Check out some books by your tutor Fiona Veitch Smith … (click on the book covers to find out more)
Hello everyone, welcome to the first session of our free online creative writing course. Over the next eight sessions we will be looking at different aspects of creative writing and trying our hand at various forms. I’d strongly encourage you to have a go at the exercises along the way, and please feel free to leave comments or ask questions at the end. If you have arrived on this page without first reading the home page and frequently asked questions page (on tab above) please go back and do so now. If you have read them, enjoy the course!
Creativity and Art
What is creativity? The Collins dictionary defines it as ‘the ability to cause something to exist’. Without getting into too much of an existential discussion, I would say that with every thought that is expressed, something has been created. It was Descartes who said: ‘I think, therefore I am’; well I would add, ‘I think, therefore I create’ (do you feel a God complex coming on?). But how do we express our thoughts? Sometimes we do it verbally, other times by body language and still again through what is loosely termed ‘art’.
Art takes place when a thought is expressed and fixed in a way that other people may experience it on an aesthetic level – through music, writing, painting, sculpture, choreography and so on. Many artists say that their best work takes place when they ‘by-pass’ the thought and simply express the feeling. This may be true, but for writers, who use a verbal medium, a feeling must first be converted into a thought before it can be put into words. Don’t over analyse the thought before you express it, as this way you can ‘channel’ the purest interpretation of the feeling, but some cognitive process needs to take place. Some writers prefer to mull over a thought and give it form before they put pen to paper – I’m one of them – but it’s good practice to try and switch off the ‘editor’ at least for the first draft. First response trigger exercises are useful in this regard and can release some unexpected words and images.
Exercise 1:
Write down your first response to these words or phrases:
- Blue ball
- And that’s when the sadness came
- Coffee
The first task of a good writer is to convert feelings into thoughts and then into words. This is the raw material that can then be converted into something more permanent. Some writers refuse to toy with their first drafts, believing their creativity will be diluted; I disagree. Allowing your critical mind to improve a piece of writing is where the craftsman meets the artist. Something produced only by the former will lack soul and something by the latter will lack form. Good writing is a combination of art and craft.
For public consumption
Art, of course, is highly subjective and one woman’s masterpiece is another woman’s unmade bed. We all have the ability to create, but whether or not our creation is ‘art’ must be left to the eye or ear of the beholder.
In this session we will look at how you can craft those creative thoughts into creative writing to share with other people. And that’s what sets ‘public’ writing apart from ‘private’ scribblings – there’s a perceived readership in mind. When I ramble on in my journal, I am the only one who will read it (hopefully!) so my only concern is getting my thoughts down on paper. The moment I want someone else to read it I begin to consider ways to improve the presentation and craft it into something more aesthetically pleasing. I consider which words may sound more colourful, whether or not my sentence structure is grammatically correct, whether I’m using evocative imagery, and so on.
Story, feeling or image?
What is it about those creative thoughts that you think might be of interest to other people? Do they speak of an eternal truth or a common experience? Do they make you laugh or cry? Do they suggest a story that will entertain or a poem that captures a moment that must be shared?
Exercise 2: In 50 words or less write down why you want to write then list three creative thoughts that you’ve had lately (each 10 words or less). These may be an image, a musing, a ‘truth’, a story, or so on. If you haven’t had any, take yourself for a walk and look around; what grabs your imagination? Browse through a newspaper or a magazine; do any stories or pictures catch your attention? Think back over your day; did anything funny, charming, shocking or unusual happen to you or someone you know?
Poetry or prose?
Some people are more suited to writing poetry than prose and some people do well at both. Although we won’t be discussing it in this course, other people are more suited to script. I’m one of them. I’ve had relative success as a prose writer and in fact have managed to earn a living from it, but it’s taken years of hard work to get to this point. I recently branched out into scriptwriting and found that I had much more of a natural ability. (If you’re interested in finding out more about scriptwriting, check out getting started in playwrighting). You may find that you’ve been trying to make it as a poet when actually you’re more suited to prose. Now I don’t want to pigeonhole anyone, but ask yourself the following questions:
- Are you more attracted to films than stills?
- Do you enjoy telling people ‘stories’ from your life?
- Do you prefer to read stories or poems?
If yes, to these, then you may be more suited to prose than poetry. If no, then the opposite may be true. If it’s ‘sometimes yes, sometimes no’ then perhaps you are suited to both. We shall be looking at how to write poems in more detail in session 7, but suffice to say, a poem is like a snapshot of a moment. If you can’t rest until you know what happened before and after, then prose may be your genre.
Exercise 3: Take one of the three creative thoughts you wrote down in Exercise 2, then list 20 separate words that communicate or describe that thought. Do not, at this stage, link the words into sentences. Once you have your 20 words use them in a poem of 16 lines or less. Then, take the same 20 words and work them into a short story of under 300 words. Which exercise came more easily? Which form has best communicated your creative thought?
Further Resources:
There are some excellent resources out there for creative writers. To get quick ‘starter’ images when your own well is dry I recommend The Writer’s Block by Jason Rekulak. I’m currently working through The Creative Writing Coursebook by Julia Bell and Paul Magrs and finding it very useful.
The next creative writing course session is how to write a short story. But before you move on to that, please feel free to leave a comment or ask a question in the box below.
Welcome to The Crafty Writer's free online creative writing course, presented by Fiona Veitch Smith, a freelance journalist, editor, author, playwright, screenwriter and writing teacher. I hope that you'll see a dramatic improvement in the quality of your writing as you work through this course.
