Questions

It has started as a story about a dentist who is repulsed by people’s simple, minor flaws (like crooked or discolored teeth). I don’t know if I should leave it as a description of a lonely man or put in a conflict, climax, resolution etc. any ideas or things that might help me come up with ideas?
- j j

i never realized how much…
if i had to choose between…
it’s never easy to…
promise me that…
don’t ever tell me…
to be or not to be…
sometimes i worry about…
if you like, i will bring you some…
what makes a good…
what’s really weird id that…
i’m sorry but i…
i love your…
many people are not aware…
what i need most is…

some ideas for creative writing class journals pleasee?
as much as you can. thank you .:]
- minn8d

can anyone tell me what the main character types are, I read somewhere that there are only 20 types of characters that appear in fiction as well as 8 or so different types of plots.

Many thanks
- mellow yellow

If you are a parent who is looking to help your child develop creatively and emotionally as well as physically, you will find that you need to look into how creative writing is something that might affect their life. For instance, if your child is one who was always drawn to stories and to the ideas that can be conveyed through the written word, you might have a little writer on your hands! Children are naturally fascinated with stories, but while some children love the idea of being told stories, other children love the idea of telling stories themselves. Take a moment to think about how you can emphasize this aspect of your child and how you can help it grow.

In the first place, remember that a child who is a writer is likely going to be a child who is reader. If your child is someone who loves stories, make sure that they have plenty of access to them. For instance, this might mean taking your child to the library on a regular basis and it might mean that you should look into other ways that you can move forward with how your child reads. A reading child should by all means be encouraged and the library is a good place to start. If you are ready to help your child make the leap to writing, the first step is getting them to read.

Remember that children really benefit from it when they have a lot of contact with their parents with regard to the things that they do. When you are thinking about how to share this hobby with your child, consider what they are reading and read it along with them. When they are young, you can read to them, and as they get older, you can read with them. Talk about the things that you have read and make sure that you are expressing your opinion in a clear and constructed fashion. This will help them look at stories and give them an appreciation of the way that they can move forward with the written word.

Be encouraging of what they write and make sure that you are in a place where they feel comfortable with you reading it. The stories that they write can be a lot of fun and you should always be happy to read them. What kind of writing do they like to do? Some children will naturally gravitate towards writing fiction, while other children gravitate towards writing nonfiction or things that feel more personal or confessional. Remember that your child’s writing will change and develop as they do, and this can encompass a lot of different writing. Be patient and realize that they have a lot of material that they might want to cover.

Nurturing your child’s urge to write is very important, so see what you can do to help them develop; writing is a useful skill no matter what they want to do, and using their imagination is essential!


- Kenny Doucette

If I’m an aspiring writer who also wants to potentially teach, is an MFA or MA in Creative Writing more useful. I know with an MA you can still persue a PHD, so I’m curious what would be the positives of taking that path as well!
- acural7

If you are a parent who is looking to help your child develop creatively and emotionally as well as physically, you will find that you need to look into how creative writing is something that might affect their life. For instance, if your child is one who was always drawn to stories and to the ideas that can be conveyed through the written word, you might have a little writer on your hands! Children are naturally fascinated with stories, but while some children love the idea of being told stories, other children love the idea of telling stories themselves. Take a moment to think about how you can emphasize this aspect of your child and how you can help it grow.

In the first place, remember that a child who is a writer is likely going to be a child who is reader. If your child is someone who loves stories, make sure that they have plenty of access to them. For instance, this might mean taking your child to the library on a regular basis and it might mean that you should look into other ways that you can move forward with how your child reads. A reading child should by all means be encouraged and the library is a good place to start. If you are ready to help your child make the leap to writing, the first step is getting them to read.

Remember that children really benefit from it when they have a lot of contact with their parents with regard to the things that they do. When you are thinking about how to share this hobby with your child, consider what they are reading and read it along with them. When they are young, you can read to them, and as they get older, you can read with them. Talk about the things that you have read and make sure that you are expressing your opinion in a clear and constructed fashion. This will help them look at stories and give them an appreciation of the way that they can move forward with the written word.

Be encouraging of what they write and make sure that you are in a place where they feel comfortable with you reading it. The stories that they write can be a lot of fun and you should always be happy to read them. What kind of writing do they like to do? Some children will naturally gravitate towards writing fiction, while other children gravitate towards writing nonfiction or things that feel more personal or confessional. Remember that your child’s writing will change and develop as they do, and this can encompass a lot of different writing. Be patient and realize that they have a lot of material that they might want to cover.

