Creative Writing

Welcome to my writing section, there are many sub-sections all relating to creativity for you to browse

Before you begin your literary masterpiece, I’d thoroughly recommend jumping on your bike and researching your market base. Is there enough demand, is your theme topical, and can you create sufficient content to maybe produce a series of articles or books. Everyone just loves a sequel!

Onwards!

I always find that role reversal helps when I’m forming my characters and plot. I imagine what my reader is looking for, what the underlying message is going to be and what kind of character personality my reader will identify with best.

Once I have the principal characters and plot firmly in place I begin to structure my book. I first need to decide on the length and how many chapters I’ll need to tell the story and in my particular case, how many illustrations to use. Then, I map it all out on a sheet of A4.

Once I’ve done that, I can start to create my secondary characters. I usually start with one or two, and build on this as the story progresses. I also find as I’m writing, that secondary characters will sometimes replace my original choices.

Some authors spend months planning and outlining their scripts. But for me, I find diving in headfirst and forming the story as I go works best. I find this a lot easier and productive. I have the basics on paper, but things don’t really start happening for me until I’m pumping away at the keyboard.

Characterization is supper important.

If your chosen reader group cannot empathize with your characters, you’ve lost the battle before it begins. I’m going to use my first Charlie and the Yums story as an example of creative writing for kids. If you haven’t already done so, you can download it for free by clicking on the link below. This will help you to understand my characters and the roles they play.

Charlie.

He’s the main man, or five year-old in this case. I decided I’d have to make him special in some way, so that the fabulous sock and the Yums, ‘his best friends’, would be more unique to him. Making him a handicapped child was quite possibly the ideal way to make this work.

All my stories have an underlying theme of true friendship and Christian values, and I wanted to show that even when someone is different in some way, that they are still human, very special, and can, be one of the gang.

I also wanted to make him full of fun, a real team player, and the kind of best friend anyone would be proud to have.

The Yums.

They’re real special! To make up for Charlie’s unfortunate shortcoming in the real world, I wanted to give him super best friends. I was able to do this through the Yums.

Each Yum has an individual personality trait, which will become more apparent as Charlie’s adventures progress. As the Yums are magical mirror images of the toes from his own right foot, I decided to name them, and give them a personality to best suit this.

Dumpy. He’s mirrored on Charlie’s big toe. He’s kind of like the leader, strong in stature and personality. He comes across as being older and wiser and in a way, holds the group together.

Bumpy. You could say Bumpy’s a bit of a whopper; in fact you could say he’s a real whopper. He’s as thick as two short planks, constantly getting into trouble, and has a permanent bump on his head from bumping into things.

Lumpy. He’s Charlie’s middle toe and has a really fat tummy, as he can’t stop eating. Again this will become more apparent as the adventures continue.

Stumpy. Short and squat, he’s the fourth toe and makes everyone laugh with his funny rhymes.

Little Yum. Probably going to be a real hit with the ladies, the little ladies that is. He’s ever so sweet and ya’ just can’t help but love him.

Whichever reader group you're targeting your creative writing towards, the same rule always applies. Give them characters they can identify with.

Not only does this give your story a solid foundation, it also gives you more scope to add varied subject matter that in turn suits your different characters. A good example of this would be T.V. soaps. The reason they have so many characters is to make the storyline more diverse, which in turn captivates a much larger audience.

The storyline.

As we all know, every story has a beginning, a bit in the middle and an end. Equally important they all may be, but the first few pages are where you either hook your audience or lose them completely.

How many times have you picked up a book, read a few pages, found your mind wandering, then, sacked it? It’s happened many times for me, and that’s why I can’t stress strongly enough the importance of a strong entrance and compelling creative writing.

This is the time to draw your reader in, and there are many techniques to help you do this.

A strong interesting character in a tight situation for example, an unpleasant event, or even a touch of the mystique will intrigue your reader. You could even start your story at its climax, and proceed to tell the tale in reverse from one or more of your characters points of view. How many movies have you seen made in this fashion?

Building suspense using creative writing

As your tale unfolds, you must always maintain a firm grip on your readers’ attention. An excellent technique to achieve this could be, flipping from one characters point of view or individual circumstances, to another.

Steven King, in my opinion, is a master at this. His technique involves building his story around several extremely interesting characters, building the suspense level on one character in particular to its climax, flipping to another character, and repeating the process.

This ultimately frustrates the reader, but in a positively, manipulating fashion. The reader in effect, can’t put the book down until he knows the outcome, but this never happens as Steven is constantly repeating the technique. Result? Tired eyes, happy reader, creative writing at its finest!

The use of Humor

I really wanted to make the Charlie series as funny as possible for both parent and child. As I’m sure you’ll agree, there’s nothing more boring than a tedious kids book. Sure your kid’s are loving every minute, but that’s only because of your interaction. Depending on your skills as a reader, you could be reading the newspaper and still be getting the same result!

In the case of the Yums, I chose rhyme. I felt I could really emphasize their personalities and make what was being said so much funnier, whilst delivering the humor on two levels. Think of Shrek. I took one of my daughters to the cinema to see it and we both thoroughly enjoyed it. This was a movie’ in my opinion anyway, that really delivered the creative writing goods, and most certainly on two levels.

In comparison, take the Harry potter movies. Again I took my daughter to see his debut. I’m sure it’s an excellent movie, if you’re a twelve year old. My daughter certainly enjoyed it, but I’m afraid it didn’t do much for me. Again, this all boils down to your target audience, and I used family movies as prime examples of creative writing. Get ‘em hooked!

Your Ending

There are basically three ways to end the show.

A. An open conclusion: Leaving the possibility of a sequel.

B. A final conclusion: Whereby your reader fully understands the tale is over.

C. Draw your own conclusion: Whereby your reader; is left to make up their own mind.

Each option lends its own benefits, depending on your individual tale. For me however, I hate the latter. I always feel robbed when a movie ends ambiguously.

In conclusion, there are many other variations to consider to creative writing, and as this page is in danger of turning into a book itself, I’ve decided to cover them on individual pages of their own. I do hope what I’ve said clarifies certain aspects of creative writing for you, and that you’ll call again soon for additional pointers.