Everything about Craft that I Learned in my Creative Writing Program

(Including things I don't agree with any more)

I firmly believe that writers can be self-taught. I also believe that outsider art, naive art, and other forms of expression deemed “low” can be more powerful than forms that are traditionally considered “high.” I have always aspired to write jaggedly, and unconventionally, because the world as I experience it is jagged and unconventional. Yet when I got a chance to attend a Master’s program in creative writing, I gladly took it.

This was when I was 27 years old. I’d studied visual art at RISD but was making no art. Instead I was working, miserably, in non-government organizations in Nepal. I’d lived a little, and felt I had a lot to write about, and I’d even published a nonfiction book, a travelogue. But I wasn’t sure how to write fiction, which is what I wanted to do.

I was lucky to get into the creative writing program at the University of Washington in Seattle. As a Master’s program, it was geared more towards helping students find our voices than towards schooling us in the basics. But so insecure was I—a Nepali failed visual artist and NGO worker now writing fiction—that I kept copious notes on technique. I compiled those notes at the end as a summary of everything I’d learned from the critiques in the workshops I’d taken, from consultations with my professors, and from the books on craft that I read over those two years.

I’m sharing this summary below.

Looking back on it now, I see my own inexperience written all over it. I don’t actually agree with several of the points any more. They’re far too attuned to convention. And twenty years on, I’m far more clear about which points of craft interest me formally.

So I know that this summary won’t interest the writer who has already found her voice. Perhaps the writer who’s starting out will find something useful in it. (May I suggest cutting directly to the fifth section?)

Even so, I offer this summary as an aid. I hope no one takes it as a set of rules. Because there really are no rules in creative writing. That’s why it’s creative.

THE VERY BASICS OF CREATIVE WRITING

1. POINT-OF-VIEW

Each story is traditionally told from specific points-of-view. Before writing a story, a writer should make a clear choice as to their preferred points-of-view.

1st Person Point-of-View

• Reliable: The narrator is telling the truth, or gives the reader no reason to doubt her.

• Unreliable: The narrator is lying or is biased. The reader cannot trust the narrator’s voice.

2nd Person Point-of-View

• Addressing readers, or a general audience.

• Addressing someone specific.

3rd Person Point-of-View

• Omniscient narrator: has access to all characters' inner thoughts.

• Limited narrator: is limited to one character's inner thoughts.

Traditionally, the author does not deviate from the chosen point-of-view in order to lecture the reader or to make a remark that disrupts the telling of the story.

2. CHARACTERS

Each person who shows up in a work of fiction writing must be considered a character with a specific purpose. It is important that the writer show only what is relevant or revealing about characters; otherwise the character can seem unfocused and uninteresting. The following are aspects of characterization that a writer must consider:

External Appearance.

• Face, body, clothes.

• Actions, mannerisms, habits of behavior.

• Speech, dialogue, tics and habits of speech.

Personal Background.

• Family, society, economic class, education, religion, culture, age, gender, etc..

• Events from the past which have a bearing upon the story.

Personality Traits.

• Intellectual life, including thoughts, views, political beliefs.

• Emotional disposition, temperament, moods and preferences, strong likes and dislikes. 

Traditionally, characters can either be flat (simple, unchanging) or round (complex, changing). In general, background and minor characters tend to remain flat, which protagonists and antagonists tend to be shown in the process of change and growth. In much of fiction, it is the development of the character which determines the narrative structure/plot of the story.

Note that in 1st person narratives, the "I" narrator must also be treated as a character, and not just as a neutral observer with no role to play in the story. If a piece is to be written by a neutral observer with no other role than storytelling, it might be better to write from the 3rd person point-of-view rather than the 1st person point-of-view.

Characters can be either unique or typical, or, in bad stories, stereotypical. Be careful of repeating ethnic, racial, gender etc. stereotypes about characters, and try to focus, instead, on what individuates them.

