Unit One

The Concept of Creative Writing

Writing deals with a way of recording language in visible form and giving it relative
permanence. Until the invention of audio recording, speech was limited to those within earshot
or on the other end of a telephone, and it faded away immediately, except in the memories of
speaker and hearer. Writing overcomes this limitation and allows not only the storage of
immense amounts of information but its transmission to wherever a written message may be
conveyed.
The origins of writing systems relate to the desire and, perhaps also, the need for a system of
preservation and record, that continues beyond the initial verbal utterance.
‘Creative Writing involves personal and social activities with the intention of producing art and
communication.’ This proposition can be considered by reference to:
(1) All works of Creative Writing have aesthetic appeal?
(2) All works of Creative Writing clearly communicate?
(3) Intentions in Creative Writing are always met?
(4) Creative Writing is solely an act or range of acts?
(5) Personal and social activities relating to Creative Writing are always connected?
(6) The personal and social activities of Creative Writing have equal status?
(7) Communication and art always hold equal status in society

Writing is, therefore, a powerful instrument for transmitting culture from generation to
generation. It plays a crucial role in the development and continuation of complex civilizations,
with their elaborate technologies and economies, bodies of literature, codes of law, and other
specializations, each with its own body of knowledge to be preserved and transmitted. Some
civilizations, such as that of ancient India and of Viking Scandinavia, preserved amazing
quantities of verbal material with remarkably little change over long periods of time through
sheer painstaking memorization. But such a process has severe limitations, and the expenditure
of human energy is immense.

Creativity is one’s mental ability to create something new’. Robinson (2000) also defines
creativity as engagement of human intelligence. Another interviewee describes creativity

1
‘creativity is giving opinions about various issues by making use of observation’. That means
creativity involves group discussion and reflection.

Others‟ opinions about creativity are derived from English literature as they think like Torrance
(2004) creativity involves imagination and originality. The closer examination of their views
reveal that they believe creativity to be more artistic and unique but at the same time some of
them pinpoint that creativity also involves thinking skills that is a modern concept of creativity in
education. It is interesting to read the respondents‟ personal definitions of creative writing.
Creative writing is an expression of personal feelings, thoughts and experiences whereas some
think that it has originality and novelty. Others assert that creative writing broadens one’s vision
as it explores social problems. Creative writing is literature i.e. poetry, drama and novel.

Despite its advantages, writing was a very long time in being invented. Humans have written for
about 5,300 years, a very short time in the span of human history.

Research suggests that positive mood can either facilitate or inhibit creativity contingent on task
requirements (i.e., Kaufmann, 2003; Vosburg, 1998a, 1998b). There is a solid body of research
supporting the position that positive mood promotes superior performance on tasks such as word
associations, word categorization, and creative problem solving.
“Stories cull writers from the world. Stories reveal themselves to us. The public narrative, the
private narrative: they colonize us; they commission us. They insist on being told.” – (Arundhati
Roy)
The world is full of stories; stories of peoples’ lives. Sometimes those lives are well-known and
live on in fame and memory, but often the most interesting lives are the ones that are forgotten. It
is one of the roles of the writer to find and tell these lost stories, whether as history, biography or
reimagined as narrative.
Being an ability, writing can be improved by learning through repetition. If the teachers would
be aware of the writing process, this would help in teaching appropriate strategies and that would
also improve the writing abilities of students in education environment (Oberman and Kapka,
2001). Creative writing explores the narrative of humanity moving through time, and creative
nonfiction makes those realities readable.

2
Creative writing is one of the most powerful ways to expel and express feelings, thoughts, and
ideas. Writing and all art is meant to affect and influence the minds and emotions of others.
The needs of the audience are important and writer should make some compromises, however a
writer should never compromise their message.
Creative writing also refers to the practice of writing prose fiction, poetry, scripts and sometimes
auto/biography, chiefly in educational contexts. Creative writing, a form of artistic expression,
draws on the imagination to convey meaning through the use of imagery, narrative, and drama. It
is also considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction that goes outside the bounds
of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which
fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems. Writing for the screen and
stage, screenwriting and playwriting respectively, typically have their own programs of study,
but fit under the creative writing category as well.
Accordingly, studies conducted in Karachi at primary level shared the view that young students
are lack writing skills and the teachers don’t seem to using a proper writing process too.
According to Brookes and Marshall (2004) imagination and originality are valued more than the
standardization of thought and truthfulness while characterizing creative writing. While
assessing the student for creative writing, they are given space to fabricate the content. The main
purpose is always to evaluate their creative writing and cognitive skills. In order for the students
to write creatively, it is essential that their thoughts should not be restricted in any way (Sharples,
1996). Planning, organization and discovery of thought are prerequisites for creative writing. If
the students are restrained they will not be able to maintain the originality of their work and the
creativity might be compromised as well (Rechards, 1990)

Creativity is here defined as the capacity to make something original and fitting, where ‘original’
can mean both ‘novel, innovative’ (its modern sense) and ‘going to the origin, essential’ (its
ancient sense), and where ‘fitting’ means appropriate for some purpose and to some person. In
other words, creativity is the ability to create one’s own symbols of experience: creative writing
is the use of written language to conceptualize, explore and record experience in such a way as to
create a unique symbolization of it. Creativity is therefore recognized to be something common
as well as special, ordinary as well as extraordinary, collaborative as well as individual.

3
When we deal with its historical development, the phrase “creative writing” entered the language
during the 1920s, but creative writing courses predated that. The first was taught at the
University of Iowa in 1897. Iowa introduced the first creative writing program in 1936.
The University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop says that creative writing cannot be taught, but…
writers can be encouraged. Whether or not literary creativity can be taught, certain skills can
certainly be enhanced. Students can gain insight into what constitute effective or realistic
description or style or narrative or characterization or use of language. They can also learn about
voice, diction, plotting, setting, and figures of speech as well as how to craft dialogue that gives
clues to a character’s personality, social position, values, and character.
In line with the above explanations, the Iowa University writers suggested that creative writing
can offer techniques to help students overcome writers block; hone skills of observation,
description, and analysis; and cultivate a critical awareness of literary technique and
craftsmanship. It can also give students opportunities for self-expression and catharsis. It can
allow them to record emotions in words and explore human interactions and the workings of the
human psyche. It can also provide nuanced ways of sending messages.
Chambers Dictionary defines creative as ‘Having the power to create that creates, showing,
pertaining to, imagination, originality’ and writing as ‘The act of one who writes, that which is
written, literary production or composition’. Therefore, the term ‘creative writing’ may be
defined as: Having the power to create an imaginative, original literary production or
composition and can be applied to a very broad spectrum of writing genres.
Creative writing is the process of inventing or rather presenting your thoughts in an appealing
way. The writer thinks critically and reshapes something known into something that is different
and original. Each piece of writing has a purpose and is targeted at an audience. It is organized
cohesively with a clear beginning, middle and an end. Attention is paid to choice of apt
vocabulary, figurative use of language and style. The following can be taken as key points for
understanding of writing creatively:
The Beginning: Creative writing takes its first breath when the writer asks, "What can I create
out of a particular feeling, image, experience, or memory?"
The Purpose: It carries out a writer's compelling desire to imagine, invent, explore, or share.
Writing satisfies the creative soul. It often takes on a life of its own; the writer merely follows
along.

4
The Form: Any form using a writer's imagination is suitable for creative development of some
element of fiction. Some of the most common types of creative writing are poetry, essays,
character-sketches, short-fiction, anecdotes, play-scripts, songs, parodies, reminiscences,
historical fiction etc.
The Audience: A specific audience may not be known in the beginning, and each situation is
different. However, if the finished piece has a universal meaning, the story will speak to a wide
range of readers and may have varied meaning for various people.
The Style: A writer’s style comes from an array of choices that result in the sole ownership of
the finished product. The key to attaining a unique style is focused control. The writer lays out a
viewpoint and if it appeals to the readers, it influences them. A good write up has the ability to
rejuvenate a reader mentally and emotionally. Sometimes a good write- up evokes realization of
the abstract. As a result, the reader will see, hear, smell, taste, and feel specific things.
Principles of Creative Writing
1. Expert writers must first become expert readers.
Students in Creative Writing classes must become aware of the basic techniques of literary
expression, including narrative strategies, genres, and aesthetics.
2. Creative writers must become more self-aware, craft conscious, and self-critical. The students
must learn to revise. As important as learning how to write is the ability to evaluate and re-write.
3. Students must recognize that creative writing is never simply descriptive or imaginative rather
it also involves ideas, themes, questions, and arguments.
Classroom Tested Teaching Techniques
1. Imitation or parody
2. Dialogue with a published passage
3. Developing a character
4. A daisy chain in which succeeding students build on preceding students words
5. Small groups
6. Close reading in order to develop a keen sensitivity to a writer’s ideas, themes, language, and
approach, as well as the multiple lines of argument within a single text.
Things that must be avoided by a Writer
Verbosity: Using more words than are necessary to express an idea.
Repetition: Repeating an idea in different words.

