What shall I write about? Writing: Ideas and Inspiration What shall I write about?

Creative Writing: Interesting Characters In order to produce an enjoyable piece of creative writing, you must include realistic and interesting characters. Think of novels you have read/films you have watched and consider what makes them memorable.

Giving Characters “Life” In order for the reader to believe in your main character, they must be given human qualities and think like a human being. Emotions and how the character behaves is very important.

Emotions: Picture Challenge Look at the picture opposite and give the person in it emotion, a history, family and situation based solely on what you see. Be appropriate and ready to explain why you think a certain way about them.

Emotions: Picture Challenge

Setting: Why is this important? Setting is not always important to storyline. Some novels/stories rely on setting e.g. Harry Potter and the magical castle he attends for his education. Look at the following pictures and note down the atmosphere created and what type of story you would expect to read.

Setting: Why is this important?

Conflict: What does this mean? Every novel/short story has conflict in it. This can be character conflict with others, inner conflict or war. Consider what examples of conflict is occurring in the following slides.

Conflict: What does this mean?

Structure of Writing The structure of your piece is very important. Consider the use of dreams, flash backs and narrative point of view. These help the reader to understand what it is you the writer is trying to put across.

Narrative point of view First person narrative is when the main character tells the story from his/her point of view using first person pronoun “I”. Novels written in this format are Bridget Jones’ Diary and Twighlight.

Problems with First Person Narrative Everything is seen from one character’s perspective. Often these characters are flawed, which means that they are not necessarily reliable and to be believed.

Themes Theme is relevant to the piece of writing as writers tend to base their character and plot around these e.g. Love, hate, friendship, war, jealousy etc. Think about t.v programmes such as EastEnders and consider the themes the writers centre storylines on.

Plot There is sometimes confusion over plot and structure. In theory, plot is the structure of how the story is told. Think about your plotline carefully and ensure it is up to date and relevant.

Interesting Openings The best way to engage the reader is to open your story with something interesting or horrific or funny. Why does “Once upon a time there lived...” make an interesting opening. Avoid “There was once a boy called Zack and he was 16 years old.” Why???

Examples of interesting openings A screaming comes across the sky. I am an invisible man. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu. It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn't know what I was doing in New York.

Now it’s your turn Write out five opening sentences that will “hook” the reader. Remember that you some novels/prose open with dialogue.

Planning your creative piece Choose your main character and give him/her physical characteristics, a family background etc Decide which themes you are going to deal with – this will help to shape your plot. Next plan how you plot is going to pan out. Is your main character going to tell the story? i.e. First person narrative. Consider description of character, setting and atmosphere.

Planning your creative piece You should include conflict of some kind and have this resolved (for the better or worse!) by the end of the piece. Focus on a particular genre of writing such as romance, science fiction, war etc. Ensure that you use sentences, paragraphs appropriately and spell most words correctly.