The Basics of Creative Writing, Study notes of English

Download The Basics of Creative Writing and more Study notes English in PDF only on Docsity! MODULE 1 | THE BASICS OF CREATIVE WRITING LESSON 1 - AN INTRODUCTION TO CREATIVE WRITING LEARNING OBJECTIVES: At the end of the lesson, the learners are expected to: ¢ identify the different forms of creative writing; and ¢ differentiate imaginative writing from other forms of writing. OVERVIEW Writing creatively mainly deals with the use of one’s imagination to come up with a story that fully expresses the idea of the writer. A variety of literary forms can be used to help shape such creative ideas, namely: poetry, short stories, novels, and drama. In turn, it entertains, captivates, and even provokes the reader’s own thoughts towards the written work. Creative writing is writing using the imagination. It is mainly fictional and may take the form of poetry, short story, novel, or play. Poetry is an expression of imaginative awareness of experience through meaning, sound, and rhythmic language; with the purpose of evoking emotional response. Though it is often mistaken that poetry needs to be structured, with meter and rhyme, this is always not the case. Some poems are free verse and do not need structure. 2 Classifications of Poetry Lyric poems includes odes, sonnets, elegies, poems for various occasions, and simple lyric poems. They are called lyric poems because traditionally, the Greeks read these poems with the accompaniment of musical instruments such as the lyre, making them more similar to songs. Narrative poems are poems which narrate a story in verse form. Usually these stories are about love and heroic deeds. Epics and ballads are some poems which are considered narrative. Short stories and novels are similar with each other and considered to be included in the prose genre. Though both forms are used to tell tales, their main difference lies in the variations in length. A short story can be read in just one sitting for a short period of time; while a novel requires more time to be comprehended fully. Likewise, both tell about a series of events that make up a plot of the story that is woven around a theme, develop characters in definite settings, and resolve the conflicts and resolutions. Drama or plays initially appear to be similar to short stories and novels, for they also tell stories about characters that face conflicts which they have to resolve within the story. The plots take place in particular settings, and impart lessons and themes. However, what sets drama apart from the short stories/novels is the fact that it is intended to be performed in front of an audience and presented on a stage. As such, it has additional elements that are exclusively considered for drama, such as dialogue and movement. Creative literary works have significantly imaginative, metaphoric or symbolic content and often cater to the euphoric need of the particular audience. They are fashioned to penetrate the depths of the readers’ spectrum of emotions, and take informal, artistic, or figurative styles that reflect the writer's thoughts and ideas. WHY STUDY CREATIVE WRITING? When one thinks of creative writing, it may be assumed that this course will not lead you to steady jobs or professions in the future. However, it actually equips you with a variety of skills that will help you, not only as you go through senior high school, but also through college, and eventually into real life. As part of the learning process of creative writing, you are expected to analyze existing literary works - how these works convey their messages, what makes them unique from one another, and what their important characteristics are. Eventually, this course will expose you to actual writing and lead you to create your own compositions similar to the examples given which are based on the concepts you have learned from the discussions. Most importantly, creative writing will help you to be more self- expressive, as it does not require you to work within the strict rules of language. As a result, you may feel a certain sense of freedom from the structured confinement of writing brought about by grammar rules, and experience the joys of writing. CREATIVE WRITING COMPARED WITH OTHER FORMS OF WRITING The purpose of writing creatively is to express fully one’s thoughts, emotions, and ideas that are deeply ingrained within the innermost subliminal corner of the mind. Though it is a great way of conveying what needs to be expressed, it does not apply to every situation, especially in your studies. You will discover a variety of other writing styles which you may find more fitting for particular purposes, and use more formal and rigid structures compared to creative writing. FIGURES OF SPEECH The following are the most commonly used figures of speech which aid writers in developing mental images. 1. Simile is used for the comparison of two essentially unlike things, often in a phrase. It is introduced by /ike or as, and is a more subtle way of comparing two objects than metaphor, since it only points out the likeness of the two things being compared. Examples: You are like a lily in bloom. My love for you is as deep as the ocean. . Metaphor is the use of a word or a phrase that ordinarily designates one thing as that of another, thus making an implicit and direct comparison. As opposed to simile, without using helping words two things as if they are the same, without using helping words. Examples: My life became a sea of troubles the day | met you. All the world’s a stage and we, the actors of the play called life. . Personification endows human qualities to inanimate objects or abstract ideas. These are often represented as possessing human form. Examples: Hunger sat shivering on the road. Flowers danced about the lawn, swaying with the wind. Hyperbole is more commonly known as extreme exaggeration. It is often used to give extreme emphasis or to show extreme effect to a statement. However, these statements are often greatly exaggerated that they are almost impossible to be true. Examples: | could sleep for a year! | have cried a bucket of tears for the boy who broke my heart. . Onomatopoeia is known as a sound word. It employs the use of words that imitate the sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to. Examples: The buzzing of the bees bothered my sisters as they ate their lunch. The splashing of the water indicated that there were fish in the