CREATIVE

WRITING
 Choose any of the following prompts and write a two
paragraph essay.

1. What do I need to hear today? How can I uplift myself?

2. What has been going well in my life lately?
3. When I am telling my grandkids about what I did in my
lifetime, what would I be telling them?
4. What makes me feel complicated? How can I simplify
my life in little ways?
 What is Creative Writing?

ü The true definition of creative writing is: it is an

original writing that expresses ideas and
thoughts in an imaginative way
ü The dictionary defines creative writing as writing
that displays imagination or invention.
ü Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the
bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic,
or technical forms of literature, typically identified by
an emphasis on narrative craft, character
development, and the use of literary tropes or
with various traditions of poetry and poetics.
 What is Creative
Writing?
ü Creative Writing is 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.
ü Creative Writing, in the simplest term, is writing using the
imagination. It is mainly FICTIONAL and may take the form
of poetry, short story, novel, or play.
 Types of Creative Writing
• Essay – these are written in response to particular events or
ideas.
• Flash Fiction - Offers character and plot in extreme brevity,
with a word count of six to one thousand words.
• Novel - Long work of narrative fiction, typically with a word
count of eighty-thousand to one-hundred-thousand words.
• Novella - Narrative prose of shorter length, with a word count
of ten-thousand to forty-thousand words.
 Types of Creative Writing
• Play - Work of drama consisting of mostly dialogue
intended for theatrical performance.
• Poetry - Uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of
language to convey meaning. Poems may not follow a
narrative structure.
• Screenplay - Written work by screenwriters intended
for film, television, or a video game.
 Types of Creative Writing
• Short Story - Prose fiction typically read in one sitting,
between five thousand to ten thousand words
• Song - Similar to the nature of poetry, songs can work
on many levels at once. Levels of meaning, structure or
emotion.
 POETRY
Poetry is an expression of imaginative
awareness of experience through
meaning, sound, and rhythmic
language to evoke an emotional
response.
 2 CLASSIFICATIONS OF POEM
1. Lyric Poem- include Odes, sonnets, elegies,
poems for various occasions, and simple lyric
poems. They are called lyric poems because
traditionally, the Greeks read these poems
with the accompaniment of musical
instruments.
 2 CLASSIFICATIONS OF POEM
2. Narrative Poems- poems that narrate a
story in verse form. Usually, these stories are
about love and heroic deeds. Epics and
ballads are some poems that are considered
narrative.
THE LIFE OF LAM-ANG
(BIAG NI LAM-ANG)
 SHORT STORIES & NOVELS
ü Short stories and Novels are generally similar to each
other and considered to be included in the prose genre.
ü Both forms are used to tell tales, their main difference
lies in the variation in length.
ü Short stories can be read in just one sitting for a short
period of time, while a novel requires more time to be
comprehended fully.
 DRAMA
ü Drama or plays initially appear to be similar to short
stories and novels
ü They also tell stories about characters that face
conflicts which they have to resolve within the story.
ü The Plot takes place in particular setting, and impart
lessons and themes.
 CREATIVE WRITING COMPARED WITH OTHER
FORMS OF WRITING

ACADEMIC WRITING
CREATIVE NON-FICTION
TECHNICAL WRITING JOURNALISM
AND NEWS
WRITING
 ACADEMIC WRITING
ü Is the style commonly used in scholastic compositions.
It is mainly used in the publications and references
used by the teachers and researchers, or in educational
conference presentations.
 TECHNICAL WRITING
ü Conveys specific information about a technical subject
for a specific audience. It often contains facts and is
straightforward in its tone of writing commonly
addressing its target reader.
ü Usually, it aims to inform or instruct and has a formal
standardized, and simple use of language compared to
creative writing.
 CREATIVE NON-FICTION
ü Discusses factually accurate narratives while
employing the use of literary devices commonly found
in fiction, thus making them more interesting to read.
 JOURNALISM AND NEWS WRITING
ü is the writing style employed in various mass media
such as newspaper, television, and radio. News article
must be highly credible in order to serve their purpose
of providing factual and accurate information to the
readers or viewers.
Sensory Details in Writing: Definition &

