UNIT 1: Creative

Writing (WORD)
LESSON 1: CREATIVE WRITING: AN
INTRODUCTION
Instructor: Ms. Gelli Aguilar-Abando
LESSON 1 Objectives:
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:
1. Differentiate creative writing from other forms of
writing,
2. Learn the various genres in creative writing; and
3. Explore the creative writing as an art and how
different it is from other forms.
 Imagine: A World without Words

❑ From the premise of “WORD”, picture out a reality

of a world without words. What would it be like?
What form of communication do you think would
arise?
❑ In your Journal, write a creative short paragraph (5-8
sentences) on this imagined situation.
 What is creative writing?
❑ Also known as “imaginative writing”
❑ Writing creatively deals with the use of
imagination to produce a literary piece.
❑ Forgetting the reality that is existing and turning
it out to another reality of oneself.
❑ It brings you to the heights and places that are
beyond the perceived world.
Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland
Questions:
► How did Alice probably feel while being asked
by the caterpillar?
► If you were the one being asked by the
caterpillar, how would you feel?
► What other questions went through your mind
as you read/watched the piece?
Odd movies: Think of an odd movie you
have watched before and creatively
describe/explain why it is ODD for you?
 What are the genres of creative writing?
Creative Writing

Literature
Poetry Prose
stories
Lyric poems Narrative poems Short
Novels

Drama/Plays Creative Non-fiction

Odes, sonnets, elegies,

Epic and ballads

 Creative writing compared to Other
Forms of writing
❑ Academic Writing- a style commonly used in scholastic
compositions. Used in the publications and references by teachers,
researchers and academicians. (E.g. reports, essays, research
papers, theses etc.)
❑ Technical Writing- conveys specific information about a technical
subject for a specific audience. It contains facts. It is straight
forward in the tone of writing. Used for addressing target readers
and making instructions. (E.g. com. Letters, buss. Letters etc)
 Creative writing compared to Other
Forms of writing
❑ Creative Nonfiction- discusses factual and accurate narratives
and employing the use of literary devices at the same time. It
uses symbolisms, irony, figures of speech. (E.g. autobiography,
biography, testimonials, travelogue and blogs)
❑ Journalism and News writing- a style employed in various
mass media such as newspapers, television and radio articles
and reports. Requires high credibility in the part of the writer.
Lesson 2: Being a Writer
A WRITER IS A READER
NO EXCUSES: With a pair, list down at least 5
REASONS WHY you don’t find writing
enjoyable. Write this in your JOURNAL.
(Individual answers)
 Writing Habits: Tips to jump-start
your writing
► Try to recall your earliest childhood memory.
► Write about your favourite body part.
► Continue this opening line “It was a dark and
stormy night”
► If you could have a superpower, what would it be?
► Look back to the first time you fell in love or
had a crush. What ayre those initial feelings?
► Think of ways you can earn money for
yourself even you are a student. (extraordinary
things)
► Do you have a favourite word? Explain what
you like about this word from its meaning?
► Discuss the concepts of good and evil. Do
they really exist?
► Write about ugly reality of life and find the
beauty in it
LESSON 3: Language
CHOICE OF WORDS
Lesson objectives:
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to;
1. Utilize language to evoke emotional and intellectual
responses from readers.
2. Use accurate, precise, concrete and appropriate words when
writing and;
3. Discover what happens to a poem when the words are
replaced with synonyms.
 Choice of Words
- Words are the most important tool that a writer should have.
- The value lies in knowing when to use them.
- Synonymous words can actually produce and register or
effect. (Ex. The impact of the words “Home” is different
with “House” )
- Denotation (actual meaning) and Connotation (other
meanings, feelings, emotions etc.) must be studied first
before using a word.
Example 1: CHILD
Denotation: a young person or a son/daughter
Positive Connotation: angel
Negative Connotation: brat

Example 2: THIN
Denotation: not having a lot of extra flesh; not fat
Positive connotation: sexy, attractive, slim
Negative connotation: skinny
DICTION-clarity of speech; the way words
are used in speech or writing.

