Republic of the Philippines

Samar College
Catbalogan City
College of Education

A. Creative writing, a form of artistic expression, draws on the imagination to convey meaning
through the use of imagery, narrative, and drama. This is in contrast to analytic or pragmatic forms
of writing. This genre includes poetry, fiction (novels, short stories), scripts, screenplays, and
creative non-fiction.
- Making things up, creative writing is a vital part of modern society.
- Traditionally referred to as literature, creative writing is an art sorts – the art of making things up.
It’s writing done in a way that is not academic or technical but still attracts an audience.
- Through the definition is rather loose, writing can for the most part be considered any writing
that is original and self-expressive.

The Purpose

- The purpose of creative is to both entertain and share human experience, like love or loss.
- Writers attempt to get at a truth about humanity through poetics and storytelling.
- If you’d like to try your hand at creative writing, just keep in mind that whether you are trying
to express a feeling or a thought, the first steps is to use your imagination.

B. Writing process
Guides writers to express their opinions, views, suggestions in a readable manner. By following a
constructive writing process, students can express their points of views carefully. Good writing is
appreciated in each sector. In schools, students need to write letters, paragraphs, articles, essays,
short stories, etc. There are specific format for each kind of write up. However, a general process of
writing a document or content is referred as the writing process.

Definition of Writing Process

Writing something on a paper by using own words is not as simple as it seems. Students get perplexed
for the first time, but gradually, improve their writing skill and consequently, they overcome their
obstacles. They must read different kinds of books to improve their writing skill. On the other hand, good
vocabulary is a skill that is needed to write different kinds of documents. However, the writing process is
structured by including some essential steps. According to academicians, by following these common
steps, students can successfully develop ideal pieces of writing.

The 5-Step Writing Process: From Brainstorming to Publishing

Prewriting: Prewriting is a process of collecting ideas on any of the topic you choose, before you
are ready to go and write about something interesting first research on that topic thoroughly.
Introduce your ideas write it down when it struck your mind, it will help you writing and inspire you in
exploring more ideas. Note down your ideas which comes into mind every time and now the other
part is brainstorming, where you can explore, elaborate and analyze which means getting in
depth of topic. And now we move to planning, where how you write a story using the ideas noted
and form beautiful story. Structure is also important with flow from start of the story to end of the
story with conclusion.
Rough Drafting and Drafting: After accumulating the information, students arrange the entire
content in some points by maintaining a sequence. This part of the work is known as rough
drafting. Drafting is the process of summarizing ideas or thoughts on paper without focusing on the
grammar correction.

Editing: After finishing the drafting, students must do editing to make each sentence with
appropriate punctuation, avoid grammatical mistakes, spelling check and considerate. Editing is
an essential process to evaluate each content efficiently. Students can give the write up to their
friends or teachers for editing.

Revising: Revising is rechecking the content, has it reached the limit whether the idea or thought is
suitably explained or not. Consider only the interesting part of the story avoiding information which
is over expressed. It is better to ask someone who have experience in reading and analyzing the
best part and the worst. Feedback is the better way to know the quality of the script, so best way
you can approach to your friends or teacher and get there view.

Publishing: Publishing is the last step when the articles, stories or essays are given to the concerned
person for publishing. You can publish your book and find the audience having interest in your
stories.

C. RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE WRITERS

1. A writer is responsible towards his or her art. He or she safeguards the integrity of his her art,
because whether other believe it or not, it is this art that modifies the world around him or her,
with its sense of freedom and truth.
2. A responsible art cannot afford to be passive to social realities, for. Its “metaphors” beat on
the heart of man more forcefully than does philosophy or history or even politics.
3. Raising the political and social consciousness of the people becomes the writer’s primary
task.
4. Expected that the writer will play an active part towards building a truly democratic and just
society.
5. Writers cannot just turn a blind eye to the realities that engulf his or her society.
6. The most important of all is the writer’s basic commitment, that of telling the truth.