5
Pedantry: using high sounding, difficult and obscure words instead of simple short ones.
Periphrasis or Circumlocution: Using a roundabout way of saying a simple thing.
Archaic Words: Use of outdated words and phrases
Colloquialism: Words or expressions used in familiar conversation such as 'tis, bike, phone.
Slang: Specific colloquialisms invented for humor and vividness in expressions such as cool
dude, damn.
Indianisms: Translating the idioms and expressions of Indian languages literally.
Mixed Metaphors: Comparing a thing to two or more things
Words which do not convey a precise meaning such as good, awfully

6
 Chapter Two
Creative Non-fiction
Nonfiction tells about real people, places, events, thoughts, and times. You are informed of
what’s happening in the world around you.
A story grows from real and imagined experience. Creative nonfiction usually takes reality as its
origin, but that does not mean we dispense with the mind’s natural skill for story. Creative
nonfiction deals with realities truthfully – experiences, events, and facts – yet the drive of the
writing is the author’s involvement in the story, and writers use every literary device in the book
to tell that story well.
Creative non-fiction is a genre that is committed to the close observation and recording of a
world. The story is important, as it contains the poetry, the drama of everyday life, and its
substance. Examine models of writing in memoir, travel and nature writing, and the personal
essay.
Writing well is not only useful, but it helps us preserve our life experiences as they truly
occurred or as we felt them. It lets us share stories in ways that others and compelling. Creative
nonfiction can open whole new windows on the way you and your readers experience history—
maybe your history. Creative nonfiction is the art of bringing all the traditional strategies of
fictional storytelling to narrating real-life events.
CNF is the product of the truth (nonfiction) told using literary elements often reserved for the
telling of fiction. This structure is the creative part. The successful work of Creative Nonfiction
will include information, and in presenting this information the writer must strike a balance
between the “public” story and the “private” story. Memoir and Biography/Autobiography are
two small components that make up the field of creative nonfiction. Other sub-genres include
nature writing, travel writing, and literary journalism.
To write great creative nonfiction, a writer must tell a fact-based story in an imaginative way—
not as easy a task as it sounds! Nonfiction writers must be dedicated to preserving the truth of
their stories— who, what, why, where, when, and how. The creativity enters through the use of

7
perspective, which, like a camera lens, allows the writer to focus the reader’s attention and
engage his or her imagination. Nonfiction is usually written with specific, or specialized, text
features and text structures. These text structures usually include helpful text cues or signal
words. In contrast, fiction usually has a text structure made up of a beginning, middle and end.
Another difference is nonfiction often includes specialized vocabulary, whereas fiction does not.
Writers of nonfiction usually have one of the following purposes for writing: to explain; to
inform; to teach how to do something; to express an opinion, to persuade readers to do or believe
something; to entertain and so on.
Sometimes the writer may have more than one purpose in mind when writing a particular piece.
However, one purpose is usually the most important.
In order to find out important information when reading nonfiction, it helps to identify the text
structure, i.e., how ideas have been developed and organized within the text.
Common text structures are cause and effect, problem and solution, question and answer
compare and contrast, description, sequence or time order, exemplification (using examples), etc.
Cause and effect – Why something happens is the cause. What happens because of the cause is
the effect. In this case, writers use different terms like because, since therefore consequently, as a
result, this led to, so that, nevertheless, accordingly, if…then, thus, one reason for that and for
this reason.
Question and answer –the author asks a question and then gives an answer. Words like how,
when, what, where, why, who, how many, the best estimate, it could be that, one may conclude
are used by writers in order to reflect what they want to reflect.
Compare and contrast –a comparison tells how things, people, places or events are alike. A
contrast tells how they are different. However, like, unlike, likewise, both, as well as, on the
other hand, not only…but also, either…or while, although, unless, similarly, yet, nevertheless, in
contrast, too, as opposed to, whereas are used.
Problem and solution –the author’s purpose is to write about a problem and give a solution.
Description –all the facts and details make up the description part of nonfiction writing. There
aren’t any specific text cues/signal words. Strong description depends on sensory details.
Sensory details like what we see, hear, taste, smell, and feel are used in writing.
Exemplification –using examples to explain or elaborate an idea. To write in this way writers
use phrases like for instance, in fact, specifically, to illustrate, such as, for example, etc.

8
Sequence or time order –all the facts are arranged in a special sequence or are listed in
chronological or time order. For instance, writers may use words like on (date), not long after,
now, as, before, after, when, since, until, first, following, at the same time, finally, during and at
last.

Basic Types of Nonfiction

The various effects a writer may wish to have on his or her reader are to inform, to persuade, to
entertain—result in different kinds of prose. The most common is prose that informs, which,
depending on what it is about, is called exposition, description, or narration.
Narrative nonfiction tells a true story. Description deals with perceptions most commonly visual
perceptions. Its central problem is to arrange what we see into a significant pattern. Unlike the
logic of exposition, the pattern is spatial: above/below, before/behind, right/left, and so on.
The subject of narration is a series of related events—a story. Its problem is twofold: to arrange
the events in a sequence of time and to reveal their significance.
Expository explains. It is factual and informative writing. How things work—an internal
combustion engine. Ideas are a theory of economics. Facts of everyday life—how many people
get divorced. History is why Custer attacked at the Little Big Horn. Controversial issues laden
with feelings abortion, politics, religion. But whatever its subject, exposition reveals what a
particular mind thinks or knows or believes. Exposition is constructed logically. It organizes
around cause/effect, true/false, less/more, positive/ negative, general/particular, and
assertion/denial. Its movement is signaled by connectives like therefore, however, and so,
besides, but, not only, more important, in fact, for example.
Persuasive nonfiction promotes an opinion or a position. Persuasion seeks to alter how readers
think or believe. It is usually about controversial topics and often appeals to reason in the form of
argument, offering evidence or logical proof.
Another form of persuasion is satire, which ridicules folly or evil, sometimes subtly, sometimes
crudely and coarsely. Finally, persuasion may be in the form of eloquence, appealing to ideals
and noble sentiments.

9
Writing that is primarily entertaining includes fiction, personal essays, and sketches. Such prose
will receive less attention here. It is certainly important, but it is more remote from everyday
needs than exposition or persuasion.

Examples of narrative nonfiction:

 Autobiographies
 Biographies
 Memoirs
 Narrative essays
 Newspaper and magazine articles
Writing that expresses personal feelings and writers’ opinions
 Editorials and letters to the editor
 Reviews of books, movies, etc.
 Diaries and journals
 Personal essays
 Letters
Information articles about how things work or came to be
 Reading you do in a science, health, or history class
 Technical articles that explain instructions or specialized procedure
Today, almost everything you want to know - is just a mouse click away. Maybe more than any
other reading requires you to read critically and apply your prior knowledge.
How to Read Nonfiction
Always try to figure out the writer’s purpose and intended audience.
Writers change strategies depending on their audience and purpose for writing. When we
understand why and for whom something was written, we understand it better.
 Look at content & organization:
How ideas are organized?
Which ideas are facts?
 Before you start to read, think about what you already know.
 Read more slowly & carefully.

10
Nonfiction is mostly read for a particular purpose.
You read the newspaper to learn –
• What’s going on in the world?
• look for a job
• check the sports or a movie review.
Nonfiction is about facts. Details are important. You look at more than “the big picture.”
Questions usually have one best answer. It’s often hard to form mental images.
Nonfiction is often difficult to remember. The main idea is often not always in the first sentence
of the paragraph. The last sentence of the paragraph often – not always – sums up the main idea.
Often there are charts, tables, and graphs to help you understand what you’re reading.
This writing often uses titles and subtitles, which can help you figure out the main ideas.
The size of the headings, bold print, italicized and underlined words are there for a reason. Use
them!
Strategies to read nonfiction
1. Preview a selection before you read. Look at the title, pictures, diagrams, subtitles, and any
terms in boldfaced print or italics. All of these will give you an idea of what the selection is
about.
2. Figure out the organization. If the work is a biography or autobiography, the organization is
probably chronological, that is, in the order that events happened. Other articles may be arranged
around ideas the author wants to discuss. Understanding the organization can help you predict
what to expect next.
3. Separate facts and opinions. Facts are statements that can be proved, such as “There are
several autobiographies in this book.” Opinions are statements that cannot be proved. They
simply express the writer’s beliefs, such as “Boy is the best autobiography in this book.” Writers
of nonfiction sometimes present opinions as if they were facts. Be sure you recognize the
difference.
4. Question as you read. Why did things happen the way they did? How did people feel? What
is the writer’s opinion? Do you share the writer’s opinion, or do you have different ideas on the
subject?
5. During your reading, stop now and then and try to predict what will come next. Sometimes
you will be surprised by what happens or by what the author has to say about an issue.

11
6. As you read, build on your understanding. Add new information to what you have already
learned and see if your ideas and opinions change.
7. Continually evaluate what you read. Evaluation should be an ongoing process, not just
something that is done when you have finished reading. Remember that evaluation means more
than saying a selection is good or bad. Form opinions about people, events, and ideas that are
presented. Decide whether or not you like the way the piece was written. Finally, it is important
to recognize that your understanding of a selection does not end when you stop reading. As you
think more about what you have read and discuss it with others, you will find that your
understanding continues to grow.
Literary Elements common to CNF
• Conflict
• Non-Chronological Order of Events
• Writing in Scenes—Show; don’t tell
• Resonance—a repeated key image that creates unity or that might be used as a transition
instead of literal transitions (next, then, etc.)
• Dialogue
• Figures of Speech (simile, metaphor, onomatopoeia, etc.)
• Writer’s Voice/Tone
• Character Development
• Open ending that permits for multiple interpretations
Gutkind’s 5-R’s of CNF
• Real life
• Reflection—Writer finds the Universal Theme
• Reader - Goes Beyond the self to connect with the reader.
• Research—Writer seeks information
• Reading—Evidence of research, that the writer has read on the subject and is expert writing
Another Measure of CNF Quality
1. Mechanics: is the manuscript free of grammatical, spelling and punctuation errors?
2. Hook: is the reader drawn into the work from the beginning?
3. Narrator: does the narrator come across as interesting, engaging, and authoritative?