1. Accuracy
2. Precision
3. Correctness
4. Appropriateness
1. Accuracy- EXACTNESS of words usage in writing
- Homonyms- words with similar sounds but with different
meanings.
- Examples of Homonyms we usually get confused of;
1. you’re- your
2. Its – It’s
3. Advice- Advise
4. Complement – Compliment
5. Weather - Whether
6. Affect - Effect
2. Precision – DIRECTNESS/ SPECIFICITY of words usage
considering the meanings. There could be times that, words
used are accurate but not precise.
-Example: In Facebook we use the term “FRIEND” as a
real friend but in reality a Facebook “FRIEND” could
be anyone. (Friend is referred as a term for
media-socialization purposes)
-“Joy” and “Delight” have similar meanings but have
different register
- Precision also considers CONTEXT. Context is the situation or
condition in which an event happens (e.g. time, environment,
person’s age, gender, culture, nationality etc.)
1. POINT OF VIEW (age/gender of the
narrator/speaker)
Example: Imagine a four-year old girl picked a flower and
gave it to her mother saying “ I picked a Chrysanthemums for
you, Mama” BUT, if you want to show that the girl is precious
and intelligent that could be a trick. (if you are in Philippine
context, the term “Chrysanthemums might not be the best flower
to use)
Example: “My big sister is good at her academics.” says
a five-year old girl. (UNNATURAL)
“My big sister is good at her school.” (NATURAL)
3. Correctness- actual and factual; concreteness and
abstraction of words used. Synonyms are crucial in this aspect
Concrete- specific words used; relative to the
function of the word; allow the readers to immerse with
the imaginary world and experience what the
character is going through.
Abstract- uses generic language; goal is
to inform but not to describe the scenario
Example: “fighter”- minor character
(generic/abstract) “conqueror”- major
character (concrete)
Change ME: Transform the following generic
/abstract descriptions to concrete ones. (Journal
Notebook)

Example: John cried over a death of a relative.

Concrete: John shed tears over a lost of a loved-one.
Change ME: Transform the following generic
/abstract descriptions to concrete ones. Be guided by the
underlined terms.

1. The couple looks very much in love.

2. The meal Aunt Mae cooked was not tasty.
3. They walked through the different ways.
4. Appropriateness-
1. What is my purpose?
2. Who is my audience?
Example: If you are asked to write a report on the Effects on
Facebook in your generation, it is wise to stay objective and formal
in the choice of words.
But, if you are asked to write a romantic story which started online
then the diction should be more conversational and young.
Home work: Get two stanzas from your favourite English
song. Be sure with the lyrics. Try to replace the verbs and
adjectives with synonyms. REWRITE the stanzas with new
words.

Answer the questions:

1. Did the substitution feel right to you? Why or why not?
Give one example of the line that you felt the meaning has
change.
2. Do you agree that song lyrics is better with old one or the
new one? Justify your answer based on the lesson discussed.
LITERAL VS. FIGURATIVE
LLitAeraNl lGanUguAagGe E
- the language of everyday communication
- means exactly what we mean
Figurative language
-uses figures of speech when delivered
- means something that is different from the
literal meaning
- not meant to be taken literally
- may represent something else
Let’s try to compare and understand!
LITERAL FIGURATIVE
Roses are red. Her love is like a rose.
The bell rings at 12:00 noon. Saved by the bell.
The cat stepped out the bag. Let the cat out of the bag.
The flower smells sweet. You are the sweetest-smelling
flower.
The rain is heavy. It’s raining cats and dogs.
► Her love is like a rose. “The love is compassionate”
► Saved by the bell. “Saved or spared from difficulty or misfortune by
some intervention at the very last moment”
► Let the cat out of the bag. “To reveal a secret”
► You are the sweetest-smelling flower. “You are precious” “You
scent like a flower.
► It’s raining cats and dogs. “It’s raining very hard”

Source: https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Your love is like an El Nino

Yet you’re hotter baby,
How your body swings to the beat of a
summer all too short.
The sun beating down us makes me wish for
a cooler weather.
Though it may seem like forever, this season
will too change, but the heat we have will
remain and you will always be beautiful.
Even death cannot claim you for here time
does not exist.
As long as there are people who
enjoy the summer and read poems, you
shall live.
Old English Reminder
 FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE QUIZ!
Direction: Give the meaning of the following figurative
languages/description below and use it in a sentence/statement or
expression.

