Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Region V
SCHOOLS DIVISION OF SORSOGON
STA. CRUZ NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
Sta. Cruz, Donsol, Sorsogon

CREATIVE WRITING

Module 1/ Week 1
Senior High School

This module will guide you with your academic journey

in CREATIVE WRITNG. Every week you will receive a set
of module to study and activities to answer. All data and
information you need in your studies will be provided together
with the module.
Let us have fun in learning together!

Sincerely yours,
Ms. Ernalyn M. Razo

Module 1 Contents/ Lessons

1. Creative Writing
1.1 Imaginative writing vs. technical/ academic/ other forms of
writing
1.2 Sensory experience
1.3 Language
a. Imagery
b. Figures of Speech
c. Diction
1.4 Sample works of well-known local and foreign writers
LESSON 1 CREATIVE WRITING

Definition of Creative Writing

The true definition of creative writing is "writing that expresses ideas and
thoughts in an imaginative way." It's the "art of making things up" or
putting a creative splash on history, as in creative nonfiction.

In both instances, creative writing is an art form because you have to step
out of reality and into a new realm, inspired by your mental meanderings.
In this capacity, you're able to express feelings and emotions instead of
cold, hard facts, as we do in academic writing. Let's keep our creativity
caps on and explore this vast universe some more.

Creative Writing Types and Categories

The best way to define creative writing is to give a list of things that are
and are not considered creative writing. Here are things that do fall within
this category:

 novels
 poems
 epics
 short stories
 screenplays
 songs
 television scripts

Forms of writing that are not considered creative writing include:

 academic writing
 textbooks
 journalism
 technical writing

Imaginations start to flow when we engage in creative writing. The

majority of writing, by far, is creative. Not only can it be a creative outlet,
it can also be therapeutic. Many psychologists recommend creative
writing as a way to express our feelings. With it, you can pretend
anything you want and help a potential reader do the same.

Reference:[Link]
[Link]

LESSON 1.1 IMAGINATIVE WRITING VS. TECHNICAL/

ACADEMIC/ OTHER FORMS OF WRITING

What is the difference between imaginative writing and technical writing?

Today, after learning what imaginative writing is and how to get

started in it, we’re going to compare the two of them.

There are writers all over the world in the two categories – and it
boggles the mind to hear that millions have been made from both
creative writing and technical writing. Some have made fortunes. While
some have not made anything.

Enjoyment can be gained from both types, but it’s fair to say that they
both serve different purposes. They both have their own do’s and don’ts
and they both have their own rules. Both are governed by grammar
and style. Both appear everywhere. So what’s the difference?

Here’s my take: creative writing is written for the right brain (creative)
and technical writing is written for the left brain (logical).

Reference:[Link]
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LESSON 1.2 SENSORY EXPERIENCE

What are sensory experiences in creative writing?

Raise your work above the mediocre with the use of all five senses.
Drawing on the senses will breathe life into your characters, setting and
may even enhance the back story.
She wore a pretty blue dress.

Use the sense of sight: She wore a blue dress, the same one she had on
the day we met. The one that matched her eyes, showed her curves, and
made my mouth go dry.

The male character above doesn't describe the dress, the pattern or style,
but what he remembers about it, what it does to him when he sees it. And
we are swept along.

1.) Sight. Sight is the cardinal sense. Generally before you smell, hear
or taste something, you see it. When you're writing, don’t just see
it, really see it. Get specific.

The full moon rose slowly over the trees.

The full moon rose slowly over the trees blanketing the farm with its pale
glow. An old hound dog kept watch from the safety of the rickety porch,
the sparkle of the wet grass reflected in his eyes.

Use comparison or contrast.

The moon rose slowly over the trees and rained down beams of light
through the branches, like a mother ship searching for her workers.

Or add a unique detail that will deepen the POV (point of view).

The full moon rose slowly over the trees casting eerie shadows on the
campsite. It gave John the creeps and he edged closer to the fire. The
same moon rose on the night the three children went missing.

2.) Sound. The world is not a quiet place. Even in the still of the night
you can hear the hum of the refrigerator or the ticking of a clock.
My cat snores. Close your eyes and listen to the rustle of a candy
bar being unwrapped or the sounds of birds at a feeder. Then
describe the sounds, not the action. Use this newly discovered
sensory information to enrich your story.
The room was noisy.

Marco sat alone at the table nearest the door so he wouldn't

miss her. The room was noisy. The clank of heavy plates drifted
from the kitchen and fought with the steady hum of couples in
conversation. Ice clinked as it settled in his water glass. He ran
his fingers over the drops of condensation and watched them
make tracks down and onto the tablecloth. His watch read 9:30.
She wasn't coming.

