I have a book designed as a ‘practical guide’ to creative writing for a high school English writing course. I cannot remember why I had bought this guide, back in high school, because I was not taking that unit of study! Nevertheless, it may prove to be a valuable and useful guide, especially since I do not have any formal training in writing creative texts.

I am going to go through each section, summarise their notes, and directly engage with the authors’ advice and opinions. I am now of the viewpoint that these guides (generally) are not ‘bibles’ and you do not have to follow all of the rules if you don’t legitimately agree with them. I think, however, it is important to understand or dissect as to why you don’t agree with them. That is why I am going to be writing notes and sometimes counter-arguments for what this guide proposes. I will have to draw upon my own reading experience and preferences, and what I have found worked with my own writing attempts.

Here we go –

The structure of a creative composition

• Beginning, middle, end
• A structure is necessary to give satisfaction of ‘completeness’ to the audience
• Organisation is how you arrange your structure:               
  • Orientation, complication, resolution
  • Introduction, , denouement
• What drives the ‘action’ of the story is ‘conflict’; e.g. man versus man, man versus nature, man versus himself. There can be more than one form of conflict happening within a story

Planning a creative composition

• “It is crucial you plan any piece you write.”
• From experience, planning allowed me to identify the key components I may want to focus on. It allowed me to identify and remind myself the main points of my writing. It also saves time, effort and from stress.
• Another point the authors emphasised is that the plan for your plot need not be complicated; and creating an outline can take very little time. All that needs to be jotted down are:
  • Situation
  • Complication
  • Resolution
• The authors remind us that you do not want to waste words explaining the plot at the detriment of “the descriptive detail that is necessary to create atmosphere.” Even the mundane plot can be a great story because of how it was told.
• Other general rules for plot:
  • Write what you know about, activities you’ve done, things you’ve thoroughly researched.
  • Use simple storylines – one equals one story
  • Avoid cliché topics. The authors also point out that plots from the latest movies may also be considered ‘stale’. One thing to consider about this piece of advice, with it is a valid point, is this writing guide was designed for creating texts for examination in the final year of high school. (Although cliché topics will not do well if you are writing to be published too.) I will in with my own opinion: if you are writing for your own fun or as an exercise, then the use of cliché topics may be a worthwhile challenge. The success of the story will depend on how you write and work with the cliché elements and make it enjoyable to yourself and the audience.

• Other general rules for characters:
  • Have a limited number of main characters – the fewer there are, the more you can develop their characterisation.
  • Make your characters realistic. The authors suggest modelling characters on people “you know well”
  • Have a variety of characters/types – people who are different, even if they share the same ‘group image’
  • Try to avoid unnecessary stereotypes
  • Use dialogue appropriate to your ‘characters’ voices’
• Your aim is to have your audience empathises with your characters; therefore they need to be believable.

• The last message from the authors on planning your story is about ‘themes and messages’: “A good story will often be like an onion. It has more than one level of meaning.”
  • Where ‘meaning’ does not have to be a moral. It can be an exploration of an idea or issue.

Writing for your purpose and audience

• When you write, keep in mind your audience because it will influence your level of vocabulary, subject matter and topics, and complexity of your story.
• Purpose is important too. For entertainment is a valid purpose. Sometimes you may want to convey a message too; to inform, to persuade your readers.

Writing in a particular genre

• Genre is a ‘set type’ of story and they have their specific rules and conventions. For example, drama, thriller, fantasy, comedy, romance.
• The conventions of a genre may relate to:
  • Plot types and twists (e.g. romance, detective)
  • Motifs
  • Setting (e.g. science fiction, western)
  • Character types
  • Dialogue (not too sure what the authors mean by this one?)
  • Themes
  • Atmosphere (e.g. horror, romance)
• These conventions can be challenged. The authors give us warning – if we change too much with a genre’s conventions, the end result may not be recognisable as part of the genre!

Choosing a form for your composition

• I forget that a creative writing need not be only in a narrative prose. It can be poetry, script, speech, letters/email, diary entries, articles, etc. I certainly have enjoyed stories comprised entirely of exchanged letters (ad that was a really good book – no wait! I just remembered another book written in a similar way. I kind of want to read that one again: Finding Cassie Crazy by Jaclyn Moriarty.)

Choosing the person and tense of your composition

• The authors focused only on first and third person. The main point or advice was to choose a person for the “effect you wish to have”. First person is a more personal and intimate experience; and third person is more objective and can be omniscient.
• The same advice can be applied to choosing the tense for your writing. Past tense is easiest to use but present tense can give “a sense of immediacy”.

The Introduction

• The introduction is probably one of the most important components of a creative piece. It must lure the reader in to reading on; and according to the authors, it is what is judged in when deciding to accept a manuscript to be published.
• The lure of the introduction is known as the ‘hook’ and there are a few ways it can be achieved. The authors list (with my examples of what I felt to be great hooks):
  • An interesting character description (e.g. Ender’s Game)
  • An interesting setting description (e.g. The Scorpio Races [there are human-eating horses, cmon!])
  • An interesting object description
  • A mysterious/unusual situation (e.g. The Raven Boys, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone)
  • A short, snappy sentence (e.g. some of my fav fanfics)
  • An interesting excerpt of dialogue

