English Major - Creative Writing

CREATIVE WRITING
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Creative Writing
Any writing that goes outside the bounds

of professional, journalistic, academic,
or technical forms of literature, identified
by an emphasis on narrative craft,
character development, and the use of
literary tropes*.
Literary trope (literary device/motif/cliché) is

the use of figurative language.
Fiction
Imaginative recreation, re-construction of life

Elements: Plot (Exposition, Rising Action, Climax,
Falling Action, Denouement), Setting,
Character, Conflict, Symbol, Point of View,
Theme, Mood, Tone and Irony
Fiction includes novels, short stories, fables, fairy
tales, plays, poetry, but it now also
encompasses films, comic books, and video
games.
Elements of Fiction
• Plot or Narrative
Events that form a significant pattern of
action. They move from one place or
event to another in order to form a
pattern, usually with the purpose of
overcoming a conflict.
Freytag’s Pyramid
Elements of Fiction
• Plot or Narrative
Devices: Deus ex machina, MacGuffin, Red
herring, Chekhov's gun, foreshadowing or
adumbrating, etc.
Types: Dramatic or Progressive, Episodic,
Parallel, Flashback
Elements of Fiction
• Setting
Defined as the physical location and the
time of a story; Physical and chronological
• Character
Major, Minor, Dynamic, Static, Round, Stock,
Protagonist, Antagonist, Anti-Hero, Foil,
Symbolic
Elements of Fiction
• Characterization
Direct and Indirect, Consistency and
Complexity, Appearance, Dialogue and
Action
Elements of Fiction
• Point of View
The perspective from which a story is told.
First person: Central (Main) and Peripheral

(Minor)
Second Person: Using the you and your
pronouns. Example: Will Baker's “Grace
Period”
Elements of Fiction
• Point of View
Third person: Omniscient, Limited, and

Objective or Dramatic
Elements of Fiction
• Conflict
An inherent incompatibility between
the objectives of two or more characters
or forces.
Person versus Person, Self, God, Society,
Nature, Supernatural, Machine or
Technology
Elements of Fiction
• Symbol
Something that means more than what it is.
Universal and Contextual
• Mood or Atmosphere
The feeling the reader gets while reading the
story.
Hostile, optimistic, threatening, ominous,
bitter, defiant, etc.
Elements of Fiction
• Tone
Author’s mood and manner of expression.
Serious, didactic, humorous, satirical,
caustic/sarcastic, passionate, sensitive, etc.
• Style
Language conventions used to construct the
story or article.
Elements of Fiction
• Theme
The central concern, the truth about life.
• Tension
Recurring force that maintains the sense of
forward motion throughout a story or
novel.
Creative Non-Fiction
A branch of writing that employs the literary

techniques usually associated with fiction
or poetry to report on actual persons,
places, or events.
Sometimes called literary journalism or the
literature of fact
Personal Essays, memoirs, short short, literary
journalism, lyric essay
Essay
Prose composition of moderate length,

usually expository on nature, which aims
to explain or clear up an idea, a theory, an
impression, or point of view
Essay
• Formal/impersonal essay
Deals with a serious subject and an important
topic like philosophy, science, politics,
religion
• Informal/familiar essay
Light ordinary, trivial subject matters in a
conversational, friendly, and even
humorous tone
Poetry
A form of literary art which uses aesthetic

and rhythmic qualities of language.
Genres: Narrative, Epic, Dramatic, Satirical,

Lyric, Elegy, Verse Fable, Prose Poetry,
Speculative poetry
Poetry
Forms: Sonnet, Shi, Villanelle, Tanka, Haiku,

Ode, Ghazal
Elements: Stanza, Tone/Mood, Imagery,

Refrain, Repetition, Rhyme Scheme,
Theme, Symbolism
Figurative Language and Rhetorical
Devices
• Figures of Speech
Periphrasis: substituting a descriptive phrase,
made up of a concrete adjective and abstract
noun, for a precise word: “fringed curtains of
thine eye” (= eyelashes).
Cliché: any figure of speech that was once
clever and original but through overuse has
become outdated.
Devices
• Sounds
Pun: deliberate confusion of words based upon
similarity of sound (waist/waste).
Malapropism: unconscious pun; confusing
“odious” for “onerous.”
Wordplay: a serious pun, as when a dying man
says “tomorrow you shall find me
a grave man.”
Devices
Paronomasia: wordplay based upon similar
rather than identical sounds (e.g. roots/rots).
Cacophony: a discordant series of harsh,
unpleasant sounds helps to convey disorder.
Euphony: a series of musically pleasant sounds,
conveying a sense of harmony and beauty to
the language.
Figurative Language and
Rhetorical Devices
Rhyme: This is the one device most
commonly associated with poetry by the
general public. Words that have different
beginning sounds but whose endings
sound alike, including the final vowel
sound and everything following it, are said
to rhyme.
Devices
Rhythm: Although the general public is seldom
directly conscious of it, nearly everyone
responds on some level to the organization of
speech rhythms (verbal stresses) into a
regular pattern of accented syllables
separated by unaccented syllables.
Devices
• Other Rhetorical Devices
Repetition, Parallelism, Contrast, Antithesis:
devices which have the rational appeal of
logic and the aesthetic appeal of symmetry.
Anaphora: repetition of word or words
beginning a series of parallel syntactical units.
Devices
Double Epithet: two words of identical or almost
identical meaning joined by a conjunction.
Hendiadys: two words joined by a conjunction
although one modifies the other (“this policy
and reverence of age” means “this policy of
reverencing age”).
Devices
Transposition: rearrangement of normal word
order for effect.
Ambiguity: a word or phrase that can mean
more than one thing, even in its context.
Rhetorical Devices
Allusion: reference to or echo of familiar
expressions, persons or objects from a
cultural tradition (esp. biblical, classical,
proverbial); e.g., a “prodigal son” alludes
to the biblical parable.
Rhetorical Devices
Connotation: double- and triple-level
suggestive power of words; gold can
connote wealth, but also beauty and
excellence or greed; a dove, peace as well
as innocence.
Forms of Poetry
Concrete Poetry: also known as pattern poetry

