Welcome to Creative Writing: Get Started. The perfect starting point for anyone who wants to start their writing journey and improve their creative writing skills.

THE FIVE FINGER PITCH A story has five elements: Setting, Protagonist, Goal, Obstacles and Resolution.  If you miss any one of these elements, you will not have a complete, or satisfying story to tell. They are the ‘bare bones’ of any...

WHAT DOES DIALOGUE DO FOR A STORY? Dialogue (or speech) has many important functions within a story.  Look back at any book you have read and ask of any piece of dialogue, “How did that help progress the story, or...

POINT OF VIEW Your protagonist is your reader’s main point of reference and context from which they will understand your story. In other words, the reader will view your story from the protagonist’s point of view – through their eyes....

TENSES When writing a story, there are two tense options; PRESENT TENSE and PAST TENSE. The majority of novels are written in past tense – as in, the action is being recounted after the event. This is a ‘comfortable’ tense to both read and write....

POETIC DEVICES Literary devices are the techniques you can apply to your writing to control or direct how your reader feels when they read your story.  Remember, each time you write a story, you are taking your reader on a...

One of the most difficult aspects of writing poetry (or indeed anything!) is coming up with a topic or theme. The following exercise is a fun way to create a poem using inspiration from other people’s words. The purpose of...

https://youtu.be/lFBlxS28B0E How does a poem differ from ordinary prose? Poems with rhyming lines and obvious rhythm are easy to recognise, but words can still be a poem without these elements.   For me, it is in the moulding of the...

Theme A theme is a unifying idea that is developed throughout a story. It differs from the subject of the story and is the subtle message or underlying issue you wish to convey to your reader, without seeming to ‘preach’....

The Hook A narrative hook is a writing technique in the opening of a story that literally ‘hooks’ the reader in so they feel compelled to continue reading.  The length of the ‘opening’ can be anything from the first few...

Framing is a literary method of embedding one story into another – a story within a story. It has the effect of adding layers of complexity to your story; of making it more intricate and therefore (provided you do it...

https://youtu.be/T9XbPQiQYR8 There are some key points to bear in mind when writing for children. One of them is that fiction for children is defined by age-specific categories, because what interests an eight-year-old could seem childish and boring to a twelve-year-old....

https://youtu.be/A2uQZl2aJR8 When you describe a setting, the way you describe it depends on your own personal perspective. People often see places very differently from each other, for example; the forest glade below may appear appealing and friendly to one person,...