RESPONSIBILITY OF THE WRITER TOWARDS THE ADOLESCENT:

1. Writings that will help young people come of age, writings that will make the world knowable
2. Writings that affirms the best human beings and asserts the worth of humanistic values,
regardless of the failures and problems of society.
3. Writing that gives readers the opportunity to discover themselves, to see and understand
themselves in their present and future societal roles.
4. Writings that informs its readers about a common humanity by demonstrating that others
have encountered similar problems in coming age.
5. Honest writings free from the traditional school avoidance of taboo subjects such as death,
illness, and sex
6. Writings that reflects the affirmative, hopeful vision of the future
7. Writings that affirms and reaffirms those values that keep people hoping, that give young
people the strength to continue to grow.
 8. Writings that helps students develop moral perspective, respect for individual autonomy, and
the ability to reason. It should assist in the forming of moral character.

D. CREATIVE WRITING AND TECHNICAL WRITING

Creative writing is written to entertain and educate. We enjoy reading novels and stories, not
because they are necessary to read or helpful for us, just because we get a certain pleasure from
reading them, the pleasure which can’t be got from reading technical writing.

 Creative writing has so many genres and sub-genres that they deserve a whole section of an
article for themselves. It sometimes follows a given set of rules, and sometimes throws caution
to the winds and breaks all of them. Either way, talent is somewhat of a necessary ingredient
if you want to write creatively. Of course, writing can be improved by practice. But if you
don’t have the necessary talent, your writing would not give pleasure to anyone.
 Skills and talent both make up creative writing. Hence, they are its constituents.

Technical writing is wholly written to inform and sometimes to trigger the person reading into
making an action beneficial to the one of the writer. Whoa, what a mouthful. That’s not a subject
I’m going to cover here (copywriting), but if you want to know more about it, you can visit the
master of its game, Copyblogger.com.

 Technical writing is not written to entertain. It has its own set of rules, conventions, do’s and
don’ts, masterpieces and pieces of rubbish. There is a whole art to mastering technical
writing, although it too is branched: online technical writing and offline technical writing.
Personally, I think that if you want to master technical writing, you should first master concise
and magnetic writing that draws the reader in, regardless of whether it’s creative or
technical.
 The differences between creative writing and technical writing are that creative writing is
written mainly to entertain with the creativity of the mind and technical writing is written
mainly to inform in a formal manner or to incite the reader to make an action such as
purchase the writer’s product.

E. FICTION AND NON FICTION

FICTION – is an name for stories not entirely factual, but at least partially shaped, made up,
imaged. It creates the illusion of reality.
- Is about events that happen to people, and about the responses that people make to
these events.
- Provides us with the opportunity to ponder how people react in uncommon situations,
and to deduce moral lessons, psychological principles, and philosophical insights from
their behavior.
- Offers us an “escape” from life, but also provides us with new tools for our inevitable
return.
- It offers us an “imitation” of life.
- It makes us physically insert yet exercises our imagination.

THE FICTION WRITER

 - The fiction writer creates a world, creates people who love and hate, suffer and die,
causes hearts to break, moves and shakes the world and people in events at he or she,
alone, the fiction writer makes to come to pass.
- Fiction writer behaves exactly like God, according to the fiction writer Franz Arcellana.
- The fiction writer has a story to tell. And it is his or hers alone and nobody else’s.

II . What is a Short Story?

A short story is a relatively brief fictional narrative or story written without using any rhymes of
rhythms. The short story has a beginning, middle, and an end and is composed of the following
elements:

ELEMENTS OF THE SHORT STORY

Character

Character can be revealed through the character's actions, speech, and appearance. It also can
be revealed by the comments of other characters and of the author.

Certain types of characters appear in many stories. Describe the following types if they appear in
your book:

 The protagonist is the central character (person, animal, or personified object) in the plot's
conflict.
 The antagonist is the force in conflict with the protagonist. It may be society, nature, or fate,
as well as another person. It can also be the protagonist's own self, if he or she has an
internal conflict.
 A character foil is a character whose traits are in direct contrast to those of the principal
character. The foil therefore highlights the traits of the protagonist. The foil is usually a minor
character, although if there are two protagonists, they may be foils of each other.
 A stereotype is a character that possesses expected traits of a group rather than being an
individual. Using stereotypes is usually considered an indication of poor quality, especially in
cases such as members of minority groups, people with disabilities, or women. However,
stereotypes can be useful in furthering the story quickly and are acceptable in minor roles if
they do not provide hurtful portraits of the groups in question.