or shaped verse.
Epigram: a pithy, sometimes satiric, couplet or
quatrain comprising a single thought or event
and often aphoristic with a witty or
humorous turn of thought
Forms of Poetry
Epitaph: a brief poem or statement in memory

of someone who is deceased.
Haiku: a Japanese form of poetry consisting of
three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five
syllables.
Limerick: was popularized by Edward Lear in his
Book of Nonsense published in 1846.
Forms of Poetry
Pantoum: derived from the Malayan pantun, it
consists of a varying number of four-line stanzas
with lines rhyming alternately; the second and
fourth lines of each stanza repeated to form the
first and third lines of the succeeding stanza,
with the first and third lines of the first stanza
forming the second and fourth of the last stanza,
but in reverse order, so that the opening and
closing lines of the poem are identical.
Forms of Poetry
Rondeau: a fixed form used mostly in light or

witty verse, usually consisting of fifteen octo-
or decasyllabic lines in three stanzas, with
only two rhymes used throughout.
Forms of Poetry
Sestina: a fixed form consisting of six 6-line

(usually unrhymed) stanzas in which the end
words of the first stanza recur as end words
of the following five stanzas in a successively
rotating order, and as the middle and end
words of each of the lines of a concluding
envoi in the form of a tercet.
Forms of Poetry
Sonnet: a fourteen line poem in iambic
pentameter with a prescribed rhyme scheme;
its subject was traditionally love.
Shakespearean Sonnet: a style of sonnet used by
Shakespeare with a rhyme scheme of abab
cdcd efef gg
Forms of Poetry
Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet: a form of sonnet

made popular by Petrarch with a rhyme
scheme of abbaabba cdecde or cdcdcd
Spenserian Sonnet: a variant of the
Shakespearean form in which the
quatrains are linked with a chain or
interlocked rhyme scheme, abab bcbc cdcd
ee.
Forms of Poetry
Triolet: a poem or stanza of eight lines in which

the first line is repeated as the fourth and
seventh lines, and the second line as the
eighth, with a rhyme scheme of ABaAabAB
(the capital letters in the rhyme scheme
indicate the repetition of identical lines)
Villanelle: a poem consisting of five 3-line
stanzas followed by a quatrain and having
only two rhymes.
Meter
Meter
Iamb (iambic) Unstressed, stressed Accept
Troche (trochaic) Stressed, unstressed Widow
Anapest (anapaestic) 2 unstressed, stressed Disappoint
Dactyl (dactylic) Stressed, 2 unstressed Happily
Spondee (spondaic) 2 stressed Heartbreak
Phyrric (phyrric) 2 unstressed in the
Feet-conventionalized units of
stressed and unstressed symbols
Two feet each line Dimeter
Three feet to each line Trimester
Four feet Tetrameter
Five feet Pentameter
Six feet Hexameter
Seven feet Heptameter
Eight feet octometer
Drama
Story written to be performed by actors
• Genres of drama
Tragedy: usually shows the downfall of the
protagonist
Comedy: opposite of tragedy
Drama
• Genres of drama
Tragicomedy: a serious play that also has some
qualities of comedy
Farce: characterized by swift movements, has
ridiculous situations, and does not stimulate
thought
References
http://learn.lexiconic.net/elementsoffiction.htm
http://cstlcla.semo.edu/hhecht/the%20elements%20of%20fi
ction.htm
http://www.uvm.edu/wid/writingcenter/tutortips/nonfiction
.html
http://cla.calpoly.edu/~dschwart/engl331/figurative.html

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CREATIVE WRITING

Any writing that goes outside the bounds

Literary trope (literary device/motif/cliché) is

Imaginative recreation, re-construction of life

First person: Central (Main) and Peripheral

Third person: Omniscient, Limited, and

A branch of writing that employs the literary

Prose composition of moderate length,

A form of literary art which uses aesthetic

Genres: Narrative, Epic, Dramatic, Satirical,

Forms: Sonnet, Shi, Villanelle, Tanka, Haiku,

Elements: Stanza, Tone/Mood, Imagery,

Concrete Poetry: also known as pattern poetry

Epitaph: a brief poem or statement in memory

Rondeau: a fixed form used mostly in light or

Sestina: a fixed form consisting of six 6-line

Italian (Petrarchan) Sonnet: a form of sonnet

Triolet: a poem or stanza of eight lines in which

Story written to be performed by actors

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