Creative Writing Workshop

What is one family tradition during the Eve of Christmas or New Year's that you remember but no longer follow? Why not? For example: Our grandmother and Mother always cooked Arroz Caldo with chicken and fried garlic topping every New Year's Eve. They believed that if your stomach is full of rice, you will not be hungry all year. We no longer follow this tradition. The family, except for two, don't really like Arroz Caldo. We can always have this any time of the year. Most of us are on a diet, and rice is something we eat less, or none at all. To not feel hungry all year round, doesn't seem bad either. Just saying.

Teaching Campus Journalism was a lot of fun for me. I approach the school as a community, the newspaper as a reflection and conduit of the community. Then I teach layout, size, tabloid or broadsheet, or somethng unique, the banner, news above the fold, ears, column width, illustrations, graphics---the kids love the joy of creation. Teach the different kinds of news--breaking, follow up, sectoral, soft, hard, investigative, editorial, even advertising. Be mindful of the active voice. The "Who, What, When, Where, Why and How", and So What?!" Getting the teachers and admin involved is good, they will be proud of the paper, but the students reign in choosing content. Teaching Campus Journalism this way is old school. I wonder how it is taught today. Everything you want to know can be googled, so the kids say. You'll probably be just one day ahead of your students.

Silly Linguistics magazine: A magazine for language lovers everywhere https://bit.ly/3CJW7c8

Hello, let's touch base. Introduce yourself in a narrative about 500 to 650 words, and submit here at CWW. Alternative theme: Wish list for the incoming government. Reward: A journal notebook or a book on writing will be sent to you, however this is limited within the Philippines. Sorry, for those who live abroad, the shipping fees prevent this. First 10 (ten) submissions are eligible for the reward. Only one submission per person. You must submit first your intent to write one so that I can already prepare your reward. Deadline of narrative: June 30, 2022, 5:00 pm. Let's go!

Assignment: What makes you happy? Write one paragraph using one expository device, i.e. narration, listing, cause and effect. DM this page for questions and comments.

Write on a piece of paper all the things you want to leave behind and not take with you into 2022. Your monsters, negative thoughts, hurts, pains, disappointments or whatever weighs you down. Then before the New Year comes in, burn them figuratively with fireworks, and set yourself free. Welcome the New Year with a clean slate of goodness, hope and love. Happy 2022!

Reading assignment: To get the idea of how to use description in your writing, here's a great source of examples.
Nordquist, Richard. "Model Place Descriptions." ThoughtCo, Aug. 26, 2020, thoughtco.com/model-place-descriptions-1690569.

Model Place Descriptions: Four Descriptive Paragraphs In each of these four paragraphs, the author uses precise descriptive details to evoke a distinctive mood as well as convey a memorable picture.

Here's a writing assignment, but it's for the older group of people here. Write a letter to your 18-year old self. This will be a creative nonfiction piece of writing. If you wish, you may submit to me for commenting. You can reverse this process, your teenage self writing to your senior self. Then, I'll be getting to know the age category of those who visit this page. I like to hear from you.

A writing prompt is a device to get you to write. This is an assignment of what to write. This can be a pattern to follow, a question, or scenario to finish. Or this could be a sentence or a one-liner to start off writing. Any questions? If not, here's your assignment: If you could go out tomorrow and spend the day without the reality of COVID, what would you do, and where will you go? Answer this question in one complete paragraph. Go!

Weird dream last night, and thinking about it, after writing the details and plot of the dream, I realize the metaphors of my life. I may be reading too much into it, filling in the blanks and finding connections, but in the end, it’s a beginning of another fiction story. Okay, so what I want to assign to you is to write down your dreams in a journal, immediately as you wake up, lest you forget the details. Try that. Salvador Dali based some of his paintings from his dreams. Just saying.

On Writing

There are thousands of books about writing, almost like an endless playlist of narrations, explanations, or how to’s. Just google books about writing, and you will not know where to begin.

But here it is, the secret to writing a New York Times Bestseller, a post from Jennifer Locke. She states,

“You have to write the first word.⁠ When it comes to writing books, aspiring authors put the cart WAY before the horse.⁠ They want the moon.⁠ But do you know how you get to the moon?⁠ LOTS of tedious astronaut-work.⁠ Learning Russian. Doing survival training. Spending seven hours underwater while you work on full-scale models of the space station.⁠" ⁠
⁠
“Back to writing: you can't have a NYT bestseller if you don't WRITE it.⁠ You can't write the book unless you commit fully...⁠...unless you show up, show up, and show up again."⁠
⁠
“If you focus on writing a NYT bestseller, chances are you'll get so overwhelmed at the magnitude of the job, you'll never write the first word.⁠ So just focus on writing the best book you can write.⁠ Go all in on THAT goal, and see where it takes you.⁠”

Okay fine. It is easier said then done. But this will help so much if we just stop saying we’re going to write that bestseller, that memoir, and just take the pen and paper, or keyboard and screen, and write that story wanting to come out, one word at a time. # # #

When I wake up remembering a dream, I immediately write this down in a journal before I forget the details. Often when something occurs to me, I find myself writing; why I always bring a notebook in my bag. I realised, when I am bothered my writing flows. Here's a reading that explains this phenomenon.

