Creative writing

HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The course aims to develop practical and creative skills in reading and
writing; introduce students to the fundamental techniques of writing
fiction, poetry, and drama; and discuss the use of such techniques by
well-known authors in a variety of genres. Each class will be devoted to
the examination of techniques and to the workshop of students’ drafts
toward the enrichment of their manuscripts. Students learn how to
combine inspiration and revision, and to develop a sense of form.
 SPECIFIC LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the lesson, the learners are able to;

● Differentiate imaginative to other forms of writing.

● Cull creative ideas from experience
● Make a story
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

01 02 03 04 05

Introduction Imaginative Sensory Language Sample works

to Creative Writing vs. Experiences (Imagery,Figures of well-known
Writing Technical of Speech, local and
Writing Diction) foreign writers
Are you familiar with rebus puzzle?
Let’s try to have an ice breaker first!
Top Secret
Greenhouse
 Think of your dream place.
Have you ever dreamed of living to
your dream place or alternate
dimension?
Introduction to creative writing
 Inventive productive

CREATIVE

imaginative expressive
CREATIVE WRITING
Creative Writing is the very
fine art of making things
up, in the most attractive,
apt, and convincing way
possible. It’s the telling of
lies in order to reveal
illuminating and dark truths
about the world and our
place in it.
It is also any writing that goes outside the bounds of
normal professional, journalistic, academic , or technical
forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on
narrative craft, character development and the use of
literary tropes or with various traditions of poetry and
poetics.
 Creative Writing or imaginative writing as others may
put it, operates in a different plane. If the two forms of
writing appeals to our knowledge, creative writing appeals
to our emotions. Another unique characteristics of creative
writing is its use of our sensory experience to create a
material that is relatable to its audience.
Why is there a need to study creative writing?

Creative writing, like any art form, requires

compassion, contemplation, and curiosity. Writers
preserve the world as they observe it in stories and
poetry, and they imagine a better world by creating it in
their works.
Creative Writing Improves Self Expression

Improving your writing skills leads to

stronger communication. When you
practice finding the right word in a story
or poem, you engage the same parts of
your brain that are active in everyday
writing and speaking. A creative writing
course subconsciously turns you into a
more effective communicator.
Types of writing
● Technical Writing conveys specific information about a technical
subject to a specific audience for a specific purpose.
● Creative Writing is fiction-poetry, short stories, plays and novels
–and is most different from technical writing.
● Expressive Writing- is a subjective response to a personal
experience –journals and diaries –whereas technical writing might
be objective observations of a work-related experience or
research.
● Persuasive writing depends on emotional appeal. Its goal is to
change attitudes or motivate to action.
 Compare and Contrast Creative Writing and Technical Writing

Entertaining
general

Informal objective

Sequential artistic Formal

Imaginative/metap
horic
Factual/straight-f
specific subjective
orward
 Compare and Contrast Creative Writing and Technical Writing

Creative Technical
Writing Writing
Imaginative/metap Factual/straight-f
horic Both ways of orward
general communication
specific
Entertaining
Formal
Informal Both can show
your creativity objective
subjective
Sequential
artistic
Creative writing versus technical writing

Technical Writing Creative Writing

Subject Scientific Non-scientific/ non technical

Audience/readership Specific General

Purpose Inform, instruct, persuade Entertain, provoke,captivate

Style Formal, standard,academic Informal, artistic, figurative

Tone Objective Subjective

Vocabulary Specialized General,evocative

Organization Sequential,systematic Arbitrary, artistic

Creative writing forms
Sensory experience
 Sensory details

Sight(visual) Hearing (auditory)

Smell (olfactory)

Taste (gustatory) Touch (tactile)

Sensory Language

It connects to the five main senses (sight,sound,smell, taste,

and touch). In writing, sensory language is a way for a writer to
help his/her reader see or connect with an image, description,
action, or scene. It is very important for creative writers to
translate whatever abstract idea he/she has into something
that is concrete.
Example:

Abstract:
Ibarra looked at her with utmost longing. She, in return,
flushed.

Concrete:
Ibarra gazed at her, reminiscing their intimate moments
(at the azotea). She, blushing and red-faced, bowed her
head in embarrassment.
Example:

Abstract:
The wicked witch destroyed the home of the fairies.

Concrete:
The Black Witch of the North, who killed dozens of children
for her sacrificial rituals, burned into ashes the garden of
Seelie Court and left multitudes of pixies wounded and their
wings seared.
 The mountains are beautiful.

The mountains are stacked like dominos, their white caps

crisscrossing the western sky.
She was pretty.

How pretty she was?