12
4. Other characters: are they revealed with significant details and/or motivations so readers get
a full sense of who they are and what they mean to the narrator?
5. Technique: is there a proper balance between showing and telling? Are transitions smooth?
Does the active voice predominate over the passive? Is tone appropriate to subject matter?
6. Language use: is the writing fresh and free of clichés? Does the choice of words keep the
reader embedded in the work? Does the writer rely on strong nouns and verbs, rather than
adjectives and adverbs?
7. Dialogue, narrative, and exposition: does any dialogue sound natural to the people and the
situation? Does each person have a unique voice? Is there a proper balance between dialogue and
narrative? If exposition is used, is it balanced by other forms of telling, and does it help the work
explore and develop ideas thematic to the piece?
8. Setting and scene: is the work grounded in time and place? Can you see, feel, hear, smell, and
taste the setting? Do settings enhance or detract from the work?
9. Structure: does the structure suit the material? Does it help move the piece toward its
resolution? Did the writer find the best entry and exit point? Is every scene necessary? Is the
ending earned and yet unexpected?
10. Originality: does the work seem fresh and original? Does it have its own twists on character,
plot, setting, form, or argument that make it unique?
11. Facts: are any arguments well-supported with facts? Is any research artfully woven into the
prose? Do the details strain credibility, or are they believable?
How to Write a Biography?
A biography is simply the story of a life. Biographies can be just a few sentences long, or they
can fill an entire book—or two. Very short biographies tell the basic facts of someone's life and
importance. However, longer biographies include that basic information of course, with a lot
more detail, but they also tell a good story. Biographies analyze and interpret the events in a
person's life. They try to find connections, explain the meaning of unexpected actions or
mysteries, and make arguments about the significance of the person's accomplishments or life
activities. Biographies are usually about famous or infamous people, but a biography of an
ordinary person can tell us a lot about a particular time and place. They are often about historical
figures, but they can also be about people still living.

13
Many biographies are written in chronological order. Some group time periods around a major
theme (such as "early adversity" or "ambition and achievement”). Still others focus on specific
topics or accomplishments.
Biographers use primary and secondary sources: Primary sources are things like letters, diaries,
or newspaper accounts and secondary sources include other biographies, reference books, or
histories that provide information about the subject of the biography.

To write a biography you should:

1. Select a person you are interested in
2. Find out the basic facts of the person's life. Start with the encyclopedia and almanac.
3. Think about what else you would like to know about the person, and what parts of the life you
want to write most about. Some questions you might want to think about include:
 What makes this person special or interesting?
 What kind of effect did he or she have on the world? Other people?
 What are the adjectives you would most use to describe the person?
 What examples from their life illustrate those qualities?
 What events shaped or changed this person's life?
 Did he or she overcome obstacles? Take risks? Get lucky?
 Would the world be better or worse if this person hadn't lived? How and why?
Assignment on writing a biography
Think of a famous an Ethiopian person. Answer the questions below and use your answers to
write a short biography of that famous person.
Early life: who is the famous person? Where were they born? When were they born? What did
their parents do? What else do you know about their parents?
Childhood: What kind of childhood did they have? Where did they live as a child? Where did
they go to school?
Adulthood: Did they have any further education? What was their first job? What other jobs did
they do? Did they marry? If so, who did they marry? Did they have any children? How many?
Where did they live?

14
Hometown/Country: What was life in their hometown or country like at this time? How did they
feel about life in their hometown or country?
Becoming famous: What area of life is the person famous for? e.g. politics, music, film etc.
How did they first become interested or involved in this area? When did they first become well
known? What were the most important events during the time they were famous? What were the
most difficult times? What were the most exciting times? Did they travel to other countries? Did
they meet any very interesting people? Did they receive any awards for their achievements?
Life at the moment (if the person is still alive): Where is the person living now? How old are
they now? What is their life like now? Have they had any important events in their life recently?
Have they got any important events coming up in the near future?
Later life (if the person is no longer living): Where was the person living at the end of their
life? What was their life like at this time? What other things did they do in their life? When did
they die? Where did they die? Where are they buried? How are they remembered today?
Your feelings about the person
1. What are your feelings about the person? e.g. do you admire them, feel sorry for them, find
them interesting/funny etc.
2. Why do you feel this way about them?
3. What do you feel were the most important things they did?
How to Write an Autobiography?
Every person has an interesting story to tell and writing your autobiography is a great way to
share it with people. What is your motivation for writing your autobiography? Ask yourself these
questions:
 Am I interested in passing on my family history to future generations?
 Am I recording my personal history?
 Is it my work history?
 Is it my community work?
 Is it my personal values and philosophies?
 Is it when I underwent a personal transformation?
 What is it I really want to share?
Time spent pondering this and clarifying your purpose will give you the motivation and focus
that is necessary to see through your autobiographical project to completion. The reason you

15
embark on, what can be a very rewarding but time consuming project, is what will provide you
with the motivation to keep going and finish it.
Lists and Getting Started
Once you have decided your reasons for setting down your personal memoirs you are going to be
writing a lot of lists. This is where just spending time thinking about things and jotting them
down will help you build the structure of your personal memoir, your autobiography.
Start with a simple list and then expand upon it so that you build up short word pictures.
Places
What are the places I have lived in? As a child, a teenager, a young adult etc. What were these
places like? What was significant about the place? If it was a farm what was the land like? Was it
a cropping farm or livestock? What was the town, suburb, city like? Did you change places and
what did that feel like?
People
Who were the significant people in my life? As a child, a teenager, a young adult etc. What did
these people mean to me? What were they like? What did they look like, what sort of clothes did
they wear, how did they behave? What did I learn from them? What experiences did I share with
them? How did they affect my life?
The people in your autobiography give it color and interest. Your readers will want to get to
know the main characters of your story and read about your opinions and interactions with them.
All stories need characters.
Events and Experiences
Jot down as many events and life experiences about your life as you can think of.
Keep your note book handy so that when you think of something it is there for you. A few words
will do the trick, this is your “memory trigger” they don’t have to be complete sentences or even
fully detailed.
• May be it is something about one of the places you lived in.
• Something you remember about a favorite uncle or aunt.
• Perhaps it’s about when you saw something in the big city or the birth of a child.
• You may have travelled widely or undertook studies.
Once you start you will get the idea and the memories will start flowing. One thought will lead to
another and soon you will have filled your first notebook.

16
Deciding on an Autobiographical Style
There are many different ways to tell your story and once you have your lists started you can
begin to consider the style you want to tell it in.
Point of View
What point of view are you going to use in telling your story?
Are you going to tell your story in the first person or from the viewpoint of another person?
Many autobiographies are told from the teller’s (your) unique perspective. After all it is your
experiences you are writing about. It’s the most common approach if you are doing the actual
writing.
Example:
“My Mum and I waited on the platform for the train at Gosford and the wind whipped down the
gully and fair lashed me. And when the train chugged into the platform the smuts from the
smoke stack made my eyes water so bad I could hardly see the step to get on.”
Or you can tell your story, or have it ghost written for you, from another’s perspective.
Autobiography Structure
Now that you have your lists developed and you have decided on your perspective, you can
always change your writing style and perspective later, it’s time to put your outline into a
structure.
Organize Your Lists into a Structure
Even though you may not decide to tell your personal memoir chronologically, this is probably a
good place to start. Get another notebook and go through your list rewriting your notes and
organizing them into a chronological order. This is a good time to think about any facts you
might want to check. To think about anybody, you may want to confer with to clarify
information. Another list!
You may also want to jot down a note for the really important things to search out, any photos or
documents you might have that will illustrate the important parts of your story. Another thing to
go on your conferring list is that others, friends and family, may well have that special document
or photo you would like to use. You will need to ask them whether you can use it and/or get
permission from the photo’s copyright holder.

17
This is a good time to start to pull together your lists so that you are matching up people, place
and events on the one list. You will probably find that you will think of more as you go through
this process.
Once you have pulled all your notes together you will have a very comprehensive short hand
note of your autobiography and the daunting task is once again becoming more manageable
again.
Themes
Reading through your outline structure certain themes will emerge. These may be family, love,
love lost, perseverance, adventure, achievements, work, travel that type of thing. Perhaps one is
obviously dominant; you are almost certainly going to have more than one threaded through your
outline structure. You might need to explore some of the events and experiences in a little more
depth to uncover their underlying theme.
To enhance the readability of your autobiography and increase the enjoyment for your audience
you should employ an overarching or umbrella theme. What that actual theme actually is
depends on your motivation for writing your story and the events, experiences and interactions
with the people you meet along the way. It’s important to find your underlying theme for the
main message you want to convey in your story.
Unless you are very firm in the message you want to convey at the outset and are writing
specifically to convey that message, you may find that your key theme changes during the
writing process. This happens as you steep yourself deeper into your own story and rediscover
events and purposes with significant meaning for you.
Focus
Now that you have organized everything chronologically, your lists of events, characters and
places, you don’t have to tell your story chronologically at all! Organizing your thoughts
chronologically does give you an outline structure to work with and does act as an important
“memory jogger” but there is nothing to say that you have to tell your story this way.
Are you telling your whole life story, an autobiography, or are you telling a memoir
concentrating on a particular theme or collection of themes or a specific time and series of
events?