Character development is showing the multitude of traits and behaviors that give the literary
character the complexity of a human being. The amount of character development affects the
quality of the story:

 A flat character is not fully developed; we know only one side of the character.
  A round character is fully-developed, with many traits--bad and good--shown in the story.
We feel that we know the character so well that he or she has become a real person.
 Character development is a continuum with perfectly flat characters at one end and very
round ones at the other. Every character lies somewhere on this continuum. Round
characters are usually considered an indication of literary quality. However, characters in
folktales are almost always flat, and flatness is appropriate for minor characters in modern
literature for children. A character foil is often flat, even if the protagonist is round.

The amount of change in a character over the course of the story also affects its quality:

 A static character is one who does not experience a basic character change during the
course of the story.
 A dynamic character is one who experiences a basic change in character through the
events of the story. This change is internal and may be sudden, but the events of the plot
should make it seem inevitable.
 There is also a continuum of character change in a story, with very static characters at one
end, and very dynamic ones at the other. Every character lies somewhere on this
continuum. Dynamism in the protagonist is usually considered an indication of quality, but
many characters, especially in stories for younger children, have only the mild amount of
change which can be expected from growing and maturing from day to day.
 A character may thus be round and dynamic, round and static, or flat and static. A flat
character cannot usually be dynamic, because you do not know enough about the flat
character to notice a change. If a character seems flat and yet seems to change, it is
usually because the characterization is not well written.

The following table summarizes how the development and change in characters interact:

Character Dynamic Static

Development is considered well-
Considered the best type of character
Round done. Often found in protagonists in
development. Usually the protagonist.
books for younger children.
Characters cannot be dynamic and flat, because
In very simple books, or in fairy
in a flat character we do not know enough about
tales, the protagonist may be flat
Flat them for them to recognize a change. If a flat
and static. Also appropriate for
character seems to change, it is usually due to
minor characters in other books.
poor writing.

Plot

Plot is the sequence of events which involves the characters in conflict.

The sequence of events is called the narrative order:

 The most common type of narrative order in children's books is chronological. In this case,
the events are told in the order they happen.
 A flashback occurs when the author narrates an event that took place before the current
time of the story. Flashbacks are uncommon in children's literature because the passage of
time is difficult for children to understand. The opposite effect, a flash forward, is even rarer.
  A time lapse occurs when the story skips a period of time that seems unusual compared to
the rest of the plot. There is no standard amount of time that might constitute a time lapse; it
depends upon the reader's sense that a longer than usual period of time has passed since
the previous episode.

Conflict is the struggle between the protagonist and an opposing force. There are several types of
conflict:

 Internal conflict, or person-against-self, occurs when the protagonist struggles within himself
or herself. The protagonist is pulled by two courses of action or by differing emotions. This is
often considered a characteristic of fine literature because it frequently leads to a dynamic
change in the protagonist.
 Interpersonal conflict, or person-against-person, pits the protagonist against someone else.
 Conflict of person-against-society happens when the protagonist is in conflict with the
values of his or her society. This is a difficult concept for small children to grasp.
 Conflict of person-against-nature takes place when the protagonists are threatened by an
element of nature.
 Conflict of person-against-fate occurs when the protagonist must contend against a fact or
life or death over which people have little control, such as death or disability. Some literary
critics, however, see this conflict as a type of person-against-nature.
 Several types of conflict may be present in any one story.
 Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish between two types of conflict. If a teenager is arrested
by a policeman for breaking a law, the conflict is probably person-against-society. If,
however, a personal animosity develops between the two, so that the boy taunts the
policeman and the policeman harasses the boy because they dislike each other, the
conflict becomes person-against-person. Likewise, if a character is attacked by a strange
dog, the conflict is person-against-nature. But if the dog knows and dislikes the character, it
could be considered person-against-person. If the protagonist is diagnosed with a fatal
disease, he or she has a conflict with fate or nature, but also probably has an internal
conflict in learning to accept his or her fate.

