Introduction To Creative Writing

By: Zaenal Makhfuddin
What is Creative Writing?
▶ Also known as 'the art of making things up,' creative writing is a vital part
of modern society.
▶ Traditionally referred to as literature, creative writing is an art of sorts
- the art of making things up. It's writing done in a way that is not
academic or technical but still attracts an audience.
▶ Though the definition is rather loose, creative writing can for the most part
be considered any writing that is original and self-expressive.
The purpose…
▶ The purpose of creative writing is to both entertain and

share human experience, like love or loss.
▶ Writers attempt to get at a truth about humanity through
poetics and storytelling.
▶ If you'd like to try your hand at creative writing, just keep in
mind that whether you are trying to express a feeling or a
thought, the first step is to use your imagination.
Types of creative writing include:
▶ Poetry
▶ Plays
▶ Movie and television scripts
▶ Fiction (novels, novellas, and short stories)
▶ Songs
▶ Speeches
▶ Memoirs
▶ Personal essays
▶ As you can see, some nonfiction types of writing can also be
considered creative writing.
▶ Memoirs and personal essays, for example, can be written
creatively to inform your readers about your life in an
expressive way.
▶ Because these types are written in first person, it's easier for
them to be creative.
Techniques used in creative writing
include:
▶ Character development ▶ Anecdotes

▶ Plot development ▶ Metaphors and similes
▶ Vivid setting ▶ Figures of speech
▶ Underlying theme ▶ Imaginative language
▶ Point of view ▶ Emotional appeal
▶ Dialogue ▶ Heavy description
Key Differences
▶ In creative writing the most of the part is self-created, although the idea might be inspired but in technical
writing the facts are to be obliged and the note is delivered from leading on what previously other greats have
concluded.
▶ Most commonly, the creative writing is for general audience or for masses but technical writing is for
specific audience.
▶ The creative writing entertains people as it has poetry or some illustrations or another idea, whereas the
technical writing causes boredom as it follows the strong pattern based on facts and is just to transfer the
information to the audience.
▶ In technical writing the specialized vocabulary, such like scientific terms and other are used while in creative
writing, one can go with slang or evocative phrases or even something which can be perceived well by the
audience.
▶ Humor, satire might be the useful essences in creative writing but such thoughts or ideas have no link with the
technical writing.
Sensory Details in Writing: Definition &
Examples
▶ The writer's ability to create

a gripping and memorable
story has much to do with
engaging our five senses.
Sensory Details Definition
▶ Sensory details include sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste. Writers employ
the five senses to engage a reader's interest. If you want your writing to jump off
the page, then bring your reader into the world you are creating. When describing
a past event, try and remember what you saw, heard, touched, smelled, and tasted,
then incorporate that into your writing.
▶ Sensory details are used in any great story, literary or not. Think about your
favorite movie or video game. What types of sounds and images are used? What
do your favorite characters taste, smell, and touch? Without sensory details,
stories would fail to come to life.
▶ When sensory details are used, your readers can personally experience
whatever you're trying to describe, reminding them of their own
experiences, giving your writing a universal feel. A universal quality
is conveyed when the writer is able to personally connect with the
readers.
▶ Another note about sensory details: there is no one sense that's more
important than another. It all depends on the scene you're trying to
create. However, imagery, the sight sense, is a common feature in
vivid writing.
Let's look at sensory details in action.
Compare the following two passages
describing a trip to the grocery store.
▶ Here's a passage without sensory details:
▶ 'I went to the store and bought some flowers. Then I

headed to the meat department. Later I realized I forgot to
buy bread.‘
▶ Now, does this pull you in? Of course it doesn't. There's nothing to bring you into the
writer's world.
Read this revised version with the addition
of sensory details:
▶ 'Upon entering the grocery store, I headed directly for the flower department,
where I spotted yellow tulips. As I tenderly rested the tulips in my rusty
shopping cart, I caught a whiff of minty dried eucalyptus, so I added the
fragrant forest green bouquet of eucalyptus to my cart. While heading for the
meat department, I smelled the stench of seafood, which made my appetite
disappear.’
▶ See how the extra details made that scene come to life?
▶ Writing with the senses is an important part of writing well.
Adjectives bring writing to life and pull the reader into the text and
help activate his or her imagination.
▶ Sensory details help the reader feel like he or she was there and create
a more intimate connection to the narrator or writer and a greater
understanding of the text. Adjectives help set mood and tone in the
text and help establish a strong voice.
Language use in Creative Writing
I. What is Imagery?
▶Imagery is language used by poets, novelists and