18
You can present your story and tell it in many different ways and you can start where you want
to start. It is common for writers to just start writing about a particular event, person or place and
then jump to a completely different one unrelated by time.
If you find that your mind leaps to a particular theme, event or time then start there and just
write. This will inspire and motivate you to continue. Pick a subject and write about it and when
you have finished writing this portion you can take a deep breath and admire what you have
achieved!
Then pick another subject. Often when writing your first section you will be inspired for the
next, by all means jot those down as you write and come back to them later.
You will have a lot of notebooks by the time you have finished. Perhaps you will even discover
another complete story you want to write.
Closer to the end of the writing process you will be able to re-order things to suit the way you
want to present your story so the order you actually write in isn’t important.
It is good to have your overall structure so you are writing with a purpose but the order you write
in isn’t important.
The placement of the parts of your story will most likely be worked out nearer the end of the
writing. You certainly can benefit from an outline, but the table of contents might not be
finalized until after you’ve recorded your different experiences.
Editing Your Autobiography
A question many biographers ask when starting out on their project is “How long should it be?”
This is your choice but an interesting story to read is one that keeps your attention, one that
builds up to an action point, a climax and then usually presents some resolution revolving around
that action point and theme. Your story should be long enough to cover the subject but short
enough to be interesting.
As you work through the “How to Write Your Autobiography” process, and particularly as you
organize your lists into an overall structure some of your jottings will stand out as strong themes,
events or experiences that you will want to focus on.
This is how you begin to decide what to include and what to leave out.
 What are the key points of your story?
 what are the most relevant things in your life – family, career, travel, or all of these with
equal emphasis?

19
  What will your readers find most interesting?
Usually readers like to discover more about the person whose story they are reading. They like to
know about the context of events. What were the places, times and events you experienced really
like? Be honest and write from the heart and allow your readers to feel your emotions and form a
picture in their mind from your words. Talk about your struggles and triumphs, the strong
emotions and if difficult decisions had to be made write about how you made your decisions. Do
take your audience’s feelings into account especially if it is a family story you are telling.
Once you have your completed draft set it aside for a little while and take a break from it before
you come back to it and read it from start to finish. A good soft lead red pencil is handy to mark
those pieces that really don’t work, need a rewrite or need deleting because they just don’t move
the story forward at all.
After you have done the rewrite it’s time to think about the title and to organize a table of
contents and chapter headings if you haven’t already done so. Certainly you can find a good title
from one of the strongest themes of your autobiography. I’m sure you will have a more
interesting title than “My Life”.
Take the time to read a selection of other people’s autobiographies, the famous and the not so
famous from a critical perspective. Get a feel for what works in the way they tell their story and
what doesn’t. It’s your autobiography, your story and its worth telling well.
Publishing your Autobiography
After having written your story how are you going to share it with family and friends?
Unless you are blessed with beautiful copperplate writing and even if you are, you most probably
will want to publish your story so that others may read it easily. Now that you have decided you
would like to publish your story it’s time to consider the different options:
 You can self-publish – Often the most practical option
 You can look for a professional publisher – a definite if you feel you have a block buster.
 You can record an audio book – great for letting friends and family hear you tell your
story.
 Or you can work with an oral history company such as Lifetime Memories and Stories
who can work with you to record and print your own custom audio CD and
autobiography.

20
1. Write out your life timeline. Start writing your autobiography by conducting research on your
own life. Creating a timeline of your life is a good way to make sure you include all the most
important dates and events, and it gives you a structure to build upon. You can consider this the
"brainstorming" phase, so don't hesitate to write down everything you can remember, even if you
don't think the memory will make it into the final version of the book.
 Your autobiography doesn't have to begin with your birth. You may want to include some
family history as well. Write down information about your ancestry, your grandparents'
lives, your parents' lives, and so on. Having information about your family history will
help readers get a sense of how you became the person you are.
 What happened when you were a teenager? What led you to make the decisions you
made?
 Did you go to college? Write about those transitory years, too.
 Write about your career, your relationships, your children, and any big life-altering
events that occurred.
2.Identify the main characters. Every good story has interesting characters, friends and foes
who help move the plot along. Who are the characters in your life? It's a given that your parents
will play a role, along with your spouse and other close family members. Think beyond your
immediate family to others who have affected your life and should play a role in your
autobiography.
Teachers, coaches, mentors, and bosses are extremely influential in people's lives. Decide
whether someone who has been a role model (or the opposite) for you will figure into your story.
Ex boyfriends and girlfriends might co-star in some interesting stories.
What enemies have you had in life? Your story will be boring if you don't include some
conflicts.
Offbeat characters such as animals, celebrities you've never met, and even cities are often points
of interest in an autobiography.
3.Pull out the best stories. The story of your entire life would start to get pretty long-winded, so
you'll have to make some decisions about what anecdotes you're going to include. Begin drafting
your manuscript by writing out the main stories that will be woven together to create a picture of
your life. There are a few main topics that most autobiographies cover since readers find them
fascinating:

21
The childhood story. Whether your childhood was happy or traumatic, you should include a few
anecdotes that give a picture of who you were and what you experienced at the time. You can tell
the story of your childhood by breaking it down into smaller anecdotes that illustrate your
personality - your parents' reaction when you brought home a stray dog, the time you climbed
out the window at school and ran away for 3 days, your friendly relationship with a homeless
person living in the woods . . . get creative.
The coming of age story. This heady and often sensual period in a human's life is always of
interest to readers. Remember that it's not about writing something unique; everyone comes of
age. It's about writing something that resonates with readers.
The falling in over story. You could also write the opposite of this, the never-finding-love story.
The identity crisis story. This usually occurs in the 30s or 40s, and is sometimes referred to as a
mid-life crisis.
The story of facing down some force of evil. Whether it’s your battle with addiction, a
controlling lover, or a madman who tried to kill your family, you've got to write about conflict
you've experienced.
4. Write in your own voice. People read autobiographies to gain insight on what its like to be
someone else. Being authentically you is a sure way to keep people engaged. If your writing is
formal and stiff, or if it reads like a college essay instead of an expose on your life, people will
have trouble getting through the book.
Write as though you're opening your heart to a trusted friend, in prose that's clear, strong and not
too cluttered with vocabulary words you rarely use.
Write so that your personality is revealed. Are you funny? Intense? Spiritual? Dramatic? Don't
hold back; your personality should come through in the way you tell your story.
5. Be revealing. You don't have to be explicit, but it's important to reveal truths about yourself
and your life in an autobiography. Don't let the book become a list of your accomplishments,
with all the negative material carefully kept under the rug. Present yourself as a whole person,
sharing talents and flaws alike, and your readers will be able to identify with you and hopefully
root for you as they make their way through your story.
Don't always cast yourself in a positive light. You can have foibles and still be the protagonist.
Reveal mistakes you've made and times when you've failed yourself and other people.

22
Reveal your inner thoughts. Share your opinions and ideas, including those that may spark
controversy. Be true to yourself through your autobiography.
6. Capture the spirit of the times. How was your story shaped by the moment in history in
which it took place? What wars influenced your politics? What cultural events inspired you?
Discussing what happened in the world at large during your lifetime is a good way to make your
story more relevant and interesting to those reading it.
Method 2 of 4: Crafting a Narrative
1. Create an overarching plot. Now that you know what content you want to include in your
autobiography, think about how you want to structure your book. Like any great book, your
autobiography needs a great plot. Work with the material you have to craft an interesting story
that builds toward a climax and ultimately resolves. Create a narrative arc by organizing and
filling out your written memories and anecdotes so that they flow together logically.
What's your central conflict? What's the biggest obstacle life presented that took years to
overcome or come to terms with? Maybe it's an illness you were diagnosed with at an early age,
a relationship wrought with turmoil, a series of career setbacks, a goal you worked for decades to
achieve, or any other number of things. Look to your favorite books and movies for more
examples of conflicts.
Build tension and suspense. Structure the narrative so that you have a series of stories leading up
to the climax of the conflict. If your central conflict is trying to reach the goal of competing in
the Olympics for skiing, lead up to it with stories of small successes and plenty of failures. You
want your readers to ask, will she make it? Can he do it? What's going to happen next?
Have a climax. You'll get to the point in your story when it's time for the conflict to come to a
head. The day of the big competition has arrived, a showdown happens with your worst enemy,
your gambling habit gets the better of you and you lose all your money - you get the picture.
End with a resolution. Most autobiographies have happy endings, because the person writing the
story lived to tell the tale - and hopefully get it published. Even if your ending isn't cheerful, it
should be deeply satisfying. You somehow accomplished your goal or won the day. Even if you
lost, you came to terms with it and gained wisdom.
2. Decide where the story is going to start.
You could a straightforward chronology of your life, beginning with your birth and ending in the
present, but mixing up the chronology can make the story more interesting.

23
You could frame the entire autobiography with reflections from the present, telling your story
through a series of flashbacks.
You could begin the story with a poignant moment from your childhood, go backward to tell the
story of your heritage, move forward to your college years, and launch into the story of your
career, with anecdotes from your childhood sprinkled in for comic relief.
3. Weave in themes.
Use the major themes of your life as a way to tie stories together, connecting your past and your
present. Aside from the central conflict, what themes have followed you throughout your life? A
fondness for certain holidays, your fascination with a certain place that you visited over and
over, a certain type of guy you've always fallen for, a rich spiritual life you fall back on again
and again. Bring up the themes every so often to help form a cohesive picture of your life.
4. Take a step back to reflect.
You're chronicling your life lessons, but what have you learned from them? Relay your
intentions, desires, feelings of loss, feelings of joy, the wisdom you've gained, and other inner
thoughts from time to time throughout the book. Taking a step back from the action of the story
to reflect on what it all means is a good way to add depth to your autobiography.
5. Use chapter divisions to give the book structure.
Chapters are useful because they allow you to move on from discussing certain life periods or
events. There's a reason we have the expression that we've "closed a chapter" or "opened a new
chapter" in life, and it’s even more applicable when discussing an autobiography. Chapter breaks
allow you to skip forward 10 years, go back in time, or start describing a new theme without
jarring the reader too much.
Consider ending chapters on a poignant or suspenseful note, so people can't wait to start the next
one.
The beginnings of chapters are a good place to take a bird's eye view of your past, describe the
setting of a place, and set the tone for what's to come.
Method 3 of 4: Editing the Book
1. Make sure you get the facts right.
Double check dates, names, descriptions of events, and other items you're including in your book
to make sure you've gotten all the facts down correctly. Even though you're writing the story of
your own life, you shouldn't publish incorrect information about what occurred.