Most plots have certain common elements:

 A story commonly begins with exposition, an explanation of the situation and the condition
of the characters. In children's books, the exposition is usually woven into the action.
 A plot usually begins with a problem which the protagonist must meet or solve. During the
story, tension is built through a series of complications, incidents which either help or hinder
the protagonist in finding a solution. This is the rising action.
 The climax is the peak or turning point of the action; at this point we know the outcome.
 The denouement or falling action is the part after the climax. It gives any necessary
explanation and ends with resolution, the sense of at the end of the story that it is complete.
 The ending of the story may be either open or closed:
o In a closed ending, the most usual one in children's books, readers feel that they
know what will happen. The various parts of the plot are tied together satisfactorily,
and the reader feels a sense of completion.
o In an open ending, readers must draw their own conclusions; they do not know what
will happen.
o A cliffhanger is an abrupt ending at an exciting and often dangerous time in the plot.
Its purpose is to keep the reader reading. It is usually found at the end of a chapter,
but occasionally a book will end this way. (Not all open endings are suspenseful
 enough to be called cliffhangers.) Recently, books in some science fiction and
fantasy series have ended in cliffhangers, which encourages the reading of the other
books in the series.

Other elements which may be found in plots include:

 Suspense is a state of tension, a sense of uncertainty, an emotional pull which keeps the
reader reading. All plots need some suspense to sustain interest.
 Foreshadowing is the planting of hints about what will happen later in the story. It prepares
children for the outcome and reassures them when the suspense is very high. Good
foreshadowing is subtle and often contributes to high quality in a story.
 Coincidence, the concurrence of events which happen by chance, is a fact in real life.
However, real life is not a plot that moves from problem to climax to resolution. In fiction,
coincidence seems contrived; it weakens the plot. Coincidence in a plot is acceptable if it
is carefully but subtly foreshadowed.
 Inevitability is the sense that the outcome is necessary and inescapable. It had to happen,
given these characters and this situation; it is not contrived. It is a sign of high quality in
writing.
 Sensationalism is unrelieved suspense; it often includes violence and may produce fear in
the reader. Readers often like it, as the popularity of horror books and films attest, but it is
usually considered a sign of poor quality. Even the Disney Studio, known for wholesome
entertainment, is guilty of sensationalism. Sixty years ago, many children were frightened by
the witch in Snow White. More recently The Lion King was criticized for excessive violence. In
films, suspense is often heightened by cutting quickly between scenes and by the adroit use
of background music to create a mood.
 Sentimentality is the opposite of sensationalism; it is the overuse of sentiment (a natural
concern for another person) that produces a tear-jerker. It is dwelling too much on the
"cute" and the "precious." Like sensationalism, it is a sign of poor quality but is often popular.
Movies such as Love Story and Terms of Endearment are examples of sentimentality. Many
popular children's books are overly sentimental. Black Beauty, The Velveteen Rabbit, The
Giving Tree, I'll Love You Forever, and the works of Joan Walsh Anglund have all been
criticized for this.

Setting

Setting includes the place and the time period in which the story takes place.

Setting may or may not have an important influence on the story:

 An integral setting is essential to the plot; it influences action, character or theme.

 A backdrop setting is relatively unimportant to the plot; it is like the featureless curtain or flat
painted scenery of a theater.
 Readers may interpret the importance of the setting differently; one may say that the
setting is integral because the story must happen in a big city; another may say the same
thing is backdrop because it may happen in any big city. (The former statement is probably
more accurate, but either is acceptable if the meaning is clear.)

Setting can clarify conflict, illuminate character, affect the mood, and act as a symbol. The setting
itself can be an antagonist in a person-against-nature conflict.
Theme

Theme is the underlying meaning of the story, a universal truth, a significant statement the story is
making about society, human nature, or the human condition.

A book's theme must be described in universal terms, not in terms of the plot. The plot is the way
the universal theme is carried out in that particular book. Themes can be applied to the reader's
own life or to other literature.

Although themes can convey important messages, they should never be overtly
didactic. Didacticism is preaching and teaching so explicitly that children lose pleasure in the story
and reject its message.