What does dripping water sound like? You wouldn't write drip,
drip, drip. Make your readers hear it. You could use splat, or
plonk, or plop. How about rain? Listen the next time it rains.
You might be surprised to learn it sounds like bacon cooking.

3.) Touch. Let your characters feel their surroundings through their
skin and their bodies. Loud music is felt all over. It comes up
through the floor, in through your feet and hammers in your chest.
Really loud music pulses in your ears. A good writer would use all
of those sensations to describe the scene.

He went for a swim in the cool pond.

The sudden plunge into the cool water took his breath away
and raised goose bumps on his arms. Kamir had been
swimming in this pond since he was a kid. Swirling his hand in
the dark water, it still held the promise of boyhood laughter and
summer bike rides.

(At this point I would also add how the woods and water smell,
but that's the next item in this article.)

Feelings can be non physical.

Her marriage felt like the beach after a storm; messy, tangled and trashy.

4.) Smell. Smell is the sense that is most linked to memory. A simple
smell can take you back to grandma's house at holiday time, or
back to your desk in grade school. (For me, that would be the smell
of coloring crayons.)
"That stinks," said Seth, holding his hand over his nose.
"That stinks like rotten meat," said Seth, clamping his hand over his nose.
(Clamp was a stronger word for a stronger smell.) He staggered back
until he hit the wall. "I'm going to be sick."

Stay away from 'nose wrinkling'. It is way overdone in today's literature.

Also keep away from having your character "make a face". That's telling.
Show us. Eyes squeezed shut, his face caved as though he were going to
cry.

You can layer smells. Let's go back to the swimming pond.

He took in a deep breath and smelled the damp earth, the kind worms
loved, and rotted trees from the nearby woods. That, along with the
pungent bite of algae and slime in the water, an odor that stuck on your
swimsuit long after it dried.

You can use the sense of smell to suggest mood.

The girl's willingness to commit a crime smelled like an

opportunity to Clark. Something smelled fishy but he went along

with it anyway.

5.) Taste. My personal favorite and the sense that gets the

least use in fiction writing. When you do get to use taste,

don't rush it.

The cake tasted good. (You can't get much more boring than that
sentence.)

The sweet butter cream icing melted on my tongue. The word

delightful came to mind. I closed my eyes to savor the richness
of the warm spice cake and knew I would have a second piece
before the end of the night.

Your characters don't eat or drink very often, so use taste to suggest other
things.
 Winter has always tasted

like hot chocolate to me.

Her kisses tasted like

strawberries in the sun.

Reference: [Link]
writing

LESSON 1.3 LANGUAGE

a. IMAGERY

Imagery Definition
What is imagery? Here’s a quick and simple definition:

Imagery, in any sort of writing, refers to descriptive language that

engages the human senses. For instance, the following lines from Robert
Frost's poem "After Apple-Picking" contain imagery that engages the
senses of touch, movement, and hearing: "I feel the ladder sway as the
boughs bend. / And I keep hearing from the cellar bin / The rumbling
sound / Of load on load of apples coming in."

Some additional key details about imagery:

 Though imagery contains the word "image," it does not

only refer to descriptive language that appeals to the
sense of sight. Imagery includes language that appeals
to all of the human senses, including sight, hearing,
taste, touch, and smell.

 While imagery can and often does benefit from the use of
figurative language such as metaphors and similes,
imagery can also be written without using any
 figurative language at all.

A. FIGURES OF SPEECH

What are Figures of Speech?

A figure of speech is a word or phrase using figurative language

—language that has other meaning than its normal definition. In
other words, figures of speeches rely on implied or suggested
meaning, rather than a dictionary definition. We express and
develop them through hundreds of different rhetorical
techniques, from specific types like metaphors and similes, to
more general forms like sarcasm and slang.

Figures of speech make up a huge portion of the English

language, making it more creative, more expressive, and just
more interesting! Many have been around for hundreds of years
— some even thousands—and more are added to our language
essentially every day. This article will focus on a few key forms
of figures of speech, but remember, the types are nearly
endless!

There are countless figures of speech in every language, and

they fall into hundreds of categories. Here, though, is a short
list of some of the most common types of figure of speech:

A. Metaphor
Many common figures of speech are metaphors. That is, they use words
in a manner other than their literal meaning. However, metaphors use
figurative language to make comparisons between unrelated things or
ideas. The “peak of her career,” for example, is a metaphor, since a career
is not a literal mountain with a peak, but the metaphor represents the idea
of arriving at the highest point of one’s career.

