Wk 2 and Wk 3: Creative Writing 101

Wk 2: Show vs. Tell

Our lecture for week #2 explored the difference of ’show’ vs. ‘tell’.

A golden rule in writing is generally to show INSTEAD of tell. Timing on this lecture was interesting as I also received the March edition of The Writer and an article there discusses that sometimes the golden rules is meant to be broken, giving examples of when it’s a good idea to tell instead of the more lengthy show-method.

We also had our first class chat last Monday night. It was nice to interact with the other students in the class but I was a bit disappointed that there wasn’t more writing-related discussion. Maybe next time.

Wk 3: Individuality

This lesson focused on how to find the things within you that are unique so you may share them through your writing. There were a lot of really great exercises throughout the lesson and I’m planning to work through a few of them in upcoming entries.

It was suggested that we keep a journal of some sort to use as a dumping ground for ideas and thoughts. From these ideas, we’re supposed to find things that may be worth working into something readable.

Voice was also a large part of this lesson. The instructor gave us some great examples of voice in the sample works this week. Our writing is supposed to sound like us but still pay respect to basic principles of good language skills.

Some of these things I’ve already run into during the first two weeks of the course. No matter how hard I may try to take a story in one direction, naturally I find myself wandering back into the familiar territory of my own experiences. And as for my “voice”, well, I took that copy editing course last fall and find myself trying to use correct grammar but sometimes it gets in the way of the flow I’m building style-wise. I’m going to take this week’s lesson as permission NOT to get quite so hung up on little things like sentence fragments or informal style.

Our assignment, which I’ve thought about but haven’t actually completed yet, is to write a list of 5 things we hate. Then we are to choose one and write 500 words on it. Simple enough, right?