The primary theme is most important theme in the story; children's books usually have one primary
theme. There may be other secondary themes as well.

Types of themes:

 An explicit theme is one that is stated openly in the book. It is stated in universal terms in the
book itself.
 An implicit theme is one which is not directly stated, but which the reader can infer. Many
times, readers will not notice that an explicit theme is directly stated, but they can often
infer the theme anyway.

Themes must be clearly stated; one word is not usually enough. To say that a book's theme is
"friendship" is not clear. It may mean, "Friends are a person's most valuable possession." It may also
mean, "Friends can never be trusted if their own interests are opposed to yours."

An understanding of theme is dependent upon one's previous experience of life and literature. At
the same time, theme in literature can enlarge one's understanding of life.

Not every good book has a significant theme; some books' value lies in the pleasure they give,
rather than the message they bring. Books of humor, for instance, may or may not have a
significant theme.

Style

Style is the language used in a book, the way the words are put together to create the story.

 Most children's books use standard written style. This style sounds natural, but when carefully
analyzed, it is clear that it is more formal than most speech. Sentences are complete;
expressions like "um," "you know," and "like--," are avoided; contractions are used less often
than in ordinary speech. Lots of conversation may included, but the style as a whole does
not sound like speech.
 In conversational style, the language is more informal, it sounds more like the way people
really talk. The narration as well as the character's speeches sounds conversational.
 Dialect is easiest for children to read if word order or a few unusual words and expressions
are used to suggest a difference from normal speech. Other languages may be suggested
in the same way through speech patterns and foreign words. Foreign and unusual words
 should be explained naturally in context. An eye dialect, in which words are spelled the
way they sound, is sometimes very hard to read.
 An ornate or unusual style is sometimes used, especially in some high fantasy and historical
fiction. Older editions of traditional literature and older poetry may also have such styles.

Writers use many devices of style to make stories interesting.

 Imagery is the most frequently used device. It is an appeal to any of the senses--taste,
touch, sight, sound, and smell. It paints pictures in our mind.
 Figurative language uses words in a nonliteral way, giving them a meaning beyond their
ordinary one.
o Personification gives human traits to animals, nonhuman beings, or inanimate
objects: "The trees bowed before the wind."
o A simile compares two different things, using the words "as," "like," or "than": "The
snowbank looked like a huge pile of marshmallow syrup."
o A metaphor is an implied comparison stating the resemblance between two things:
"Her presence was a ray of light in a dark world."
 Devices of sound can increase pleasure and clarity. Books which use many such devices
should be read aloud. Poetry is particularly rich in such devices.
o Onomatopoeia is the use of words that sound like their meaning: a skirt "swishes," a
bat "cracks," a hasty eater "gulps" his food.
o Alliteration is repetition of initial consonants: "the soft surge of the sea."
o Consonance is repetition of consonants sounds anywhere in the words: "The sight of
the apple and maple trees pleased the people."
o Rhyme is the repetition of a stressed sound, usually the final syllable: "His aim was to
blame the dame."
o Assonance is repetition of vowel sounds in a phrase: The owl swept out of the woods
and circled the house."
o Rhythm is the recurring flow of strong and weak beats in a phrase: "Chicka, chicka,
boom, boom! Will there be enough room?" Meter is the regular rhythmic pattern of
stressed and unstressed syllables found in a line of poetry. The less regular rhythm
sometimes found in prose is often called cadence.
 Puns and other plays on words add interest and humor: "By the time the milking was
finished, the new farmhand was thoroughly cowed." Puns are said to be "the lowest form of
wit," but people usually enjoy them even as they groan.
 Hyperbole is exaggeration: "He was frightened out of his wits." Understatement is the
opposite: "He was upset when he learned he had AIDS."
 Allusion is an indirect reference to something outside the current literary work: "He was a
veritable Hercules." The reference may be to something in literature, history, modern culture,
or another area. Allusion is often difficult for children to recognize because they lack the
necessary background knowledge. The proponents of "cultural literacy" believe that all
children should acquire a common fund of knowledge in order to understand allusions.
 A symbol is something--a person, object, situation, or action--which operates on two levels,
the literal and the symbolic. For instance, an engagement ring is a real object, but it is also
stands for the abiding love of the engaged couple. Symbols add depth and meaning to a
story. Symbols may be universal (as the engagement ring) or specific to a particular story.

