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Five Creative

Choices

The Creative Writing Handbook

Creative Choices

A creative author begins at the beginning.


When they take on a project, they out their
narrative options like tools on a workbench.
Theyre not just looking for a good way in to
a piece, because they know that will come
naturally from making the best choices
about what tools and colors from their creative
palette to use.

Choice 1 : Structure

Is there a beginning, a middle and an end to this projects central


ideas? If not there are two options: develop the idea, or have
sufficient genius to deploy your material in opposition to readers
expectations about structure. The first of these options is most
likely to yield results.
Creating beginnings, middles, and endings from a glimmer of an
idea is nothing to be feared. Its how thinking people have
approached problems since time immemorial. A construction
contractor will assess a job, deliver a plan, get materials and
manpower in place, then execute the project: a three phase
approach. Ancient Greek philosophers similarly used a classic
three-phase approach to all the thorniest questions: thesis
hypothesis synthesis.
So your job when teasing an idea out into a fully-fledged creation
is to find its natural three-part structure of beginning, middle, and
end and once more we start at the beginning.

Choice 2: Narrator

Who is the teller of your tale? Even with an autobiography


or memoir, the answer is never the person writing it. The
job of a creative author is to maximize their options in
constructing the persona on the page. This is a fine time
for blue-sky thinking: who would you most want to hear
this idea from, if you were to get really fired-up about it?
Whos your ideal narrative for this piece?
Narrowing down whom you really want to hear about your
chosen project from puts a human side to your idea. Your
brain takes over at this point, being a finely-engineered
machine for gauging human qualities: at the top of the
food chain, the predators only fear is other like him. So
ideas and color start to flow at this point, putting flesh on
the bones of your idea, and giving you the inklings of the
best way to make Choice Number 1.

Choice 3: Show Dont


Tell

Hopefully you now feel confident with the


show dont tell model. Its what opens up
scenes and created scenarios, giving a reader
the keys to your world and guiding hand once
theyre in there with you.
Show dont tell will help you set the scene of
your creative piece effectively, exploiting the
tension between location and milieu to bring
your words to life on the page.

Choice 4: Make
Characters Come

Alive

Even if the only character in your creative


piece is a soda-can tumbling toward a rainswollen storm drain, it will be brought to vivid
and thought-provoking life by mining the
narrative gold which lies between initial
characterization and developing deep
character. The soda-can in this hypothetical
poem or short story looks like any other
discarded can but in literature focus delivers
meaning. This tin can is not what it initially
appears, and will be used to explore an
interesting perspective or truth.

Choice 5: Character Progression,


Arcs and Values, Resonance and
Meaning

This is where creativity comes together and deep


meaning emerges. Using real human experience
to build the deep foundation of your creative
piece, in building character-arcs and engineering
value-progressions, is how you give your project a
sturdy and serviceable pair of wings, and a fair
wind. Far from limiting creativity by applying
formulas, making use of the tried-and-tested arc
and value progressions which authors have used
since the dawn of storytelling unleashes the full
creative energy and deep meaning of your work.

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