Completing
The ending of your story is as important as the beginning. You must ensure that
your story ends at the appropriate point and not stretched to an anti-climax. If you
are not careful your story will never end but it has to end. Ensure that all the
conflicts are resolved and that you end at the point where you will achieve high
dramatic effect. Then revise your work. Some writers claim that they do not revise
their works. You should at this stage, revise your work, tie the loose ends to ensure
that you produce a work that is worth reading. At the point of revision, try to
assess yourself by providing honest answers to the following questions:
1. Have I told an interesting story?
2. Is it convincing?
3. Is my perspective on the theme clear?
4. Have I achieved the objective I set for myself?
5. Have I created convincing characters?
40
6. Are my characters memorable?
7. Is the environment suitable for the characters?
8. How is my language?
9. Are there irrelevances that could be cut
10. Do I like the way it ends.
You can revise your work as many times as possible before you send it to a
publisher.
3.5 The Title
Sometimes, you give your story a title before you start and it ends up with that
title. However, at other times, the title evolves from the story. As you write your
story and titles come to your mind, write them down and later review all of them
and choose the best.
The titles may change from the first draft through other drafts until you get the
final piece. My play Sons for My Son started as Ndidi (My third year exam play)
and later metamorphosed to “Obiefuna”, “An Only Son” before I settled finally for
Sons For My Son.
You should choose a title that will give your reader an idea about your subject
matter. If you choose an appropriate title before you start writing, it will help you
to ensure that your characters, events, and other incidents in the play revolve
around it.
4.0 CONCLUSION
Creative writing is the arrangement of words artistically to tell a story, relate an
experience or recreate an event or a situation. It is written in form of drama, poetry
or prose. A creative writer is an ordinary human being who imaginatively creates a
new story, recreates an existing story, or relate an experience. The story or
41
experience could be based on real life experiences, history, myth, legend or
folklore.
Creative writing therefore is a product of imagination. The writer goes through a
process whereby he conceptualizes an idea, fertilizes the idea, moulds it in a
desired form and produces a perceived perfect work. As a writer you need an
organizational ability that would enable you to organize the conceptualized idea
into a coherent and comprehensive form. The first step in this process is to draw
your outline, plan your outline with a stimulating introduction (beginning), an
interesting body (middle) and a build up to a reasonable and effective conclusion
(end). In this way, you will be able to create an imaginative or fictional world that
is very close to reality.
5.0 SUMMARY
In this unit we have taken you through the process of creative writing. We have
tried to teach, through copious illustrations from the works of some renowned
creative writers and learners like you. You have seen that some people are writers
by accident while some came from a family of creative artists. Either way, you
need to learn some of the rudiments of the art for you to excel. You have also
learnt that you need a lot of discipline for you to start and end a creative work.
No comments: