creative writing jobs remote

creative writing jobs remote

The Power of Imagination: Unleashing Your Creative Writing Skills

1. Introduction to Creative Writing

Creative writing is often defined as the writing of fiction, where the author creates events, scenes, and characters, sometimes even a world. In reality, aside from instinctive utterings like the above, creative writing has many different forms. It can encompass many formats – short stories, poetry, scripts, song lyrics, memoirs, etc. Depending on what you will write, the reasons to write, and the resources you have in hand, there are various ways to approach creative writing. Always we have a goal in writing, thus it is the same in creative writing. A person writing a memoir would want to reminisce on past events and moods of the events and would want to do his best to recreate those events in his mind. This is the same job for a fiction writer, as well as a poet and perhaps a scriptwriter too. The only difference is how it is done.

Creative writing is writing about events in an imaginative way. Novels, plays, short stories, and poems are some examples of creative writing. It explores and exposes issues that revolve around society as well as the world. Most people only know a few of the possibilities that creative writing brings. Many others are still unfamiliar with it. A good understanding as well as appreciation of the various types of creative writing is essential in developing our own style. Besides, it will also help us to choose what types of writing we are interested in as our preference to delve into the future.

2. Developing Characters and Settings

Education: Where has the character gone to school and what was his/her favorite education experience?

Places lived: List the various places this character has lived

Family background: How has his/her family background affected the character?

Other relatives: Does this character have a favorite aunt/uncle/cousin?

Siblings: How does this character feel about his/her siblings?

Parents: Describe his/her relationship with the parent(s).

Place of birth: What are his/her favorite and least favorite things about the place?

Birth date: How does the character feel about his/her astrological sign and horoscope?

Nickname: Does the character have a nickname?

Reason or meaning behind the name:

Character’s full name:

Character Development (Exercise adapted from Barbara J. Berg’s The Alchemy of Character)

In creating characters for your fiction, you’ll want to get to know the person “inside and out”. This exercise will help. Using the following prompts, develop a detailed character sketch for each. Once you have your character sketch, write a short scene that involves your character. This will help reveal the person through his/her actions.

3. Crafting Engaging Plots and Storylines

Another activity that can be used to help develop a student’s understanding of what makes a good plot is to provide students with a story start. The task is to complete the story. This gets students thinking about how to successfully resolve a problem. A story with a king who is killed by a dragon and the rest of the story is about someone else becoming king would be a poor resolution. By having the rest of the story tell how the dragon was slain and the original king’s son reclaiming the throne, provides evidence of an effective ending.

One useful activity for teaching narrative is to identify the four main parts of a story (or you could use the more detailed seven-part story structure) and on a separate sheet write a selection of incidences. Cut the incidence cards into sets and give a set to each group. Their task is to arrange the incidences into the correct sequence on the storyboard. This activity gets students thinking about which events are crucial to the overall plot of a story, as there is often disagreement about which order certain incidences should go.

Narration, showing the story through characters’ actions and reactions, helps students develop an understanding of the ideas and values that form the basis of different actions. Plot is the sequential arrangement of events. Both characters and narrative provide the “what happens” that is the story. This is a term that students may have some knowledge of, for teachers the use of a storyboard is an excellent way to make sure that students have an understanding of the concept.

4. Enhancing Descriptive Writing Techniques

Show not tell: To keep a reader engrossed in what you are writing, you need to provide them with enough detail to let them imagine the scenario, without actually stating what it is. For example, instead of saying “It was a lovely sunny day, the birds were singing and the swaying trees danced to the rhythm of the gentle breeze,” you could show this by saying “A bead of sweat rolled gently down his forehead.” The second example provides an image of the same scenario, without explicitly saying what the weather was like.

Imagery: To engage the reader’s imagination, you need to try to link your writing to all five of their senses. Similes and metaphors are useful here, by comparing one thing to another it makes the reader create a mental image of what you are describing. Do not overuse similes and metaphors, as this can take away the impact of the descriptive text. If you provide precise details on a specific thing, it creates an image on its own. For example, a reader is more likely to form an image of a Ford Focus car than if you were to just say “car.” Drawing on your own experiences and using vivid details will also help you to make your writing more vivid and make it seem more alive.

Thesaurus: This tool shall be your best friend in descriptive writing. With this, you can understand and appreciate the different ways that a single word can be appropriate. You need to be careful though, as some synonyms can have slightly different meanings than others. If you are unsure whether a synonym is suitable, look up the word in the dictionary at dictionary.com and see if it is properly used in context. This is a great time consumer; however, it is better to spend that time ensuring that you have chosen the right word than later realizing that you’ve used a word with the wrong connotation.

5. Polishing Your Creative Writing: Editing and Revision

By the time you complete the first draft of your creative writing project, you need to step back and view the work as a critically minded professional would. How you can start must at the self-edit of the text. Here is a good software to help you start. At this point, you’ve already read and re-read your short story or novel, fixing any grammatical and structural errors. Do not underestimate the value of multiple readings. Spelling and grammar check functions in word processors can only go so far in catching errors, and time away from the piece can help clear your mind and enable you to spot hidden mistakes or areas of confusion. Solicit help from others, but be sure you can take critical feedback without offense. You must grow a thick skin for this career. An effective writing group can act as a source of collective wisdom and represent an invaluable resource. Make any needed corrections in your manuscript and retain hard copies of full drafts. This is critical in the event of catastrophic computer failures.