The Author’s Paintbrush Creative ideas for your writing
Ginny Porter & Helen Osborne
Š Ginny Porter and Helen Osborne ISBN 978-1-928245-39-1 Published by BK Press 14 Wolseley Rd, Stamford Hill, Durban, 4001
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, translated or transmitted in any form by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the authors. Full credit is given to those authors where extracts have been used to clarify points. Images are in the public domain.
Dedication This book is dedicated to all my students from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, the South African Writers’ Circle and Life Long Learning. Thank you for giving me the space to be who I truly am.
Acknowledgements ● My husband Chris Porter has encouraged me to become
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involved in various activities in the 37-years I have known him. He taught me to trust myself and acknowledge my abilities. I am deeply grateful. My dear friend and colleague in business, Helen Osborne for her encouragement and creativity and good times when we were in business. My friend Colleen Shearer I have had the privilege of working with in my dealings with authors. I also appreciate your enthusiasm for the articles upon which this book is compiled. Your dedication and supportive ways are most appreciated. To the many people in the South African Writers’ Circle who have enjoyed my presentations and workshops. Thank you for encouraging me. Once again to the students - I shall never forget you all.
Author Profiles
Ginny Porter has been a member of the South African Writers’ Circle since 1999 where over the years she has served on the committee in the roles of Vice Chairman, Public Relations Officer and Functions Manager. She has a regular column entitled Creativity Corner which is published in the Write Now SAWC monthly magazine. Ginny intends using this material to publish a book on creativity. She has co-authored a book entitled Getting Published… Art, Science or Luck? with Helen Osborne, a former Chairman of the SAWC. Helen and Ginny ran a company together for nine years called Osborne Porter Literary Services which closed when Helen relocated to the UK. Ginny is a former academic from the University of KwaZuluNatal, holding a Master’s in Education and regularly gives talks and workshops for the SA Writers’ Circle and Life Long Learning.
Helen Osborne, as well as working closely with Ginny Porter, has won many SAWC writing competitions and her short stories appear in the anthologies published by that organisation. She also writes plays and her comedy Happy Hubbies has been staged with great success by dramatic societies. Helen and Ginny ran many writing workshops and seminars during their time with the SAWC, and hope that the writing exercises included in this book will stimulate creativity and inspire readers to ‘just write’.
Contents Part 1: What it means to be creative
1
What is creativity?
2
Why be creative?
4
Attributes of a creative person
4
Applying creativity
7
So where does creativity reside?
8
Conformity and the creative spark
9
Workshop: Creativity
12
Your writer’s voice
13
Workshop: Self-Reflection
16
Write what you know
18
The other you
20
Are you an eponym?
22
Using your senses
25
Creative word choice
27
Workshop: Creative words
29
Workshops: Using all six senses
29
Writing exercise: Using your senses
31
Part 2: Setting the context
32
Evocative locations
33
Our mysterious world
37
Managing the time machine
42
The hero’s journey
44
Cartography as an aid to writing fiction
46
Visual imagery in your locations
48
Creative nonfiction
50
Workshop: A mystery tale
53
Writing exercise: Solve the Mystery
55
The lost colony of Roanoke
55
Predictive writing
58
Workshop: Looking back and looking forward
61
Writing exercise: Point of View (PoV)
61
Part 3: Creative characters
62
Stereotype your characters or not?
63
Manners maketh man
65
Writing in the vernacular
68
Workshop: The vernacular
71
Writing exercise: The vernacular
72
Point of view of an inanimate object
73
Memorable by career
75
Developing idiosyncrasies in your characters
77
Memorable arguments
80
Workshop: Dialogue
82
Writing Exercise: Conversations
83
Who to kill off?
84
Outguess your readers
86
Workshop: Death
89
Writing exercise: A news story
90
Blurring the lines of gender
91
Workshop: Gender-neutral writing
94
Gender based and non-gender honorifics
95
Writing exercise: Gender in fiction
96
Part 4: Ideas on plot Your last document to write
97 98
Workshop: A story inspired by a will
101
Bird in a gilded cage
102
Hidden narratives
104
Different fiction genres
106
Met any handsome dragons lately?
110
Predictions of the future made by authors
113
Workshop: Predicting the future
114
Writing an epic tale
115
Writing exercise: Fantasy or sci-fi
117
Make a note of your ideas
117
Workshop: Romance in fiction
118
The scales of conflict in romance
118
New energy for a new world
119
Old wives’ tales
121
Workshop: Genres
124
Part 5: Creative tools
125
Chemical assistance for creativity
126
They are coming to take me away ha ha
127
Assistance beyond the grave
129
Tapping into the ether
131
Generating creative ideas
133
Dictionaries and other useful books
134
Mind-mapping as a thinking tool
137
Music for Inspiration
139
Creative activity
141
Dreams for ideas and inventions
143
Dream On!
