It was a recent piece of writing :https://kaiboyeoh89.wixsite.com/dkbbookreviews/post/the-queen-s-gambit-phoenixchess-journey
A piece of a little more than 4000 words and worth about 16 minutes of reading. It was one of the longest “essays” I had ever written in my life.
Definition of Creative Writing
Creative Writing
My Definition: the ability to generate ideas and express in form of the art of writing
Creative Writing is what I think is the ability to generate ideas and express in form of the art of writing. As somewhat a creative writer, nothing and I say really nothing should stop you from writing, not even A Writer’s Block, which is what I am currently experiencing. Even though you may not be able to generate ideas, you still can write based on your experiences in your life or about some tips you have for a better life for example.
Techniques to aid better writing
So here are some general writing tips with explanations:
1. Show not Tell- This technique, although taught in primary school, can be effectively used for Personal Reflective Recounts (PRR), Expository Writing, and even Argumentative Essays. Show not Tell emphasises on showing the feeling or action instead of telling. E.g
Tell: I was raging.
Show: I banged the table with my fist, causing the whole class to shake like a 5.2 magnitude earthquake. He had done it. I glared at Joseph before walking away into my room, slamming the door in ire.
2. Build on Sense impressions- Sense impressions can help the reader as they make the reader “experience” what your character sees, hears, smells, tastes or touch and developing or building on if will greatly help improve your writing.
E.g
Normal: I could hear the noise of footsteps, thus I ran away from the room
Improved: Upon hearing the faint footsteps, I deduced that someone was in the room. My legs started to tremble hard. The footsteps became heavier and heavier, louder and louder, closer… and closer.
3. Know what you are writing- You need to know what topic you are exactly writing so you will not write out of topic. You will need to analyse the writing criteria and know what the reader requires of you.
4. Build up to a well-developed conflict- You will need to build up to your climax/conflict of the story properly, by using points 1 and 2. The conflict will need to have the most vivid description since it is one of the most important parts of a writing and in an expository or argumentative you need to provide experiences which provides much content for the writing.
5. Be positive for writing- Composing yourself before writing anything can increase your motivation and determination to write that piece of writing.
So ok now you ask me ”Oh how the hell do you generate ideas quickly, I mean we are writing personal recount in secondary school after all and like in an exam I don‘t have much time to think so I need fast tips…”
Fast and general tips to generate ideas for creative writing
(By the meaning of creative writing, I mean you creating your story without any topic or guidance)
Firstly, you will need to think of a topic or a main “someone” to be a significant character
E.g. Maybe the topic you thought of is actually “Being a Cool person” and there are actually many possibilities to this specific topic.
I am the cool person and as the story progresses I might realise being cool really is not working well for myself.
I wished to be a cool person and the school bully seemed quite cool although he always bullied people and you joined him and became “cool” with him and got into trouble…
You can state the values of what you think a cool person is if you are not the kind of cool person. After al, everyone has different views.
2. Then you generate the characters that are in the story. Fantasy characters are also fine as they add some more interesting things into the story.
E.g. we use idea 1 from the above example. So maybe I can be the cool person and some of my friends with names and my Teachers and parent. All of them can be characters who push the protagonist on in the story.
3. Use a Writing Mountain
A lot of people say “Ohh Writing mountain ah, what a primary school thing, I’m so mature already, I am not gonna use that stupid thing anymore pfft!”
Ok ok chill. It’s not like because you are matured so you don’t use primary school stuff anymore. A writing mountain actually helps to summarise the story even before we write it and also help us follow the topic so that we will not write out of point. And since only key events are usually listed on the writing mountain, it will also help us to write the story.
4. Try different varieties of techniques in the introduction and conclusion.
The first and last impression left on the reader is one of the most important since it is respectively the first and last things they read on your writing. Techniques that you can use in Intro:
- Foreshadowing
Very common to kind of signal to the reader something climatic is going to happen next.
- Starting at the Climax
Among the more intermediate level of writing, people tend to use this technique more since it starts at the most exciting part of the story.
- Recount
The advanced writers would have a lot to say about this. While beginner writers do use this very commonly, there is quite a big threat with this opening. I will be covering on the Recount opening soon so look out for that essay talking about it so you can write recount better.
Conclusion:
- Ending by directly stating the moral
Usually, most beginner writers prefer using this technique for their conclusion since it is the most straightforward ending technique.
- Ending with a speech that ends suspense
This is used more at an intermediate level since it will result in a climatic ending that MAY NOT have a falling action, which may make this ending a little risky to use.
- Ending with cliffhangers
Considered one of the most challenging way to end a story and requires Master Writers to correctly execute. Authors of a series of books usually love to do this so you would try to find maybe the second book after reading the first one as the story concludes with suspense. I highly advise none of you to use it as I also don’t really use it as I am still trying the ending. Don’t think you are so pro ok I don’t even really want to use it so yes you understand. Cliffhangers means that the story ends without a proper moral ending or stop of a story which means the story may still continue.
How did I break my word count record in my recent writing?
So now you are telling us this ok then how did you actually break your own word count record. I will tell you about the four aspects that helped me. I believe that these four aspects can be used to help you in anything you do.
1st Aspect: Speed
When you get to the point where you actually have writing as a hobby, you will feel like you are actually addicted to writing and you will write at least something almost every day and when you are at some point of your writing career where you have been promptly “enlightened” , you are speed and you run time, instead of the usual “Time running you” concept and you are speed.
2nd Aspect: Stamina
In the long run, writing a lot in one day is truly tiring and you need to have stamina to do things so you will not give up in the long run obviously. It can help you and this is especially true for sports and chess, where you may have to play many games in a day.
3rd Aspect: Passion
Passion is quite related to aspect 4 and actually can be in aspect 4 in fact. When you are passionate to do something, you will always try hard to continue doing it since you really like doing that. Thus, if writing is your passion, you would likely persist and maybe like me, start a website.
4th Aspect: Motivation
Motivation is actually the reason why you would persist in something and for me, just specifically, chess and writing. Passio, your friends and parents support can all be the motivating factors.
Remember the 4 aspects as they may help you in your life.
Well that’s it for now, look out for more of my writings on D&KB Writing coming soon!
Best regards,
The Good Writer
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