24
You can stretch the truth about your own goals and intentions, but don't include fabricated
conversations with real people, or altered versions of events that really happened. Of course you
won't remember everything perfectly, but you should reflect reality as best you can.
Get permission to use people's names or quote them if you're including content on what other
people said or did. Some people don't appreciate appearing as a character in someone else's
autobiography, and you should respect that by altering the way you describe them or changing
their names if necessary.
2. Edit your draft. Once you've finished your first draft, go back through it with a fine-toothed
comb. Reorganize passages, paragraphs and even chapters where necessary. Replace mundane
words and make your phrasing more interesting and clear. Correct your spelling and grammar.
3. Share it with other people.
Present your autobiography to your reading club or a friend so you can get an outside opinion.
Stories you find impossibly funny might seem dull to someone else. Get feedback from several
people if you can, so you'll have a better idea of how your book comes across to other people.
If several people recommend cutting a certain section, strongly consider making the cut.
Try to get opinions from people outside your circle of family and friends. People who know you
might try to spare your feelings, or they might be biased - especially if they appear in the story.
4. Hire a copyeditor. A good copyeditor will clean up your writing and make the dull parts
shine. Whether you're planning on getting your book published at a publishing house or going
the self-publishing route, it's never a bad idea to have a professional polish your book at the end
of the writing process.
5. Come up with a title. It should match the tone and style of your book, in addition to being
attention-grabbing and intriguing. Keep the title short and memorable, rather than wordy and
difficult to grasp. You could title it with your name and the words "My Autobiography" or
choose something less direct. Here are some famous autobiography titles that perfectly capture
the stories inside:
Bossy Pants, by Tina Fey.
My Confession, by Leo Tolstoy.
A Long Walk to Freedom, by Nelson Mandela.
The Sound of Laughter, by Peter Kay.
Method 4 of 4: Publishing Your Story

25
1.Take steps to self-publish your book. Even if you don't want to worry about trying to sell
your book to the public, you might want to have it designed and printed to keep for yourself and
give to your family members and other people featured in the book. Research companies that
offer book designing, printing, and shipping services, and decide how many copies you'd like to
order. Many companies offering these services produce books that look just as professional as
those printed by traditional publishing houses.
If you don't want to pay for a publishing service, you can still create a nice copy of your book by
taking it to a copy store and having it printed and bound.
2. Consider finding a literary agent. If you want to publish your autobiography and share it
with the world, enlisting the help of a literary agent can get you on your way. Research agents
that work with autobiographies and send them a query letter with information about your book,
yourself, and how you think the book should be marketed.
Start the query letter with an airtight blurb succinctly describing the highlights of the book.
Situate your book in the correct genre, and describe what will make it stand out from the rest.
Tell the agent why you think he or she is the right person to shop your book around to publishers.
Send sample chapters to agents who show interest.
Sign a contract with an agent you trust. Make sure to read the contract carefully and check into
the agent's history before signing anything
3. Submit a query letter directly to publishers. If you don't want to take the time to find an
agent, you can submit a letter directly to publishers and see if anyone bites. Research publishers
publish books in the same genre. Don't send the entire manuscript right away; wait until you get
a manuscript request from the publisher.
Many publishers don't accept unsolicited manuscripts or queries. Make sure you only send letters
to publishers that accept them.
If a publisher decides to move forward with a book deal with you, you'll need to sign a contract
and set up a schedule for editing, designing, proofreading, and finally publishing the book.
4. Look into publishing your book online. This is an increasingly popular method for
publishing books, and a great way to save on printing and shipping expenses for all involved.
Research online publishers that publish the books in the same genre, submit your query letter,
and move forward with editing and publishing the text.

26
 Chapter Three
Fictional Writing
3.1. Short story writing
One of the best ways for amateur writers to create a story is to base it upon real life occurrences.
The short story offers restriction in length of anywhere between 7,500 and20,000 words, and can
be read in one sitting. Writing a good short story may take several sittings. Concision is
everything. To begin, create a single character or two characters. The classic structure begins
with a significant event involving your character that precipitates the story, followed by rising
action until a climax, a fall in action and a denouement. Short stories take place over a short
period; endings are often abrupt or open. Trying to become a short story writer and endeavoring
to develop this ‘Creative Writing Form’ involves two important steps.
1. Becoming aware of the following four basic elements of the story:

27
2. Practicing the craft, the how of combining these elements can be a lifelong process.
As a form of fictional prose, the short story is basically a narrative that is about imaginary events
which happen to imaginary people or characters of the story. In most stories, the events lead to a
crisis that usually gets resolved at the end. The resolution may or may not be a happy one. Noted
story writer Edgar Allan Poe has explained in very simple terms that a short story has three parts.
The Characters usually meet in the beginning. In the middle, the characters encounter a crisis
that seems to overtake them. The crisis gets resolved in the end.
Together these three parts constitute the Plot of the story. By taking the readers through these
three parts with the characters, the writer as it were conveying his message. This message may
safely be called the theme of the story.
In spite of the frenetic building activity in most hill stations, there are still a few ruins to be found
on the outskirts -neglected old bungalows that have fallen or been pulled down, and which now
provide shelter for bats, owl, stray goats, itinerant passersby and sometimes the restless spirits
of those who once dwelt in them.
• Theme • Setting
• Plot • Characterization

At times it happens that some stories truly captivate while others leave you with the feeling of
‘why was this written at the first place, what was the point?' To make your short stories more
effectual, ponder on these points before dipping the nib in the ink.
1. "Clear theme" is the key phrase. The story is about…? What is the underlying message or
statement behind the words? What exactly do you want to give your readers? Get
this right and your story will have more reverberation in the minds of your readers.
2. Cover a very short time span. One single event that proves pivotal in the life of the character
can illustrate the theme.
3. In a short story, say a big “No” to too many characters. Each new character will bring a
new dimension to the story, and for an effective short story too many diverse dimensions (or
directions) will dilute the theme. Have only enough characters to effectively illustrate the theme.

28
4. Every word counts. There is no room for unnecessary expansion in a short story. If each
word is not working towards putting across the theme, delete it.
5. Focus on focus. The best stories are the ones that follow a narrow subject line. What is the
point of your story? Its point is its theme. It's tempting to digress, but in a 'short story' you have
to follow the straight and narrow otherwise you end up with either a novel beginning or melting
ideas that add up to nothing.
3.2. Writing a poem
Poetry is language used in a particular way. It can, but does not always, involve rhyme, rhythm
and meter. It is a way of sharing experiences, of telling a story or expressing feelings or ideas.
Poems are verses which may be spoken or sung. The form, rhythm and word choice for imagery,
the creation of pictures with words, is important in poetry. The words may form patterns of
sound, verse or thought. Usually, poetry appeals to the imagination of the audience and can
create vivid visual images. “Poems can paint powerful, sharp pictures using images and emotive
language which stimulate the senses. Modern poetry (free verse) doesn’t need to rhyme but it
should have a rhythm.” (Bennett 1989).
• Poetry requires creativity
• Poetry requires emotion
• Poetry requires an artistic quality
• Poetry requires logic
In poetry the sound and meaning of words are combined to express feelings, thoughts, and ideas.
The poet chooses words carefully and poetry is usually written in lines.
Elements of poetry
Rhythm
 Rhythm is the flow of the beat in a poem.
 Gives poetry a musical feel.
 Can be fast or slow, depending on mood and subject of poem.
 You can measure rhythm in meter, by counting the beats in each line.
Sounds
Writers love to use interesting sounds in their poems. After all, poems are meant to be heard.
Rhyme
 Rhymes are words that end with the same sound. (Hat, cat and bat rhyme.)

29
  Rhyming sounds don’t have to be spelled the same way. (Cloud and allowed rhyme.)
 Rhyme is the most common sound device in poetry.
Repetition
 Repetition occurs when poets repeat words, phrases, or lines in a poem.
 Creates a pattern.
 Increases rhythm.
 Strengthens feelings, ideas and mood in a poem.
Alliteration
 Alliteration is the repetition of the first consonant sound in words, as in the nursery
rhyme “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.”
Imagery
 Imagery is the use of words to create pictures, or images, in your mind.
 Appeals to the five senses: smell, sight, hearing, taste and touch.
 Details about smells, sounds, colors, and taste create strong images.
 To create vivid images writers, use figures of speech.
Lines and Stanzas
 Most poems are written in lines.
 A group of lines in a poem is called a stanza.
 Stanzas separate ideas in a poem. They act like paragraphs.
 This poem has two stanzas.
A couplet is a poem, or stanza in a poem, written in two lines and it usually rhymes.
Purpose of the author
The poet has an “author’s purpose” when he writes a poem. The purpose can be to:
 Share feelings (joy, sadness, anger, fear, loneliness)
 Tell a story
 Send a message (theme - something to think about)
 Be humorous
 Provide description* (e.g., person, object, concept)
Value of poetry
 Phonic skill
 Appreciate sounds words and patterns