pond. . Apostrophe is directly addressing an absent/imaginary person or a personified abstraction, as a living entity. It is used as a digression in the course of a speech or composition. Examples: Oh, my God! Fate, why have you been so cruel to me? . Metonymy replaces one word or phrase for another, usually as a symbol with which it is closely associated. Examples: SYMBOLS MEANING white dove peace Let the white doves fly! (Let there be peace.) The team brought home the laurel leaves championships _ !aurel leaves. (The team was declared the champion.) . Oxymoron uses contradictory terms which are combined to make meaning. To be able to understand a passage that employs this figure of speech, the entire statement must be read. Examples: There was a deafening silence in the room when he entered. He was indeed a mournful optimist. . Irony is an expression which is the opposite of what is meant. Examples: A person who hates macaroni, yet says “/ really love macaroni," is expressing an example of irony. A lady who says, “Good rats! You have destroyed my best gown," is saying the opposite of what she meant. 10. Paradox is a figure of speech which contradicts itself in the same sentence. Examples: “War is peace. Ignorance is strength. Freedom is slavery.” ¢ From George Orwell's "1984" 11. Synecdoche is present when a particular idea is expressed through the following ways: a part is used for the whole (as hand for a bride) . the whole is used for a part (as the /aw for police officer) the specific is used for the general (as cutthroat for assassin) . the general is used for the specific (as thief for pickpocket) the material is used for the thing made from it (as stee/ for sword) wao0®o Examples: He asked her hand for marriage. The /aw brought the thief into prison. Keep away from that cutthroat! The wondrous work of stee/ was offered to the prince. 12. Understatement is an expression wherein the thing described is made to appear unimportant. Examples: We are not rich. We only have a resort in Zambales and a vacation house in Baguio. Don't worry about me. This cancer is nothing. 13. The antithesis is a contradiction that pits two ideas against each other in a balanced way. Example: Neil Armstrong said when he stepped on the moon, “This is one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” SOUND DEVICES formality, positive and negative connotation of words must also be carefully considered, as in the following examples: POSITIVE NEGATIVE pruning the bushes slashing the bushes the politician's stance the politician's spin The phrases on the right column have a more positive tone when used in sentences, rather than those on the left. For instance, imagine reading, “The gardener was seen pruning the bushes," in a story. This statement brings about an imagined image of a kind-looking individual working at a garden and carefully trimming overgrown bushes to beautify the garden. This is different when you read “The gardeners were slashing the bushes after they heard the owner's announcement”, which conveys a feeling of anger and stress of the gardeners toward their master. Therefore, it is important to remember that in literature, writers should choose their words carefully to create and convey a typical mood, tone, and atmosphere that they wish to impart and share with their readers. The writer's proper selection of words does not only affect the attitude of the readers, but also conveys his/her own outlook toward his/her literary work. Hence, the writer must carefully select the words to be used in order to relay the message properly. WRITING ACTIVITIES ACTIVITY 1. Compose a two-stanza poem that uses a combination of at least three to five figures of speech and sound devices. Put it on an aesthetic-themed picture of yours that illustrates your composition and post it on Facebook with the following hashtags: #ExpressYourself #CreativeWriting #(your strand/grade level and section) Example: #ExpressYourself #CreativeWriting #HUMSS11Stlsidore Please be guided with the following criteria: ¢ No. of figurative language used 30% ¢ No. of sound devices used 30& ¢ Relevance of the poem to photo 30% ¢ Reactions earned 10% 100% ACTIVITY 2. Choose one of the following themes in the box and create a three-paragraph essay which highlights the use of varied figures of speech and diction. Send your work in our Google Classroom (saved as pdf). LOVE HOPE LOSS LIFE LESSON 3 - WRITING THROUGH SENSORY EXPERIENCE LESSON OBJECTIVES: At the end of the lesson, the learners are expected to: ¢ cull creative ideas from experiences; and ¢ use specific experiences in composing literary ideas. OVERVIEW Written literary pieces greatly serve as a threshold in entering a world beyond the one that is commonly perceived. In order for this to be completely achieved, stimulating the five basic human senses can help establish the connection between the imaginative realms to the minds of the reader. Sensory Experience/Sensory Detail Establishing a clear connection with the readers is one of the important objectives that any literary work must be able to fulfill. Such connection can be achieved by getting in touch with the primordial sensual capacity of people. In literature, sensory experience or sensory detail is the literary device that makes use of imagery to enliven the five basic human senses. To further demonstrate how this literary device works, consider the poem below. Together, At Last John Oliver M. Ramos | saw you walk towards me. Your footsteps fell heavy on the hardwood floor. Your perfume reached me before you did. We got caught in a tight embrace. We kissed; | tasted love. In this poem, you can immediately see how the writer used sensory detail to reach out to his readers. Observe how each line of the poem uses sensory words to directly stimulate a specific sense to aid the readers in conceptualizing a perceived image: First Line: / saw you walk towards me. ¢ The use of the word saw directly connects to the sense of sight, in which one can imagine seeing someone walking towards the persona. Second Line: Your footsteps fell heavy on the hardwood floor. ¢ This line describes how the person walks toward the persona and the use of the words fel/ heavy indicate how the footsteps can be distinctly heard against the floor. Third Line: Your perfume reached me before you did. ¢ This appeals to the sense of smell, which makes one imagine the scent of this person’s perfume. Fourth Line: We got caught in a tight embrace.