Adding Description to Your Writing

• Description is necessary to pull your reader into the worldscape your story is operating within.
• Make use of adjectives, adverbs, similes, metaphors, personification
• Avoid cliché descriptions; where clichés are things you’ve heard ad nauseam (“Butterflies in my stomach”, “It was a hot and sunny day”, “Shivers ran up my spine”, “Time was running out” [damn, that one is cliché? I have to be more inventive now with that concept.]) and do nothing to excite your imagination
• The authors recommend improving your vocabulary. There is, I find, that one particular and uncommon but perfect word to convey exactly what I want and mean; and that is possible by knowing more words. Also, by using a single, new and complex word, can be very clever. These sorts of words can be found at specialised blog sites, such as wordstuck.co.uv. The authors warn, however, not to get too ambitious and use too many ‘complex’ words and risk being verbose and losing your reader’s understanding of your writing.
• Varying the types of sentences, and how we begin the sentences, also adds description and momentum in your writing. It also makes the reading less dull.
  • One of the pits I have found myself falling into lately is the notion that I mustn’t begin a lot of my sentences the same way; e.g. with He/She/It or The. The authors tell me that, yes – a sophisticated writer will not repeatedly begin sentences in such a manner, but they warn not to go overboard with varying the sentence beginnings. I suppose it is a tough balance.

Developing Atmosphere and Setting

• This is what I sometimes forget to do, or go overboard in some sections, and the end result is an unbalanced mess (that has to get fixed in the editing phase).
• The atmosphere is necessary to impart feeling to your reader. The authors point to how you describe the setting (and other descriptions) that creates the atmosphere.
• The authors remind me that there are FIVE senses a human uses to situate itself within a place/situation: sight, touch, sound, smell, taste. Using more than one sense will involve more detail and description, but it is more effective in creating the atmosphere.
• Another way that I had not thought of is using colour to create atmosphere. There are some colours that are almost hard-wired within us to be associated with certain feelings: e.g. yellow and bright colours for happiness and excitement; dull colours for sad and sombre moods; red and purple for anger; blue and green for coolness; orange and shades of yellow for warmth; darker shades for scary stuff.

Developing Character

• It is the characters that eventually become the reason why readers read your story. They therefore need to be well-developed and satisfying. I had not thought of it in such a way, but after some reflection, I do believe it to be true. I have recently read a manga where I have lost interest in one of the female protagonist and lead romantic couple because she wasn’t satisfying for me. The relationship between the two male protagonists, however, is giving me more riveting drama.
• “Quality characters are multi-faceted, believable, motivated and driven, described – not just looks but feelings, beliefs, not stereotyped.”
  • “People have individual beliefs and motivations. We all see things our way and have our own set of priorities.”
  • The authors have some tips on how to achieve developing quality characters:
    • Base them on real people
    • Research
    • Develop a profile – for yourself as a guide when writing, and does not necessarily need to be written into the story. The profile sheet the authors provided look like one of those Apply stories use, which should give you a good idea of what sort of information is useful. Some interesting questions in the profile are “financial situation” (as an adult, I know this actually has a lot of affect on priorities and health), “mannerisms”, “manner of speaking”, and “problems/unresolved issues”

Writing Dialogue Effectively

• How the words being said are as important as the words being said themselves: in volume and tone. The reactions to the dialogue are important too.
• The authors remind you that the dialogue must assist in the story development and no character should have their dialogue written out for “the sake of speaking”
• Don’t overuse said (although that doesn’t mean you cannot use said at all!)

Editing Your Writing

• Editing your writing actually improves your piece of writing and writing skills
• Editing does not stop at looking for spelling mistakes, punctuation and grammar. Editing includes evaluating “the content and structure of your writing”: what the story was about, the organisation of the story, the flow and pace of the sentences and storyline.
• The authors and I concur that editing also means being prepared to rewrite (‘re-work’) sections. Writing should be undergoing a progression of drafts, and there is never a perfect first draft.
• The authors also direct you to examine your introduction (is it effective?) and your ending (does it feel like the story has come to a resolution?)
• The following are some questions that the authors have listed to gain constructive comments from other people who you have shown your work to. (And the authors also say that the readers should not be over critical over drafts!)
  • How interesting was the introduction?
  • Did the storyline make sense?
  • How entertaining was the storyline?
  • How well did you get to know the main character(s)?
  • How believable were the characters?
  • What did you think of the setting descriptions?
  • What TWO things would you change? Why?
  • What would you never change? Why?
• And an editing checklist for yourself:
  • PLOT: How clear are the events? How effective is the ? Are the consequences of actions shown? Are all the described events important to the plot?
  • SETTING: How well is it described? How does the atmosphere contribute to the storyline?
  • CHARACTERS: How fully are they described? How engaging are they? How clear are their motivations?
  • WRITING: What could be improved in the descriptions? Check dialogue includes what is happening during the conversation. Check the paragraphing: are they clear and correct? Underline dull words needing improving.
  • THEME: How clear is the message/purpose?
  • AUDIENCE: How does the piece appeal to your targeted audience?

Keeping a Writing Journal

This writing guide was developed to assist in an English Extension Course, where you had to submit a major piece of creative writing for examination. A writing journal was also required as part of the assessment. The writing journal is meant to document your method of approach, research, redrafts with reasons for major changes (of character, setting, etc), reflections on your creative processes, ideas and actions. I think that it’s a valuable idea, and I have kind of started doing one (and these notes are part of the process of research and reflection of the creative process). My own personal process means that having a proper bound journal will be ineffective, so I keep a folder of sorts and stick things in there.

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