What is creative writing? Being creative can be described as the art of making things up. You let your imagination run wild and come up with unique, original essays. It is the sort of writing that will definitely attract an audience. Creative writing is fresh-faced; original and self-expressive. The purpose of creative writing can be to entertain or share the human experience. There are several tips that have been proven to help you write creative essays in English. Here, I will share with you 8 tips on how to make your writing creative and original.

1. Eye-Catchy Opening Paragraph

A reader can judge within the first 10 seconds, whether or not they want to read the story. How do they decide? By reading the first lines of your opening paragraph. Your opening paragraph is like the window of your story. The first sentence should be unusual and uncommon. It can begin with tension or immediacy. You can choose to begin with a flashback; you immediately thrust the reader into the midst of the action. This ensures that your story begins with maximum excitement.

2. Character Development

Characters are the heart and soul of any story. In creative writing, you have to make your characters real and believable, in such a way that readers can easily picture them. Your characters should be unique. But, they should have flaws, pasts and personalities that normal people possess. A good character should have a name, physical description, backstory, nemesis, goals, friends and family, strengths and weaknesses, and dialogue. Remember, the best characters are ordinary people, with exceptional qualities, who do extraordinary things.

3. Plot Development

Plot is the series of events that makes up your story; the order in which they occur and how they relate to each other. It is the action of the story. A good plot should be logical, believable and compelling enough to keep the reader glued to the story. Character and plot development are totally entwined. Use the three act structure in writing your essay. Ensure the plot has an opening, rising action leading to drama, climax, falling action and a resolution. Ensure that every element of the story is vividly described to give the reader a clear picture in mind of what you imagine the setting to be. Here’s a descriptive essay writing guide to help you understand the importance of description in plot development.

4. Vivid Setting

You need to vividly describe the setting and the location of your story. This ensures that the reader can feel and imagine what the character is going through. Write:

• Concrete and specific details.
• Sensory details; describe the sight, smell, touch, hearing and taste.
• Original details; change the perspective.
• Describe the setting using figurative devices.
• Avoid long descriptions. 

5. Theme

Have you ever watched a movie, then at the end of it, you ask yourself, what the hell was that movie about? One of the Six Core Competencies to successful creative essays, is the theme. The theme is the main idea being explored in the essay. It is the pulse of the story and should be compelling enough, to make the readers want to read your story up to the end. A theme can be about loss, discovery, justice, betrayal, love, power, etc. when choosing your theme, give it a lot of thought. Imagination is very important here. Your theme should be realistic and relate to life in general. It should tackle the issues, challenges and experiences as seen through the characters.

6. Point of View (POV)

How can the point of view affect your writing? The rules surrounding the point of view are very strong, since POV filters everything in the story. If you make a single mistake, you will have to rewrite the whole essay since it can erode credibility and the readers’ trust. The POV can be the way you think about a subject or the narrator’s position on the description of events. There are 4 types POV;

• First person POV; The first person is the narrator, relating his experiences directly.
• Second person POV; The narrator is talking directly to the reader. It is uncommon in essays.
• Third person single POV; The narrator is outside the story and is the one relating the experiences of the character.
• Third person multiple POV; The narrator is outside the story, and is relating the experiences of all characters in the story.

When choosing a POV, choose carefully because you will have to stick to it throughout the whole story.

7. Dialogue

Dialogue is an essential part of creative writing. In creative writing, dialogue is used to set a scene, to let the reader hear the character’s voice, and when a conversation is an essential part of the story. But how do you come up with dialogue that works? Set the dialogue according to the character’s;

• Age
• Geographic background
• Education level
• Personality; shy, aggressive, etc.
• Relationship with the person she’s speaking with
• Attitude towards the conversation topic.

Do not be too formal, use obtrusive dialogue tags, be too realistic or use the character’s names too often. Avoid making all the characters, sound the same and use narratives. Remember, an effective dialogue should be authentic, cut in at the right moments and clearly capture the character’s voice.

8. Metaphors and Similes

Your writing needs to stand out. That’s why you have to throw in some metaphors and similes. You can use similes and metaphors to help you communicate a specific message, place emphasis on a certain point, or describe something more vividly so that it can have a more powerful effect on the reader.

Similes can be used in instances where the author is trying to explain something without leaving any doubt in the reader’s mind, i.e., ‘He was drinking like a fish’. Similes can also be used in ironic instances, where the author wants to make a comparison to something the exact opposite he wanted to say, i.e., ‘He was as much use as a chocolate teapot’, yet this means he was totally useless. Metaphors on the other hand, can be used to draw a direct parallelism. For example, your writing is a bland dish.

Now that you have got these useful tips, don’t rush into the story. Conduct some research before you begin your story. Record down these ideas until you get your inspiration. Once you have written your story, go through it again and again. Your story might be highly entertaining, but no one enjoys reading a story with a million errors. Finally, keep your essay at a reasonable length.