30
  Spoken expression
 Imagination
 Fun creativity
 Express feeling and emotion
 Confidence
 Language skill
Teaching Poetry
 Use the five senses
 Encourage careful observation of concrete events and scenes
 Encourage the use of figurative language
 Make each word count
 Consider using an existing poetry structure to create new work
Poetry writing process
1. Choose a poem format from the Forms of Poetry handout.
2. Decide on a vocabulary word, object, or concept for your poem.
3. List everything you know about the topic.
4. List any emotions or words that you associate with the topic.
5. List any personal experiences you have had with the topic.
6. List objects similar to the one you have chosen.
7. Cross out tired words; replace with words and phrases that are more vivid.
8. Circle the ideas you want to express in your poem.
9. Write your poem in the chosen format.
10. Read your poem aloud.
11. Revise and edit as necessary.
Building blocks for poets
(1) Observation- Use all the senses, think beyond the surface of things. For example, you see a
squirrel digging in the grass, think about why it may be doing this. Other information could
affect this conclusion -- what season is it. If the season is spring, it could be digging up an acorn
it had buried. If fall, it could be burying an acorn.
(2) Clustering & extending- What other thoughts come to your mind as you think about
“digging”. What other animals, including man, dig. Why? How? “Squirrels”; “grass”; “earth”;

31
“burying”. What does a squirrel digging remind you of? Put down everything (words, phrases,
sentences that come to mind, brainstorm ideas with your friends, etc. You’ll be amazed at how
much you know and have to say about any word, subject.
(3) Images - word pictures- Show your reader what you “see in your own mind”, Don’t tell that
a squirrel is digging in the grass - is it “intent? Uneasy? Furtive? Happy? Is the grass short, long,
unmoved, gray? Green? Pale yellow? Is it a blue sky day? North wind day? Is it evening with a
sleepy sun going to bed?
(4) Using similes & metaphors to achieve (3) Instead of an adjective, “alone”, say “alone like a
ship on a frozen sea = an image; or say “he was alone, he was a ship on a frozen sea” =
metaphor.
(5) Listening to the heart of things- Using (3) and (4) to communicate and share the results, your
thoughts from (1) and (2). A squirrel digging is just a squirrel digging; it is not a poem. What
does it make you think about, feel? Example: could be secrets, survival, friends, loneliness,
winter coming and how one prepares for it, etc. Robert Frost said: “Poetry is the clear expression
of confused emotions”. Make sure your poem does this.
(6) Editing (fancy word for revision) whenever you write a poem, consider it as “pre-writing”.
Then come the revisions. And a final version. A poem goes through many drafts before it is
perfect. Some people think that a poem must be spontaneous and totally inspired—and hesitate
to revise it. A poem is one-part inspiration and many parts perspiration. After putting lots of
thoughts and images, read aloud the poem again and again (to a friend, a dog, cat, goldfish, and
revise it so that the thought and feeling you want to share comes through like a hot knife through
butter. (This simile is a cliché - overused. But it still works, no? You see the knife and the butter
melting around it’s a hot blade. That’s an example of an effective image. Effective is the key
word in critiquing poems - does it work as it should? If not, replace it with a better word, image,
or cut it out. Editing or revision is making sure you’ve used the best words for the right impact
for the poem. Cut, cut, cut out excess words (usually adjectives and adverbs) that are just taking
up space and making the poem predictable and uninteresting to the reader. The acid test for
whether a poem is working is to ask yourself this question: Is the poem interesting and fresh to
you, its writer after the time you read it to an audience? Do you like to read it out aloud to a
friend?

32
My main goal in teaching students is to enable them to discover the pleasure and the power of
clear expression of their thoughts and to learn to see the world creatively as well as functionally.
I try to teach the building blocks of good poetry, also the basics of good writing. My workshop
exercises are intended to give them practice in observation skills, thinking and the use of
imagery, simile and metaphor, to enrich their writing, skills that will stay with them hopefully all
their lives.
Children are natural poets. The secret to unlocking their creativity is to create a space for them to
speak up, a receptivity to what they think and feel, an opportunity for them to articulate the
process of learning about life, a caring and respect for individual truths so they can share who
they are, what they see and feel and dream. Sharing is the key: sharing of ideas, responses, and
associations, phrases, and words, meanings— personal and public. The free discussion before
writing is vital to the workshops: it is the striking of sparks and sparks and sparks until each
student forgets her/his fear of being laughed at and accepts the condition that it is very much
okay to be truly themselves and see that individual responses and words make up different
poems. And that each poem is meaningful in its own right.
Then, and only then, do we work on editing, revising, making the poem the best it can be which
includes correct spelling and good language usage.
Ways to Keep Diaries
A diary is typically a notebook, booklet of blank pages, or any source for students to record
thoughts, reactions to learning experiences, and even innermost fears about a learning activity.
Some learners prefer to create electronic or audio diaries. Regardless of the particular format,
entries of daily experiences, insights, and problems often are made: “Diary writing usually
involves the unstructured, chronological recording of the events of a person’s life” as they are
perceived. “We have to recognize, however, that the mere fact of continuously writing entries, as
is done in the keeping of a diary, is not sufficient in itself to bring about deep changes in a
person’s life” (Progoff, 1975, p. 87).
Another feature of a diary is being able to look back on specific days or time periods in an
attempt to sort out personal feelings. Combining such features with instructor feedback, the
development of something like a statement of personal philosophy, and subsequent student
writing and reflection can begin desired or even unanticipated personal changes. I recommend to

33
learners Christensen’s (1981) work in which she describes how a personal diary can be used as a
supplement to classroom activities.
Everyone knows what a diary is—a set of notes about what one is thinking, doing, feeling at a
particular moment. But did you know there is a new way to use this common activity to promote
better language learning?
As teachers we all want our students to do well. Research has shown that more successful
learners are in control of their learning—they know what they are doing and what they want to
achieve, they know when they make mistakes, and they know how to go about correcting those
mistakes. Ah!! What a dream. We all want more students like this in our classrooms and in our
self-access centers.
Successful learners are aware of the process of learning and how their efforts affect the outcome
of their learning. Diaries can help build this awareness and can allow us as teachers to help
learners improve the process. Diaries can help the learner begin to monitor his/her own progress
and give the teacher some idea of the ways learners address their problems. It can also provide an
opportunity for the teacher to scaffold, that is, to suggest other ways to address a problem for the
learner to try out and/or note patterns of problems or solutions that the learner has.
Problems can include both cognitive and affective factors. Writing a diary can increase the
learner’s awareness of the strategies he/she uses and enable him/her to consider the
appropriateness of the strategies used to address problems. Finally, when shared with a peer or a
teacher, a diary can allow the peer or teacher to make suggestions about alternative ways to solve
problems or to identify patterns (or problems and/or solutions) the learner may have overlooked
or not be fully aware of.
Teachers can keep personal diaries of events in class to later reflect on them. Diaries can be
multi-functional; documenting events for future reflection, or analyzing thoughts and decisions
(Burton, 2005). Personal diaries are insightful and aid personal professional development. As
already noted, diaries provide for reflection on the events recorded, however, Day (1993, p.88)
argues that “reflection is a necessary but not sufficient condition for learning.” Day (1993) also
claims confrontation by self [or others] is needed to challenge and enhance professional
development. In this sense diaries allow for reflection that can lead to a questioning of teaching
methods and behaviors which ultimately are vital to positive change.

34
Diaries can be a component of collective research such as collaboration or action research. A
diary shared by two or more colleagues allows collaboration through this shared medium
(Gebhard and Nagamine, 2005). There is an appeal for collaborative critical analysis with
capabilities beyond the individual. Gebhard and Nagamine (2005) elaborate, noting that it creates
a relationship with teachers who have similar sensitivities and this relationship helps our
development as teachers. Additionally, diaries in action research are crucial when accompanied
by observations and peer dialogue. Action research is a practical research approach
encompassing specific inquiry in a cyclical process (Burns, 1999; Díaz-Maggioli, 2004; Richards
and Farrell, 2005). Broadly, it enhances reflective practice and professional development
Summary
Diaries can be used very effectively to help students become aware of their learning process and
to begin to reflect on new ways to address their learning problems. Using diaries in language
classes is an easy and simple technique–everyone knows what a diary is so it is not hard to learn
and to get learners to write one, though they will need the suggestions given above to focus the
diary. It is very useful because it helps bring a learner’s attention to the learning process, makes
them aware of their problems, solutions, and allows them to consider the appropriateness of their
solutions. By scaffolding their peers, learners can learn new strategies. And, teachers can become
aware of some of their students’ problems. It is powerful because it motivates students and
allows them to begin to take control of their learning. The more experience learners have with
diary writing, the better they become at it and the more reflective they become. As research tells
us, expert learners are in charge of their learning and know how to change the process to suit
their learning styles, language and background knowledge, and the task.

