Higher English
Creative Writing
Writing Tasks
• We are going to complete a variety of
writing tasks over the next two weeks
• We will then look at different forms of
creative writing
• Start thinking about
– Short story
– Drama script
– First chapter of a novel
Objects and characters
Choose a number between 1 and 6.
This corresponds to a photograph of a character. Write
a brief pen portrait of this character. What is their name?
What do they do for a living? Where do they live? What
kind of lifestyle do they have? How about their personal
relationships?
You may wish to use the character planning support
sheet.
3
2
1
4
3
4
5
5
6
6
Objects and characters
Now choose a letter between A and F.
This will correspond to an object that has significance
for your character.
Write a scene from a story in which the character
discovers the object after a long time.
What emotions, impressions, sensations and secrets
does the object evoke for your character?
Have a look at the example at the end of the slide show.
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A – a hair comb
B – a mask
C – a teddy bear
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D – a pocket watch
E – a violin
F – an old
tennis racquet
9
‘Marcus’
The old man had been a hoarder, that was sure. The
attic was stuffed full of junk: stuffed with stuff, Marcus thought.
He had no idea what he was here for: ‘Have a look in your
uncle’s attic,’ his father had said, ‘take whatever you want,’
and he’d felt it would be disrespectful to say that he didn’t
want anything, couldn’t possibly have any use for anything a
decrepit old hulk who smelled bad and had yellow teeth might
have ever possessed.
Even the records were junk. Sure, some of them might
have been worth something, but Marcus’ specialty was West
Coast America, 1958 to the early seventies, an explosion of
psychedelia and jangly guitars that he would have certainly
missed out on if he hadn’t spent that summer when he was
seventeen in the old hippie commune just north of San
Angelo, days of painting houses or fixing cars and nights of
driftwood fires and lazy beers on the beach. Who the hell was
Tab Taylor anyway? Who’d ever heard of Joss Moody and the
Pipe Dreamers?
Of course, he hadn’t expected to find anything he’d
recognise, which meant he almost passed it by, stuck on the
undershelf of some mouldy side table, the kind of thing they
put doilies on. Then, when he did realise what it was, he’d
looked at it suspiciously, like it was a burglar, unwelcome and
intrusive.
His mother’s violin. In his uncle’s attic.
Marcus hadn’t seen it since she’d died, when he was
twelve. Sure, he’d looked – looked everywhere in fact – and
his father, who by that time had succumbed to the bourbon
and didn’t give a damn about her anyway, couldn’t even
remember what he was talking about.
So how had it come to be here?
Stimulus Exercise 4:
Which Voice? The Third
Person
Third-person subjective
• In this form of narrative, the story is told in the third person,
but from one character's point of view. This is powerful
because it means we can develop a character very fully, and
it gives the reader someone to follow and empathise with
throughout the story. At the same time, it also allows us to
distance the reader from the character, much more than if we
were writing in the first person.
• However, it also has limitations. We cannot jump between
characters, so we can never know what someone other than
the main character is thinking unless they tell us; it is also
stylistically difficult to write scenes in which the main
character is not present.
• Read the following extracts of this sort of narrative. What can
you tell about the characters, about their lives and
personalities?
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'In the kitchen, he poured another drink and looked at the bedroom
suite in his front yard. The mattress was stripped and the candystriped sheets lay beside two pillows on the chiffonier. Except for
that, things looked much the way they had in the bedroom –
nightstand and reading lamp on his side of the bed, nightstand and
reading lamp on her side.
His side, her side.
He considered this as he sipped the whiskey.'
Why don’t you dance?, Raymond Carver
'Georgia once took a creative writing course, and what the instructor
told her was: too many. Too many things going on at the same time;
also too many people. Think, he told her. What is the important
thing? What do you want to pay attention to? Think.
Eventually she wrote a story about her grandfather killing chickens,
and the instructor seemed pleased with it. Georgia herself thought it
was a fake. She made a long list of all the things that had been left
out and handed it in as an appendix to the story.'
Differently, Alice Munro
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Different third-person
perspectives
• Choose two numbers between 1 and 6.
• These numbers correspond to characters. Write
brief pen portraits of them – names,
occupations, family, beliefs. Your task is to write
about an event from these two different
perspectives.