Grandmother’s painted
crimson lips were always
smiling her high
cheekbones and deep,
topaz eyes reminded me
of Elizabeth Taylor.
In narrative essays, you want the reader/ your readers to
experience what you experienced. You tell them. Telling
an audience something looks beautiful or tastes good is
vague; you need to create a sensory image of what
“beautiful” or “good” means to you; and how the reader
should view beautiful or taste good. The only way to do
this is through sensory imagery.
Loosen up!
Directions: Create a Word Wall. Fill the chart with words that corresponds to the given category. Use
the sample below as your guide. Examples are given for you.

Seeing Words Hearing Words Tasting Words Smelling Words

Stared Echoing Creamy Pungent

Feeling Words Action Words Family Words Sports Words

Heart Pounding Strangle Heirloom Homerun

Medical Words K-drama Words Social Media Words Gaming Words

Extract Oppa Status Defend

Imagery
 IMAGERY
● Old French- Imagerie – means “make an image”

● The writer attempts to describe something that appeals tour

senses to “make an image” in the reader’s head.

● Imagery will only be successful if the writer knows the right

combination of words that will make an image appear like a
photograph or film clip in the mind of the reader.
 IMAGERY

Imagery- in a literary text, is an author’s use of vivid and

descriptive language to add depth to his or her work. It
appeals to human senses to deepen the reader’s
understanding of the work. Powerful forms of imagery
engage all of the senses pro lenses.
Forms of imagery
VISUAL IMAGERY
pertains to graphics, visual
scenes, pictures of the sense of
sight.

Example: The deep, blue see

sparked in the sun.
Auditory imagery
Pertains to sounds,
noises music or the
sense of hearing .
This may come in the
form of
onomatopoeia.

Example: The bird is

humming sweetly as if
it is singing happily.
OLFACTORY IMAGERY

Pertains to odors, scents,

or the sense of smell.

Example:
She smelled the scent of
sweet sunflower wafting
through the field.
OLFACTORY IMAGERY

Pertains to flavors or
the sense of taste.

Example: The candy

melted in her mouth and
swirls of bittersweet
chocolate and slightly
sweet by salty caramel
blended together in her
tongue.
TACTILE IMAGERY

Pertains to physical textures or

the sense of touch

Example: After the long run, he

collapsed in the grass with tired
and burning muscles.
Practice Exercises

1. He whiffed the aroma of brewed coffee.

2. It was dark and dim in the forest.
3. The girl ran her hands on a soft satin fabric.
4. The children are screaming and shouting in the
fields.
5. The fresh and juicy orange is very cold and sweet.
Answers:

1. He whiffed the aroma of brewed coffee. Olfactory

2. It was dark and dim in the forest. Visual
3. The girl ran her hands on a soft satin fabric.
Tactile
4. The children are screaming and shouting in the
fields. Auditory
5. The fresh and juicy orange is very cold and sweet.
Gustatory
FUNCTION OF IMAGERY

The function of imagery in literature is to generate a vibrant

and graphic presentation of a scene that appeals to as many
of the reader’s senses as possible. It aids the readers
imagination to invision the characters and scenes in the
literary piece clearly.
Figures of speech
FIGURES OF SPEECH

Are words or phrases used in a non-literal sense for

rhetorical or vivid effect.
Figures of speech often provide emphasis, freshness of expression, or
clarity. However, clarity may also suffer from their use, as any figure of
speech introduces an ambiguity between literal and figurative
interpretation.

Example:
● The bark was painful. (Could mean a tree's bark was rough or a
dog's bark communicated pain or hurt the listener's ears).
● You should bring wine or beer and dessert. (Could mean that you
must bring just wine, wine and dessert, or beer and dessert).
Alliteration
The repetition of an initial consonant sound.

Example: He acts silly at times, but he was blessed with a

brilliant brain.

The hummingbird hovered in heavenly harmony.

 Anaphora
The repetition of the same word or phrase at the beginning of
successive clauses or verses. (Contrast with epiphora, and
epistrophe)

Example:
The apartment was on the top floor—a small living-room, a
small dining-room, a small bedroom, and a bath.

Excerpt from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I remember a piece of old wood with termites running
around all over it the termite men found under our front
porch.

I remember when one year in Tulsa by some freak of

nature we were invaded by millions of grasshoppers for
about three or four days. I remember, downtown, whole
sidewalk areas of solid grasshoppers.

I remember a shoe store with a big brown x-ray machine

that showed up the bones in your feet bright green.
Apostrophe
Breaking off discourse to address some absent
person or thing, some abstract quality, an inanimate
object, or a nonexistent character.

Example: Oh! Lord, please listen to my prayers.