144
Synchronicity
146
Symbolism in media
149
Colour psychology
152
Painting with words
154
Workshop / writing exercise: Colour
156
The dreaded slush
157
Add layers of meaning to your writing
159
Foreshadowing as a literary device
162
Epigraphs in great books
164
Seize the day!
166
A captivating first line
168
Workshop / writing exercise: Gripping first lines
171
Part 6: Education and creative thinking
172
Learn from the greats!
173
Creative thinking in education
175
Critical cross-field skills
177
The importance of research
178
How to crack the case: Your job as a research author
180
Recommended reading
184
Index
185
Part 1: What it means to be creative
The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (June 28, 1712 –July 2, 1778), French philosopher and writer
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What is creativity? Creativity can be illusive and over the centuries man has tried numerous techniques to tap into the unconscious for ideas. Some of them we would view as positively dangerous and not recommended. But, it is interesting what various methods people have tried and therefore we will give a breakdown on these techniques. The book is essentially aimed at authors who want to improve their writing by developing authentic characters and memorable locations. Science fiction and fantasy are also catered for. You are encouraged to try out the exercises, form groups and get feedback, or simply self-evaluate by leaving a story for a while and then going back to it with fresh eyes. According to German-born theoretical physicist, Albert Einstein, the imagination is more important than knowledge. As one of the most influential scientists this viewpoint may be surprising, but we will show that this perception has been repeatedly proven. Einstein went on to say that knowledge is limited and imagination encircles the world. Of course, one only has to survey the midnight sky to wonder at creation here and within the cosmos around us. The Theory of Relativity and mass-energy equivalence, E = mc2 made Einstein the most important scientist of the 20th century and greatest physicist of all time. Apparently he dreamt at a young age of cows being electrocuted by a fence and this somehow led, much later on, to his invention of the theory of relativity. Another famous person who balanced the scientific left and the creative right sides of his brain was Leonardo da Vinci. As an Italian Renaissance polymath, he had extremely diverse skills which included being a painter, sculptor, architect, musician, 2
mathematician, engineer, inventor, cartographer, botanist, and writer.
anatomist,
geologist,
A polymath is a person whose expertise spans a significant number of different subject areas; such a person is known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. (Source: Princeton University) Maybe Leonardo would object to being referred to as a polymath as he once said: “Like a kingdom divided, which rushes to its doom, the mind that engages in subjects of too great variety becomes confused and weakened.� Creativity is about being playful and innovative, allowing us to explore using our intuition and curiosity about life without being self-critical. In order to be creative you need to be able to look at things from different perspectives. This is why a creative person is useful for brainstorming a solution to a problem or new initiative. You should enjoy the unknown and the unexplored. Your thinking should be flexible, tolerant of obscurity, and you should be unafraid of unpredictability. Creative people tend to be intelligent with fresh perceptions and insightful judgements. They consider facts regarded by others as superfluous or unimportant. They are often regarded as change agents in society as they are unafraid to try something new or suggest something never attempted before. Creativity is defined as the tendency to generate or recognize ideas, alternatives, or possibilities that may be useful in solving
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problems, communicating with others, and entertaining ourselves and others. Human Motivation, 3rd ed., by Robert E. Franken
Why be creative? Creativity is an inherent ability in all humans and many of us do not actively encourage this skill, whether it is in writing, artwork, sculpture, or even flower arranging and cake decorating. We live in an era of information overload and the temptation to copy someone else’s work is huge. Be original, as you never know you may be quoted in years to come like the artists we have mentioned in this introduction. Artists, like architects, shift consciousness by giving us imagery and words that make us think in new ways. Jonathan Black is one author in this category. He concludes his book The Secret History of the World by saying: “Each individual mind is a protrusion into the material world of one vast cosmic mind, and we must use the imagination to reach back into it and to engage with it. It was using the imagination in this way that made Leonardo, Shakespeare and Mozart god-like. Imagination is the key.”
Attributes of a creative person Although creative individuals are said to be intelligent, they can also be naïve and almost childlike in their interest in the world. Some creative people are thought to be rebellious as they go against the norms of society, introducing ideas considered by some as ‘wacky’. Sometimes they can be playful, other times they will doggedly work through a problem until a solution is found. 4