3. NARRATIVE STRUCTURE/PLOT

The traditional story structure is usually depicted as a triangle, with the highest point being the conflict: Beginning —> Rising Conflict —> Crisis —> Resolution —> End

Beginning. The story's beginning is a threshold that invites the reader in with especially good writing, or with special effort to gain the reader's attention. The beginning also sets up the premise of the story, which must be followed through in the rest of the piece. Do not ramble on unnecessarily in the beginning, and do not write about many things that do not play an important role in the rest of the story. Be clear right from the beginning what the theme of the story is, and remain with this theme till the end.

Middle. According to traditional story-telling techniques, the structure of the story moves from the beginning to rising conflict, to a crisis, to a resolution, then the end. Be careful of digressions (in the form of over-long descriptions, or mini-essays on topics of the author's interest) which do not serve to move the story along, or which stray from the theme.

End. The end is determined by whether or not the writer chooses the traditional plot structure. In general, there are two options ahead of the writer, to choose:

• The traditional structure, leading to closure of the story at the end; or

• An open structure, leading to an unresolved end.

Most modern and post-modern writers prefer the second option; but this is a choice each writer makes according to her own preference. By the end of the story, the theme chosen at the beginning must have been expanded upon and enlarged. Be careful not to lose sight of this theme at the end.

4. SCENE VS. SUMMARY

The narrator must not linger unnecessarily over unimportant parts of the story or speed through important parts. The narrator must know when to summarize and when to slow down and present important scenes.

Summary. This is a useful technique for skipping over parts of a story that are not significant; for instance making a transition from one place to another, or one time to another, without detailing all the places and times in between.

Scene. The most important tool in evoking a scene vividly is good description, which helps the reader picture the world of the story and get fully absorbed in it. Remember that all five senses are available to the writer in order to describe anything fully. Description is a skill that is essential to all writers, but it must not be overused or used purposelessly. Describe only what is relevant, or what is revealing of a particular situation/landscape/character. Writers must be practiced in describing the following:

• People: the external appearance includes the face, body, clothes; actions, mannerisms and habits; and speech, including all dialogues and verbal tics and habits.

• Natural landscapes: farms, jungles, etc.. It is helpful for writers to know the names of plants and animals, and to be intimate with natural processes and forces.

• Cultural landscapes: cityscapes, architectural exteriors and interiors.

Beware of clichés when writing descriptions. Also beware of using general, rather than specific words (eg. don't say wooden table instead of mahogany table).

5. SOME POETIC CONSIDERATIONS

The sound of words. Many poets and writers choose specific words for their sound, which often heightens their meaning.

• Onomatopoeia: words which sound like their meaning. (Eg. the bell tolls). 

• Alliteration: words of similar sounds strung together to create a particular effect. (She slid, slipped, and finally sank into the quicksand). 

• Rhythm: the rhythm of prose writing can set its emotional tone. Short, staccato rhythms can produce a very different effect from long, lazy rhythms.

• Vocabulary. It is important for a writer to have a big vocabulary range, and to be able to choose from high or low diction as the story necessitates.

• Sentence structure. Writers must be deliberate in their choice of long or short sentences, and in their variation of sentence length and structure, including in the use of broken sentences.

Poetic devices. Depending upon the style of the story, writers may choose to use the following poetic devices.

• Metaphor: something that is shown to become something else. (Eg. He became a tiger and ate everyone).

• Simile: a comparison that is evoked between two things. (Eg. He became like a tiger trying to eat everyone).

• Symbol: when something within the story comes to stand for something else.

• Image: when something within the story adds meaning/atmosphere to the story.

• Metonymy: when a part is used to describe a whole. (Eg. When the king is described as the crown).

• Personification: when inanimate objects are ascribed life-like qualities. (Eg. The wind whispered).

Do not resort to stereotypes or clichés in the use of these literary devices.

A final note: A week after I published this post, I revised the title from ‘Everything I Learned in my Creative Writing Program’ to ‘Everything about Craft that I Learned in my Creative Writing Program.’ I will write about a few other important lessons I learned, specifically on reading and translation, in a future post.