B. Idiom
An idiom is a common phrase with a figurative meaning. Idioms are
different from other figures of speech in that their figurative meanings are
mostly known within a particular language, culture, or group of people. In
fact, the English language alone has about 25,000 idioms. Some examples
include “it’s raining cats and dogs” when it is raining hard, or “break a
leg” when wishing someone good luck.

Example
This sentence uses an idiom to make it more interesting:

There’s a supermarket and a pharmacy in the mall, so if we go

there, we can kill two birds with one stone.

The idiom is a common way of saying that two tasks can be

completed in the same amount of time or same place.
[Link]
A proverb is a short, commonplace saying that is universally understood
in today’s language and used to express general truths. “Don’t cry over
spilt milk” is a popular example. Most proverbs employ metaphors (e.g.
the proverb about milk isn’t literally about milk).

Example
This example uses a proverb to emphasize the situation:
I know you think you’re going to sell all of those cookies, but
don’t count your chickens before they hatch!

Here, “don’t count your chickens before they hatch” means that
you shouldn’t act like something has happened before it
actually does.
[Link]
A simile is a very common figure of speech that uses the words “like”
and “as” to compare two things that are not related by definition. For
example, “he is as tall as a mountain,” doesn’t mean he was actually
1,000 feet tall, it just means he was really tall.
Example
This example uses a simile for comparison:
The internet is like a window to the world—you can learn about
everything online!

The common phrase “window to the world” refers to a

hypothetical window that lets you see the whole world from it.
So, saying the internet is like a window to the world implies
that it lets you see anything and everything.
 [Link]
An oxymoron is when you use two words together that have
contradictory meanings. Some common examples include small crowd,
definitely possible, old news, little giant, and so on.
F. Metonymy
A metonym is a word or phrase that is used to represent something
related to bigger meaning. For example, fleets are sometimes described
as being “thirty sails strong,” meaning thirty (curiously, this metonym
survives in some places, even when the ships in question are not sail-
powered!) Similarly, the crew on board those ships may be described as
“hands” rather than people.
G. Irony
Irony is when a word or phrase’s literal meaning is the opposite of its
figurative meaning. Many times (but not always), irony is expressed with
sarcasm (see Related Terms). For example, maybe you eat a really bad
cookie, and then say “Wow, that was the best cookie I ever had”—of
course, what you really mean is that it’s the worst cookie you ever had,
but being ironic actually emphasizes just how bad it was!

C. DICTION

Diction can be defined as style of speaking or writing, determined by the

choice of words by a speaker or a writer. Diction, or choice of
words, often separates good writing from bad writing. ... Firstly, the
word has to be right and accurate. Secondly, words should be appropriate
to the context in which they are used.

References:
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LESSON 1.4 SAMPLE WORKS OF WELL-KNOWN

LOCAL AND FOREIGN WRITERS
LOCAL WRITERS

Jessica Hagedorn

Best known for her 1990 novel Dogeaters, Jessica Hagedorn

was born and raised in the Philippines and relocated to San
Francisco in her teens. Hagedorn’s ethnic heritage is a mix of
Spanish, Filipino, French, Irish, and Chinese. Dogeaters, which
won the American Book Award and was a finalist for the
National Book Award, shines a light on the many layers of
Filipino society, especially the American influence prevalent in
the entertainment industry. Hagedorn is also a poet and
playwright. Her first play, Mango Tango, was produced by
Joseph Papp in 1978, the same year she moved to New York,
where she currently lives with her daughters.

Sionil Jose

A writer deeply concerned with social justice, F. Sionil Jose’s novels

have been translated into 22 languages, and he’s one of the most
widely read Filipino authors. Sionil Jose’s Rosales Saga is a five-
volume work that follows the Samson family and their changing fortunes
over a 100-year timeframe. Sionil Jose’s books are especially illuminating
for anyone interested in provincial life in the Philippines, the revolution
against Spain, and the framework of the Filipino family. His anti-elitist
views have made him a somewhat unpopular author within the
Philippines, but Sionil Jose’s works are among the most highly acclaimed
internationally of any Filipino writer. He won the Ramon Magsaysay
Award for Literature in 1980.

Nick Joaquin

Winning the National Artist award for Literature, Nick Joaquín is

probably the most esteemed writer the Philippines has produced. Joaquin
came from a well-educated family and was published at the early age of
17. After winning a scholarship in a nationwide essay contest, he left the
Philippines to study in Hong Kong. On his return to Manila he worked for
many years as a journalist, and his highly intellectual writing raised the
standards of journalism in the country. Joaquin’s book, The Woman With
Two Navels is essential reading in Philippine literature. However many of
his short stories, such as “May Day Eve,” are extremely accessible and
enjoyable for those new to the Philippines.

