Creative writing

Introduction

Creative writing is a story that wraps your reader up and takes them to a different place. It should, if done well, completely swallow your reader whole and make them lose track of time. They should laugh out loud, cry or feel heartbroken.

Structure of creative writing

The tighter you keep the structure of your creative writing, the better it is. Keep your time frame short and follow a structure like this one

• Step One: Describe your setting - what can you see, hear, feel, smell; don't just state where you are, describe it and bring it to life. Consider these two setting sentences, one simply states where you are and the other brings it to life in the reader's mind:

  • • I am school.

    • All I can smell is Lynx as we bustle down the narrow corridors between classes.

Handy hint: describe the little details that only you might notice - for example, the weirdly delicious smell of the hand soap in the hospital, the blinking light in the corner: these details bring your writing to life by adding depth.

• Step Two: Have an action happen - what happens in your story? What's the main thing? For example, does a doctor come in and tell you that you'll never walk again? Does a snail slowly make its way in front of you?

• Step Three: Describe your emotional response - how do react?

Handy hint: Be careful here - instead of saying the emotion, describe what your body does instead. What this does is trigger the same response in your reader's brain which sucks them into your writing more. Consider these two sentences to help you understand - both are talking about feeling nervous:

• I felt nervous.

• I felt the vomit rise in my throat as my knees buckled underneath me. The butterflies in my stomach felt more like a cyclone than a flutter.

• Step Four: Describe your physical response - what do you or your main character do next? Do you punch a wall? Do you scream out loud? Do you stare in bewilderment?

• Step Five: Repeat steps two to four in order until you have reached your stories conclusion. Remember, for the purposes of this exercise, keep your story to only describing ten or so minutes in somebody's life - any longer and you'll start waffling!

• Step six: EDIT! Use the editing page to help you out.

Starters

One of the hardest things about creative writing is knowing what to write about. Try out some of these suggestions.