creative writing course

creative writing course

Enhancing Your Creative Writing Skills

1. Introduction to Creative Writing

Many young writers are interested in creative writing but not sure where to start. There are certain types of creative writing that are taught all over the world. Establishing a blog specifically for creative writing is a great online tool for getting started in creative writing. Poetry is a form of creative writing that is still very popular today. All writing has a specific structure. A good example of this is the opening of the poem “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Lastly, writing for theatre or screen is another form of creative writing. Keep in mind that writing for theatre or screen can be very difficult compared to other forms of creative writing. This is less the case now than previously, as more and more people are finding a need to express themselves honestly on the internet.

Fiction is creative writing in the form of prose or poetry that focuses on the specific. Types of fiction: Flash fiction is a story that is 500-1,000 words (also known as “short, short stories”) and is a great introduction to creative writing because the length is similar to what you’d find in a typical blog post and therefore not so intimidating. Short stories are usually a series of events that are confined to a smaller setting and fewer characters than a novel. Novels are certainly the most time-consuming and challenging form of creative writing. If you intend to write a novel, then it is recommended that you begin by writing a series of short stories.

Creative writing is writing that expresses the writer’s thoughts and feelings in an imaginative, often poetic way. Though the definition is rather loose, creative writing can, for the most part, be considered any writing that is original and self-expressive. A news article, for example, cannot be considered creative writing because its main goal is to present facts concisely. Let’s look at some various types of creative writing.

2. Exploring Different Writing Styles

There are basically three forms of writing, each with a unique stylistic goal. Prose writing exaggerates lifestyle, associative and factual information. Poetry, with its compressed language and focus on linguistic form rather than narrative content, plays a stylistic role all its own. The various forms of fiction writing all play different stylistic roles, whether it is the alternative realities and societies of speculative fiction, or the minimalist reflective style of some literary fiction. Genre fiction often has its own stylistic norms, for example, the hard-hitting prose in popular crime fiction, which requires an expansive vocational knowledge from the author in order to manipulate a familiar style at its best, or the fleeting and often elusive style of writing which occurs in a lot of horror fiction. The first step toward understanding stylistic goals in writing is the concept of register, a set of instructions for producing language.

3. Developing Compelling Characters

Created or Changed When Character Creation Takes Place 3. Developing compelling characters is a task that may take place at the beginning, middle, or even at the end of your fiction, for it is entirely possible that you are undecided on many story facts and events that will occur with this character. A particularly detailed and complex character is best created during the writing process, since ideas for this character can simply become parts of the story and are less likely to be forgotten. Despite this, it is best to have a general idea or plan for the character prior to putting pen to paper. It is possible that a character coming into creation is just a very vague idea or even an image based on someone the author has known or seen. Evident changes in character type or personality between different stages of creation should be carefully documented in order to avoid in-character inconsistency, be these notes mental or physical.

A second thing agreed upon is that a character must have some form of consistency to them. This is something that Gardner’s brand of psychological and anthropological realism takes to the extreme, but there’s no need to get lost in a myriad of psychoanalytic and philological texts to achieve meaningful consistency in a character. At the simplest level, it merely means that all actions a character takes agree with their given persona.

Thus, whether with mimesis or following Gardner’s more mythopoetic ideas of fiction, a memorable character is one that is complex. There are certain things that all people who study stories agree upon. That is one of them. Of course, there are dozens of different definitions for complex, but the end result is that the character possesses a certain depth. A type of depth that makes them seem like a real person, and not a construct or a simple prop to move a story plot along. An easy way to gauge a character’s depth is to ask if the character possesses a personal history, opinions, or even prejudices on certain events and things. All of which would influence the way in which they act and convey themselves to others. Opposite to this are characters of simplicity who lack a real personal history and simply fit stereotypes under the pretext that this is how certain real persons are like.

3. Developing compelling characters 109 Definition and Purpose Cartoon characters with platform shoes. A woman who is paying off her late husband’s debts from the mob. Sincerity Hill, a town with a guileless name, and a street full of shams. These are the ways in which John Gardner begins a chapter on creating memorable characters in his book, The Art of Fiction. They are characters that interest us, no matter whether we like them or not. They fascinate us with their peculiarities, idiosyncrasies, and sins, good and bad.

4. Crafting Engaging Plots and Storylines

Your plot is the sequence of events that takes place in your story. These events should be connected to one another and should follow a smooth and logical pattern. The best way to develop a strong plot is to make sure that your characters are always working towards a goal. This goal could be anything from solving a riddle to world domination, but the best stories are those in which the characters are proactively trying to make things happen, as this will create events and conflicts. Once you have decided on the goal of your story, you will need to brainstorm a sequence of events that will lead the characters towards the completion of this goal. Try to keep it simple. Usually, an effective plot will have no more than 6 or 7 main events. Write these events down. Underneath each one, list the things that will need to happen in order for the event to take place.

Developing effective plots and storylines is among the most important skills of creative writing. An engaging plot can hold the reader’s attention for the entire length of your story, while a well-structured storyline will help the reader to trace the development of your characters and their actions. In this section, you will brainstorm your way to a creative and effective plot. Then you will be asked to outline this plot in the form of a storyline. It is important to remember not to rush these processes: a strong plot and storyline can make a huge difference to the overall quality of your writing.

5. Polishing Your Writing and Receiving Feedback

Resist the temptation to send off your first draft. You have only one chance to make a first impression on your reader. Use it to your advantage. As in your introductory paragraph, you want to engage the reader’s interest so that he will continue to read. You might want to remind him of your most compelling evidence. However you choose to do it, pick a way that will be hard to ignore. A first draft is just a starting place. It’s where you figure out what you want to say. Let your outline be your guide. Try reading the paper to yourself, out loud: this will often help you see what you really meant to say, rather than what you said, which might reveal more than one thought, and reveal confusing or unspecific language. Then you can go back and tailor your introduction to match your conclusion.