What is the creative form?
Creative writing is a form of writing that translates an overarching concept or idea into a coherent narrative form or story form to allow readers to derive meaning from the work based on their personal interpretation of the text. Creative writing requires you to weave together a story through the use of various narrative elements and language devices in order to illustrate and represent meaning within your work.
What are the key ingredients for a successful creative writing?
1. Concept/ idea:
What is the idea or concept that I am trying to translate or illustrate to my reader? What is the underlying theme within my work? What about the human experience/ condition/ existence am I trying to say within my piece of writing?
- Philosophical ideas: abstract issues related to the human experience/ human condition/ human existence e.g., time, identity, memory, truth, forgiveness, self-acceptance, death, grief, loss, relationships
- Political, social and cultural issues: these are concepts that are related more to the collective experience and provide audiences with an insight into a topical issue that concerns society and the wider public/ group of people e.g., rebellion, protest, injustice, inequity, resistance, religious critiques, political issues
- Whatever concept you decide to explore, it needs to be sophisticated (you need to give the reader a deeper insight into what it means to be a human and there needs to be layers to your story; your story should prompt thought within the reader about whatever issue you are portraying)
- Self-reflexive and meta issues: writing, reading, words, language, literature and art
2. Narrative:
How am I going to translate my concept or issue into a cohesive and coherent narrative format? What elements of narrative am I going to use to shape the meaning of my representation?
- Characterisation: This refers to the process of crafting your character and providing depth and dimension to them as a human being. You need to consider the following: they need to have a goal/ objective or desire which propels them to undertake certain actions in order to achieve their wishes/ dreams (what is it that your character wants in the story? - usually the good and effective stories have goals which are internally bound - usually the character is trying to resolve something inside themselves e.g., acceptance, letting go, making sense of their own past, accepting their own identity, reconciling with their own traumas); they need to have flaws and imperfections which impede their ability to reach their goal (the character needs to have some sort of problem which obstructs their path towards accomplishing or resolving their objective e.g., anxieties, insecurities, flaws, imperfections, weaknesses, traumas, issues, problems etc.); the character needs to have a personality, motivations, traits, qualities, characteristics which are shaped by their own memories and past (these traits that the character possesses is what mediates the way in which they overcome their weaknesses to achieve their goals; these traits influence how they go about negotiating the inner conflict they have in order to attain what they want)
- Plot: Plot refers to the sequence of events in which your story unfolds. consider how the story unravels in order to represent the main concerns and issues raised in your story. Plot is usually broken into: orientation, rising action, complication, falling action, resolution. Ensure that your story is structurally cohesive and that the events which unfold in your story make sense in light of the overlying concept or theme.
- Setting: Setting refers to the physical environment or historical/ temporal background/ context of the story itself. There are two ways we can use setting as a meaningful tool to help shape our representation: 1) use setting as a way to represent the psychological and emotional state of your character (this means describing the physical environment and the various details of this landscape in such a way that it evokes or parallels the subjective feeling state of the character at a particular in point time e.g., pathetic fallacy whereby a messy room represents the character’s disorientation or emotional turmoil; stormy and rainy weather to represent the character’s unresolved conflicts) 2) use setting as a way to construct the problem of your story (you may create a world which you end up critiquing e.g., in dystopian fiction, the writer often crafts a world which is bleak and desolate or oppressed in order to construct their commentary or criticism of the issues that pervade that world)
3. Language techniques:
Consider the use of various language devices and techniques to help frame both the macro and micro elements of your piece of writing. Language techniques will help build the quality of your writing whilst also making elements extremely vivid and textured.
- Extended metaphors, motifs and symbolism = these techniques are the ones which you want to try and incorporate into your work because they are really effective in translating your concept in a subtle and nuanced way. These techniques help to conceptualise your piece whilst also making your representation more multilayered. By using these techniques, the idea itself is hidden behind the image that you are creating through these devices as opposed to having the issue or concern explicitly shoved into the reader’s face. You want to ensure that your piece is written in a multilayered fashion whereby the meaning of your work rests beneath the different dimensions of your story and the images that you create as opposed to having the concept explicitly on the surface.
- Metaphor
- Motif
- Simile
- Figurative language
- Extended metaphor
- Irony
- Satire
- Humour
- Juxtaposition
- Contrast
- Antithesis
- Repetition
- Anaphora
- Paradox
- Imagery (visual, auditory, gustatory, tactile, olfactory etc.)
- Show not tell
- Personification
- Onomatopeoia
- Assonance
- Consonance
- Alliteration, sibilance
- Syntax
- Word choice/ diction
- Lexical chains
- Symbolism
- Narration
- Perspective
- Tone
- Tense
- Flashbacks
- Ellipsis
- Foreshadowing
- Self-reflexivity / metafiction
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