A handful of simple things you can use to extend your skills with a pen.
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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.
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.
This post was prompted by a discussion about the compulsory creative writing part of the HSC exam and how we can get kids to practise writing, even when it's not an area of interest or strength for them.
Writers don't all do the same thing. I've had other writers recommend creative writing books to me that I hated, and over on Scribophile the "plotter vs pantser" debate is second only to the "self-publish vs traditionally publish" one. It's important to note that while there might be writing or editing "rules", there are no rules for the creative process. So with that in mind, I'm including exercises that encourage whatever existing creativity is there and teach skills, rather than a beginning-to-end process. |
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Whole day (9am-3pm) workshops are available at a cost of $600AUD. Travel costs may apply to schools outside the Newcastle/Lake Macquarie region. Archives
March 2020
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