Creative Writing

Do you believe that effective narrative is plot-driven or character-driven?  Do you believe the question itself assumes a false choice?  Why not think of an effective narrative as one in which the plot is driven and determined by character?  However we think about plot and character and the relationships between the two, we can all agree that stories are about people, about a “someone,” and we want to create believable, “life-like” characters.  Try this Get To Know Your Character exercise  to learn more about  “someone” you might want to tell a story about.

 

Once you have a character, how do you get them to get out of bed in the morning?  What do they want?  What is their purpose or goal or problem?  Or, as Maslow might put it, what are their NEEDS?  Read about Maslow’s Heirarchy of Needs to discover ways of endowing your characters with a rich inner psychology based on needs, both their thwarting and their attainment.

A Scene can be seen.  Watch this “Anatomy of a scene” video for a refresher on the elements of scene in narrative.

Try the Bake A Cake Exercise to practice conflict and obstacles in your creative writing classroom.

Ask these StudentLoreQuestions to find out what preconceptions, prior knowledge, and experiences your students are bringing into the creative writing classroom.