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Topic outline

 

  • Time: 8 hours
    Level: Introductory

 
 

Introduction

  • Introduction Resource
  • This unit includes reading and writing activities that are geared to developing the use of memory, observation and the senses. The aim is to develop your perceptual abilities, honing your capacity to see...
 

1 Writing what you know

  • 1.1 Using life experiences in your fiction Resource
  • Creative writing courses and manuals often offer the advice ‘write what you know’. This is undoubtedly good advice, yet what exactly does it mean? Many writers testify to using their life experiences –...
 

2 The everyday

  • 2.1 Building a believable world Resource
  • Writing is a perceptual art, one in which images are created via language in order for the reader to make meaning. It is therefore imperative that the writer's powers of perception are alert. Writing is...
  • 2.2 Collecting and selecting Resource
  • Writers are always on the alert for potential material. A notebook is an essential tool for any writer and has several functions. These range from the jotting down of observations while you’re out and...
  • 2.3 Using your observations Resource
  • The observations you make in your notebook might not always appear imaginative or pertinent to anything, but the mundane recording of events may have unlikely uses. Writing in my notebook on 15 December...
 

3 The senses

  • 3.1 Involving all of the senses Resource
  • Becoming more aware of the everyday world around you involves more than just looking. If writing is a perceptual art then perception should involve all of the senses, not just the visual. You must also...
  • 3.2 Contexts Resource
  • On their own, sensory perceptions don't tend to mean that much. They depend on a context in which they can be brought to life: for instance, that of a character. Such sensory perceptions as you've just...
 

4 Memory and narrative

  • 4.1 Using memories to order narrative Resource
  • The philosopher John Locke made the assertion that individual identity is inextricably linked to memory – we are only what we remember being. Memory is a central part of how we think of ourselves, and...
  • 4.2 Raiding your past Resource
  • The more you write, the more you will raid your own past. These incursions won't diminish or reduce your memories – rather those recollections can be enriched and become more fully realised. As Jamaica...
 

5 Conclusion: you know many things

  • 5 Conclusion: you know many things Resource
  • ‘Writing what you know’ is a large and rich project, one that provides an endless resource, and one that can be undertaken in all the types of writing discussed in this unit – poetry, fiction and life...
 

References and Acknowledgements

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