Creative Writing 101 - Writer’s Digest University

Overview:

Are you one of those people who have thought, “I’d like to write a book someday, but I don’t know where to start”? If yes, then this is the course for you. All you need is to open yourself up and allow your ideas to flow, plus a writing implement to capture those ideas.

You may have hesitated to start writing your story before because of confusion about what to say, where to start writing, and how to shape your ideas. That should no longer be an issue. Let’s start by saying that there is no wrong way to write. While there are lots of tools to help with writing, as well as a plethora of methods and books, you should focus on what works for you. Use whatever method of writing is comfortable, motivating, and inspiring. Make your writing routine as simple and as convenient as you can.

However, there are a few key elements of good storytelling to learn that help the writer develop the story and meet the expectations of the reader. A good story also contains strong character development. The protagonist is the key to every story—who your protagonist is, what the protagonist wants, and the enemy the protagonist is fighting against. It is important to create a character that you want to get to know and look forward to writing—a character that your audience will care about what happens to him or her. Writing interesting characters is half the battle, which is won by learning how to get to know your character.

Creative Writing 101 combines teaching the key elements of storytelling with developing the protagonist. Once you understand who this character is and how to make sure you’ve included the key story elements, you are well on your way to writing that book you have been squelching.

Course Outline 

Session One: Who is the story about?

• It is important to establish your lead character—known as your protagonist—as the person the story focuses on and to create a character that your audience will want to follow. How do you create compelling characters?

Session Two: What is the protagonist’s goal?

• Every story needs a goal for the audience to measure how the story is progressing by whether the protagonist is successful or failing to achieve that goal. What does the protagonist want? How is he trying to obtain what he wants? Does what he want change as the story progresses? What is at stake for the protagonist if she fails? How do you create a sense of urgency?

Session Three: What is the protagonist’s problem?

• Every story needs a conflict or a problem that the protagonist is trying to resolve. Sometimes the conflict is what is standing in the way of the protagonist reaching their goal, or sometimes the goal is to overcome the problem? What is the conflict for the protagonist in your story? How do you make this a life and death issue?

Session Four: Who is the antagonist?

• The main person your protagonist is at odds with is your antagonist. Who is your protagonist fighting against?Does the antagonist have to be a person? Who or what is creating obstacles for your protagonist? Who or what is trying to thwart your protagonist from achieving his goal?

Session Five: How do you create obstacles for the protagonist?

• One of the most difficult sections to write is the middle act in which the hero of the story has to overcome obstacles to solve the problem and achieve their goal. How do you create obstacles to move the story forward and keep your audience interested? What are plot points? How do you choose the best climax for the story?

Session Six: What is the story really about?

• The best stories have a cohesive theme that the audience identifies with. A theme is an idea or a moral or a value that your story is trying to explore. Themes are usually a phrase of a few words such as: “love is the greatest power on earth,” “courage overcomes fear,” “revenge is bittersweet.” The theme helps the writer to stay focused on writing a story that makes sense, leads somewhere, and has a point. How do you know what your story is about?

Session Seven: How do you choose a Point of View (POV)?

• Stories can be told from different character’s perspectives. The story can also be told by the character using “I” or from another source using “she” and “he.” The person telling the story may know everything, may know some things, or may only know what is personally heard and experienced. How do you know whose perspective to use? How do you know which POV to use?

Session Eight: How Do you make Dialogue Interesting and Descriptions Visual?

• There are several ways a writer gets tripped up creating dialogue. For one, the dialogue often starts out flat or there is too much or who said what gets lost. Descriptions can be overwritten creating muddy or confused images in the reader’s mind. How do you write dialogue that is engaging and descriptions that show the story?

Session Nine: How does the story end?

• The ending is often the most memorable section of the story and determines whether the audience will remember the story favorably or see it as so-so or even a failure. What does a good story ending need to satisfy the reader? How do you tie the story up quickly once the climax has occurred?

Session Ten: Where should your story begin?

• A beginning should always set the tone and voice of the story, but a story doesn’t always start at the beginning. Where is the best place to start the story? How do you crowd all the details the story initially needs into the opening? How do you hook the reader?

Session Eleven: What is the best order for writing the story?

• A story should be written as the ideas come. Organizing the story is sometimes a natural linear progression and at other times it is organizing the story by the dynamics and the tension. How do you know what goes where? How do you use tension and pacing to better tell the story? How do you use plot to structure your story? How do you find the holes in the story?

Session Twelve: What supplies the motivation to finish writing the story?

• Stories take creativity, thought, emotional stress, and work to be dynamic. Where do these come from? How does a writer sustain the pain of writing a story to the joy of completing it? How do you use this information to stay focused on the story path you want to write without undue influence by outside criticism?

What You'll Learn

• How to develop a more vibrant protagonist
• How to set a goal for your protagonist
• How to define the protagonist’s problem
• How to define who is the antagonist
• How to create obstacles
• How to define what your story is really about
• How to choose a point of view
• How to write good dialogue
• How to be more visual
• How to create the hook and the ending
• How to determine the best order to tell your story
• How to find the discipline to keep writing

Who Should Take This Course 

• Students new to writing who are unsure where to begin
• Individuals who want a refresher on the key elements of writing
• Fiction writers who want to learn more about character development
• Writers who want to work on imagery and dialogue

Article from: https://www.writersonlineworkshops.com/courses/creative-writing-101