Anger and frustration can jump-start creativity. Use these 3 tricks to channel it productively Turns out that anger activates the part of the brain crucial to establishing behaviors that push us to pursue desired goals.Are you angry? Are you frustrated? You’re not alone. In fact, chances are you’re in the majority at the moment. Springtime saw millions of workers terminated or furloughed ...

What are you interested in writing?

You will regret these choices in 10 years Do these things today to live a more fulfilling life tomorrow.

Hello everyone! Do you have any questions? Now that many of us are home for a long period of time, let's begin by asking questions about writing. What do you want to know, to learn, to review? Your answers will guide the direction of this page. Thank you in advance for your questions.

Journaling 101. Write when a thought comes to mind. Good to keep a notebook Inside your bag when you go out. But during this community lockdown, you can keep a notebook on your table or beside your bed, for you to write down your dream soon as you wake up, before you forget. Write your thoughts down when you have an opinion, a feeling or perspective about something. Get into the habit of writing it down. Now what will you do with these journal entries? These are the details you can include in your stories. Or as a whole, it can be your story, just organize or fix it to become a story you want to read.

Many writers work at home. Here is a helpful article to become disciplined. These important tips are useful to more people now since they have to work from home.

Working from home? 7 smart tips to help you get more done More and more people are working from home to try to limit the spread of coronavirus. If you’re a remote work newbie, make sure you’re following these productivity hacks.

Hello everyone! I apologise for the delay in posting, but I was in the province attending to family matters. Now here's an exercise you can start with. The objective is finding words that best describe the world around you, being aware of your senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching. 1.) Make five columns on a piece of paper, or in your journal, and label a sense for every column. 2.) Go out to a garden, or any convenient safe place, and think of words that describe your environment, using your senses. 3.) Fill up each column. The next part, from this exercise, 4.) Write a narrative using the words you listed down, about you and your world. Be creatively detailed and sensual! Ex. My Little Garden, or the Neighbourhood's Hole on the Wall. Have fun!

Creative Writing Workshop updated their business hours.

Here are some recommended books about writing by Julia Cameron: The Sound of Paper; The Artist's Way; and The Right to Write.

Writing exercise 2: Write a 500-max-word short story (flash fiction) about rice farmers today. Post your story here if you want.

Duterte apologizes to rice farmers over low prices | Philstar.com President Duterte has apologized to farmers for the government’s shortcomings to the agriculture sector, but he is not inclined to seek the repeal of the rice tariffication law, which is said to be hurting the livelihood of farm workers. by Delon Porcalla,Alexis Romero

CWW - WRITING EXERCISE No.1 : BETTER SENTENCES

1. Simplify sentences, don’t over use glue words. (the, that, at, as, is, etc.) Use less than 40% glue words in your sentences. Be more straightforward.

Example:
Maria needed to get the keys to the house and so she asked for the telephone number of the person in charge of taking care of the house. (28 words, 16 glue words=60%)

Better: Maria contacted the caretaker to borrow the housekeys. (8 words)

2. Replace adverbs and weak verbs with strong verbs and actions. Important first to get your ideas across rather than get every word right. You can edit later to make your sentences stronger. When you edit, see if you can replace your adverb and weak verb with a stronger verb. Is it possible to use action and description to make the same point in a more effective way? You won’t always need to replace them, sometimes an adverb will work perfectly. But usually, you can come up with a stronger way to get your ideas across when you go back and edit.

Example: The teenager spoke angrily about the problems of climate change and how the elected people in congress were not addressing these problems.

Better: A furious teenager voiced out how the representatives were not solving the problems of climate change.

3. Fix repetitive use of initial pronouns. Often we begin sentences with pronouns. He did this. I did that. It is correct. This can be tiresome to read. Ideally in a paragraph, fewer than 30% of your sentences should begin with a pronoun. Keep your readers engaged by using less pronouns and by varying sentence structures (kinds of sentences) so your readers keep attention.

Example:
Greetings! I write to you because I want to ask if you will can help make our the Christmas party the best ever for our employees this year, by donating 12 similar prizes for our games, and/or one large prize for our raffle drawing.

