Improve Your Writing

1. Improve Your Writing Imaginative Writing Description

2. Successful writers… • Grab the attention of the reader; • Create a strong sense of setting; • Construct interesting characters; • Establish a clear mood or atmosphere; • Create tension and climax; • Keep the reader hooked throughout the story!

3. Description can help you to achieve all of these things!

4. You should describe … • SETTING – weather, temperature, background, foreground and everything that can be ‘seen’ in the place you have chosen to stage your story. • CHARACTERS – their appearance, movements, behaviour, thoughts, feelings and anything else that might give the reader a clue as to what kind of person they are.

5. Setting

6. Appeal to the Readers’ Senses

7. Create mood/atmosphere through: • Visual Imagery – similes, metaphors and personification; • Sound Imagery – alliteration, assonance and onomatopoeia; • Word choice – think of the connotations of the words you use; • Symbolism – think of how objects can be symbolic.

8. Symbolic objects • Mirror - signifies vanity or an introspective nature. • A knife in a loaf of bread- symbolizes holy communion. • The glowing candle - a symbolic reminder of Christ's Passion. • A burned out candle - symbolizes a lack of devoutness and piety. • A white or blue pitcher and basin -  is a symbol of Purity, signifying clean thoughts and an uncorrupted essence.  • A dirty window- suggests physical malady A cleverly chosen object can add depth to your creative writing http://www.historyofpainters.com/household.htm

9. Character type? • Estelle picked up the trashy paperback she had been reading and quickly put it face down again on the coffee table. Her restless fingers drummed an indistinct tune on its cover and she glanced at the wall clock. 8:15 p.m. already. The candles had long since died and only their cloying waxy scent remained now. She rose to her feet and paced across the room glancing at her ivory complexion as it gazed back at her from the gilded mirror. How dare he make her wait like this. Estelle sighed and flounced back to the chaise lounge before picking up her book yet again. It was no good she was going to have to phone him. Who gives a damn if that b***h answers. That was his problem, not hers. He would not make her wait again. Outside, an owl’s plaintive call echoed around the glen as she smiled to herself and reached for the phone.

10. Read the following example: The morning haze, that had once been thick and dense, was suddenly pierced by a pin-prick of white light. At first this solitary dot quivered in the distance, but soon more broke through the greyness and spread in a jagged line across the horizon. Slowly the tiny points of light fused together to create a thin but palpable tear in the dawn. As the gloom at the edges of the tear pulled further apart, the outline of the hills became visible. The light burned brighter and roared a golden yellow. The air in the valley began to warm at the touch of this golden light and blew in gentle wisps. Now and then the silence was broken by a bird call or the faint rustle of grass. Now the light seeped into the sky like watercolour on paper, the splashes of yellow and white washing in all directions. The valley began to wake as the sun rose higher, burning away all remnants of the night. Here and there birds took flight. As flowers unfolded their clasped buds, the air was filled with a sweet perfume. Life had returned.

11. Discuss with your partner: • What kind of place is being described? • What is happening in the scene? • To which senses does the writer appeal? • What type of atmosphere or mood is created? Pick out words or images which help to create this mood.

12. Now it’s your turn! Look carefully at each of the following photographs. Then write ONE paragraph for each photograph, describing the scene shown.

18. Next … • Share your work with your partner. • Read your partner’s work carefully and think about what you enjoyed about it and what could be improved. • Give ‘Two stars and a wish’ to your partner. • Read your own feedback from your partner carefully.

19. Character

20. By describing your character, you can: • Allow the reader to imagine what they look like; • Enable the reader to engage with the character; • Convey what kind of person they are or what type of personality they have. • Make the reader want to find out more about the character.

21. You should describe the character’s: • Appearance • Actions • Behaviour • Thoughts/dialogue • Feelings • Opinions • Reactions

22. Read the following passage… “Fearless was a very wee man in a greasy gabardine coat meant for a much bigger specimen altogether. Grey – green sleeves dripped over permanent fists so just a row of yellow knuckles, like stained teeth, showed below the cuffs … He had a gammy leg as well so every step the bag clinked, a noise like a rusty tap, regular as a heartbeat.” From “Fearless” by Janice Galloway

23. Discuss with your partner: • What does Fearless look like? • What type of person is Fearless? • Pick out words and images which create this impression of the character. • How does the narrator feel about Fearless? Give evidence for your answer.

24. Now it’s your turn! Look at the following picture and write ONE paragraph describing this person. You should cast this person in a positive light.

26. Share your work with a partner… • Read your partner’s paragraph carefully. • What sort of impression has your partner created of the lady? • Can you pick out words or images which help to do this? • How could they improve this piece of writing? • Feedback to your partner.

27. Now, try to change your lady completely. Write a paragraph, describing her in a negative way.

28. Openings

29. An effective opening: • Captures the attention of the reader; • Quickly sets the scene; • Introduces the main character; • Sets the mood/atmosphere of the story. Read the following openings …

30. “The first ferry for a week was fast the the quay, the thick rope springs holding it to, looped fore and aft over iron cleats the height of children. The weather had been so hard and high that there was seaweed all over the island, brought in by the wind, and the east wall of each house was drifted up to the roof. The children dug in to these drifts and made blue caves to sit in, smoothing till the cave’s inner ice melted and set to a clear lucent veneer.”

31. “There would be days when you didn’t see him and then days when you did. He just appeared suddenly, shouting threats up the main street, then went away again. You didn’t question it. Nobody said anything to Fearless. You just averted you eyes when he was there and laughed about him when he wasn’t. Behind his back. It was what you did.”

32. “When Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from troubled dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a monstrous insect. He was lying on his hard shell-like back and by lifting his head a little he could see his curved brown belly, divided by stiff arching ribs, on top of which the bed-quilt was precariously poised and seemed about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pathetically thin compared to the rest of his bulk, danced helplessly before his eyes. ‘What has happened to me?’ he thought. It was no dream.”

33. Discuss with a partner… • Which is your favourite opening paragraph? • List 3 reasons why this is your favourite opening. • How does the writer grab your attention?

34. Endings

35. Endings • Have to have impact; • Are often sudden or unexpected. However, you must build up to your ending, don’t just give up! • Do not tie up all of the ‘loose ends’ of the story; • Leave the reader unsure or shocked about what has happened; • Leave the reader desperate to find out what happens next! Now, read the following endings:

36. In the following extract, the writer describes the scene as islanders gather to wave off a boat from the pier. A rope breaks loose, but as everyone seems to have thrown themselves onto the ground, the reader thinks that all is well …

37. “The boat continued to move away, its briefly lethal rope trailing behind it, a lone seaman at the winch above, coiling it in to usefulness. The black ferrous patina on the big cleat had burned off under the seething tension of the rope; its stem was polished by the force through to a pale refined metal blue. The children from the end of the pier comforted their mothers, who stared out to the disappearing ship seeing, abob in the water, the heads of children cut off at the neck, their frozen sweetness of face under the streaming curtailed hair; red, red, red, red, red, red, red or black, and to grow no more.”

38. Now, read the short story “Vendetta” by Guy de Maupassant. This can be found on page 47 of the Sweet and Sour collection.

39. To discuss with a partner… • Why are these endings shocking? • Is there any confusion as to what has actually happened in each ending? Why? • How do the writers build up to each ending? • Which is your favourite ending? Why?