1. Drowning in a sea of grief.

2. Happy as a clam.
3. In cloud nine.
4. Busy as a bee.
5. Heart of stone.
6. Something’s fishy.
7. Apple of my eye.
8. Hungry as a lion.
9. Hold your horses.
10. Time is gold.
Kinds of Figurative Languages
(Figure of speech)
Create a three-stanza poem about any of
the following title/topic: (free-verse)

1. Learning From Ones’s Mistakes

2. The Life of a Millennial Teenager
3. Let go or Hold on?
 Kinds of Figurative Languages
► Simile
► Metaphor
► Personification
► Hyperbole
► Onomatopoeia
► Apostrophe
► Metonymy
► Oxymoron
► Irony
► Paradox
► Synecdoche
► Understatement
Kinds of Figurative Languages
► Simile- used to compare two essentially alike things in
a phrase using the words “like” or “as”
Examples: He works as early as a bird.
You are like a lily in bloom.
My love for you is as deep as the
ocean.

MORE EXAMPLES?
►Metaphor- used to directly compare two alike things in
a phrase without using “helping words”
Examples:
❑ My life became a sea of troubles when I met you.
❑ The world is a stage and we, are the actors of the play
called life.
❑ Life is a battle, you have to fight to survive.

MORE EXAMPLES?
► Personification- human qualities are portrayed by
inanimate objects or ideas. The human is represented on
non-living things.
Examples:
❑ The wind caresses her skin.
❑ Flowers danced and swayed with wind.
❑ His presence…his scent still lingers on me.

MORE EXAMPLES?
►Hyperbole- commonly known as extreme exaggeration. Often
used to give extreme emphasis or to show extreme effect to a
statement.
Examples:
❑ I could sleep for a year.
❑ I am so hungry, I could a horse right now.
❑ I can’t live a day without you.

MORE EXAMPLES?
❑ Onomatopoeia- known as word sound. Used to employ words to
imitate sounds associated with the objects or actions they refer to.
Appeals to auditory senses.
Example:
The buzzing of the bees bothered me as they eat their
lunch.
The splashing of the water invites me to swim.
The ring of the bell avoided me to drown in nightmares.

MORE EXAMPLES?
► Apostrophe- Used to directly address an absent/imaginary
person or personified abstraction as a living entity.
Usually used as digression in a speech.
Example:
Fate, why have you been so cruel to me?
Life, you have been rough to me for many years.
Oh, my God!

MORE EXAMPLES?
►Metonymy- replaces one word or phrase for another, usually
a symbol that can be associated
Example:
Let the white doves fly. (Let there be
peace.) White dove-peace

The team brought home the laurel leaves. (The team was declared as
the champion.)
Laurel leaves------championship
MORE EXAMPLES?
Oxymoron- uses contradictory terms which are combined to
make meaning.

Example:
There was a deafening silence in the room.
There is a real love hate relationship developing
between the two of them.
The comedian was seriously funny.
You are clearly confused by the situation.
Irony- is an expression which is the opposite of what is meant

Example:
“I really love macaroni.” (But the truth is, he hates
macaroni)
“Good rats! You have destroyed my gown.” (she
meant the opposite)
PARADOX- is a figure of speech which contradicts itself in the
same sentence.

Example:
“War is peace. Ignorance is strength. Freedom
is slavery.” -George Orwell’s 1984
There is a beautiful ugliness in the situation.
SYNECDOCHE- is a present when a particular idea is
expressed thru the following ways:
a. A part is used to represent a whole.
Ex. He asked her hand for marriage. (As hand represents bride)

“Where is your four-wheels? (wheels are part of car)

b. The whole is used to represent a part.
Ex. The law brought the thief into prison. (law represents the
police officer)
“The restaurant was lovely.” (means the wait staff, the food, or
the environment was lovely)
c. The specific is used to represent a general.
Ex. “Don’t drink my coke!” (coke represents all brands of cola)

The Americans are tall and white people. (America represents

United States of America which is actually made up of different
countries and nationality)

“Go into the woods.” (means to go on a forest-like setting of a

place)
Understatement- an expression wherein the thing described is
made to appear unimportant
Example:
We are not rich. We only have a resort in Zambales and a
vacation house in Baguio.

Don’t worry about me. This cancer is noting.

I am okay. My dog just died.

 The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
(An excerpt)
“About Gatsby! No, I haven’t. I said I’d been making a small
investigation of his past.”
“And you found he was an Oxford man,” said Jordan helpfully.
“An Oxford man!” He was incredulous. “Like hell he is! He wears a
pink suit.”
“Nevertheless he’s an Oxford man.”
“Oxford, New Mexico,” snorted Tom contemptuously, “or
something like that.”
Example of synecdoche used in literature:

“Oxford man.” Represents a man who has attended the

legendary English University (Oxford University)

Oxford stands in for much meaning, including a certain level of

class, wealth, and learning that is necessary to be an elite member
of society.
 SOUND DEVICES
It help a lot in adding flavor to literary compositions especially
in poems.

