For anyone interested in teaching The Things We Can't Undo in your classroom, a PDF with teachers' notes (including links to the Australian national curriculum) is available here.
| ttwcu_teachers_notes.pdf |
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When a young writer wants to take the next step and publish their work or submit it to a contest, often the first person they will ask for advice is their English teacher. Unfortunately, unless that teacher also happens to be a writer, they may not know where to start either. I've compiled here a list of places that accept submissions from teenagers, but before I get to that, a few things to keep in mind (or tell your prospective writer)...
In the final instalment of the student self-editing guide, I look at why many writers have declared war on adverbs, some common spelling and grammar issues, and how you can incorporate feedback from others.
Continuing with my guide for editing and improving your work, this week's topic is pacing.
If you've been reading this blog for a while, the information I'm about to share isn't new to you! But I'm including it again, because I wrote this guide in separate parts to be worked through in order, and that's how I gave it to my students.
One thing that is often under-emphasised in high school creative writing is the editing process. This guide was designed for an elective subject where we had a lot more time than the usual English class, but it may be helpful for those running writing clubs, the NSW Extension II course, or to modify for classroom use. It's in 5 parts: Plot, Voice & POV, Descriptions, Pacing & Consistency, and Polishing & Feedback. Originally, there was a lot more white space (for students to write their notes in). Printable PDF versions are available on request.
At the end of my last post about “show don’t tell”, I mentioned that the maxim is a useful “rule” when writing emotion. So in this post, I want to highlight some ways that you (or your students) can show emotion in your writing.
"Show don't tell" is one of those writing maxims that gets thrown around with little explanation. Scribophile Academy has a good article on it here. It's true that "telling" the entire way through your story is uninteresting and doesn't immerse the reader in your story. On the flip-side, "showing" every. single. thing. is very time consuming and not always that effective - especially if you've got a limited word count to work in.
Back in primary school, I learnt this about narrative writing:
There's an orientation (setting the scene), a complication and a resolution (where the complication is solved). Sound familiar? Then, in high school, I learnt the same thing, before moving on to maxims like "show, don't tell" (more on that later) and techniques like dialogue and metaphor. I learnt how to write good sentences, maybe even good paragraphs. The thing that was missing - and it's an absolutely crucial thing - was how to create a plot. We moved straight from structure to technique, without much consideration of content. Students are learning how to write a story, sure. Are they learning how to write an interesting story? |