Creative Writing

Week 3-4
CONTENT STANDARD:
The learners have an understanding of fiction as a genre and are able to
analyze its elements and techniques.

PERFORMANCE STANDARD:
The learners shall be able to produce at least one striking scene for a
short story.
LEARNING COMPETENCIES:

Upon completion of this module, the student will be able

to . . .
a.Identify the various elements, techniques, and literary
devices in various modes of fiction HUMSS_CW/MPIg-i-11
b.Write journal entries and other short compositions
exploring key elements of fiction HUMSS_CW/MPIg-i-13
1.If you could still remember, what was
the first short story you’ve read? What
was it all about?
LESSON 1: CHARACTERS

-are to whom the events in the story happen

-are the people in the story that guide you through

the plot and setting as you explore the theme and
conflicts, among other elements, in the story
Major Character

is usually given much

development, more conflicts to
resolve, more background story,
and usually more action

Will be present throughout the

story, or most parts of the story
Minor Character

usually serves a certain purpose to

move a plot, but is not as
developed and explored as a major
character
 CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

Round Characters
have the capacity to surprise you in a
convincing and even inevitable way

are richer, deeper, more complex, more

mysterious, and more unpredictable than
flat characters

Main characters are usually round.

 CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT
Flat Characters

are easily recognized by your

“emotional eye”

they are usually constructed

around a single idea or quality
 LESSON 2- FRYE’S MODE OF FICTION
5 categories of Fiction
1. Myth
2. Romance
3. High Mimetic
4. Low Mimetic
Herman Northrop Frye (1912-1991)
5. Irony
a Canadian literary critic and literary
theorist
wrote the book Anatomy of Criticism
1.Myth 2.Romance

-the hero has marvellous actions, but

-the hero is a divine being with an who is identified as a human being
ability that is superior in “kind” to with an ability superior in “degree” to
other people and to the other people and to his environment
environment of other people
For example:
For example: Humadapnon and Labaw Donggon of
Lam-ang, or Hercules the Hinilawod
Odysseus
Robin Hood
3. High mimetic 4.Low mimetic

-the hero is a leader with an ability - the hero is one of us, with an
superior in degree to other people “but
not to his environment” ability that is superior “neither”
-the hero has authority, passion, and to other people nor the
power of expression far greater than environment
others, but what he does is subject to
both social criticism and the order of
nature for example:
Juan Crisostomo Ibarra and others in
For example: Noli Me Tangere
King David in the Bible, Achilles, and Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman.
King Oedipus
5. Irony
-the hero has an ability or intelligence
“inferior” to ours
-shows frustration, or absurdity
for example:
Juan Tamad, the comics character Mang
Kepweng, and Charlie Chaplin
 Setting as Symbol

Storytelling in old times Contemporary

Storytelling
-setting is like a painted stage
backdrop against which the story -setting is given a little more
plays out;
importance

-you can change the backdrop and

it probably won’t change much of
the story
LESSON 3: PROPS & EVOCATION OF TIME AND
PLACE
-consider the palcement of props or objects of siginificance
-makes the reader believe that such an object has some importance or
relevance and consequence
• the color of the dress
• kinds of flowers arranged in the vase
• the book your character is reading to
• the beverage she is drinking

Depending on how much description and attention an object gets, your

reader may assume that a lily is more than just a lily
LESSON 4: STORY VS. PLOT; DRAMATIC
STRUCTURE &TYPES OF PLOTS
Edward Morgan Forster

defined story as “the

chronological telling of events,”
and the plot as “the cause and
effect arrangement”.
The king died and then the queen Story
died. -tells a series of events in their
chronological order


Plot
The king died and then the queen
died of grief. -tells a series of events in a causal
and logical structure that connects
the events to reveal their dramatic,
thematic, and emotional significance
James Bond fights the bad guys
and saves the world. story

Well, it starts with James Bond

being tortured because
(flashback)…. Then he was able to
plot
escape because…. Then (flash-
forward) because… because…
because…
setting and characters are
DRAMATIC
introduced
STRUCTURE
Aristoteles “Aristotle”

a whole is what has a beginning and

middle and end—or technically, the
protasis, epitasis, and catastrophe
final resolution

simply meant that a traditional plot

structure must have a situation, conflict,
main action of a play and resolution
Gustav Freytag (1816-1895)
a German novelist and playwright

Freytag’s Pyramid which says that plot of the story

must consist of five parts:
exposition
rising action
climax
falling action
resolution/revelation (denouement)
 • Cumulative Plots
Types of Plot -events are repeated with one new
aspect added with each repetition
• Linear Plots 
-events are constructed logically and • Circular Plots
not by coincidence (Beginning, -characters in the story end up in the
middle and end) same place (or at least, a similar place)
that they were at the beginning of the
story, although it somehow changed
• Episodic Plots
• Plotless Plots
-short events (or episodes) arelinked
to one another by common -narratives are written without
characters, places, or a unified traditionally recognizable plots and yet
theme but are held apart by their still evoke in you a feeling that you are
individual plot, purpose, and subtext going where you read them.
 Man vs. Nature
Types of Conflict the character is fighting against
Man vs. Man animals or the forces of nature such
as a storm or even the sea
characters are fighting against each
Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
other
In The Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen must go up against Man vs. Self
other contestants in order to survive – her vs. them
the struggle is internal, and the
Man vs. Society character must overcome his or her
characters stand up against man- own nature and make a choice
made institutions and social rules, between two or more paths
and is forced to make moral Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games must fight
choices against her desire not to kill another human being
Wilbur the pig fighting for survival against a
society that raises pigs for food in Charlotte’s
Web
 Foreshadowing
gives advance suggestion or
hint of what is going to
happen later in the story

