This PPT explains to ESL students what creative writing is and how it is different from technical writing. It also contains a creative writing prompt for use in the classroom.

1. Creative Writing

2. What is it?
Creative writing is writing that is different from the
usual forms:
⋄Technical writing
⋄Academic writing
⋄Professional (ie business) writing
⋄Journalism
It is often defined by narrative or character.

3. Purpose
Creative writing requires creativity! It is a method of
expression:
⋄Ideas
⋄Thoughts
⋄Emotions
Other forms of writing seek to inform; however,
creative writing may aim to entertain people.

4. Examples
Creative writing can include:
» Fiction (short stories or novels)
» Poetry
» Creative non-fiction
There are other examples, but the key is to be…
creative!

5. What’s Creative?
This sort of writing is often:
⋄ Inventive
⋄ Playful
⋄ Exciting
⋄ Inspiring
⋄ Unusual
It might be designed to make you think deeply, or to
be understood easily.

6. What’s Creative?
Look at these two examples:
1. She stood on the stage and waited.
2. Nervously, she stood in front of the vast audience,
sweat trickling down her neck, heart pumping,
desperately trying to calm herself enough to stop
her hands from shaking.
Notice the use of small and non-obvious details to
paint a mental picture.

7. Example - poem
The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—
Only this and nothing more.”
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore—
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Nameless here for evermore.

8. Example - poem
In Memory of W. B. Yeats, by W.H. Auden
He disappeared in the dead of winter:
The brooks were frozen, the airports almost deserted,
And snow disfigured the public statues;
The mercury sank in the mouth of the dying day.
What instruments we have agree
The day of his death was a dark cold day.

9. Example - novel
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
He smiled understandingly-much more than
understandingly. It was one of those rare smiles with a
quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may come
across four or five times in life. It faced--or seemed to
face--the whole eternal world for an instant, and then
concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in
your favor. It understood you just as far as you wanted
to be understood, believed in you as you would like to
believe in yourself, and assured you that it had
precisely the impression of you that, at your best, you
hoped to convey.

10. Why Study It?
Although most writing is technical, creative writing is
more fun to do. It also shares many similarities with
technical writing. The following are important for
both:
⋄ Grammar
⋄ Punctuation
⋄ Spelling
⋄ Structure
Creative writing can be a more interesting way to
practice your writing skills.

11. How?
A good way to practice creative writing is to begin by
reading. However, the best way is to actually do it
yourself.
If you have an idea, just write. Otherwise, you can
find prompts and challenges online or in books.

12. Practice
Get a piece of paper and get ready to be
creative.

13. 1. Draw a face
in the top right
corner of your
paper
2. Give this
person a
name.
3. In the top left
corner, write 5
adjectives to
describe his/her
appearance.
4. Now write 5
adjectives to
describe their
personality.
5. Write 3
things that
they like to
do.
6. Write who
they live with.

14. It was a dark and stormy night and _____
was….
Your character's
name
1. Begin your
story like this:
2. Then write
one more
sentence to
continue the
story.
3. You should now
have 2 sentences
introducing your
story.

15. 1. Next, pass your paper to the
person on your right.
2. Read your new paper. Pay
attention to the adjectives and
details above.
3. Read carefully through the
story as it builds up. Now add
one more sentence to it.
4. Then pass it on again to the
person on your right. Continue
this again and again until the
story has come to a natural
end.

16. Get more ESL writing resources at my
teaching blog.
Or if you’re studying IELTS, check out
my IELTS study website.