Creative Writing – Creative Thinking
What does 'creative writing' mean? As the phrase suggests, it implies being
'creative': creative with our thinking, how we formulate ideas that paint a
fascinating – and not to say – a vivid and interesting picture in the minds eye
of your reader.
Of course, not everything we write is going to be enjoyed – or even appreciated
- by everyone as everybody's reading tastes are different. Our task, therefore,
is to choose a genre which will, in turn, automatically determine our audience
- and see if you can't create for that market.
A considerable number of first-time writers make the mistake of writing for no
particular group and then wonder why their literary efforts are difficult to
place. We are all probably guilty of making that mistake – I for one –
especially as we are more interested in writing than we are about who our
readers are.
I'm interested in the horror genre and psychological thrillers as I find that
these not only appeal to my imagination, but they are generally full of
descriptive ideas and highly intelligent plotlines.
What do you like to write about? Whatever your writing preferences, I feel that
it is essential that the story should show clear evidence of an unequivocal
imagination comprising of believable characters, a sound plot, well thought out
creative images and of course, a beginning, middle and an end. Furthermore,
pace is important as it determines the speed at which your story moves. Tell it
too fast and the ideas are very quickly lost. Tell it too slowly and you run
the risk of boring your reader.
The length of your story also determines pace. Is your story a street, a main
road or a motorway? One would hope that it isn't 'outer space'.
If we focus on our story being a 'street' for now, it should hopefully give us
something tangible to work with. Our street could be likened to 'the short
story.'
Streets are generally shorter than roads. Yet, they nearly always have a
beginning, middle and an end. In this example, the 'street' is our plot and the
person walking up the street represents the pace. The houses contain our
characters and the doors symbolise pages.
To unlock the doors of our neighbourhood of ideas, we need to think about what
sort of persons live in the street. Areas are usually determined by the type of
houses, big, small, terraced, semi-detached and detached and are generally
occupied by different social groups.
Your task is to decide on what sort of symbolic street you want to write about.
Once you've decided, then give some considerable thought to your genre. Will it
be horror, a murder mystery, a detective or a comedy? What ever you choose,
your job is to formulate your ideas and develop a plot based on a sequence of
coherent connectives acted out through your characters.
As to how many characters you need for your story largely depends on the sort
of genre you are writing. If it is a 'murder', then start with one murderer, a
few suspects, a police officer and a media reporter.
What is the setting for your murder? Where does the crime take place? Who
carries out the act? What is the motive? What method is used to perpetrate the
crime? Are there any witnesses? What time of day does the murder take place?
When writing any story, try to remember that we have five senses: touch, taste,
smell, hearing and sight.
If your character is murdered by means of a gun, then don't forget to say if
any witnesses, etc heard shots. The skin of an aged old corpse tends to feel
leathery, is shiny and omits an unpleasant odour.
In no way am I trying to teach you how to suck eggs, but I am merely pointing
out a few factors that are sometimes ignored by beginner writers.
Here are a few examples of creative thinking at work. See which ones interest
or bore you. The setting is the same for each, only the descriptions are
different.
Sitting behind the wheel of his Ford Escort, Michael struggled to see through
the windscreen because of the heavy rain that was now falling uncontrollably
from the black night sky.
He'd been drinking and was fully aware that he was over the legal limit. Yet,
what the hell, he was a loser – and he knew it. He'd made a number of enemies
in the past, largely due to his careless actions and stupidity. He'd served
time for selling drugs, had lost his wife and had almost been murdered by his
own son for the terrible wrong he had done to his mother. Now he was on the run
again.
The rain that cascaded from the angry and evil night sky onto the windscreen of
Michael's rusty Ford Escort, appeared to have no effect on the car's solitary
occupant. Michael was lost behind the dense curtain of his own disconnected
thoughts that were partially obscured by the alcohol he had consumed earlier
that evening.
The image of the strangulated corpse concealed in his boot continued to
dominate over all the other images in his mind.
At 38, Michael hadn't achieved anything of real worth. His short marriage had
been a disaster brought about by his heavy drinking that generally led to him
being violent towards his wife.
His son, when he had become of age, plotted to kill his father and almost
succeeded. From that time on, Michael's life went from bad to worse and now he
was on the move again, pursued by his own internal demons and accumulation of
enemies he had acquired due to his ill thought out ideas and venomous actions.
When I was studying English at school, I strongly recollect the method was
called 'effective'. I'm not saying that everything you write should be clever,
but for any story to be deamed 'effective', it must demonstrate a clear and
unequivocal artistry that captures the imagination of the reader. Artists paint
pictures using oils and writers use words.
Writers can very often paint some lovely pictures with their words by use of
colourful and descriptive adjectives. Avoid overly decorating your story with
too much colourful language. Rather, try and strike a balance. Failing to
achieve that happymedium can result in your efforts looking as if the overall
content is unnecessary littered with incongruous words inserted aimlessly that
serve very little purpose. Remember, you are writing a story and stories are
meant to be enjoyed.
Finally, my own experience has taught me to write first and edit later. Trying
to edit your story while compiling it generally stunts the overall process and
can very quickly become labour intensive. Remember to draft your outline first
and keep a copy to hand for easy reference. Your draft – or synopsis – is the
skeletal structure and your task is to add the flesh to the bones as it were.
Contributed by Philip Anderson