Nurturing your child’s urge to write is very important, so see what you can do to help them develop; writing is a useful skill no matter what they want to do, and using their imagination is essential!


- Kenny Doucette

its a piece of writing on a coastline and you have to write using the all 5 senses im finding it really hard can anyone help out?
- ?çhÃrLiê $tå瀥?

its not due for another week but im trying to get it done this weekend because my teacher keeps giving us a ton of essays to write

the only requirement is that it is school appropriate
- ash

As a primary school teacher with 30 years experience, now retired, I have turned my attention to teaching the parents of young children. Why? I hear you ask. Well, perhaps I can illustrate this with a couple of phrases you have probably heard before.

 

“Oh, but we don’t do it that way mum”

 

“My teacher said that you’re doing it wrong dad”

 

So, let me help you to get it right.

 

Firstly, I want to turn my attention to creative writing, or story writing, for the 7-11 year olds. But don’t forget, I am writing for the parents in order that you can help your child. The areas we will look at break down into 7 categories.

 

1) Reading

2) Story Mountain / Story Board

3) Descriptive Writing

4) Characters

5) Introduction

6) Main Theme

7) The Ending

 

So, number one. Reading. What has reading to do with creative writing? Well, everything really. I found in my career that those children who had had books read to them from a very early age and who were read with as they grew older had much wider experiences from which to draw information and ideas for their own writing.

 

Next, number two. The story mountain or the story board. A structure on which to build the story. Using the idea of the story board, as that is an easier concept to understand in text, we would have anywhere from 3, for six year olds, to 8-12 boxes for ten and eleven year olds like a cartoon strip and the different parts of the story are literally sketched out with phrases written underneath to elaborate on the pictures.

 

This then forms the basis of the writing but with the storyboard structure it is far easier to keep on track building good description and have a beginning – middle – end to the story.

 

And now, my favourite, number three, the descriptive writing. The use of adverbs and adjectives. Now, I am not just going to assume that you all know what adverbs and adjectives are. What would be the point of writing this article just to lose some of you right now because you felt out of your depth. So, an adverb describes an action and an adjective tells us more about a thing. Let me show you.

 

Sir Gwain leaned carefully over the rough parapet.

 

The word ‘carefully’ describes how Sir Gwain leaned. The action he was doing was leaning and carefully is the adverb telling us how he was doing it, ok?

 

Now the adjective.

 

Sir Gwain leaned carefully over the rough parapet.

 

The word ‘rough’ here describes the thing he leaned over, the parapet, and in describing the parapet the word rough is an adjective. So there you go, an adverb describes an action like walking, running, shouting, singing, it tells us how these things were done. Adjectives describe things like tables, walls, shoes, things, objects.

 

So let’s see what good use of description can make of a simple statement like,

 

The man sat on the bench.

 

The dappled sunlight danced mischievously on the stranger’s shoes as he sat, slouched beneath the old sycamore.  The bench had been there for years, and had seen better days, one arm missing, and writing in spray paint all over the back.  This did, however, seem in keeping with his shabby appearance, dishevelled hair, unshaven and uncared for. His eyes………………………..

 

I could go on, but I think you get the drift.  I could write a short boring sentence, or with a little bit of work and imagination, something that is much more interesting to read, and leaving you wanting to read more.  What about his eyes?  Well, why don’t you try to finish it?  Go on, I bet you can.

 

Number four, the characters in the story.  A boy or girl who is well read, and has enjoyed the experience of books from an early age, will have more mature characters featuring in their work than those children who have not had the same experience.

 

You see, once again we see how important reading is as an aid to story writing. When children have only a limited experience of books, or no experience at all, how can we ask them to write a story and compete with others in the class who have read a lot and have a wealth of experience on which to draw for their characters etc.

 

The characters in a story have to be so credible for the reader, that the writer has to know them better than anyone else. Character profiles or studies are important to the believability of the story and the action within.  If the characters are weak, the story will not hang together very well, and the best way to change this is to write character profiles for those in the story.  Who they are, where do they come from, what physical characteristics do they have, how do they know each other, what are their favourite foods, hobbies, likes, dislikes etc.