other writers to create images in the mind of the
reader.
▶Imagery includes figurative and metaphorical
language to improve the reader’s experience
through their senses.
II. Examples of Imagery
Example 1
▶ Imagery using visuals:
▶ The night was black as ever, but bright stars lit up the sky in beautiful and
varied constellations which were sprinkled across the astronomical
landscape.
▶ In this example, the experience of the night sky is described in depth with color (black
as ever, bright), shape (varied constellations), and pattern (sprinkled).
Example 2
▶ Imagery using sounds:
▶ Silence was broken by the peal of piano keys as Shannon began

practicing her concerto.
▶ Here, auditory imagery breaks silence with the beautiful sound of piano keys.
Example 3
▶ Imagery using scent:

▶ She smelled the scent of sweet hibiscus wafting through the
air, its tropical smell a reminder that she was on vacation in a
beautiful place.
▶ The scent of hibiscus helps describe a scene which is relaxing, warm, and
welcoming.
Example 4
▶ Imagery using taste:

▶ The candy melted in her mouth and swirls of bittersweet
chocolate and slightly sweet but salty caramel blended
together on her tongue.
▶ Thanks to an in-depth description of the candy’s various flavors, the reader can almost
experience the deliciousness directly.
Example 5
▶ Imagery using touch:
▶ After the long run, he collapsed in the grass with tired and
burning muscles. The grass tickled his skin and sweat
cooled on his brow.
▶ In this example, imagery is used to describe the feeling of strained

muscles, grass’s tickle, and sweat cooling on skin.
a. Visual Imagery
▶ Visual imagery describes what we see: comic book images,

paintings, or images directly experienced through the narrator’s eyes.
Visual imagery may include:
▶ Color, such as: burnt red, bright orange, dull yellow, verdant green, and
Robin’s egg blue.
▶ Shapes, such as: square, circular, tubular, rectangular, and conical.
▶ Size, such as: miniscule, tiny, small, medium-sized, large, and gigantic.
▶ Pattern, such as: polka-dotted, striped, zig-zagged, jagged, and straight.
b. Auditory Imagery
▶ Auditory imagery describes what we hear, from music to noise to pure

silence. Auditory imagery may include:
▶ Enjoyable sounds, such as: beautiful music, birdsong, and the voices of a chorus.
▶ Noises, such as: the bang of a gun, the sound of a broom moving across the floor,
and the sound of broken glass shattering on the hard floor.
▶ The lack of noise, describing a peaceful calm or eerie silence.
c. Olfactory Imagery
▶ Olfactory imagery describes what we smell. Olfactory imagery may

include:
▶ Fragrances, such as perfumes, enticing food and drink, and blooming
flowers.
▶ Odors, such as rotting trash, body odors, or a stinky wet dog.
d. Gustatory Imagery
▶ Gustatory imagery describes what we taste. Gustatory

imagery can include:
▶ Sweetness, such as candies, cookies, and desserts.
▶ Sourness, bitterness, and tartness, such as lemons and limes.
▶ Saltiness, such as pretzels, French fries, and pepperonis.
▶ Spiciness, such as salsas and curries.
▶ Savoriness, such as a steak dinner or thick soup.
e. Tactile Imagery
▶ Lastly, tactile imagery describes what we feel or touch. Tactile

imagery includes:
▶ Temperature, such as bitter cold, humidity, mildness, and stifling heat.
▶ Texture, such as rough, ragged, seamless, and smooth.
▶ Touch, such as hand-holding, one’s in the grass, or the feeling of
starched fabric on one’s skin.
▶ Movement, such as burning muscles from exertion, swimming in cold
water, or kicking a soccer ball.
IV. The Importance of Using Imagery
▶ Because we experience life through our senses, a strong composition should