Creative Process and Creative Writing Ideas

Creative Process
Mainly, there are five stages of writing process, any stage can be skipped and returned to later.
These are: Prewriting, Drafting, Revising, Editing and Publishing. Learning the writing process
is important for the students as it enables students to express their thoughts, knowledge and

35
feelings efficiently. The more the students learn the writing process, the more they will be able to
express themselves efficiently
 Breathe the fresh air and think.
 Allow your thoughts to float.
 The journey of your thought will find the seeds to plant your story.
 Revisit your ideas for topics and scan through the entries in your Portfolio that focus on
your experiences.
 Mind map a simple plan that contains a few characters, a basic setting and a problem that
will be resolved.
 Give life to your plan and write your first draft.
 Take time to revise the basic frame of story.
 Evaluate character development, conflict in plot, exciting twist and turns.
 And Voila! You have a creative output!
Suggested creative writing procedures
A creative writing project is a great learning experience for all students. Students may enter a
story or poem. Short Stories must be 2-12 pages in length. They should be presented in a book
format. Poems must be a minimum of 14 lines in length. Legibility, style and grammar will be
considered.
STEP1. Planning - Pre-Writing: discussing, researching, brainstorming, story mapping &
webbing (use graphic organizer provided or make your own web)
STEP 2 - First Draft
• Get your ideas down on paper
• Review the key story elements: plot, character, mood, setting, theme and resolution. Ensure you
have the 5W’s: who, where, what happened, when and how did it end, and why?
STEP 3 - Revising
• Review your story -- add or delete any information that is not needed.
• Reorder and reorganize elements of the story.
• Review story for: focus, sequence and content.
STEP 4 - Editing
Check the text for the following elements: complete sentences, punctuation, spelling, grammar,
capital letters, word choice and synonyms

36
STEP 5 - Publishing
• Bind the story in a book format -- add a cover & illustrations
• If you wish to coil bind the book (ask your teacher for help)
STEP 6 - Set up the project
• Set up a time line:
1) Hand- in registration forms and discusses plans with your teacher
2) Have a story map and outline of your story
3) Have your story revised and edited
4) Bind and publish your story
5) Submit completed work to teacher 1 week before Project Fair Judging.
6) Be ready to answer questions about your story and writing process
STEP 7 - Plan your exhibit
It is recommended that the story or poem be typed. The written report should include:
• Title page
• written information
• Illustrations
• About the author (optional)
Remember to include the following (in a folder or duo tang):
• Story map or web
• Rough draft(s)
• Any research
• Reflection about the process (optional)
Advantages of Creative Writing
Creative writing encourages imagination
Inventors, scientists and product developers all have a sense of imagination. Creative writing
helps children learn to think outside of the box and leads to the development of problem-solving
skills.
Creative writing teaches persuasiveness
If a child writes a story about some outlandish creature, he is going to try to convince the reader
of the possibility of the creature, which leads him to develop a detailed description, and even
personality and actions for the creature, making the reader believe this is possible.

37
 Creative writing teaches discipline
While letting the imagination run free may not seem like a way to encourage discipline, any
writer will tell you that putting what you see in your head onto paper and making it something
feasible and enjoyable for others is an exercise in discipline. The thoughts need to be ordered,
clear and concise.
Creative writing can be used as therapy
Many times children and adults have a hard time saying what is on their minds, but in creative
writing therapy, they are able to put whatever is bothering them into a third person point of view,
which helps them remain detached.
Grammar Skills
Writing about something they choose to write about helps children practice good grammar and
spelling skills without seeming like a lesson or work. They learn to insert commas to separate
their adjectives, periods to end a thought and to start a new paragraph when they change topics.
10 Ways to Improve Your Creative Writing
Writing short stories (and grabbing the reader in the opening scene of a novel) means beginning
as close to the action as possible. A good short story starts as close to the climax as possible —
everything else is a distraction. Conserve characters and scenes, typically by focusing on just one
conflict. Drive towards a sudden, unexpected revelation. A novel can take a more meandering
path, but should begin with an important incident that gets the plot rolling. (You can always add
in the back story later, when your protagonist meets someone who was there when it all began.)
Contents
1. Get Started: Emergency Tips
2. Write a Catchy First Paragraph
3. Develop Your Characters
4. Choose a Point of View
5. Write Meaningful Dialogue
6. Use Setting and Context
7. Set up the Plot
8. Create Conflict and Tension
9. Build to a Crisis or a Climax
10. Deliver a Resolution

38
 1. Get Started: Emergency Tips
 What does your protagonist want?
 When the story begins, what morally significant actions has your protagonist taken towards that
goal?
What unexpected consequences — directly related to the protagonist’s goal-oriented actions
ramp up the emotional energy of the story?
(Will the unexpected consequences force your protagonist to make yet another choice, leading to
still more consequences?)
 What details from the setting, dialog, and tone help you tell the story?
(Things to cut: travel scenes, character A telling character B about something we just saw
happening to character A, and phrases like “said happily” — it’s much better to say “bubbled” or
“smirked” or “chortled.”)
 What morally significant choice does your protagonist make at the climax of the story?
(Your reader should care about the protagonist’s decision. Ideally, the reader shouldn’t see it
coming.)
Drawing on real-life experiences, such as winning the big game, bouncing back after an illness
or injury, or dealing with the death of a loved one, are attractive choices for students who are
looking for a “personal essay” topic. But simply describing powerful emotional experiences
(which is one kind of school assignment) is not the same thing as engaging your reader’s
emotions. An effective short story does not simply record or express the author’s feelings, but
generates feelings in the reader. (See “Show, Don’t (Just) Tell.”)
For those of you who are looking for more long-term writing strategies, here are some additional
ideas.
 Keep a notebook. To R. V. Cassill, notebooks are “incubators,” a place to begin with overheard
conversation, expressive phrases, images, ideas, and interpretations on the world around you.
Write on a regular, daily basis. Sit down and compose sentences for a couple of hours every day
— even if you don’t feel like it.
 Collect stories from everyone you meet. Keep the amazing, the unusual, the strange, the
irrational stories you hear and use them for your own purposes. Study them for the underlying
meaning and apply them to your understanding of the human condition.

39
Read, Read, Read
Read a LOT of Chekhov. Then re-read it. Read Raymond Carver, Earnest Hemingway, Alice
Munro, and Tobias Wolff. If you don’t have time to read all of these authors, stick to Chekhov.
He will teach you more than any writing teacher or workshop ever could.
-Allyson Goldin, UWEC Asst. Professor of Creative Writing
2. Write a Catchy First Paragraph
In today’s fast-moving world, the first sentence of your narrative should catch your reader’s
attention with the unusual, the unexpected, an action, or a conflict. Begin with tension and
immediacy. Remember that short stories need to start close to their end.
I heard my neighbor through the wall.
Dry and uninteresting.
The neighbor behind us practiced scream therapy in his shower almost every day.
The second sentence catches the reader’s attention. Who is this guy who goes in his
shower every day and screams? Why does he do that? What, exactly, is “scream
therapy”? Let’s keep reading…
The first time I heard him, I stood in the bathroom listening at our shared wall for ten
minutes, debating the wisdom of calling the police. It was very different from living in
the duplex over middle-aged Mr. and Mrs. Brown and their two young sons in Duluth.
The rest of the paragraph introduces I and an internal conflict as the protagonist debates a course
of action and introduces an intriguing contrast of past and present setting.
“It is important to understand the basic elements of fiction writing before you consider how to
put everything together. This process is comparable to producing something delectable in the
kitchen–any ingredient that you put into your bowl of dough impacts your finished loaf of bread.
To create a perfect loaf, you must balance ingredients baked for the correct amount of time and
enhanced with the right polishing glaze.” -Laurel Yourke
3. Developing Characters
Your job, as a writer of short fiction–whatever your beliefs–is to put complex personalities on
stage and let them strut and fret their brief hour. Perhaps the sound and fury they make will
signify something that has more than passing value–that will, in Chekhov’s words, “make [man]
see what he is like.” -Rick Demarnus

40
 In order to develop a living, breathing, multi-faceted character, it is important to know way more
about the character than you will ever use in the story. Here is a partial list of character details to
help you get started.
Name Pets
Age Religion
Job Hobbies
Ethnicity Single or married?
Appearance Children?
Residence Temperament
Favorite color Something hated?
Friends Secrets?
Favorite foods Strong memories?
Drinking patterns Any illnesses?
Phobias Nervous gestures?
Faults Sleep patterns
Imagining all these details will help you get to know your character, but your reader probably
won’t need to know much more than the most important things in four areas:
 Appearance. Gives your reader a visual understanding of the character.
 Action. Show the reader what kind of person your character is, by describing actions rather than
simply listing adjectives.
 Speech. Develop the character as a person — don’t merely have your character announce
important plot details.
 Thought. Bring the reader into your character’s mind, to show them your character’s
unexpressed memories, fears, and hopes.
For example, let’s say I want to develop a college student persona for a short story that I am
writing. What do I know about her?
Her name is Jen, short for Jennifer Mary Johnson. She is 21 years old. She is a fair-skinned
Norwegian with blue eyes, long, curly red hair, and is 5 feet 6 inches tall. Contrary to the
stereotype about redheads, she is actually easygoing and rather shy. She loves cats and has two
of them named Bailey and Allie. She is a technical writing major with a minor in biology. Jen
plays the piano and is an amateur photographer. She lives in the dorms at the University of

41
 Wisconsin-Eau Claire. She eats pizza every day for lunch and loves Red Rose tea. She cracks her
knuckles when she is nervous. Her mother just committed suicide.
4. Choose a Point of View
Point of view is the narration of the story from the perspective of first, second, or third person.
As a writer, you need to determine who is going to tell the story and how much information is
available for the narrator to reveal in the short story. The narrator can be directly involved in the
action subjectively, or the narrator might only report the action objectively.
 First Person. The story is told from the view of “I.” The narrator is either the protagonist (main
character) and directly affected by unfolding events, or the narrator is a secondary character
telling the story revolving around the protagonist. This is a good choice for beginning writers
because it is the easiest to write.
I saw a tear roll down his cheek. I had never seen my father cry before. I looked
away while he brushed the offending cheek with his hand.
Second Person The story is told directly to “you”, with the reader as a participant in the action.
You laughed loudly at the antics of the clown. You clapped your hands with joy.
Third Person The story tells what “he”, “she,” or “it” does. The third-person narrator’s
perspective can be limited (telling the story from one character’s viewpoint) or omniscient
(where the narrator knows everything about all of the characters).
He ran to the big yellow loader sitting on the other side of the gravel pit shack.
Your narrator might take sides in the conflict you present, might be as transparent as possible, or
might advocate a position that you want your reader to challenge (this is the “unreliable narrator”
strategy).
First Person “Unites narrator and reader through a series of secrets” when they enter one
character’s perceptions. However, it can “lead to telling” and limits readers’ connections to other
characters in the short story.
Second Person “Puts readers within the actual scene so that readers confront possibilities
directly.” However, it is important to place your characters “in a tangible environment” so you
don’t “omit the details readers need for clarity.”
Third Person Omniscient Allows you to explore all of the characters’ thoughts and
motivations. Transitions are extremely important as you move from character to character.