Examples
• The writer's ability to
create a gripping
and memorable
story has much to do
with engaging our five
senses.
 Sensory Details Definition
• Sensory details include sight, sound, touch, smell,
and taste.
• Writers employ the five senses to engage a reader's
interest.
• If you want your writing to jump off the page, then bring
your reader into the world you are creating.
• When describing a past event, try and remember what
you saw, heard, touched, smelled, and tasted, then
incorporate that into your writing.
● Sensory details are used in any great
story, literary or not.
● Think about your favorite movie or video
game.
● What types of sounds and images are
used? What do your favorite characters
taste, smell, and touch? Without sensory
details, stories would fail to come to life.
• When sensory details are used, your
readers can personally experience
whatever you're trying to describe,
reminding them of their own experiences,
giving your writing a universal feel.
• A universal quality is conveyed when the
writer is able to personally connect with
the readers.
• Another note about sensory
details: there is no one sense
that's more important than
another. It all depends on the
scene you're trying to create.
However, imagery, the sight
sense, is a common feature in
vivid writing.
Let's look at sensory details in action.
Compare the following two passages describing a
trip to the grocery store.
Here's a passage without sensory details:
“I went to the store and bought some flowers. Then I
headed to the meat department. Later I realized I forgot
to buy bread."
Now, does this pull you in? Of course it doesn't. There's
nothing to bring you into the writer's world.
 Read this revised version with the addition
of sensory details:
“Upon entering the grocery store, I headed directly
for the flower department, where I spotted yellow
tulips. As I tenderly rested the tulips in my rusty
shopping cart, I caught a whiff of minty dried
eucalyptus, so I added the fragrant forest green
bouquet of eucalyptus to my cart. While heading
for the meat department, I smelled the stench of
seafood, which made my appetite disappear."
See how the extra details made that scene come to
• Writing with the senses is an important part of writing
well.
• Adjectives bring writing to life and pull the reader into
the text and help activate his or her imagination.
• Sensory details help the reader feel like he or she was
there and create a more intimate connection to the
narrator or writer and a greater understanding of the
text. Adjectives help set mood and tone in the text and
help establish a strong voice.
Creative Writing, in the
simplest, is writing using the
imagination.
It is mainly fictional and may
take the form of poetry, short
story, novel or play.
Poetry –an expression of imaginative awareness of
experience through meaning sound and rhythmic
language; with the purpose of evoking emotional
response.
-though it is often mistaken that poetry needs to
be structures, with meter and rhyme, this is always
not the case.
-some poems are free-verse and do not need
structure.
 Classifications of Poems:
Lyric Poems –traditionally, the Greeks read these poems
with the accompaniment of musical instruments such as
the lyre, making them similar to songs.
Narrative Poems –narrate a story in verse form.
-usually, these stories are about love and heroic
deeds. (Epics and ballads are some poems which are
considered narrative)
Short Stories and Novels –generally similar with
each other and considered to be included in the prose
genre.
Though both forms are used to tell tales, their
main difference lies in the variations in length.
Short story- can be read in just one sitting for a
short period of time
Novel –requires more time to be comprehended
fully.
Dramas – aka plays
-initially appear to be similar to
short stories and novels, for they also
tell stories about characters that face
conflicts which they have to resolve
within the story
The Language of
Creative Writing
Figures of
Speech
1. Simile –used for the comparison of
two essentially unlike things, often in a
phrase.
-it is introduced by like or as
-a more subtle way of comparing two objects
than metaphor, since it only points out the
likeness of the two things being compared.
Examples:
You are like a lily in bloom.

My love for you is as deep as

the ocean
2. Metaphor –the use of a word or
phrase that ordinarily designates one
thing as that of another, thus making an
implicit and direct comparison.
-as opposed to simile, metaphor
directly compares two things as if they are
the same, without using helping words.
Examples:
He is a shining star.
My teacher is a dragon.
All the world’s a stage and we, the
actors of the play called life.
3. Personification –endows
human qualities to inanimate
objects or abstract ideas.
-these are often represented as
possessing human form.
Examples:
Hunger sat shivering on the road.
Lightning danced across the sky.
Rita heard the last piece of pie
calling her name.
4. Hyperbole –more commonly known
as extreme exaggeration.
-it is often used to give extreme
emphasis or to show extreme effect to a
statement.
-however, these statements are often
greatly exaggerated that they are almost
impossible to be true.
Examples:
I could sleep for a year!
I have cried a bucket of tears for
the boy who broke my heart.
She's as skinny as a toothpick.
This is the worst day of my life.
5. Onomatopoeia –known as a
sound word.
-it employs the use of words that
imitate the sounds associated with
the objects or actions they refer to.
Examples:
The buzzing sound of the bees bothered my
sisters as they ate their lunch.
The splashing of the water indicated that
there were fish in the pond.
Silence your cellphone so that it does
not beep during the movie.
6. Apostrophe –directly addressing
an absent/imaginary person or a
personified abstraction, as a living
entity.
-it is a used as a digression in the
course of a speech or composition,
Examples:
Car, please get me to work today.
Fate, why have you been so cruel
to me?
Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I
wonder what you are.
7. Metonymy –replaces one
word or phrase for another ,
usually as a symbol with
which it is closely associated.
Examples:

