Creative Writing
Hello All
I am currently embarking on a course in Creative Writing with the Open University. 'About time!' you say.
Well I thought I'd post my asignments up here to give you an idea of what these kind of courses involve, and what they do to the so-far innocent amateur writer.
So first we have been taught a method of creating ideas called 'freewriting' where you let ideas flow out of your head on a particular prompt or theme, and write them down on paper. This apparently is a good way to get an idea for a more focused piece, and to be honest it works pretty well i think. Then you can add other important things, such as sensations and ideas from your own experience to give some quality to your writing and some character attributes. The point at the moment is to harness your creative consciousness, but also think about what you see. A lot of this is through simple exercises, such as thinking of a person you know and then placing them in a completely different scenario, or spending time studying a place you like to sit or walk, and think about what is there. Now I'm good on character, but crap on description so found the following pretty handy.
Close your eyes and think of a familiar room or place around you. Write down things you would use to describe this place. Then open your eyes and write a paragraph to describe the place using none of the things you have thought of.
Try it. Its gives you a good perception of the unfamiliar.
Anyway, I'll be back with my first piece using these techniques and we'll see what happens to the writing, and whether creative writing courses are all they are cracked up to be.
I am currently embarking on a course in Creative Writing with the Open University. 'About time!' you say.
Well I thought I'd post my asignments up here to give you an idea of what these kind of courses involve, and what they do to the so-far innocent amateur writer.
So first we have been taught a method of creating ideas called 'freewriting' where you let ideas flow out of your head on a particular prompt or theme, and write them down on paper. This apparently is a good way to get an idea for a more focused piece, and to be honest it works pretty well i think. Then you can add other important things, such as sensations and ideas from your own experience to give some quality to your writing and some character attributes. The point at the moment is to harness your creative consciousness, but also think about what you see. A lot of this is through simple exercises, such as thinking of a person you know and then placing them in a completely different scenario, or spending time studying a place you like to sit or walk, and think about what is there. Now I'm good on character, but crap on description so found the following pretty handy.
Close your eyes and think of a familiar room or place around you. Write down things you would use to describe this place. Then open your eyes and write a paragraph to describe the place using none of the things you have thought of.
Try it. Its gives you a good perception of the unfamiliar.
Anyway, I'll be back with my first piece using these techniques and we'll see what happens to the writing, and whether creative writing courses are all they are cracked up to be.
Comments
Post a Comment