15
1
2
16
3
4
17
5
6
18
Different third-person
perspectives
• Now choose a letter between A and F.
• This corresponds to an event. Your task is to
write about this event from the different
viewpoints of the two characters.
• Your characters can be participants in the event
or witnesses. They may even be reflecting on
the event long after it has happened.
• This is known as the Rashomon effect, from
Rashomon, a film by Akira Kurosawa, in which
the same story is told from various characters’
perspectives.
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A. A shop is robbed.
B. A collision between two cars occurs in a busy
street.
C. A political demonstration takes place in a public
square.
D. A wedding spills out of a church after the
service.
E. An argument occurs between two people in a
public place, such as a restaurant or a shop.
F. A storm floods a neighbourhood.
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Stimulus Exercise 9:
To Speak or Not to Speak…
Exercises in Dialogue
Starting stories with dialogue
Here is the opening dialogue from Ernest Hemingway’s
The Snows of Kilimanjaro.
'The marvellous thing is that it’s painless,' he said.
'That’s how you know when it really starts.'
'Is it really?'
'Absolutely. I’m awfully sorry about the odour though.
That must bother you.'
'Don’t. Please don’t.'
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• What do you think is happening here?
What is the relationship between the two
characters? What are the advantages of
beginning a story in this way?
• Choose a number between 1 and 6. These
numbers correspond to pictures of
characters.
• Open a story with a dialogue in which it is
unclear who the characters are and what is
happening between them.
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1
2
24
3
4
25
5
6
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The Snows of Kilimanjaro
For those of you intrigued by the conversation at the beginning of
this exercise, here is a plot summary from Wikipedia:
The story centres on the memories of a writer named Harry who is
on safari in Africa. He develops an infected wound from a thorn
puncture, and lies awaiting his slow death. This loss of physical
capability causes him to look inside himself — at his memories of
the past years, and how little he has actually accomplished in his
writing. He realizes that although he has seen and experienced
many wonderful and astonishing things during his life, he had never
made a record of the events; his status as a writer is contradicted
by his reluctance to actually write. He also quarrels with the woman
with him, blaming her for his living decadently and forgetting his
failure to write of what really matters to him, namely his
experiences among poor and 'interesting' people, not the
predictable upper class crowd he has fallen in with lately. Thus he
dies, having lived through so much and yet having lived only for the
moment, with no regard to the future. In a dream he sees a plane
coming to get him and take him to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro.
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Manipulating language
• Re-write the following paragraph but try to vary the vocabulary;
vary sentence structure and use figurative language. You could
also give the man a name and add any other details that you
think would be appropriate. You will have 10 minutes to complete
this task. Once you are finished swap with a partner and try to
identify as many techniques as you can.
He walked to the shops. He saw a picture in the window
of a girl he once knew. She was missing. He felt sad. He
tried to remember the last time he saw her. He
wondered if he would ever see her again. Only then did
he realise how much he loved her.
Writing a Short Story
• This is the style you are most familiar
with
• Think about structure
– Opening
– Development
– Complication
– Crisis
– Conclusion
Drama script
• You need to have an idea of the overall plot
of your play and where in the play your key
scene is going to take place
• You need to think about in-depth
characterisation and an over-riding theme
• You need to focus on developing the story
through dialogue
– I have an advice sheet available for those wishing to
write a drama-script
First Chapter of a Novel
• You must include a title of your novel and
chapter
• Have an overall idea of the plot of your
novel, the characterisation, the setting and
the overriding themes
• Your first chapter must be used to develop
characterisation and setting; introduce
themes and end in a complication that is
satisfactory as an ending but also inviting
to read on.
Criteria:
• A sophisticated and stylish piece of writing in which the
content is particularly well selected and shows qualities of
insight/imagination/sophisticated thought. The structure
is highly appropriate and there is skilful organisation which
significantly enhances the overall impact of the writing.
Expression is concise and effective. Word choice is
consistently apposite, and sentence structures are
skilfully varied to achieve effects. Techniques associated
with the genre are used very effectively.
• Imaginative writing in this category will be characterised
by a strong sense that the writer has command of and
insight into the genre and is skilfully introducing and
developing thematic concerns; the writing has flair and
individuality which permeate the ideas and use of language.