Creative Writing PDF

DATAMEX COLLEGE OF ST. ADELINE 357 J. Teodoro St, Cor 10th Ave, Caloocan Tel: (02) 8294 2127 CREATIVE WRITING LESSON 1: TECHNICAL VS. CREATING WRITING Technical writing is a piece of writing which focuses on factual and straig...

DATAMEX COLLEGE OF ST. ADELINE 357 J. Teodoro St, Cor 10th Ave, Caloocan Tel: (02) 8294 2127 CREATIVE WRITING LESSON 1: TECHNICAL VS. CREATING WRITING Technical writing is a piece of writing which focuses on factual and straight forward content and technical papers are published to inform and instruct and educate the user about some specific topic. There exist specific readers who prefer technical papers. It gives readers information about some technical topics or it gives directions on how to do something. Creative writing is a piece of writing which focuses on imaginative and symbolic content and creative papers are published to entertain, provoke, inspire the user. There is no such specific reader who prefers creative papers. Anyone who wants can read creative paper and it gives readers a theme, message, moral or lesson which is helpful in their real lives or gives a temporary entertainment to the reader. TECHNICAL WRITING CREATIVE WRITING 1 Technical writing is based on facts and General writing is based on imaginations and concepts. creativity. 2 Technical writing focuses on factual and Creative writing focuses on imaginative and straight forward content. symbolic content. 3 Technical writing has its specific Creative writing has a general reader/audience. reader/audience. 4 The purpose of technical writing is to inform The purpose of creative writing is to entertain, and instruct and educate the user. provoke, inspire. 5 It follows a formal and standard style of It follows an informal and artistic style of writing. writing.  6 It gives readers information about some It gives readers a theme, message, moral or technical topics or it gives directions on how lesson which is helpful in their real lives or to do something. gives a temporary entertainment to the reader. 7 It uses text features like the table of contents, It uses narrative elements such as conflict, index, labels, charts, photos and graphs. character, theme, setting and resolution. 8 The tone of technical writing is objective. The tone of creative writing is subjective. 9 It is based on specialized vocabulary. It is based on general, evocative vocabulary. 10 It is organized in a sequential and systematic It is organized in an arbitrary and artistic manner. manner and may not be systematic. LESSON 2: SENSORY EXPERIENCES What Is Sensory Imagery? Sensory imagery involves the use of descriptive language to create mental images. In literary terms, sensory imagery is a type of imagery; the difference is that sensory imagery works by engaging a reader’s five senses. Any description of sensory experience in writing can be considered sensory imagery. IMPORTANCE OF SENSORY IMAGERY Describing how something tastes, smells, sounds, or feels—not just how it looks—makes a passage or scene come alive. Using a combination of imagery and sensory imagery arms the reader with as much information as possible and helps them create a more vivid mental picture of what is happening. TYPES OF SENSORY EXPERIENCES Imagery is language used by poets, novelists and other writers to create images in the mind of the reader. Imagery includes figurative and metaphorical language to improve the reader’s experience through their senses. 1. Visual imagery engages the sense of sight. This is what you can see, and includes visual descriptions. Physical attributes including color, size, shape, lightness and darkness, shadows, and shade are all part of visual imagery. 2. Gustatory imagery engages the sense of taste. This is what you can taste, and includes flavors. This can include the five basic tastes—sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and umami—as well as the textures and sensations tied to the act of eating. 3. Tactile imagery engages the sense of touch. This is what you can feel, and includes textures and the many sensations a human being experiences when touching something. Differences in temperature is also a part of tactile imagery. 4. Auditory imagery engages the sense of hearing. This is the way things sound. Literary devices such as onomatopoeia and alliteration can help create sounds in writing. 5. Olfactory imagery engages the sense of smell. Scent is one of the most direct triggers of memory and emotion, but can be difficult to write about. Since taste and smell are so closely linked, you’ll sometimes find the same words (such as “sweet”) used to describe both. Simile is common in olfactory imagery, because it allows writers to compare a particular scent to common smells like dirt, grass, manure, or roses. 6. Kinesthetic imagery (a.k.a kinesthesia) engages the feeling of movement. This can be similar to tactile imagery but deals more with full-body sensations, such as those experienced during exercise. Rushing water, flapping wings, and pounding hearts are all examples of kinesthetic imagery. Figure of Speech A figure of speech is an expression used to make a greater effect on your reader or listener. It includes making comparisons, contrasts, associations, exaggerations and constructions. It also gives a much clearer picture of what you are trying to convey. TYPES OF FIGURES OF SPEECH Alliteration Alliteration is the repeating of consonant sounds right next to each other, which creates a memorable or melodic effect. Example: She sells seashells by the seashore. Euphemism A euphemism is a way to say something in an understated manner, often to avoid difficult topics—like money, death, or sex. Example: Death can be an uncomfortable subject, so we’ve developed many euphemisms to avoid confronting it head-on. Rather than telling a friend that a relative died, you might say they “kicked the bucket,” “passed away,” or are “no longer with us.” Hyperbole Hyperbole is a deliberate exaggeration that adds emphasis, urgency, or excitement to a statement. Example: If I don’t eat soon, I’m going to die of hunger. Metaphor A metaphor to create more vivid imagery or understanding. Example: He was an onion; to understand him, she had to peel back the