Chiasmus
A verbal pattern in which the second half of an expression
is balanced against the first but with the parts reversed.

Never let a fool kiss you or a kiss fool you.

Example:

“You forget what you want to remember, and you remember

what you want to forget.”

"We shape our buildings, and afterward our buildings

shape us." -Winston Churchill.
Hyperbole

An extravagant statement; the use of exaggerated terms for

the purpose of emphasis or heightened effect.

Example:
● I’ve told you a million times.
● It was so cold, I saw polar bears wearing jackets.
irony
The use of words to convey the opposite of their meaning. A
statement or situation where the meaning contradicted by the
appearance or presentation of the idea.

Example:
● I posted a video on Youtube about how boring and useless
Youtube is.

● The name of Britain’s biggest dog was “Tiny”.

Metaphor

An implied comparison between two unlike things that

actually habe something important in common.

Example:
● My brother was boiling mad. (This implies he was too
angry.)
● The assignment was a breeze. (This implies that the
assignment was not difficult.
Metonymy

A figure of speech in which one word or phrase is substituted

for another with which it’s closely associated; also, the
rhetorical strategy of describing something indirectly by
referring to things around it .

Example:
● England decides to keep check on immigration.
(England refers to government.)

● The pen is mightier than the sword.

(Pen refers to written words and sword to military force.)
Onomatopoeia
The use of words that imitate the sounds associated
with the objects or actions they refer to.

Example:
● Click, click. She made a sound with her tongue
displeasure.

● The rustle of the leaves startled the kids.

● The door creaked open in the old mansion.
Oxymoron

A figure of speech in which incongruous or

contradictory terms appear side by side.

Example:
Typically odd Naturally strange
Unpopular celebrity
Heavy Diet Worthless gold
Sad Joy
Weirdly normal Noticeable absence
Personification

A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is

endowed with human qualities or abilities.

Example:

● The stars danced playfully in the moonlit sky.

● The run down house appeared depressed.
● The first rays of morning tiptoed through the window.
● She did not realize the opportunity was knocking at her door.
Pun
A play on words, sometimes on different senses of the sound
same word and sometimes on the similar sense or sound or
different words.

● Santa’s helpers are know as subordinate clauses.

● She had a photograohic memory but never developed it.
● The two pianists had a good marriage. They always were in a
chord.
● I was struggling to figure out how lightning works then it struck
me.
● I really wanted a camouflage shirt but I couldn’t find one.
Simile

A stated comparison(usually formed with “like” or “as”)

between two fundamentally dissimilar things that
have certain qualities in common.

Example:

He is as strong as an ox.
Your explanation is as clear as mud.
Watching the show was like watching grass grow.
That is as easy as shooting fish in a barrel.
Synecdoche

A figure of speech in which a part is udes to represent the whole( for

example, ABCs for alphabet) or the whole part (“England Won the World Cup
in 1966”).

Example:

● Bread- food or money

Writing is my bread and butter or sole breadwinner.
● Gray beard- old man
● Sails-whole ship
diction
Diction simply means word choice. To express his ideas effectively,
a writer chooses the words from an inventory of words at his
disposal. Thus, he whose vocabulary is vast has an easy time
completing his creative work.
Formality of word choice is also a work of diction. Choosing elevated words
establishes formality in the text, while using slang makes it informal.

Example:

“I am utterly grateful to you for everything you have done.”

vs.
“Thanks a ton, buddy!”
Word Choice: Connotation

Words might mean the same denotatively, but much different

connotatively.

Denotation is the dictionary meaning of the word, while

connotation is the common association people make with words.
In writing, it is important to know which word will fit most into a given
context.
Word Choice: Idioms

Idioms are words, phrases or expressions that may or may

not have figurative meaning.

Example:
“keep them posted”
-to give them up-to-date information.
1. What does it mean if someone has “guts” (or has “the guts” to do something )?
a. He is brave.
b. He is angry.
c. He is intelligent.

2. What does “sell you soul "mean?

a. To sell something that is spiritually important to you.
b. To combine all areas of your personal life to he point of death.
c. To do something that is against your life principles in exchange for money
Sample of creative works
“Creativity is a natural extension
of our enthusiasm”

—Earl Nightingale
Chapter challenge:
What now?
After finishing Chapter 1, the creative writer shall now be able to produce
three- short paragraphs or vignettes using imagery,diction, figures of speech
and specific experiences. You may use the following topics below. This will be
graded using the following rubrics.

LOVE HOPE LOSS LIFE

●Content:10 points
●Organization of ideas 10 points
●Word choice: 10

●Usage of varied imagery, figures of speech, and diction- 20

Total- 50 points
Thank you for your
active participation
☺