Better: Greetings of Yuletide spirit! Maria Foundation is gathering prizes for its Christmas party, and we wish you can donate one large raffle prize and/or 12 similar prizes for the games.

4. Activate your passive voice. Sentences using passive voice are not advisable in publications because your readers will not be engaged. There are specific times where the passive voice will work, but like the overuse of adverbs and pronouns, this weakens your writing.

Examples:

Passive voice: The committee was chaired by Maria.
Active Voice: Maria chairs the committee.

PV: The party was enjoyed by everyone.
A good time was had by all.

AV: Everyone enjoyed the party.
All had a good time.

PV: The report was made in such a way that participants couldn’t hear it very well.
AV: The participants could not hear the report very well.

Exercise: Go over any narrative you previously wrote and fix the sentences where needed.

CWW-Reading No. 2

Seven Steps in Writing A Memoir that’s Actually Good
Abridged from the Blog of Joe Bunting, ProWriting Aid

Penning a good book about my life has been the hardest challenge of my writing life. In fact, the book I thought I would finish in a few months ended up taking me over five years to write and get published.
Why are memoirs so hard to write? To be clear, writing a book about your life isn’t so difficult. No, the hard part is writing a good book about your life. Because, everything feels important. After all, it’s your life! And so when the time comes to cut scenes or chapters to make the story work, you’re too close to the book to know what to cut. Also, you can’t change your life events to make them more interesting or fit the plot or theme. And there’s nothing like looking closely at your own life story to trigger all your latent self-doubt and fears of vulnerability.
So how did I do it? Here’s the process I followed to turn my mediocre memoir into a great story.
Step #1: START WITH A SINGLE-SENTENCE PREMISE
The first lesson to writing a memoir that’s actually good is to realize you can’t write about everything. The best memoirs keep it focused, and the best exercise I’ve ever found for writing a focused memoir is to write a one-sentence premise before you start writing your book (or as soon as possible, if you’ve already started).
How do you simplify your entire life to a single-sentence premise? To give you an example, here’s the premise from my memoir Crowdsourcing Paris:
To raise $600 for his dream Paris trip, a cautious writer accomplishes 12 uncomfortable adventures given by his Internet followers, and through it all learns that the best stories come when you get out of your comfort zone.
Three Things Every Memoir Premise must have:
1. A character. YOU are the main character in your story. So describe yourself in two words (e.g. "cautious writer").
2. A situation. You can’t write about everything. What is the core situation that will center your story?
3. A lesson. Good memoirs pass along an important life lesson to your readers. (Kathy Edens, 25 Best Memoirs, June 2019) What lesson did you learn through the situation you experienced? Now that you have your one-sentence premise, let’s use it to get to the heart of your book.
Step #2: FIGURE OUT WHAT KIND OF BOOK YOU’RE TRYING TO WRITE
What is your story actually about? What values are at stake? One of the most important things I learned about writing a great memoir was from Shawn Coyne, a New York editor who created an objective, systematic approach called a story grid. Shawn said, “you’re writing an adventure story, that means your story is about life vs. death, and your very first scene needs to be about one of the biggest life and death moments of your book.” If you want to follow the same method read Shawn Coyne, Story Grid, April 2015.
Step #3: WRITE YOUR “SH*TTY FIRST DRAFT”
When you’re writing a book, whether a memoir, a novel, or a non-fiction book, it’s easy to get stuck in perfectionism. You want your book to measure up to the books you’ve read and loved before. However, no book starts out good. Writing is an iterative process. Your second draft is better than your first, and your third draft is better than your second. But to get there, you first have to write what Anne Lamott calls a “sh*tty first draft.” (A. Lamot, Bird by Bird, Some Instructions on Writing and Life,1995)
So write. Don’t worry if it’s terrible. Set a deadline. Create a consequence that will happen if you don’t meet that deadline. And finish your first draft.
Step #4: REVISIT YOUR PREMISE TO GET TO THE HEART OF THE STORY
The next step is to rewrite your one-sentence premise based on what you’ve learned from your first draft. Once you finish your first draft, set it aside for a week or two. Then go back and reread it. Take everything you’ve written and summarize it into a new, one-sentence premise. It should still contain those three elements we discussed above: a character, a situation, and a lesson.
Step #5: CUT EVERYTHING THAT DOESN’T FIT YOUR PREMISE
You’ll have heard this bit of advice (variously attributed to Ernst Hemingway, Agatha Christie, and Stephen King) before: “Kill your darlings.”
Cut every scene that doesn’t fit your main premise. Anything that doesn’t build the character, fit the situation, or point to the life lesson in your premise should be cut. This was the hardest part of finishing my memoir. I couldn’t help but try to pack more and more into my story, but when I tried to explain to people what my book was about, I found myself talking for five minutes before I ever got to the point. You can’t do everything in one book. Instead, realize that this won’t be your last book. You can write another great memoir, even one about parallel events. Take everything that doesn’t fit this book and put it into your next book.
Step #6: REWRITE EACH SCENE AROUND AN IMPORTANT DECISION
Now that you have only the most important scenes, you need to make them good! To make sure every scene is driving the story forward, center each scene on a decision, a moment when you have to make a hard choice between two very good or two very bad things. A literary crisis is the foundation of every good book. (Read Joe Bunting’s blog on Literary Crisis, How to Make a Good Story Great.)
Step #7: POLISH THE STORY WITH AN EYE FOR DRAMA
Second drafts are for the structuring work we’re talking about in steps 4–6. Third (and sometimes fourth) drafts are for polish. But when you polish, don’t just fix commas and typos. Also look for ways to enhance the drama of each scene, each paragraph, each sentence.
One of the most important changes I made to my memoir in the final draft was reorganizing the first paragraph to begin, “I was going to die there.” I had that phrase toward the end of the paragraph, but by bringing it to the beginning, it made the first impression so much stronger. When you rewrite, look for the drama in your story and bring it to the front!
You CAN Write a Powerful Memoir
Writing an entertaining, instructive, emotionally powerful memoir is hard. I think it’s the hardest form, harder than a novel, non-fiction book, or short story. But if you can avoid the temptation to tell everything, if you can focus instead on telling a really good story with the events in your life, you can write something that will inspire the world.
Don’t forget to to enjoy the process.