Qualities which should be avoided in style include triteness (dull, stale, overused
expressions), condescension (talking down to children, making them feel unintelligent or
immature), didacticism, sensationalism, and sentimentality. In poetry, avoid a too regular meter
which can become a sing-song rhythm.

Point of View

Point of view depends upon who the narrator is and how much he or she knows.

Point of view may be:

 First person - uses "I" - A character is telling the story.

 Second person - uses "you" - The author speaks directly to the reader. Second person is
seldom used; it is found most often in nonfiction today.
 Third person - uses "he," "she," or "it" - The author is telling about the characters. There are
three third person points of view:
o Limited omniscient - We are told the thoughts and feelings of only one character
(sometimes, but very seldom, of two or three characters).
o Omniscient - We are told everything about the story, including the thoughts and
feelings of all the characters, and even information in the author's mind which no
character knows.
o Dramatic or objective - We are told only what happens and what is said; we do not
know any thoughts or feelings of the characters. It is called "dramatic" because it
includes the words and actions, just what you would see and hear if it were in a play
or film.

Tone

Tone is the author's attitude toward what he or she writes, but it may be easier to understand if you
think of it as the attitude that you (the reader) get from the author's words. It is the hardest literary
element to discuss; often we can recognize it but not put it into words. The easiest tone to
recognize is humor. In describing tone, use adjectives: humorous, mysterious, creepy, straight-
forward, matter-of-fact, exciting, boring, etc.

Dialogue is the speech of fiction, the talk between two or more characters. It is speech
appropriate for the story, verbal communication that works with and for, not against, the fiction.
Good dialogue draws the reader into an imaginary world and works to keep her there.

Bad dialogue works against fiction, against that writer-reader contract that says the reader will
believe the unbelievable as long as the writer does nothing to shatter that belief, does nothing to
inject the real world into the imaginary one.

Dialogue is one of the key elements of fiction. Without it, there is no story. If dialogue is truly bad, no
one will read the story. If it’s only moderately bad, you might find readers, but they won’t compare
the story to their favorites. At least not favorably. But if the dialogue is good or great, if it does its
job, then the story has a chance to be great, to be read and remembered fondly.
The Tasks of Dialogue
Dialogue, for all its importance, can’t do everything in a story. Plot and character and action and
description and all the other elements have their places and duties. But dialogue does have
responsibilities. Dialogue is used to

~ Advance plot. Dialogue can and should both direct and change the course of a story. A simple
revelation dropped at a dinner party can lead to murder. A tidbit whispered in passing could
provide the motivation for one character’s drive to defeat an opponent. A secret spilled could
reunite lovers or drive them apart for years.

Dialogue is a catalyst; it should cause something to happen. Characters should not be the same
after a scene of dialogue. A story’s direction should be altered by dialogue.

Active and passive verbs

Sentences have a structure of subject - verb - object, where the subject (or actor) performs an
action (the verb) on an object.

Active and passive verbs may be mixed within sentences and used as appropriate.

Active verbs

Active verbs perform the actions of a subject within a sentence.

Use active verbs when you want to create interest and emphasize the action.

Use active verbs to give an order.

Passive verbs

Passive verbs describe the action done by the subject of a sentence. Passive verbs use a linking
verb alongside the main verb. With passive verbs, it is often possible that the subject is not
named.

Use passive verbs when you want to:

 Downplay the actor, for example when:

o The actor is not known
o The actor is relatively unimportant
o The actor has already been named.
 Downplay the action, for example
o To add focus to the object
o When the action may seem hostile
Active verbs

Active verbs are generally clearer and add more interest than passive verbs.

Active verbs are common in speech and commands.

Passive verbs

Because the subject need not be named with the passive verbs, this can lead to a lack of clarity
and ambiguity. It also means that if the subject is not known,
Passive verbs are common in formal writing, such as academic, technical and business papers.

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