layers. Onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia is a word that sounds like what it means. Example: When a character is exasperated, they might exclaim, “Sheesh!” That’s both a word to show exasperation and a sound that happens when you sigh loudly. Oxymoron An oxymoron is a phrase that uses two contradictory words to create a new meaning. Example: That strawberry cake was awfully good. Personification Personification is assigning human attributes to nonhuman things. Example: The floorboards groaned under the weight of each step. Simile A simile compares two dissimilar things using “like” or “as.” The goal of simile is to give the reader a more vivid understanding of something. Example: It was the first real day of summer, and by the time she came back indoors, she was as red as a tomato. ELEMENTS AND GENRES OF POETRY A poetic genre is generally a tradition or classification of poetry based on the subject matter, style, or other broader literary characteristics. Narrative poetry Narrative poetry is a genre of poetry that tells a story. Broadly it subsumes epic poetry, but the term “narrative poetry” is often reserved for smaller works, generally with more appeal to human interest. Narrative poetry may be the oldest type of poetry. Epic poetry Epic poetry is a genre of poetry, and a major form of narrative literature. This genre is often defined as lengthy poems concerning events of a heroic or important nature to the culture of the time. It recounts, in a continuous narrative, the life and works of a heroic or mythological person or group of persons. Dramatic poetry Dramatic poetry is drama written in verse to be spoken or sung, and appears in varying, sometimes related forms in many cultures. Satirical poetry Poetry can be a powerful vehicle for satire. The Romans had a strong tradition of satirical poetry, often written for political purposes. Light poetry Light poetry, or light verse, is poetry that attempts to be humorous. Poems considered “light” are usually brief, and can be on a frivolous or serious subject, and often feature word play, including puns, adventurous rhyme and heavy alliteration. Lyric poetry Lyric poetry is a genre that, unlike epic and dramatic poetry, does not attempt to tell a story but instead is of a more personal nature. Poems in this genre tend to be shorter, melodic, and contemplative. Rather than depicting characters and actions, it portrays the poet’s own feelings, states of mind, and perceptions. Refer to my analysis of lyric poetry and its association with lyrics, here. Elegy An elegy is a mournful, melancholy or plaintive poem, especially a lament for the dead or a funeral song. The term “elegy,” which originally denoted a type of poetic metre (elegiac metre), commonly describes a poem of mourning. Verse fable The fable is an ancient literary genre, often (though not invariably) set in verse. It is a succinct story that features anthropomorphized animals, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that illustrate a moral lesson (a “moral”). Prose poetry Prose poetry is a hybrid genre that shows attributes of both prose and poetry. It may be indistinguishable from the micro-story (a.k.a. the “short short story”, “flash fiction”). While some examples of earlier prose strike modern readers as poetic, prose poetry is commonly regarded as having originated in 19th-century France, where its practitioners included Aloysius Bertrand, Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud and Stéphane Mallarmé. Prose poetry is poetry written in prose instead of using verse but preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery, parataxis and emotional effects. A famous example of prose poetry is Dylan Thomas’s Under Milk Wood, though the “play for voices” also contains actual poetry, written by the characters, like the hymn by the “Reverend Eli Jenkins” and the traditional songs sung or recited by other characters. Speculative poetry Speculative poetry, also known as fantastic poetry, (of which weird or macabre poetry is a major subclassification), is a poetic genre which deals thematically with subjects which are ‘beyond reality’, whether via extrapolation as in science fiction or via weird and horrific themes as in horror fiction. Such poetry appears regularly in modern science fiction and horror fiction magazines. Edgar Allan Poe is sometimes seen as the “father of speculative poetry Free Verse Poetic form is more flexible in modernist and post-modernist poetry, and continues to be less structured than in previous literary eras. Many modern poets eschew recognisable structures or forms, and write in free verse. But poetry remains distinguished from prose by its form; some regard for basic formal structures of poetry will be found in even the best free verse, however much such structures may appear to have been ignored. Similarly, in the best poetry written in classic styles there will be departures from strict form for emphasis or effect. Haiku poetry It has long been a tradition for poets to write the traditional Japanese Haiku and Tanka poetry in English, mainly because of the challenge of the limited syllables and lines, and requirement for one definitive image. Of course, the format was designed for Japanese, not English, and to a certain extent, writers of haiku in languages other than Japanese or Chinese will always be playing catch-up with the leaders in the genre. On the other hand, the discipline and, at the same time, simplicity of the haiku format, makes it one that I, for one, cannot resist. Haiku is a Japanese verse in three lines. Written in English, line one has 5 syllables, line 2 has 7 syllables and line three has 5 syllables, 17 in all. Haiku is a mood poem and it doesn’t typically use any metaphors or similes. This is often represented by the juxtaposition of two images or ideas and a kireji (“cutting word”) between them, a kind of verbal punctuation mark which signals the moment of separation and colours the manner in which the juxtaposed elements are related. Also, it often refers to a nature, a season, time or period by subtle means. REFERENCES: LESSON 1 LESSON 2: https://www.masterclass.com/articles/sensory-imagery-in-creative-writing https://www.grammarly.com/blog/figure-of-speech/