CW WORKSHOP- READING NO. 1

How to Write a Creative Essay
By Michelle Williams

A creative essay is any short, non-fiction text written with specific attention to its aesthetic qualities and presentation written from the point-of-view of the author. Creative essays are a form of creative nonfiction, a genre used to describe any type of imaginative authoring that is true. The most well-known form of creative nonfiction is probably memoir or autobiography. Creative essays can be understood as a small portion of a memoir or autobiography, because they describe, explain, or explore one period or moment in the writer's life.

Creative reports should not be confused with fictional writing. Sometimes, the word "creative" is misinterpreted to mean "made up." Creative essays sometimes include slight embellishing, but they are distinct from fictional pieces in that they are asserting themselves to represent the true events and experiences of the writer's life.

There are several types of creative essays. The most common are the descriptive report and the narrative article. A descriptive essay depicts a person, place, or object that is in some way significant to the writer. Descriptive essays often employ vivid language and imagery in order to allow readers to "see" the object of depiction in their mind's eye. However, descriptive reports do not merely describe, but also seek to demonstrate how and why the described person, place, or thing moves the report writer.

Narrative essays are creative articles that relate the experience of the writer. There are many specific types of narrative essays, such as travel reports, which relate the writer's traveling experience. In general, however, a narrative essay is simply any story from the writer's life.

Writing creative essays is very different from writing informative essays. Creative essays are written to express, render, and entertain. Therefore, they frequently do not follow a standard structure. Most informative or academic reports are presented in a very logical, easy-to-follow order because they are designed to inform or persuade. A creative essay, on the other hand, is designed to move the emotions. Therefore, the writer structures and presents the assignment in a way that best reflects the emotional timbre. Sometimes, creative essays will be nonlinear, meaning they do not progress in a chronological order, but may jump back and forth between times in a writer's life.

Other reports do not even have a consistent narrative, but prefer to show a brief series of scenes. The structure of a creative essay will largely be determined by the subject of the report; therefore, the writer should think about how best the article's themes or story can be told before beginning the writing process. Perhaps the most important aspect of a creative article's creativity is its language. Creative reports should be rich with imagery, modifiers, and fresh language, and should vary their syntax.

A creative essay will always be told from the first-person voice. This is because the author is the subject. The first-person voice allows and encourages the writer to relate her thoughts, impressions, and emotions throughout the text. A creative essay would be very dull without this input, so creative writers should attempt to accurately and honestly relate these personal ideas.

# # #

Guess what? I can't add word files to this page. Now how am I supposed to share readings with you? Apparently am so low tech, I should have made a blog, or a group. What to do?

With a hopeful 50 likes in two days, I give thanks to some of my former teachers who encouraged me to write---Dr. Henry Holmes, Mrs. Simes, Dr. Franz Arcellana, and Dr. Amelia Bonifacio.

Creative Writing Workshop updated their website address.

Welcome to my online Creative Writing Workshop. I miss teaching, so I created this page to reach people who want to learn how to write creatively. Because I know everyone has a story to tell, and I've heard you say, you don't know how, so here's how. Reading and Writing go hand in hand, this is an age old given. In this online workshop, we read, we write, we create. Join me in this adventure!