HOW TO WRITE CREATIVE

WRITING INTRODUCTIONS

DR. SERAH N. KASEMBELI

 The entry point of any work.
It is the door, the meeting point between the reader and
the author.
What is an The point here is that it is a first meeting, so you want to
introduction create the impression that you want to.
The door should also be accessible. See the sensor doors,
Once you go in, you shouldn’t go out.
 Should therefore be catchy and clear and exciting.
 Should not be verbose, jargony and misleading.
 In 2015, I lived with a few other African black international
students in accommodation that housed black postgraduate
students from beyond South Africa. Each passing day around
that April of 2015, we would get reports from across the country
Experiential/ that non-South African black students had been attacked, and at
Embodied
times killed. The fears came closer and became more personal
Introductions
in this house, because of two experiences that my colleagues
and I had at our residential house: this communal house was
about 15–25 minutes walking distance from the University of
Stellenbosch central campus, where the library, departmental
buildings and the student centre and banks are.
This meant that students who lived in our area had to interact with civilians on our
walk to campus. One of the fears that arose was as a result of the fact that one of us
had been confronted by a stranger on the corner of the street leading to the house:
‘We know where you stay. In that house where there are many Nigerians’. The house
had approximately 14 African black non-South African students living there at a time.
This remark definitely evoked fear among us, but what was more significant was the
responding assurance we received from one of the black South African students who
also resided there: ‘We will protect you. But no one will attack you’. This naïve
assurance did more harm than good and brought to the fore the absolute denial of
some black South African students of the violence of xenophobia.
 start with conceptual and abstract ideas that contextualise your
entire work. E.g Charles dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age
of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of

Philosophical belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it
was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the
Introductions winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing
before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going
direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the
present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its
being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of
comparison only.
  You can choose and anecdote: a personal story or
any story.
 Challenges: be objective even if it’s a personal story:
be credible and truthful. The aim should not be to
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damage other people’s reputation:
 If the people intertwined with your story: tread
carefully
 Be ethical: do not quote people’s names without
their consent or without informing them.
Historical/ Archival introductions
See below
The Churchill Show is a weekly live and recorded comedy show, originally staged at
the Carnivore Grounds in Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, and later hosted in various parts
of the country. The live recordings were disseminated on Kenya’s NTV television
network and published on YouTube by Laugh Industry Limited and NTV Kenya.
The Churchill Show’s theme song includes a reference to bringing Kenyans back
together, and the so-called ethnic jokes in the show are presented as a celebration
of Kenyan multiculturalism and as a counter to what is popularly known as
negative ethnicity. I show in this article that these negative ethnic narratives are
situated in colonial and postcolonial archives such as harambee, nyayo philosophy,
patriotism and tujenge Kenya ideologies that have been imposed on citizens, as a
way of shifting the burden of nation-building onto ordinary Kenyans.
 WOLE SOYINKA: AKE

Creative
Introductions YVETTE CHRISTIANSE: UNCONFESSED
Creative Introduction 1
  What is the setting?
 Where do the events occur?
Introductions
contain the  AKE, first paragraph
setting  THINGS FALL APART, First paragraph
 Okonkwo was well known throughout the nine villages
and even beyond. His fame rested on solid personal
achievements. As a young man of eighteen he had
brought honor to his village by throwing Amalinze the Cat.
Amalinze was the great wrestler who for seven years was
unbeaten, from Umuofia to Mbaino. He was called the Cat
because his back would never touch the earth. It was this
man that Okonkwo threw in a fight which the old men
agreed was one of the fiercest since the founder of their
town engaged a spirit of the wild for seven days and
seven nights.
Introductions
introduce the
conflict of the
story