'POINT OF VIEW' IN CREATIVE WRITING - Dr. Janice Russell
Here are a selection of some of the practical ideas that Janice mentioned in her workshop on 14th April. You just have to put that pen to work – write, write and write!
TIPS
- Start writing, anything,for at least 12 minutes, first thing or any time of the day, but everyday.
- Begin with the end in mind:
· What impact do you want to make on your reader?
· How can you achieve this? - Take the point of view from something unusual, like a bunch of keys.
- Experience from that perspective and write. You can turn anything into a story!
- Write the same event from different perspectives: technically this could involve 1st person, 3rd person, omniscient observer, multiple points of view, and, yes, 2nd person.
- Make your characters plausible/believable.
- Use the senses. Check which you tend to use most naturally and experiment using the others - write the same piece. Each one emphasising a different sense.
- Vary pace and length of chapters (book writing! But could also apply to sentences!)
- Put a few pinches of humour in.
- Care about your characters – or not!
- Aim to intrigue the reader by involving them in solving the plot.
- Read something then write 500 words in the same style.
- Analyse books you have enjoyed, sentence by sentence – pick them apart to find out: “How did the writer do it?”
Be BOLD!
TASK
For next Creative writing session on Monday May 12th:
Experiment with one or more of the above ideas.
Janice has kindly made her PowerPoint available to those who attended her workshop. You can get this from allyson.roberts@mail.telepac.pt
Happy writing.
Allyson
1 comment:
I agree with Dr. Russell's points, but I would like to suggest a different perspective on two of them.
1. Yes, by all means, write at least twelve minutes a day. But if one day you find that you truly don't have twelve minutes, make it five! If you are feeling dreadfully uninspired, write for just two minutes and at the end of those two, see if you can't manage to go on for three more.
Apeles was advising painters like himself when he said, "Nulla dies sine linea." But lines can be written as well as drawn. Never a day without a line. Even a tiny daily effort is infinitely better than no writing at all.
2. I assume that the advice to have an end in mind is a suggestion rather than a prescription. It's a good suggestion. Knowing the ending that you are writing toward is a good idea, as is knowing the effect you intend to have on the reader, but not every writer works this way.
Writing begets writing. You can write to discover what you have to say. Knowing your ending or your objective can be helpful, but it is not always necessary. Not knowing your ending should not be a reason to put off writing. If you don't know where you are headed, feel free to jump in anyway. As my mentor Damon Knight used to say, if he knew how his novels were going to end, he'd have no reason to write them!
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