TeachingEnglish
how to improve creative writing
Submitted by vijayouhyd on 1 February, 2010 - 08:33
Hello
I am Vijaya Bhaskar.C working in an engineering college as lecturer, interested in creative writing. I would like to know and learn some ideas regarding creative writing. If any please help me.
- Login or register to post comments
Printer-friendly version
Log in or register
Follow TeachingEnglish
 |
 |
 |
 |
I use one activity for creative writing which has really helped me at all levels.
Divide the class into equal groups according to the strength of the class. Give the whole class a total of 20 words. Tell them to make a story using those words and ask them to make the story funny and crazy.
For example, if you give them say five words, knife, train, beer, mobile phone and saint. The group can start the story this way.
One day Lord Shiva was having beer in the train, bound for Mumbai. A ticket collector entered the compartment and started checking the tickets of passengers. When he asked Lord Shiva for the ticket, he disappeared. The saint was none other than Aishwarya Rai in disguise. When she revealed her true identity, the ticket collector proposed to her........ ( This is the way the story has to be built up )
Any group irrespective of their age will enjoy the activity. Since all the groups have the same words, you can ask one member from each group to come out and read out their story. It will be hilarious.
You have to train yourself not to edit as you go! Just write, and don't worry about if it's good or bad. Just write.
Start by deciding who your main characters are. Learn as much about them as you can (there are tons of character worksheets out there, if you google for them). Give them names and backgrounds. Make them well-rounded.
Then I would work on an outline of your story. I don't tend to have very detailed outlines when I begin (I have a one or two page plot synopsis, though), but for many writers they benefit immensely from doing a thorough outline first. It really depends on how your brain works, but give it a shot and see if it helps!
I would recommend reading as many books as possible in genres that you like to write, plus books about the craft of writing. When you are reading fiction books, pay attention to how the authors structure their work.
First of all, writing is something that we do not use in our daily life very often, and it's a burden for our students and it is for sure that they find it boring. Therefore, teachers have to find ways to raise interest and motivation in writing and make it more enjoyable. There are some activities I use in my own teaching and they really work. Firstly, you can use free-writing, for example, you can give them five minutes to write about something at the end of the class every week and students need to be warned that their writings wont be checked in terms of grammar. You need to collect their writings and write some responses for each, if possible. By this way, you can have a good rapport with your students thorough writing. Secondly, you can give them some words and have them write a story in groups or pairs using the words. Thirdly, get a story and read them the first 3 or 4 sentences to set the scene. Then, have them write their own sentence and read the next sentence, then have them write their own sentences, and it goes on. It's really funny because you end up with lots of different stories with the same scenario. Lastly, you can give them the end of the stories and have them write the story accordingly. For example, there's a naked man in the middle of the dessert and there are no footsteps nearby, and he's holding a broken match.
Yours lovingly.
Hello,
This topic is very interesting for me. I think that to be a creative writer is something you`ve been born with it. You can or you can`t. Anyway, for me to be creative writter mean to be accurate about certain topic and to profound enough sufficinet information about certain topic. It`s very wrong move to write for something that you are not knowlegable. Second, you must be fluent in English, because the audience must understand your information in the best way. That`s for now. I will come up with more ideas, later.
Regards, Dave
I like Girish's method, I think it puts the groups into competition for the best story. Also giving them random words to start with is good, great books have started as a single word or phrase!
i think this is the secret .if we start doing it with us, it will probably been liked by others!we should train ourself rading and writing as much storys as we can !
Hello
I've used Grisha's method for a few years and have found it very useful. I also use another method now, which is instead of words I give each group a phototograph. You can find some interesting postcards, or use photos from newspapers and magazines. You can give them the photos or you can let each group choose their photo. I tell them that the photo can represent the beginning, the middle or the end of the story. Photos are different from giving words, I think they open a visual aspect of the imagination. The stories with photos students have written for me tend to be more realistic and dramatic than those with the word lists. The word list stories tend to be funnier and more fantastic. It's possible this is to do with my choice of photos, but I think it has more to do with the visual and situational aspect of a photo.