Merlinda Bobis

Award-winning writer Merlinda Bobis started off as a painter, but grew

into a writer as “painting with words was cheaper.” Bobis’ books, short
stories, and poems tell of lesser-known aspects of Filipino life, often from
a strong feminist stance. One of her most well-known novels, Fish-Hair
Woman, describes a romance between a young village woman and an
Australian soldier in the middle of a harrowing conflict that threatens the
entire province. The Australian called it a “superb novel” that “maintains
its tragic intensity throughout.” Bobis has also won the international Prix
Italia award for her play Rita’s Lullaby and the Steele Rudd Award for
her short story “White Turtle.”

Jose Dalisay Jr.

Jose Dalisay Jr. writes a popular online column where he’s more
commonly known by his pen name, Butch Dalisay. Dalisay was
imprisoned during Martial Law, and his experiences from this portion of
Philippine history are brought to life in his first novel, Killing Time in a
Warm Place. His second novel, Soledad’s Sister tackles the plight of
overseas Filipino workers, and was shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary
Prize in 2007. Within the Philippines, Dalisay has won 16 Palanca
Awards, the country’s highest prize for literature.

Luis Francia

Award-winning author Luis Francia has lived in New York for decades,
but his experiences of growing up in the Philippines continue to shape the
stories he tells the world. The poet, author, and teacher emigrated to
the U.S. after finishing college, where he wrote and co-edited the
Village Voice newspaper for more than 20 years. His memoir Eye of the
Fish: A Personal Archipelago won a PEN Open Book Award and an
Asian American Literary Award. Amitav Ghosh, author of The Glass
Palace, described Francia’s memoir as “a hugely readable travelogue and
an indispensable guide to a fascinating and richly varied archipelago.”

Jose Rizal

The Philippines’ national hero was also a prolific writer, poet, and
essayist. Jose Rizal’s two novels, Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterismo
were social commentaries that sharply revealed the injustices of Spanish
colonization while praising the Filipino in his most natural state. The
novels, which are surprisingly wry and romantic, crystallized the growing
anti-Spanish sentiment and were banned within the Philippines. The
execution of Jose Rizal at 35 years old set off the Philippine Revolution
and paved the way for the country’s independence. Even without these
dramatic events, Rizal’s books and his final poem, “Mi Ultimo Adios,”
stand on their own literary merit, and have influenced scores of Filipino
writers since.

FOREIGN WRITERS

William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616) English poet and playwright.

Famous plays include Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, Merchant of Venice
and Hamlet. Shakespeare is widely considered the seminal writer of the
English language.

Jane Austen (1775 – 1817) English author who wrote romantic fiction
combined with social realism. Her novels include Sense and
Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813) and Emma (1816).

Alexandre Dumas (1802 – 1870) French author of historical dramas,

including – The Count of Monte Cristo (1844), and The Three Musketeers
(1844). Also prolific author of magazine articles, pamphlets and travel
books.

Victor Hugo (1802 – 1885) French author and poet. Hugo’s novels
include Les Misérables, (1862) and Notre-Dame de Paris (1831).

Leo Tolstoy (1828 – 1910) Russian novelist and moral philosopher.

Famous works include the epic novels – War and Peace (1869) and Anna
Karenina (1877). Tolstoy also became an influential philosopher with his
brand of Christian pacificism.

Mark Twain (1835 – 1910) American writer and humorist, considered

the ‘father of American literature’. Famous works include The Adventures
of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).

References:[Link]
authors-you-should- know/
[Link]

Activities:

PART 1: Identify the figure of speech most clearly illustrated by the short passage

1. Well, son, I'll tell you: Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it, And splinters, And boards torn up, And
places with no carpet on the floor.
2. Turn off your television sets. Turn them off now! Turn them
off right now! Turn them off and leave them off. Turn them
off right in the middle of this sentence I'm speaking to you
now.
3. Substituting the word “euthanasia” for “mercy killing" or "killing the
terminally ill"
 4. I had so much homework last night that I needed a
pickup truck to carry all my books home!
5. Let's just say that Bozo the Clown is not the brightest bulb on the
Christmas tree.
6. The chug-a, chug-a, chug-a of the train echoed down the
hill, while a cloud of smoke rose up to the blue western sky.
7. You have a lot of work to do, so I'll lend you a hand.
8. The heart of a fool is in his mouth, but the mouth of a wise man is in
his heart.
9. We talked with each other about each other Though neither of us
spoke.
10. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. (Genesis 3:19)

PART 2: Write details on how do you see yourself 10 years from now.
Do creative writing by following the guideline mentioned above.

PART 3: Tell me something about your favorite author. Reason/s why you like
him/her.

PART 4: Learning Bank: (Summary of learning) Please write down about

what you have learned in these topics/ lessons