Creative writing

Creative writing is unique for a few reasons. This guide addresses things unique to writing fiction.

Character

There are multiple types of characters. All of which are not necessary or unnecessary in a story. Some of those types of characters include:

  • Protagonist
    • The main character. They are dynamic, because they change with the story arch that you create. However, there is no rule that says the main character has to be beloved, a hero, or the winning character.
  • Antagonist
    • The thing/character that is battling the protagonist. The antagonist does not have to be a person, but anything that causes the protagonist to change, or morph their character.
  • Stock/static/fla
    • The opposite of a dynamic character, static characters do not change. These type of characters, “are defined by the roles they play in stories” (Kelly).
  • Round/dynamic
    • A character that changes throughout the story, whether that be physically or emotionally, are said to be dynamic. Most of the time, dynamic characters are the protagonist of a story. They, “will face some physical or psychological challenge, usually a moral choice, and grappling with that challenge will change them” (Kelly).

Plot

“A plot is a series of incidents that are unified. The incidents are not coincidental” (Kelly). A plot however, has no other rules.

As a writer, it’s not required to start at the beginning. Rearranging the story by including flashbacks or other writing elements that cause the plot to not be in chronological order is also possible. The most conventional plots include an equilibrium, conflict/rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution/denouncement. This does not mean that it is required that the writing follow these rules. The creator makes the rules of the world that they are building.

When writing in film as a specific medium, plot differs from story because story is what the audience infers about the events because of what is presented to them in the plot (“Film Analysis”).

Setting

“The locale in which you find your characters” (Kelly). The setting of an author’s writing can be a final detail that is sparse, and not important. However, it can also be used as a motif or symbol to attach to the characters and plot of the story.

Dialogue format

How to make things look like the professional ones guide

There are many ways to create dialogue, depending on what medium is being written. These are the formats of the most used mediums where dialogue is seen:

Prose

Prose has different ways of including dialogue. Anytime a character is speaking, there should be quotation marks with punctuation inside of them.

However, if there is action surrounded by the dialogue, it should look something a little like this:

Bob said, “What.” OR “What,” said Bob. “Don’t judge me.” OR “What?” Bob said. OR

Bob jumped. “I won!” OR Bob questioned. “What?” Then yelled. “What!” (MacGregor). Screenwriting- Depending on whether a movie, play, pilot, sketch, or audio script is being created, there are different guidelines for each. Because there are so many different ways, rather than learning all of them, there are resources like WriterDuet.com, that format and save your scripts for whatever medium they are being written in.

Symbol

“A symbol represents something else, often an abstraction” (Kelly). Two different kinds of symbols include:

  • Universal Symbo
    • Kind of symbols that, “carry the same meaning in just about any culture” (Kelly).
  • Conventional Symbols
    • Kind of symbols that, “are not universal: it is a convention contrived by a particular population of people” (Kelly).

Motif

A motif is something an author, “uses repeatedly throughout a work” (Kelly). Repetition is a signal to the audience that their attention needs to be drawn towards something important to the story.

Point of view (POV)

According to Wonderbook, “Everything around us has, to some degree, a point of view” (Vandermeer). Because of this, the point of view of the character can be created to have different motives. Characters can, “have their own stories and agendas at the micro level of narrative” (Vandermeer). All of these choices in Point of View, can affect the story.

  • First person
    • First-person can be seen as an unreliable form of telling a story. “We know that the narrator has witnessed the events from [their] own perspective” (Kelly).
    • Because of this, authors can choose a first person narration to create a character that perhaps will deceive their audience, or have an ulterior motive.
  • Third person
    • Narrators that authors don’t include as characters, are called third-person narrators. They do not use personal pronouns like “I”, “my”, etc. A third-person narrator, “gives us information no human could” (Kelly).
  • Omniscient
    • If a narrator of the story knows all emotions, motives, and characteristics of all of the members in the story’s world, then they are seen as omniscient. They have no limit to what they know.

Fighting through writer’s block

Writer’s block can be battled in multiple ways, but it is always good to have tips on how to get motivated when there is nowhere else to turn.

Published authors created a list in Writer’s Digest including these tips:

1) Free Write- Sitting down at a computer, or pad of paper, and writing any word that pops in is a good way to get your brain into the mode of writing. Eventually the nonsense that is written down, leads to something with an underlying purpose that an author can use.

  1. Distractions- Many authors can listen to music when writing, or need some sort of noise in the room. However, for many, getting rid of every distraction is a great way to stay motivated and interested in what you’re writing.
  2. Superstitious practices- Many authors have superstitious practices that they go through every time they sit down to write. Some have to have their desk perfectly organized, others need a perfect amount of pens and pencils, and some need the perfect amount of coffee sitting next to them. If there is something that makes you comfortable to sit down and write, add that to your process and make it a superstitious practice.

OWL Purdue also gave some tips to fight against writers block:

  1. Tape it- Record yourself telling the story. Speaking the dialogue that you are thinking about can help you make changes to how you want your characters voices’ to differ, and other more creative elements you can use in your story.
  2. Act It out- While sitting down writing, try talking to yourself. Sometimes when writing conversations, picking to play one of your characters allows you to see where that conversation will lead and how you want the characters to interact.
  3. Shift your audience- Practice writing your genre for a different audience. Write a science fiction novel for someone interested in romance. Write to a specific family member. Changing your audience is a good exercise to sparking inspiration for your forms of creative writing.
  4. Make no rules- Try starting in any part of your writing. Write the end of your plot before the beginning, or write the stage directions before you write dialogue. Making no restrictions for yourself allows you to feel less pressure and stress, and you can make it easier to write.

Ethos/logos/pathos

Ethos, logos, and pathos are three ways to appeal to an audience in any genre of writing. You cannot have any one artistic proof without the other two, and all three are important to how an author reaches an audience.

  • Ethos = character
    • Ethos causes an author to introduce expertise (User). This can be achieved by giving a narrator (in any point of view) an authoritative character trait.
  • Logos = logical
    • Logos convinces an audience through the use of logic and reasoning (User). Even in the fantasy genre, there is logic and reasoning that the audience will get behind. An audience will follow the character if it is convincing enough.
  • Pathos = emotional
    • Pathos persuades an audience by appealing to their emotions (User). Emotions are what keep an audience attached to characters. Characters can be sympathized for or pitied, and even hated, but all of those emotions allow the audience to stay attentive to the author’s writing.

Works cited

“7 Ways to Overcome Writer's Block." WritersDigest.com , 4 Oct. 2013, www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/guide- to-literary-agents/7-ways-to-overcome-writers-block .

MacGregor, Dax. “How to Format Dialogue.” First Manuscript, Dax MacGregor, 25 July 2016, firstmanuscript.com/format-dialogue/.

Kelly, Joseph, editor. “Introduction.” The Seagull Reader, 3rd ed., W.W. Norton & Co., 2015, pp. Xiii-xliii.

User, Super. “Home - Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, the Modes of Persuasion ‒ Explanation and Examples.” Home -Ethos, Pathos, and Logos, the Modes of Persuasion ‒ Explanation and Examples, pathosethoslogos.com/.

VanderMeer, Jeff. “Wonderbook.” Wonderbook, Abrams Image, 15 Oct. 2013, wonderbooknow.com/. “Welcome to the Purdue OWL.” Purdue OWL: Writer's Block, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/567/02/. “Film Analysis.” Edited by Yale University, Film Analysis, 16 Sept. 2016, filmanalysis.yctl.org/.

Contributor: Viviane Ugalde