creative writing:creating unique writing style

creative writing:creating unique writing style 

1 Introduction 2.Objective 3. Main Content 3.1 The Story 3.2Plot 3.3 Characterisation 

3.3.1 Credibility 3.3.2

 Consistency/ motivation 

3.4 Language

 3.5 Setting

 3.5.1 Physical

 3.5.2 Historical/social

 3.6 Publishing

INTRODUCTION In the preceding units we have discussed the idea, the planning of the work and how to present it. We will now discuss the style in this unit. Your style is your own unique way of presenting your story. An analysis of any literary piece is hinged on content and form. Content is the subject matter, and the theme, the central idea or that message you want to relate to your reader. Form includes the way you arrange the incidents – plot; the way you create your characters – characterization; the vehicle of communication – language; the environment where 58 the action takes place – setting, and other literary devices you use to embellish your work. 2.0 OBJECTIVES By the end of this unit, you should be able to: • Tell a story creatively • Identify different ways you could arrange your story • Differentiate language use as it is related to each literary genre • Be able to delineate characters through language • Identify the setting for your story • Create characters appropriately • Create suspense in your story • Insert flashbacks appropriately 3.0 MAIN CONTENT 3.1. The Story Creative literary writing is primarily an imitation of human life. It is generally referred to as “a mirror held up to nature”. The writer creatively or artistically renders and arranges the story in such a way that it would instruct and give artistic pleasure to the reader. We talked about ideas in Unit 1, but ideas alone cannot make an interesting reading. You build a story around your idea. Your personality and background influence your writing because “writers, however talented they may be, are conditioned by their human nature… based on their interests, goals and life experiences, make choices on what to write about” (Ojaide, 57) and how to write it. Your intention might be to simply tell a beautiful story; to tell a story to teach the audience a lesson; to tell a story that would stir the audience to an invariably revolutionary action; the choice is yours. The important point to be made here is that you are trying to tell a story. 59 Let us try to tell a story in this unit. As we go along with our story here, create your own story and try to tell it side by side with us. A managing director of a bank is sacked. Surprisingly, he does not have money to pay back /refund the money he is said to have embezzled. He is forced to leave his posh duplex apartment with boys quarters to live in a two bedroom apartment. He could not get another job and in despondency and desperation he commits suicide. We will use this short story to illustrate style in creative writing. 3.2 Plot Plot is the arrangement of incidents in a story. You should be able to present your plot in such a way to arrest your readers’ interest and sustain it till the end. You could arrange your story to run chronologically from beginning to the end or you could start from any point and through flashbacks present a coherent story. Whichever style you choose, employ a technique to “take a grip upon the reader’s sympathies and imagination; dramatizing it” (Hall 62). Plot according to Henry James is characters in action. These characters must be able to engage in an action that can hold the readers, raise their expectations as it progresses for them to desire to know what happens next. Your plot determines if your reader will pick your book and would not put it down until he gets to the end or abandon the book after struggling to read one or two chapters. So organization or the arrangement of the incidents is very important here. Let us go back to the story of the bank manager. How do we organize the story? Shall we pick him as the major character, from childhood through secondary school to the university, to the job, the sack and the consequence of the sack? Shall we just start the story from the bank, his promotions and the sack? Shall we organize it in a chronological order or in another order to achieve our aim to tell an interesting 60 story? Whichever one we choose, we must bear in mind that “a plot is a story plus causal relationships in a meaningful sequence (Hall 60). With this as a guide, try to draw an outline in ten sentences or phrases to show your arrangement of this particular plot. Self Assessment Exercise Now compare your outline with this one below. This bank manager is Mr. Bayo 1. Mr. Bayo is in his office 2. His cousin visits asking for job or loan to start a small business 3. Bayo refuses to help. He claims to be a born-again so would not touch bank money 4. He prays every morning with his staff, cautions then against embezzlement 5. He is a deacon in his church and is in charge of the money collected during offering 6. Sacks a staff instantly for receiving a tip from a customer 7. His children are studying abroad, visited them and just returned 8. In his sitting room, he is arrested for embezzlement 9. Arraigned in court – found guilty 10. From Grace to Grass In developing the story, we must give some indications that he could commit the crime in such a way that the suspense is maintained. We should try to inject humour in the story. We should also create plausible and credible story/sequence of events. My outline above is not detailed. You can create a more detailed outline. In my own case, sometimes, I create a detailed plot outline but at other times, a skeletal outline was sufficient. This happens more when a story is in my head and is 61 begging to be poured out. My play, Into the World for instance, was initiated by my elder sister who teaches French in a secondary school. She needed a short play as an entry by her students for a competition. I drew a sketchy outline and started immediately but the play “refused to stop”. In a week I had written a full-length play. That was the fastest play I had ever written. I abandoned it, drew another outline, and produced a playlet that served her purpose. My purpose was to provide insights into the activities of unserious students and make useful suggestions to both parents and students. I believe that I achieved my aim in both plays but in the full-length play extended the theme of laziness and unseriousness to the slothful housewife who was unserious an a student.