What I've Learned in My Creative Writing Class PART 1

Happy May! Goodness gracious I swear I just wrote a post that said "Happy April". I'll probably try to do a month recap for y'all soonish....

Finally getting around to writing this. Actually, I should be starting on my school, but this is more fun :P 
My final Creative Writing class was on Monday. I had a lot of fun and my teacher was great and really helped me out. My sister took the class with me and I know she really learned a ton. She's dabbled in writing, mostly fun stories for family and friends, but turns out, she really has a gift and nails the funny scenes and action scenes, something I struggle with :P

For this post, I'm going to list some basic, short tips that we learned early on in class. Some were obvious things, and other things were things I never even considered!
*Please keep in mind that this class was geared towards short story writing. Some of the tips apply to all writing in general, and some apply directly to short story writing. Novel writing and short story writing has some big differences so keep that in the back of your head as you read these :)

• Grab the reader with a strong lead sentence! In less than twenty words, you have to pull your reader in. Four types of opening sentences:
  1. Standard: Uses strong verbs that sometimes begin the sentence
  2. Question: Urges reader to find the answer
  3. Quote: Introduces the main character right away
  4. Descriptive: Gives the reader a picture
  
  
• Eliminate "to be" verbs. My teacher defined "to be verbs" as: am, is are, was, were, etc. Basically the helping verbs. This helps us use more descriptive, action verbs.
  
  
• "Show don't tell". Instead of telling the reader what happens, show them what happens through action, dialogue and such.
  
  
• Every story needs the 3 O's and a takeaway.
  1. Objective: What the main character wants more than anything
  2. Obstacle: There can be multiple obstacles but what is the main thing that prevents the main character from reaching his objective
  3. Outcome: A satisfying ending. It can be a number of different endings but it needs to be satisfying.
      - Happy
      - Sad
      - Bittersweet
      - Surprise
  4. Takeaway: The moral to the story
  
  
• Creating Tension and Suspense. Tension and suspense are crucial to a story to keep it exciting/create conflicts and such. Here are a couple different types we learned about and examples from books and movies:
  1. People: "You've got it; I want it; I'm going to get it." Example: The Wizard of Oz
  2. Process: "You know the ultimate ending; it's the fun of getting there." Example: Pilgrim's Progress, the Princess Diaries
  3. Time: "You only have until..." Example: The Little Mermaid, Inside Out
  4. Anticipation: This is a multi POV (point of view). "You see this and that, him and her, etc., getting closer to each other." Example: The Parent Trap, The Sound of Music
  5. Emotional: "You have a background that makes you tick." (Something that happened in the past that is the reason why you're the way you are.) Example: The Hiding Place, Gone with the WindAlso here, she made us look at the story we were currently writing and told us to write a few sentences about how different the story would end up using the different tensions and suspense. You might have some fun trying that out. Might help with some writer's block ;)
  
  
• Keep it short. Each paragraph should remain under six lines. Now, here's a fun activity for y'all to participate in. I'm going to give you a paragraph my teacher wrote for this. Your job is to cut as many extra words out as possible without cutting any critical information. See how low you can get! You can reword the sentences and add a few words if you need to make it work properly =)
  
  
  Last Saturday morning, just before the big rainstorm, the quite large, very nasty, Mr. Frank Nosey swaggered into the food court, in the Realtown Mall, near the exit to the Shady Hill cemetery, behind the park where the kids from the Realtown Elementary School play. He walked up to the messy counter, covered with used trays, sticky napkins, and empty water bottles, of the most well-known chicken soup restaurant in the food court. Mr. Nosey pounded on the counter and bellowed, "I want to see the manager. This place is a disgrace!"
  
  
  

  I will post my teacher's final cut version of that paragraph in the next part of this post series. If i can find my reduced version, I'll post that too!
  In part two, I will share some thoughts about Mood vs. Atmosphere, Setting, and Getting Ideas/Passwords.
  Part 3 will focus on characters. My teacher gave us some fun activities to do to help us really get to know our characters. :D