1. Rhyming words
2. Alliteration
3. Assonance
Rhyming words adds to the beauty of the poem.
Example: “The Charge of the light of Brigade” by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Forward, the light Brigade!
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply.
Theirs not to reason why.
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the Valley of Death
Road the six hundred.
Rhyming words adds to the beauty of the poem.
Example: “The Charge of the light of Brigade” by Alfred Lord Tennyson
Forward, the light Brigade!
Was there a man dismayed?
Not though the soldier knew
Someone had blundered.
Theirs not to make reply.
Theirs not to reason why.
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the Valley of Death
Road the six hundred.
Alliteration is the repetition of the same sounds of the same kinds
of sounds at the beginning of words or in stressed syllables.

Example:

Pretty women wonder where my secret lies

I’m cute or built a fashion model’s size.
But when I start to tell them.
They think I’m telling lies.

Phenomenal Women by Maya Angelou

Assonance is the repetition of the sound of a vowel or dipthong w
hich near enough to each other for the sound to be describable. are

Example:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways

I love thee to the depth and breath and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.

How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Exercise:

Recompose the poem that you have written. Use at least

three to five figures of speech and sound devices.
Underline them.
Sensory Devices
LESSON 4
 The Five Senses
► Visual imagery does not only mean “visual
imagery” but it is something that appeals to our five
senses.
► Auditory sense (sound) “the murmurs in the crowd”
► Tactile sense (touch) “the cold-breezing wind”
► Olfactory sense (smell) “the scent of the lilies”
► Gustatory (taste) “the sweetness of the smile”
 The Piercing Chill I Feel
Tanaguchi Buson
The piercing chill I feel; (tactile)
my dead’s wife comb, in our bedroom,
(visual)
under my heel. (tactile)
HAIKU- a Japanese poem of seventeen
syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and
five, traditionally evoking images of the
natural world. (Lyric poems)
HAIKU- a Japanese poem of seventeen
syllables, in three lines of five, seven, and
five, traditionally evoking images of the
natural world. (Lyric poems)
Matsuo Basho (1644-1694),

An old silent pond;

A frog jumps into the pond,
splash! Silence again.
 Modern Haiku
Many modern western poets do not subscribe to
the 5-7-5 pattern.

Yosa Buson (1716-1784)

A summer river being crossed

how pleasing
with sandals in my hands!
Let’s try it: In your Journal, Compose 3
haiku poems about anything. Be sure to use
imagery and cater any of the sensory
devices discussed.

Use the 5-7-5 original pattern of Haiku.

Create your own title for your poem.
 PRE-DISCUSSION ACTIVITY:
Read the poem assigned to your group.

► When I am Dead, My Dearest

by: Christina Rosetti
► My life had stood- a loaded Gun

by: Emily Dickenson

 Analysis:
► Which of the texts would you consider formal or informal?
What makes you say so?
► How does each poem tackle the subject death? Which of the
two would you describe “light”? Which one is “heavier”?
► Which poem uses direct words to tackle the subject death?
► All in all, which of the two poems you like the most?
TONE
LESSON 5
TONE is…
► usually referred as the “mood”
►an important element in a literary texts for it
delivers immense feelings or emotions towards the
reader
►Influenced by the author’s choice of words, choice
of situation to show or depict and even on the syntax
(words, sentences, phrases) to be used.
►Diction is important in determining tone.
TONE is…
► Usually classified as “light” mood or “heavy” mood but
the condition of the feeling is clarified
Example:
“When I am dead, my dearest” (heavy mood-
unusualness of the situation/the poem is
compulsive/immense sadness/ accepting the reality of death)

“My life had stood- A Loaded Gun” (lighter mood-

describing strength of the persona/depicting pride/ picturing
death in woman’s perspective)
 Journal Entry # : A Eulogy for Myself
Compose a Eulogy (essay form with at least 300 words) for
yourself depicting “light” or “heavy” mood/tone. Use the guide
questions below to organize your ideas.
1. How do you feel about the end of your life’s chapter?
2. How are you as a person when you were still alive?
3. Do you think you have fulfilled your goals/missions in the earth?
How?
4. If you were dead by now, what are the things that you would love to
hear (if ever) from your love ones/ relatives etc.
 What is a EULOGY?
► a type of speech that usually praises someone
who died. A commendatory oration traditionally
done in ones funeral.