42
Third Person Limited “Offers the intimacy of one character’s perceptions.” However, the
writer must “deal with character absence from particular scenes.”
5. Write Meaningful Dialogue
Make your readers hear the pauses between the sentences. Let them see characters’ lean forward,
fidget with their cuticles, avert their eyes, uncross their legs. -Jerome Stern
Dialogue is what your characters say to each other (or to themselves).
Each speaker gets his/her own paragraph, and the paragraph includes whatever you wish to say
about what the character is doing when speaking. (See: “Quotation Marks: Using Them in
Dialogue“.)
“Where are you going?” John cracked his knuckles while he looked at the floor. “To the
racetrack.” Mary edged toward the door, keeping her eyes on John’s bent head. “Not
again,” John stood up, flexing his fingers. “We are already maxed out on our credit cards.”
The above paragraph is confusing, because it is not clear when one speech stops and the
other starts.
“Where are you going?” John asked nervously.
“To the racetrack,” Mary said, trying to figure out whether John was too upset to let her get
away with it this time.
“Not again,” said John, wondering how they would make that month’s rent. “We are
already maxed out on our credit cards.”
The second example is mechanically correct, since it uses a separate paragraph to present
each speaker’s turn advancing the conversation. But the narrative material between the
direct quotes is mostly useless.
Write Meaningful Dialogue Labels
“John asked nervously” is an example of “telling.” The author could write “John asked very
nervously” or “John asked so nervously that his voice was shaking,” and it still wouldn’t make
the story any more effective.
How can the author convey John’s state of mind, without coming right out and telling the reader
about it? By inference. That is, mention a detail that conjures up in the reader’s mind the image
of a nervous person.
John sat up. “Wh– where are you going?”

43
 “Where are you going?” John stammered, staring at his Kids.
Deep breath. Now or never. “Where are you going?”
John sat up and took a deep breath, knowing that his confrontation with Mary had to
come now, or it would never come at all. “Wh– where are you going?” he stammered
nervously, staring at his kids.
Beware — a little detail goes a long way. Why would your reader bother to think about
what is going on, if the author carefully explains what each and every line means?
Let’s return to the first example, and show how dialogue labels can affect the meaning of a
passage.
“Where are you going?” John cracked his knuckles while he looked at the floor.
“To the racetrack.” Mary edged toward the door, keeping her eyes on John’s bent head.
“Not again,” John stood up, flexing his fingers. “We are already maxed out on our credit
cards.”
In the above revision, John nervously asks Mary where she is going, and Mary seems
equally nervous about going. But if you play a little with the paragraphing..
“Where are you going?”
John cracked his knuckles while he looked at the floor. “To the racetrack.”
Mary edged toward the door, keeping her eyes on John’s bent head. “Not again.”
John stood up, flexing his fingers. “We are already maxed out on our credit cards.”
All I changed was the paragraphing (and I changed a comma to a period.) Now Mary
seems more aggressive — she seems to be moving to block John, who seems nervous and
self-absorbed. And John seems to be bringing up the credit card problem as an excuse for
his trip to the racing track. He and Mary seem to be desperate to for money now. I’d
rather read the rest of the second story than the rest of the first one.
6. Use Setting and Context
Setting moves readers most when it contributes to an organic whole. So close your eyes and
picture your characters within desert, jungle, or suburb–whichever setting shaped them.
Imagining this helps balance location and characterization. Right from the start, view your
characters inhabiting a distinct place. -- Laurel Yourke
Setting includes the time, location, context, and atmosphere where the plot takes place.
 Remember to combine setting with characterization and plot.

44
 Include enough detail to let your readers picture the scene but only details that actually add
something to the story. (For example, do not describe Mary locking the front door, walking
across the yard, opening the garage door, putting air in her bicycle tires, getting on her bicycle–
none of these details matter except that she rode out of the driveway without looking down the
street.)
 Use two or more senses in your descriptions of setting.
 Rather than feed your readers information about the weather, population statistics, or how far it
is to the grocery store, substitute descriptive details so your reader can experience the location
the way your characters do.
Our sojourn in the desert was an educational contrast with its parched heat, dust
storms, and cloudless blue sky filled with the blinding hot sun. The rare
thunderstorm was a cause for celebration as the dry cement tunnels of the
aqueducts filled rapidly with rushing water. Great rivers of sand flowed around
and through the metropolitan inroads of man’s progress in the greater Phoenix
area, forcefully moved aside for concrete and steel structures. Palm trees hovered
over our heads and saguaro cactuses saluted us with their thorny arms.
7. Set Up the Plot
Plot is what happens, the storyline, the action. Jerome Stern says it is how you set up the
situation, where the turning points of the story are, and what the characters do at the end of the
story. A plot is a series of events deliberately arranged so as to reveal their dramatic, thematic,
and emotional significance. -Jane Burroway
Understanding these story elements for developing actions and their end results will help you
plot your next short story.
 Explosion or “Hook.” A thrilling, gripping, stirring event or problem that grabs the reader’s
attention right away.
 Conflict. A character versus the internal self or an external something or someone.
 Exposition. Background information required for seeing the characters in context.
 Complication. One or more problems that keep a character from their intended goal.
 Transition. Image, symbol, dialogue, that joins paragraphs and scenes together.
 Flashback. Remembering something that happened before the short story takes place.
 Climax. When the rising action of the story reaches the peak.

45
 Falling Action. Releasing the action of the story after the climax.
 Resolution. When the internal or external conflict is resolve.
Brainstorming. If you are having trouble deciding on a plot, try brainstorming. Suppose you have
a protagonist whose husband comes home one day and says he doesn’t love her anymore and he
is leaving. What are actions that can result from this situation?
1. She becomes a workaholic.
2. Their children are unhappy.
3. Their children want to live with their dad.
4. She moves to another city.
5. She gets a new job.
6. They sell the house.
7. She meets a psychiatrist and falls in love.
8. He comes back and she accepts him.
9. He comes back and she doesn’t accept him.
10. She commits suicide.
11. He commits suicide.
12. She moves in with her parents.
The next step is to select one action from the list and brainstorm another list from that particular
action.
8. Create Conflict and Tension
Conflict is the fundamental element of fiction, fundamental because in literature only trouble is
interesting. It takes trouble to turn the great themes of life into a story: birth, love, sex, work, and
death.
Conflict produces tension that makes the story begin. Tension is created by opposition between
the character or characters and internal or external forces or conditions. By balancing the
opposing forces of the conflict, you keep readers glued to the pages wondering how the story
will end.
Possible Conflicts Include:
 The protagonist against another individual
 The protagonist against nature (or technology)
 The protagonist against society

46
 The protagonist against God
 The protagonist against himself or herself.
 Mystery. Explain just enough to tease readers. Never give everything away.
 Empowerment. Give both sides options.
 Progression. Keep intensifying the number and type of obstacles the protagonist faces.
 Causality. Hold fictional characters more accountable than real people. Characters who make
mistakes frequently pay, and, at least in fiction, commendable folks often reap rewards.
 Surprise. Provide sufficient complexity to prevent readers predicting events too far in advance.
 Empathy. Encourage reader identification with characters and scenarios that pleasantly or
(unpleasantly) resonate with their own sweet dreams (or night sweats).
 Insight. Reveal something about human nature.
 Universality. Present a struggle that most readers find meaningful, even if the details of that
struggle reflect a unique place and time.
 High Stakes. Convince readers that the outcome matters because someone they care about could
lose something precious. Trivial clashes often produce trivial fiction.
9. Build to a Crisis or Climax
This is the turning point of the story–the most exciting or dramatic moment.
The crisis may be recognition, a decision, or a resolution. The character understands what hasn’t
been seen before, or realizes what must be done, or finally decides to do it. It’s when the worm
turns. Timing is crucial. If the crisis occurs too early, readers will expect still another turning
point. If it occurs too late, readers will get impatient–the character will seem rather thick. -
Jerome Stern
Jane Burroway says that the crisis “must always be presented as a scene. It is “the moment” the
reader has been waiting for. In Cinderella’s case, “the payoff is when the slipper fits.”
While a good story needs a crisis, a random event such as a car crash or a sudden illness is
simply an emergency –unless it somehow involves a conflict that makes the reader care about the
characters (see: “Crisis vs. Conflict“).
10. Find a Resolution
The solution to the conflict. In short fiction, it is difficult to provide a complete resolution and
you often need to just show that characters are beginning to change in some way or starting to
see things differently.

47
Yourke examines some of the options for ending a story.
Open. Readers determine the meaning.
Brendan’s eyes looked away from the priest and up to the mountains. Resolved. Clear-cut
outcome.
While John watched in despair, Helen loaded up the car with her belongings and drove
away. Parallel to Beginning. Similar to beginning situation or image.
They were driving their 1964 Chevrolet Impala down the highway while the wind blew
through their hair.
Her father drove up in a new 1964 Chevrolet Impala, a replacement for the one that burned
up. Monologue. Character comments.
I wish Tom could have known Sister Dalbec’s prickly guidance before the dust devils of
Sin City battered his soul.
Dialogue. Characters converse. Literal Image. Setting or aspect of setting resolves the plot.
The aqueducts were empty now and the sun was shining once more.
Symbolic Image. Details represent a meaning beyond the literal one.
Looking up at the sky, I saw a cloud cross the shimmering blue sky above us as we stood
in the morning heat of Sin City.

48