 

For the younger children, when they are starting out, there is nothing wrong with them retelling stories they have heard and using the same characters.  They could also use the characters from one story and give them another adventure.  Authors do this all the time.  Popular characters will be in whole series of books with new themes and in different situations.

 

And now, number five, the introduction.  The introduction serves a couple of purposes.  Firstly it introduces the characters to the reader, and secondly, it should capture the reader’s attention within the first paragraph or two, or they may just put the work down and not pick it up again.  Obviously this is not about a teacher marking the work, they are going to finish it and grade it.  Listen, having marked thousands in thirty years, it is far easier and much more enjoyable to mark a good one than it is to mark a bad one!

 

Here I will give you one of my best tips.  The introduction is just to set the scene, introduce the characters, and capture the interest of the reader.  It has nothing to do with the main theme of the story.  I used to give the children in my class a theme for the story like ‘Shipwreck’ or ‘Disaster in Space’, or whatever, but, if they mentioned anything to do with the theme in the introduction, then they were marked down.  That way they learned to write superb introductions, introducing the characters to the reader and capturing the reader’s full attention in the first few paragraphs.

 

On to number six, the main theme.  This is the easiest, it can be about anything.  As long as the characters have credibility, and the introduction is sound, the story can be about anything the child wants.  Who in their right mind would think to write a story about wizards in a school called Hogwarts, and travelling from A to B by jumping into a fireplace, and a train platform that only existed through a wall?  There you go, they can write about anything.

 

Lastly, number seven. I mentioned a story mountain earlier.  If we think about the foothills of the mountain as the introduction, and the mountain as the main theme, then the foothills on the other side have to be the end.  Stories have a start, a middle, and an end.  Quite often it is suitable to end the story by taking the characters back to the setting for the introduction for the ending.  Too often, children end a story too quickly before it has resolved.  This happens a lot with those children with limited experience of reading books.  They do not understand the pattern of a story.  So you see, even right at the end I am still banging on about reading and how important it is to the art of creative writing.

Well, there you go.  I know you can do this, but if you need further help please feel free to visit my Bio below.

 


- Ken Skinner

wadays it is possible to find any custom essays or services of custom writings, there are still a lot of people who are eager to learn the art of writing essays. Is it possible to teach somebody to write a creative essay? May be it is. Here we are going to tell you how!

You’ll need for this task books or copies of different ready essays. Also take magazines for students or notebooks, pens and pencils.

And now learn the scheme:

Stage 1

If you want to teach somebody to write different things ? your task is to make the process of writing interesting. Creative writing is another point! One of the secrets is to have as many examples as possible and to read a great number of various essays and written literature forms. At first, try writing without any plans, so that you will be used to putting your ideas into the written form. Try to find funny topics and interesting questions: “What would I do if I were an apple?” or something like “Try to tell about your steps of development as a personality?”

Stage 2

Break down the mystery of an essay. The problem is that very often people imagine essays just in form of boring, serious writings on scientific or educational topics. As the result, they have no desire to do such things or to learn how to do them. In this case your task is to show them their mistake ? show that essay topics can be various, and the style can be not so strict. Let them write on any topics they want. Teach people creativity; show them how to use imagination. Some people cannot write well because they cannot cross the limits of the essay’s rigid structure. Explain that it is possible to write in a creative way, forgetting some unnecessary limitations.

Stage 3

Many creative essays are often written in the 1st person: under these essays we mean various unusual biographies and auto-biographies. Give your “pupils” some examples of such essays. Let them study these writings and then ask them different questions related to the essays: what things or sentences were the most interesting for them, what images seemed evocative and memorable. We recommend you to start with emotional and intuitive variants of writing and only then try to embody some rules and structural tips; show them some terms. When the people will get used to the 1st person style, it will be much easier to write from the 3d person.

Stage 4

Teach to experiment not only with the form of an essay, but also with its look on the page. Some people are quite sure that each line must be a full sentence. It is not right! Sentences are not to have a strict order. Firstly, the results will not be the best; still the thing is that it is more difficult to cope with “free style” than with sharp limits and rules. Essay is not a poem, but at the same time it has its own structure. Moreover, there are many tricks in literature and in writing which will help to catch the attention of the readers and to make your essay interesting. Grammar, stylistic and punctuation norms are also of great importance.

- Gen Wright