Poetry and prose flow at will from my pen always singing in my head. Stories I tell to the world, scribbling furiously as words flow onto paper. Reading them back, I tighten them agin and again until there is nothing left except the story I never meant to tell and yet it is the real emotion.
Thank you for sharing your expertise. I am now into Exercise 3 and I look forward to finishing the whole course.
Good luck with it Jay.
I have my moments with creativity. Certain days it may befriend me and the flow of ideas never seem to end while there are days when it seems to have amnesia.
this is brilliant. thanks so much for this. i am loving it. just what i needed,
So far I am enjoying the creative writing course. I look forward to finishing the whole course as well. I like to write poetry but also want like to write short stories. My goal is to write a memoir of my childhood and have it published someday. Will we ever get to send our short stories or poems to look over and give feedback to us. Thank you, JC
Hello JC, I’m glad you’re enjoying the course. As the course is free there is no money being generated to pay a tutor to look at your work. As I’m sure you’re aware, feedback takes time and skill to give and someone will need to be employed to do that. However, if you would like paid feedback I do run a critiquing service as a separate business. I will not look at the exercises from the course but rather bigger pieces of work – eg the first three chapters of a novel, a full short story or a selection of poems (a colleague looks at those). For details of this service please see http://www.thecraftywriter.com/services/#critiquing
Happy writing,
Fiona
Dear Fiona,
Oh my Dear! I never thought I could write a poem from your exercises. It was just a try and Bingo! Im’ not really sure if I did it beautifully – I still need some critique …but for me – I’m so happy – making it! Thank you so much!
love,
Malaya
Yeahhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love hearing of these little victories. When I used this exercise in workshops there were always a few people who announced at the beginning of the session that they simply couldn’t write poetry but after trying this little exercise discovered that they could. As you say it may not be beautiful (yet), but hopefully it has encouraged you to give your poetic nature another chance. Happy writing.
Fiona
Argh! I just can’t write poetry. Whatever I write it comes out as a paragraph from an article. I hate HATE poetry!
Still trying….
We all have our different gifts, Martha. Don’t beat yourself up about it
I have written poetry for many years and love it. But I want to learn how to write short stories and memoirs someday. Thanks! JC
Hello JC. This course should help you get started in short stories. For memoirs and writing from life, take a look at my free non-fiction course http://non-fiction-writing-course.thecraftywriter.com/
Enjoy!
Fiona
My creative side (when it comes to writing) has been accessed instantly; I cannot wait to do more exercises!
I just went through session 1 and find the excercises and information very helpful. The poem was pretty easy for me to write. The problem I have is with the short story. What I wrote did not flow like a short story; it was more like a poem. Is there any advice to help me get out of that or am I just meant to write poems? Right now this is just a hobby for me but I hope to make it more one day.
Hello Jessica. That was just one exercise; I would not give up on writing short stories because of it. The rest of the course focuses more on short stories so give it a go and see how you do. It’s hard to write ‘micro fiction’ like this and as so few words are used it could quite easily sound poetic. Don’t worry and keep on writing.
Fiona
I am just starting this course and thus far enjoy it. I have always written, ever since I can remember and though I always wanted to be able to do it on a full time basis I never had the chance. Now I do and I am going for it. I have written poems before, though not recently and I am working on a novel (sitting there waiting for fulfillment at 50 pages in length). I am hoping this course gets my creative juices flowing and gives me the much needed tools and tips I know I am missing.
Good luck with it Jaime/
this course has me so excited right off the bat! I have a diary from when we lived in Japan and when I lived in Dubai. They are called my “adventures”. I have wanted to expound on the writings, but didn’t have the courage to really try until this evening when I found your site. I am going to check out your non-fiction writing course. I also want to see if I have any true writing talent by taking my adventures and making them into fictional stories. I do have a knack for telling “what happened to me” with lots of humor, but I would like to find a character and write “adventures” around this character.
Sounds like you’ve got a good supply of raw material to work from. Happy writing!
when l was in the college of education, l developed interest in writing, even though l was a mathematics student. now have grown up, l want to develop my writing skill, l need the training to do this.
The session was so great, i really enjoyed it.
I am so thankful that you are so willing to share your expertise with others. I have self published a few works, but look forward to working with a publishing house. I feel that these courses will help me with that journey. I am also researching the idea of writing a script so the course on ‘getting started as a playwright. I am determined to complete all of the exercises! Thank you very much!
You’re welcome, La Sonia. You’ll be pleased to know that I’ll be working on the online course in scriptwriting this summer. Hopefully it will be up by September.
Have a good writing day,
Fiona
I like this course so far.It influenced me very much.Thanks a lot.
you’re welcome, Sabin.
Have written short pieces, incuding autobiography, and poetry from around 1987, but stopped in the last year or so. I have often used The Creative Writing Course Handbook. I am thinking of starting again and wonder if this would help me to get down to it!
I am a young writer (emphasis on the “young”) and I am finding the excersizes you have provided very useful! I can’t wait to read on and see what else you have in store for me to read!
I have begun your course today and I just want to thank you for allowing people like me to view for free. I wanted to take a writing course several years ago and could never afford it. I have lost a lot of my skill in my Grammar and Creative Writing and needed a refresher course that I could do at my own pace. This seems to be the ticket for me and maybe just maybe I will finally be able to publish something.
Thanks a milloin for giving this brilliant idea! This would be very helpful for my carrier to cascade among the teachers’ of English. My son who is just 10 years also enjoyed trying your ideas. Thanks and hope to meet you with this sort of activity again!