response, you need to use language with a strong emphasis on feelings and attitudes. Think about excerpts you have read that have made you sorrowful, glad, thoughtful, etc. and consider what it is in the language that creates this emotional response. Now focus on using language to create similar responses in your reader.

You have learned about the importance of descriptive language earlier. Now, you will learn to convert plain, run-of-the-mill language to something more evocative. The best writer is able to set the scene, using clever language to create images in the readers’ heads. You will use your five senses as a guide to the world you wish to create. Think about what your location, objects or characters smell, taste, feel or sound like. Collect words or phrases to show these different qualities.

5. Polishing Your Creative Writing Style

First, develop a thick skin. This advice may not seem to have much to do with polishing your prose, but it’s crucial. If you can’t bear to have your work criticized, you won’t be able to take editing seriously. If you’re not convinced that an editor’s or peer reviewer’s suggestions are improvements, you can always apply William Faulkner’s rule: “kill your darlings.” The English author Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch said, “Murder your darlings,” referring to those pretty bits that beg to be left in at the cost of coherence or unity. In other words, if you’re too attached to what you’ve written, you’ll ignore the most important considerations for effective editing: the needs of your readers, and the requirements of your writing situation. Writing is communication; if you’ve lost your readers, you’ve lost your point. The next piece of advice may at first seem to contradict the last. While it’s important to be flexible in editing, it’s also crucial to be true to your own voice, your own style. We’ve all had the experience of reading a piece of writing by an immature writer who is trying to imitate someone else, a piece in which the imitation drowns out the original because the voice is not a natural one. Although the writer may have chosen this role simply because he admires the writer or thinker being imitated, more often than not the imitation is not a conscious decision. Rather, the writer is still trying to find his own voice, and in the process he stumbles across the voices of others. To avoid this, give yourself a break. You can’t come up with a snappy or profound phrase like the great writers do on your first try. You have to stop comparing your output to the output of writers whom you consider superior. They, too, wrote bad sentences, and still do. The only reason their sentences are better than yours is that they have improved them, often repeatedly. The most important thing is to get your ideas down, however haltingly, however ineloquently, however humbly. If you continually stop to censure what you have written, you’ll never get anywhere. Allow yourself to write badly, and you will write better. At the same time, be vigilant. Don’t assume that your work lacks value simply because you were able to write it quickly. Fast writing and good writing are not incompatible, nor are fast writing and slow writing. But if you are not careful, there is a danger that you may take too seriously the advice to “write fast” and write too fast. Always give yourself the option of revision. And when you do revise, put some effort into redoing what you’ve written, even if you think it’s basically OK. You’ll often be surprised to find that the revised version is indeed an improvement. And don’t hesitate to revise many times. Writing is global and recursive. The completion of a written work is a dangerous concept, for there is always something that can be improved.