giving advance suggestion or

hint of what is going to
happen later in the story
Five Types of
Foreshadowing
1. Chekov's Gun 2. Prophecy
Concrete foreshadowing Prominent foreshadowing
author explicitly states something linked to a fortune or prophecy
that they want you to be aware of that a character will receive
for the future explicitly tells the reader what will
happen in the future
if an author mentions a rifle fortune or omen can seem
hanging on the wall in an early unclear, they end up coming true
chapter, it will be used later in the end
Five Types of
Foreshadowing 4. Symbolic
Abstract foreshadowing
3. Flashback
Evocative foreshadowing
requires thinking outside the box
author needs the reader to know
something that doesn't fit with the
current story line for instance, the author could
describe a sudden change of
the information obtained in the flash weather. This change often
will have clues or hints to something foreshadows a change in a
the author wants you to remember character's luck, mood, or
or pick up on later behavior
Five Types of Foreshadowing
5. Red Herring
Fallacy
diverts readers' attention
purpose is to throw the reader off, causing more suspicion,
intrigue, and surprise
commonly found in works of detective fiction
 Lesson 7: Literary Devices
Symbolism Motif
the use of an object, an action, an event, a
place, a person, or a spoken word to signify a recurring element—usually a
new ideas and qualities by giving them an sound, an image, an action, or
added meaning—usually to represent an some other figure—that has a
abstract idea that is different from their literal suggestive or symbolic significance
sense
A dove
symbolizes peace
A handshake
symbolizes friendship
 Imagery
Lesson 7: use of language that appeals to the senses to create
Literary Devices “word pictures” in the mind of the reader
appeals to the sense of sight, smell, taste, touch, and
Allegory hearing
can be figurative or literal 
the characters and events Figurative imagery is based on figurative language.
form a system of symbolic
meaning Example: “The war zone looked like the moonscape”
(an image that is based on a simile)
George Orwell’s “Animal
Farm” is a story in which Literal imagery is the use of concrete and specific
each animal represents a language to create vivid images.
specific person from the
Russian Bolshevik Revolution Example: The boy walked along the muddy, wet, gravel
road, as the red maples and crimson birch blew in the
cold autumn wind
Lesson 7: Literary Devices
Mood
the element that you use evoke certain feelings or vibes in
your readers through your words and descriptions

the feeling that the reader gets from your words

setting, theme, tone, and diction

Levels of Diction 2. Neutral diction
uses standard language and
vocabulary without difficult words like
1. Formal diction/high diction this simple sentence
no slang, idioms, colloquialisms,
and contractions 3. Informal diction
uses everyday vocabulary
sophisticated syntax, and elegant a relaxed, chill diction-thingy, pretty
word choices much like a cool convo among kaberks
results in an elevated tone, florid that includes common and simple
style, and a sense of stately terms, idiomas, street lingo, slang, ‘n’
contractions like diz talk, dude!
attitude
 MOOD
Tone and Mood
tone influences the mood and
TONE theme often determines the tone,
theme affects the mood
tone lends shape and gives life to
your work by creating the mood
as it stimulates your readers to Theme: Death
read your work as serious, Tone: glum/melancholic
comical, sarcastic, cheerful, or Mood: sorrow, unhappiness
depressing
I
R
O
N
Y
 THREE TYPES OF
IRONY
Verbal Irony

a contrast between what

is said and what is meant
THREE TYPES OF
IRONY:
Dramatic Irony

the audience is more aware of

a situation in the plot than the
character

THREE TYPES OF
IRONY:
Situational Irony

the difference between what is

expected to happen in a story or play,
and what actually occurs


Point of View
the angle, the
perception, the
position that you take
to tell your story

answers the question,

“Who is telling the
story?”
POV Techniques Subjective first person

Objective first person the first person narrator is the

main character or one of the
main characters, in the story
the story is narrated by a
fictional character who plays a
Example: Huck Finn is both the
minor part in the story or isn’t narrator and main character in the
present in the story at all Mark Twain’s The Adventures of
Huckberry Finn.
 2.Objective third person
Third Person POV the narration simply describes what the characters do
and say without giving the readers access to their
thoughts
1.Omniscient third person sees everything and allows the readers make up their
own minds about the character’s feelings, thoughts, and
-the narration sees, knows, and motivation
usually reveals everything about Example: Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon
the characters in the story
3.Close third person ( limited third person)
Examples: -the narration uses third person pronouns, and like
omniscient, it gets inside the minds of the characters, but
Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and Victor the whole story is generally told from the point of view of
Hugo’s Les Miserables only character

Example: Virginia Woolf’s Mors. Dalloway

 PERFORMANCE
Assessment:
TASK:
Journal Entry #1: Developing Journal Entry #2: My short fictional story
the Characters and its elements
Directions: After writing your characters, it’s
your time to write the setting, plot and conflict
desctibe how they look and of your story.
how they act, what they feel You may use the LINEAR PLOT where it
includes BEGINNING, MIDDLE, AND ENDING.
and think, what they say, or
Specify its setting and do not forget to
what others have to say about highlight the conflict/s found in your story.
them Your story must also include series of scenes
applying irony, theme, and point of view (POV).