appeal to them through the use of imagery.
▶ Descriptive imagery launches the reader into the experience of a warm spring
day, scorching hot summer, crisp fall, or harsh winter.
▶ It allows readers to directly sympathize with characters and narrators as they
imagine having the same sense experiences.
▶ Imagery commonly helps build compelling poetry, convincing narratives,
vivid plays, well-designed film sets, and descriptive songs.
V. Imagery in Literature
▶Imagery is found throughout literature in

poems, plays, stories, novels, and other
creative compositions.
Here are a few examples of imagery in
literature:
▶ Example 1 Excerpt describing a fish:
his brown skin hung in strips

like ancient wallpaper,
and its pattern of darker brown
was like wallpaper:
shapes like full-blown roses
stained and lost through
age.
▶ This excerpt from Elizabeth Bishop’s poem “The Fish” is brimming with
visual imagery.
▶ It beautifies and complicates the image of a fish that has just been caught.
▶ You can imagine the fish with tattered, dark brown skin “like ancient
wallpaper” covered in barnacles, lime deposits, and sea lice.
▶ In just a few lines, Bishop mentions many colors including brown, rose,
white, and green.
Example 2
▶ A taste for the miniature was one aspect of an orderly spirit.

Another was a passion for secrets: in a prized varnished
cabinet, a secret drawer was opened by pushing against the
grain of a cleverly turned dovetail joint, and here she kept a diary
locked by a clasp, and a notebook written in a code of her own
invention. … An old tin petty cash box was hidden under a
removable floorboard beneath her bed.
▶ In this excerpt from Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement, we can almost
feel the cabinet and its varnished texture or the joint that is
specifically in a dovetail shape.
▶ We can also imagine the clasp detailing on the diary and the tin cash
box that’s hidden under a floorboard.
▶ Various items are described in-depth, so much so that the
reader can easily visualize them.
VII. Related Terms
Metaphor
▶ Metaphor is often used as a type of imagery. Specifically, metaphor is the direct comparison of two
distinct things. Here are a few examples of metaphor as imagery:
▶ Her smiling face is the sun.
▶ His temper was a hurricane whipping through the school, scaring and amazing his
classmates.
▶ We were penguins standing in our black and white coats in the bitter cold.
Onomatopoeia
▶ Onomatopoeia is also a common tool used for imagery. Onomatopoeia is a

form of auditory imagery in which the word used sounds like the thing it
describes. Here are a few examples of onomatopoeia as imagery:
▶ The fire crackled and popped.

▶ She rudely slurped and gulped down her soup.
▶ The pigs happily oinked when the farmer gave them their slop to eat.
Personification
▶ Personification is another tool used for imagery. Personification provides

animals and objects with human-like characteristics. Here are a few examples
of personification as imagery:
▶ The wind whistled and hissed through the stormy night.
▶ The tired tree’s branches moaned in the gusts of wind.
▶ The ocean waves slapped the shore and whispered in a fizz as they withdrew again.
Thank you!

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By: Zaenal Makhfuddin

What is Creative Writing?

▶ The purpose of creative writing is to both entertain and

▶ Character development ▶ Anecdotes

▶ The writer's ability to create

▶ 'I went to the store and bought some flowers. Then I

▶Imagery is language used by poets, novelists and

▶ Imagery using sounds:

▶ Silence was broken by the peal of piano keys as Shannon began

▶ Imagery using scent:

▶ Imagery using taste:

▶ In this example, imagery is used to describe the feeling of strained

▶ Visual imagery describes what we see: comic book images,

▶ Auditory imagery describes what we hear, from music to noise to pure

▶ Olfactory imagery describes what we smell. Olfactory imagery may

▶ Gustatory imagery describes what we taste. Gustatory

▶ Lastly, tactile imagery describes what we feel or touch. Tactile

▶ Because we experience life through our senses, a strong composition should

▶Imagery is found throughout literature in

▶ Example 1 Excerpt describing a fish:

his brown skin hung in strips

▶ A taste for the miniature was one aspect of an orderly spirit.

▶ Onomatopoeia is also a common tool used for imagery. Onomatopoeia is a

▶ The fire crackled and popped.

▶ Personification is another tool used for imagery. Personification provides

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