Creative Writing & Creative Non-Fiction

Autobiography

an account of one's own life, generally a continuous narrative of major events (Beckmann & Ganz 21)

it can also be defined as "the biography of oneself narrated by oneself"

Greek word of Autobiography

Bios - life

Graphein - to write

George Gusdorf

autobiography requires a man to take a distance with regard to himself in order to reconstitute himself in the focus of his special unity and identity across time.

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL NARATIVE

is the most self-conscious personal history of its creator as he or she chosen to see himself or herself, and then to render it in writing.

Types of autobiographical narrative

•MEMOIR

•THE DIARY AND THE JOURNAL

MEMOIR

• the more informal forms of autobiographical narratives

• one that is most often confused with the formal autobiography

Formal Autobiography

concerned with the telling of the author's life.

•THE DIARY AND THE JOURNAL

•very popular for thousands of years and have been deployed by different types of people for writing and recording personal experiences, thoughts, and feelings.

• ….. are more intimate than diaries, however both ….. and ……l are generally kept private.

Writing Process

•Creative writing is a process as much as a product. Understanding that writing is a process with several stages to observe allows you to write most efficiently.

•it enables you to focus on one task a time rather than trying to juggle many different aspects of writing simultaneously.

THE WRITING PROCESS BREAKS A LARGE TASK INTO SMALL, MANAGEABLE STEPS, EACH WITH A DIFFERENT PURPOSE.

PREWRITING

DRAFTING

REVISING

EDITING

PUBLISHING

PREWRITING

exploring a subject, narrowing, your focus to a specific topic, researching topic, gathering details, and organizing them

Four key elements of prewriting

1.Topic

2.Author's Purpose

3.Audience

4.Special Considerations

TOPIC

is what you will write about, everything you have ever known, seen, dreamed, experienced, remembered, heard, and read can be a source of your writing topic.

Author’s purpose

•An author's purpose is the author's goal in writing a selection.

•Common purposes include to entertain, instruct,persuade, or describe.

•Nearly all creative writing has the same purpose: to entertain.

Audience

•Your …. is your reader. Writing without considering your audience is like buying a pair of pants without trying them on. How do you know it will fit?

•….influence your choice of topic, language, sentence, length, punctuation, and allusions.

•it can even influence your choice of form, such as novel, article, and poetry.

Special Considerations

•In the best of all possible worlds, we'd all have time and money enough to write, unfettered by reality. Unfortunately, reality bites.

•Here are some of the constraints that all creative writers must face sooner or later.

1.Readership

2.Budget (for screenplay and dramas)

3.deadlines

4.format (especially if the work is part of a series)

5.length, word count

6.purpose

staging constraints (if the work is a drama)

Drafting

• ….. is creating a first written version or draft (beginning, middle, and ending)

• during this step, you work steadily to connect your ideas to form a first version of your writing.

• when you draft, you work steadily to put your ideas into an initial, rough form without stopping

Beginning of Drafting

1.Grabs the reader's attention with an interesting fact, question, or anecdote

2.Provide necessary background

3.Enables a voice appropriate for the purpose of the writing

4.State the thesis of the piece

Middle of Drafting

The middle supports and develops the thesis, providing a variety of details and information:

1.Facts and statistics explain ideas

2. Definition and examples clarify ideas

3. Anecdotes and observations connect the topic to real life.

4. Quotations and citations offer expert information

5. Experiments supply scientific evidence

6. Logic argumentation persuade the reader.

The middle also organizes the supporting details according to a pattern.

1.time

2.location

3.logic

4.conversion

5.least to most

6.most to least

7.subject by subject

8.point by point

9.causes and effects

10.similarities and differences

11.pros and cons

Ending of Draft

•The ending leaves an impression in one or more ways.

1.sumps up the thesis

2.emphasizes with the reader's life

3.call the reader to act

4.provides a strong final thought

5.asks a provocative question

Revising

•after completing a solid first draft, take a break. The length of the break can vary depending upon the complexity of the writing, but it should be long enough for you to return to your work refreshed and ready to revise your draft.

•when you revise, you change what you need to better satisfy your purpose and audience.

•most professional writers rewrite their sentences, rewrite their sentences, and then rewrite them again. But creative writers tend to be an anal retentive lot.

REVISING CHECKLIST

Ideas

Organization

Voice

Ideas

ü The writing focuses on one part of an interesting topic

ü The thesis is clear, concise, and compelling

ü a variety of details develops the thesis

ü each paragraph focuses on a main point

ü the writing achieves its purpose (inform, persuade, entertain)

Organization

ü The beginning captures the reader's attention and provides the thesis.

ü The middle develops the thesis

ü Details are arranged effectively (time, location, importance) and paragraphs appear in the best order

ü The ending sums up the thesis and provides a final thought.

Voice

ü The voice is appropriate to the topic and purpose of the writing

ü The voice connects to the readers

ü The level of language is appropriate to the writing form

Four basic improvement in revising

①add necessary information,

②remove unnecessary details,

③reorder disorganized material, and

④rework unclear ideas

Editing

• once you have completed the large-scale improvements and made a clean copy of your revised writing, it is time to edit your work.

• editing involves fine-tuning the words, sentences, correctness, and design of the piece.

Editing Checklist

Words

Sentences

Design

Words

ü nouns are specific and verbs are active

ü modifiers are used sparingly and only to improve clarity

ü words show respect for gender, ethnicity, age, and ability

Sentences

ü sentences vary in length and begin in different ways

ü sentences flow smoothly

ü most sentences use active voice

ü all sentences include a subject and a predicate and express a complete thought

Design

ü the document follows the requirements of the assignment or form

ü the typeface is easy to read

ü white space (margins, blank lines) creates accessible blocks of text

ü the overall design enhances the clarity of the piece

Publishing

• Publishing brings your work to the public so that others can learn from it, respond to it, and build upon it.

• In addition to traditional publications, online options allow you to share your ideas across the globe