ON CREATIVE WRITING
Nowadays creative writing is actual more than ever. An ability to formulate your thoughts on paper not only develops an individual intellectually, but it also helps in other spheres of life. The fact is that writing depends on the way we think and speak.
It is known that in any language writing is one of the most difficult skills to acquire. For teachers it’s time-consuming, both to prepare and assess. That’s why we can say, that it’s the most ignored skills in class.
In «English Teaching Forum» S.Davies [1], that it is generally restricted to «fill-in-the-blank exercises which focus on accuracy rather than the composing process». But creative writing aimed at communication and self-expression carries many other advantages. So, what are these advantages? And are there other reasons to include creative writing as part of a foreign language curriculum?
In this paper we will try to explore these questions, providing both a theoretical context and real life examples from our own experience.
What exactly is creative writing? According to J.Fearnside [2], creative writing is «any writing aimed at telling a story expressing an emotion, or both». The above definition also states what creative writing is not: something connected with an unemotional telling of facts, such as business writing, scientific reports and journalism. As J.Fearnside states, even writing that tells a story and elicits an emotional response is not creative writing, if its primary aims are different (e.g. advertising which always hopes to sell something).
Creative writing includes writing what you would expect – fiction, poetry and essays. There are also letters, diaries, speeches and even some journalism that is commonly called «magazine style».
Thus, creative writing is not the work of a few talented/skilled specialists, but the result of people who need to communicate which has its own rules that make some writing more entertaining, convincing or emotionally affective than others.
In «Seven Reasons Why Children Should Write Stories» G.Tompkins [3], states the following reasons to write:
- to entertain;
- to foster artistic expression;
- to explore the functions and values of writing;
- to stimulate imagination;
- to clarify thinking;
- to search for identity;
- to learn to read and write
There no doubt that all of them are excellent reasons to teach creative writing, but J.Fearnside suggests some other reasons why it is especially appropriate in class:
- you are probably using it;
- it’s an excellent way to incorporate writing, reading, speaking and listening skills together;
- critical thinking is built into it;
- it is a good opportunity to teach cultural lessons;
- it provides a chance to do something perceived as «fun», while still requiring a lot of work from your students.
Now let’s look at each of the reasons more closely.
Creative writing includes not only the usual stories, essays and poems, but also works such as folktales, character sketches and song lyrics, all commonly used in class. While using them you open the possibility of making your students attempts to create their own examples.
The author believes it is necessary to write acquisition in the early stages. Reading the work of others not only provides good models to learn from, it can help enrich vocabulary by providing new words in a meaningful context as well it stimulates thinking and discussion.
Critical thinking is a process by which disparate facts are consumed, analyzed, evaluated, rejected or assimilated. It is aimed at exploration, not finding definitive answers. Unfortunately, most learning involves lower-order thinking, such as memorization of facts, and this is what students are accustomed to. Of course such thinking has its value in providing the base for higher-order thinking. However, learning must go beyond that for humans and human knowledge to grow.
Creative writing forces students to think in a way they are not accustomed to thinking. There are no ready-made answers to the question «What should my character do in this situation?». Student must ponder the problem, search not only their mental warehouses of facts but also their imagination, and with all their skill commit to an act of creation: putting words together.
Writing doesn’t exist apart from culture. The individual forms of writing have their own unique beginnings and history. Thus a unit on sonnets should include a lesson on its development from renaissance Italy to Shakespeare’s England to today.
Many students are initially afraid of any kind of assignment that involves the word «creative». But completing one creative writing assignment disabuses them of those feelings. It requires a lot of work, but the difference is that the skills they learn and exercise through creative writing are often absorbed unconsciously. Students learn without knowing that they are learning.
Since writing does not exist without culture, creative writing provides an opportunity to teach cultural lessons. It’s impossible to have a lesson on haiku, a Japanese poetic form, without a cultural lesson on Japan.
In our country students are used to and thus favour for traditional Russian poetry written on specific themes (nature, patriotism, love, etc.) and uses a special poetical language.
Haiku, however, has none of these qualities, that’s why students sometimes resist it. Yet it is more than 500 year old and is considered the definite form of a Japanese poetry. Why? How does simplicity of its style reflect the Zen philosophies so influential in Japan? What does it say about the nature of its people? Exploring these questions offers not only historical and sociological lessons, but it can lead to some interesting discussions as well.
Let’s consider one of the examples given by J.Fearnside, that involves writing haikus.
So, what is haiku? It is a three-line poem based on syllables, its three lines alternate between five, seven and five syllables. Besides, the lines together should do three things:
- present a clear physical picture;
- create a distinct emotion;
- end by suggesting a «spiritual insight», or a moment when the meaning of the poem becomes clear.
The teacher started a lesson asking his students what they would like their haiku to be about. It was decided they would describe their first bell. The teacher said: «Now we need a clear physical picture», and after several attempts everybody agreed on the first line: «Pupils in black and white». Next it was necessary to create a distinct emotion.
«What do these pupils feel like?» – the teacher asked. «Scared»,– the students replied.»What are they scared of?». «Getting bad marks»,– came the answer. That led to the next line: « unknowing of the future». Finally, they needed to make the meaning of the poem clear.
The teacher asked them to say what the first bell looked like, what exactly they were doing. The students said they were giving presents to their teachers. He wanted to know why they were doing it. The students hoped that their teachers would be nice to them. So the poem was finished in the following way:
Pupils in black and white unknowing of the future flowers in their hands.
When the poem was read, it was clear that it conveys a clear picture, distinct emotion and «spiritual» insight. It was a portrait of the first bell everyone can recognize without using the words «first bell», «first day at school» or even «school». They created art.
To summarize, in analyzing the work of others, this simple acronym can be offered: RAW (read, analyze and write).
- Read – anything. We believed that students learn more by reading;
- Analyze – the work of others and your own work;
- Write – writing begins in the imagination, but it is also a process of vision and revision. In other words, writers should be dreamers and doers setting their imagination free.
References
- 1 Stephen J. Davies, English Teaching Forum. – 1998.
- 2 Fearnside Jeff, Using Creative Writing. – 1993.
- 3 Tompkins Gail, Seven Reasons Why Children Should Write Stories. – 2002.