Symbol Meaning
White dove - peace
Laurel leaves - championship
Let the white dove fly.
(Let there be peace)
The team brought home the
laurel leaves.
(The team was declared the
champion.)
“The pen is mightier than the
sword.”

(Pen refers to written words, and

sword to military force.)
8. Oxymoron –uses contradictory terms
which are combined to make meaning.
-to be able to understand a passage
that employs this figure of speech, the
entire statement must be read.
Examples:
There was deafening silence in
the room when he entered.
Alone together.
Clearly confused.
9. Irony –an expression which is the opposite
of what is meant
Examples:
A character stepping out into a hurricane and
saying, “What a nice weather we're having!”
A marriage counselor files for divorce.
A fire station burns down.
10. Paradox –a figure of speech
which contradicts itself in the same
sentence.
Example:
Your enemy's friend is your enemy.
“I can resist anything but temptation.”
11. Synecdoche –present when a particular idea is expressed
through the following ways:
a. a part is used for the whole (as hand for a bride)
b. the whole is used for a part (as the law for police officer)
c. the specific is used for the general (as cutthroat for assassin)
d. the general is used for the specific (as thief for pickpocket)
e. the material is used for the thing made from it (as steel for
sword)
A synecdoche -is a member of the figurative language
family.
-It's an odd word for what is simply using part of
a whole to represent the whole.
If you said "check out my new wheels," "wheels"
is an example of synecdoche, used to refer to a "car."
A part of a car, in this example, represents the whole
of the car.
Examples:
He asked her hand for marriage.
The law brought the thief into
prison.
Keep away from the cutthroat.
The wondrous work of steel was
offered to the prince.
12. Understatement –is an expression
wherein the thing described is made to
appear unimportant.
Examples:
We are not rich. We only have a resort in
Zambales and a vacation house in Baguio.
Don’t worry about me. This cancer is
nothing.
13. Anti-thesis –contradiction that pits two
ideas against each other in a balanced way.

Example:
Neil Armstrong said when he stepped on
the moon, “This is one small step for a man,
one giant leap for a mankind.”
Sound devices
-help a lot in adding flavor
to literary composition,
especially in poems.
1. Rhyming words –add beauty to a poem
Forward, the light brigade!
Was there a man dismayed?
Not thought the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply
Theirs not to reason why.
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of death
Road the six hundred.
-From “The Charge of the Light Brigade”
by Alfred Lord Tennyson
It also adds rhythm to the lines of the poem.
It was many and many a year ago
in a kingdom by the sea.
and this maiden she lived with no other thought
than to love and be loved by me.
and so, all the night-die, I lie down by the side.
of my darling, my darling, my life and my bride.
-From Anabelle Lee by Edgar Allan Poe
2. Alliteration –the repetition of the same sounds or
of the same kinds of sounds at the beginning of
words or in stressed syllables.
Example:
Pretty women wonder where my secret lies
I’m not cute or built a fashion model’s size
But when I start to tell them
They think I’m telling lies.
-From Phenomenal Women by Maya Angelou
3. Assonance –the repetition of the sound of a
vowel or diphthong which are near enough to each
other for the sound to be describable.
Example:
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
for the ends of being and ideal grace
-From “How do I love thee?” by Elizabeth Barret Browning
Diction –the selection of
the most appropriate word
you can use for your written
work.
A good diction is said to be achieved when the
following conditions are met by the author or
writer:
a. The right words were chosen for what is written
about
b. The words chosen are appropriate for the
theme and tone of the composition
c. The words used can be easily understood of the
readers
● The level of formality of a written output is
generally identified through diction.
● The more serious the piece of writing is, the
more formal its diction