About the author:

Rick Riddle is a marketing consultant and an up-and-coming blogger whose articles aim to help people with e-learning, self-development, blogging, entrepreneurship, and career. Feel free to follow Rick on twitter and LinkedIn.

English is the most widely spoken language in the entire world. However, it is also challenging to learn, especially for foreign learners. The difficulty learners have depends on language or languages they know. English is easier to learn if a person already speaks a language with the same roots. Here we look at 5 difficulties English poses to those learning it as a foreign language and how they can fight these issues.

There Are Many Variations of English

English is a challenging language because there are very many variations of it. Though it is the same language, it is spoken quite differently in countries that have it as the primary language. In the UK, it is spoken differently in different regions. It is not uncommon to hear of regional dialects. In England alone, there are distinctive dialects, such as ‘Geordie’ in Northumberland, ‘Brummie’ in the Midlands, ‘West Country’ in Devon among other notable accents. This makes English sound different in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. You may even think that they speak four different languages. Getting used to the sounds you hear from a British person becomes difficult and will take much time.

In order to advance your English skills, you should take up English Language summer classes which will enable you to make much progress in the language. Being that the classes are small, teaching is, therefore, student focused. You also need to put in a lot of hard work and determination in order to succeed.

Pronunciation Is Difficult and Inconsistent

There are several aspects of pronunciation that make English difficult to learn. These includes:

• Certain sounds are particularly tricky

Certain sounds prove to be hard to pronounce as they are not common in other dialects. These include; “th”, differentiating between “r” and “l” and “b” and “v”.

In English, it is possible to group together a number of consonants in a sentence unlike in other languages; i.e. ‘strong’ has three consonants before the vowel ‘o’. This proves to be challenging and students end up inserting extra vowels to break up the consonants.

The only solution is by practicing and taking elocution lessons.

• You can’t always guess the pronunciation from the spelling

For example, dough and cough cannot be pronounced in the same way, even though they both end in ‘ough’. To overcome this, learn the exceptions where pronunciation is concerned.

• There are so many silent letters

Knife, honor, psychology, are some words that begin with silent letters. Character, autumn, castle are also words that have silent letters.

You can look up the pronunciation in the dictionary or language apps to overcome this.

• Regional dialects alter pronunciation

Pronunciation varies depending on where a person comes from. To minimize the confusion, you should learn from a person with neutral dialect so that you can learn to pronounce the words correctly.

Tricky English - the Vocabulary

Challenging task for students when learning a new language is to memorize sufficient words express oneself. This is not an easy feat to attain. Many people find English challenging because of the following reasons:

• The large number of words

English has the largest number of words as compared to any language. Moreover, there are several words that stand behind the same meaning, however, cannot be used interchangeably i.e. plump and fat. These differences are not so straightforward to foreigners.

• Difficulty in spelling

Idiosyncratic spellings mean that trying to spell an English word on the basis of it’s pronunciation is not easy. Although the words may end in recurring patterns, i.e. ing, there are always exceptions to rules. This means that logical deductions will not always work. Moreover, there are plenty of homophones in English making it hard to perceive the meaning.

• Idioms and slangs

Spoken English is usually less formal than written English. Slang is also very important for one to be able to keep up with the casual conversation. In order to speak English fluently, know the collocations and expressions, their meaning and when to use them is also important.

The best way to get through is by reading English books. There are several apps such as Duolingo that can help you with this. Make the dictionary your best study partner, to be able to understand words, their spellings, and meanings. You can also write short narrative essays to improve your writing skills.

English Grammar Is Full of Subtlety

English grammar is full of subtlety. With experience, a non-native speaker will learn to appreciate it. English grammar has a certain level of difficulty that poses a serious challenge to even native speakers, leading them to commit common mistakes. One of the challenges comes from the use of time; writing in present, simple present, future present, simple past etc. coupled with tricky auxiliary verbs, complex punctuation, idiomatic variations and their subtleties, then you have a perfect recipe for confusion.

Do not stress about it. Once you are speaking fluently and you have learned from your past mistakes, you will easily master all these. As the saying goes, you will get better with age.

Thinking in Their Native Tongue

English is not closely related to other languages. I mean, Spanish and Italian are closely related and even share some words, unlike English which is a stand-alone language. When you think in your mother tongue you end up coming up with words which do not make sense in English. You may come up with the word, ‘I do a promise’ instead of ‘I make a promise’. When learning English, always remember this. Think in English. This way, it will be easier to comprehend words and learn faster.

In conclusion, there is no secret to learning English. You must have determination and commitment in order to succeed. Lots and lots of practice will make you become as good as the native speakers. All the best!

About the author:

Rick Riddle is a marketing consultant and an up-and-coming blogger whose articles aim to help people with digital e-learning, self-development, blogging, entrepreneurship, and career. Feel free to follow Rick on twitter and LinkedIn.