Notice how the sentences can denote the level

of formality of the text, though all of them
actually mean the same.
FORMAL: The protesters are not angry
with politics but with the politicians.
CASUAL: The activists aren’t mad about
politics but with politicians.
INFORMAL: The crown ain’t ticked about
politics but with the people involved in it.
● Proper diction is also essential in conveying the
message of the text.
● Erroneous choice of words may lead to
misinterpretation and misunderstanding between
the writer and the reader
● Aside from the level of formality, positive and
negative connotation of words must also be
carefully considered, as in these examples: (see
next slide)
POSITIVE NEGATIVE
Pruning the Slashing the
brushes bushes
The politician’s The politician’s
stance spin
NEGATIVE: “The gardener was seen pruning the
bushes.”
This statement brings about an imagined image of a
kind-looking individual working at a garden and
carefully trimming overgrown bushes to beautify the
garden
POSITIVE: “The gardeners were slashing at the
bushes after the heard the owner’s announcement”
it conveys a feeling of anger and stress of the
gardeners toward their master
● Remember that in literature, writers should choose their
words carefully to create and convey a typical mood, tone,
and atmosphere that they wish to impart and share with their
readers
● The writer’s proper selection of words does not only affect
the attitude of the readers, but also conveys his/her own
outlook toward his/her literary work. Hence, the writer must
carefully select the words to be used in order to relay the
message properly
UNIT II: Reading
and Writing Poetry
GENRE
Genre is a French
word meaning
kind or group
The word genre refers to:
a category of
•Artistic
•Musical or
•Literary
composition characterized by a
particular style, form, or content.
 Fiction
• Story based on the
imagination of the
author
• Written to entertain
the reader
• Characterized by a
setting, characters,
dialogue, conflict,
climax and solution
 Fiction Subgroups
• Fantasy
• Romance
• Adventure
• Crime Fiction
• Horror
• Science Fiction
• Mystery
• Historical Fiction
• Realistic Fiction
• Traditional Literature
How do we classify literature into each
genre?
 CONVENTIONS
A particular genre includes certain
basic ingredients which we call
conventions
 CONVENTIONS
Texts often fit into multiple genres

Question: Can you think of an example of

a novel which combines Science Fiction,
Romance, Adventure and Horror J
 Mystery
• Suspenseful story
about a puzzling
event that is not
solved until the end
of the story.
Historical Fiction
• Fictional story that takes
place in a particular time
period in the past
• Often the setting is real,
but the characters are
made up from the author’s
imagination
Traditional Literature
• Stories that are passed down
from one group to another in
history.
• Includes folktales, legends,
fables, fairytales, tall tales,
and myths from different
cultures.
Horror • Baddies, supernatural creatures like
vampires, victims, believers and
sceptics of the supernatural, innocent
children and young women, hero,
saviour, slayers, mad scientists clever
experts.
• Isolated places, dark places,
cemeteries, good versus evil,
revenge, courage, justice,
suspense, killing.
Realistic
Fiction
Story using made-up
characters that could
happen in real life
• Story including elements that are
impossible such as talking
Fantasy
animals or magical powers. Magic
users (wizards); royalty
(princesses); unreal creatures
(dragons); hero/heroine
• Quest to overcome obstacles
• Enchanted places, castles,
forests, medieval time
• Good versus evil, honorable
qualities, friendship
• Successive volumes
Science Fiction
• A type of fantasy that uses
science and technology
• Robots, space, time machines,
aliens, time travel
• Conflict with invaders
• A quest to overcome obstacles
• Set in the future (advanced or
regressive)
• Good versus evil
• Friendship, honourable qualities,
Romance
• Fictional story that takes
place in a particular time
period in the past
• Love match, overcoming
obstacles, becoming a
couple, happy endings
 Crime Fiction
• Fictional story that takes place in a
particular time period in the past
● Often the setting is real, but
• the characters
are made up from the author’s imagination
● Crime solved by detective involves
interpretation of clues, villains,
•

mysterious settings, danger, weapons

suspense and tension
 Takeaways:
What have learned on our
discussion/activity today?