JALT Sendai

November 2014

Putting Creativity into Writing

Alan Maley
yelamoo@yahoo.co.uk
Something to nibble on while you wait:
This lyfe so short, the crafte so long to learn. Chaucer.

Poetry is that which arrives at the intellect by way of the heart.

R.S.Thomas.

A story is a candle lit against the dark.

…linguistic creativity is not simply a property of exceptional people but

an exceptional property of all people. Ron Carter.

Poetry: ‘Dancing in chains’ Tang Chinese.

Poetry: ‘Articulate energy’ Donald Davie

‘A poem is language under pressure.’ Ruth Padel.

 Some Ideas.  

1. Hello / Goodbye

Hello paper.
Goodbye trees.

Hello honey.
Goodbye money.
2. Stem poems

I love the way…

I love the way you do your hair.

I love the way you sit and stare…

Loneliness is…

I wonder why…

It’s funny how…

 Some other possible stems/ starter sentences  

If I could live my life I know what…

over again, where…
I’d talk less and love when…
more. how…
I’d be less hygienic, why…
etc.
who…
But I don’t know…
When I get older I
shall…
3. Acrostics and such like.
(N) Ducks
(V) Dive
(Adv)Dangerously.

Try another animal.

*************
Leaf:

Living
Energy
Active
Force.
4. 9-word story poems.
He
loved her,
then found out,
so he
left.
Try 16-words.
My
brother’s wife
ran off with
my sister’s first husband.
They all re-married-
playing Happy
Families.
 A variation:
Tell your life story in 10 words.

eg.

Born,
Then remained a child
Had fun.
Had pain.
Died.
5. Strange partners.
In pairs, student A makes a vertical list of 12 adjectives.
Student B makes a similar list of 12 nouns. They do not
show their lists. They put their lists together and make Adj-N
phrases. They then combine these into a text.

A B

fragile cat
fast tree
open wife
painful handbag

etc.
 
6. Questions to Nature.
First each S formulates two unusual questions to nature. eg.
Do trees dream?
Can fish think?

In groups of 4 they try to combine their questions into a short poem.

Do fish sleep?
Do trees dream?
Can whales sing?
Can roses scream?

Do snakes blink?
Can horses pray?
Can oysters think?
Can worms play?
7. Giving orders.
Ss write orders to a natural or inanimate object. eg.

Rose, don’t die.

Nose, don’t blow.

They then combine their orders into a short poem. eg.

Rose, don’t die.

Hot dog, please fry.
Clock, go slow.
Nose, don’t blow…etc.
8. Rhyme time
a) Make a list of all the words that rhyme with
Pay.
Do the same for words that rhyme with – High.

b) In pairs or groups, write sentences ending

with the words in the lists.

c) Make a selection of 12 sentences: 6 for each

rhyme, and combine them into a short poem
rhyming a,b,a,b.
9. Names into Characters
Use you own name or a friend’s. Write one noun, one adjective
and one verb – all should start with the first letter of the name.

Now write a sentence using all three words.

For example: ALAN : apple, angry, act

When he can’t have an apple a day, he acts angry.

10. Bucket lists.
Make a list of all the things you want to do before you die.
Then combine them into a short poem. e.g.

After getting rid of my books,

And making peace with everyone,
I shall lose weight
By becoming a hermit
(just for a while!)
On a Scottish island,
Return home to find my son has children –
Then re-read the whole of Shakespeare,(on my Kindle)
And die in my bed with a bottle of champagne,
And be forgiven.
11. Mini-sagas.
Write a story in exactly 50 words (excluding title)

Mistaken identity.

A hunter in Africa helped an elephant

by taking a thorn out of its foot.
The elephant lifted his trunk then ran off.
Years later in a zoo, the man noticed an elephant lifting its
trunk.
He remembered Africa,
went towards it ~
it crushed him to death.
Wrong bloody elephant!
12. Cinquain
2,4,6,8,2 syllables per line. First and last word related.

Breakfast
All those fried eggs,
And gallons of coffee:
Cholesterol! Diabetes!
Lunchtime.

Grammar poem:

N, Adj + adj, vb-ing + adv., Like…., If only…

Eagle.
Strong and powerful.
Flying effortlessly
Like a leaf in the wind..
If only I could join you.
13. You are… Guided poem

You are mango ice-cream (food)

You are a cool breeze.(weather)
You are a shady palm tree.(tree)
You are dawn. (time of day)
You are a sailing boat. (vehicle)
You are comfortable shoes.(clothing)
You are jasmine. (flower)
You are a soft gamelan. (music)
You are light blue (colour)
You are a playful kitten. (animal)

You are my friend.

 14. Metaphor poem
Hope a spoon
Life a knife
Marriage an egg
Love a brush
Anger a window
Disappointment a mirror
Work a banana
Happiness a rope
Time a bus
Hate a cup
Fear an alarm-clock

Ss make up 3 metaphors by randomly combining words from each column.

Anger is an alarm-clock.
Work is a rope. etc
They then choose ONE of their metaphors. They
add 2 lines to explain the metaphor:

Marriage is a banana:
when you’ve eaten the fruit,
Only the skin is left.

Love is an egg.
Take good care
Not to break it.

15.Random Associations

Rain Leaf
Wind Tree
Sleep Dream
Sea Fish
Time Clock
Love Heart
Earth Flower
Pain Drug
Pair a word from the left column with one from the right. NOT the one it is
already paired with! Write 2-3 lines combining the two words into a visual
image. For example:
Time is a fish slipping through my fingers –
I’ll never catch it again.
15. Metamorphosis

•  I used to be …
But now I am…
e.g. I used to be white sand on a beach
But now I am a mirror for you to see
yourself in.
But now I am an elegant shape to hold
wine in..
Try – a table, bread, a plastic bag…
16. Word Array
   he in me
sent I most
parks anyway was
of never flowers
silence took wrote
it said what
letters restaurants how
to cannot love
spoke we remember
met but
 
17. Permutate the sentence:

Nobody knows the woman he loves

~ re-write the sentence in as many ways as possible

simply by changing the order of the words:

eg. Nobody loves the woman he knows.

~ Arrange your new sentences into a poem. Three

lines to a stanza will work well.
18. Anglo-Saxon Alliterative Verse.

Has to have lines in two parts. Four main beats per line.
First 3 beats start with the same consonant sound.

eg. The wind wailing, wild the trees.

Try taking a theme word (sea, rain, night, dreams, etc.) and
writing 4 lines in this style on that theme.

These heavy-hipped, heaving waves,

The salt spray, stinging the eyes.
The dark deeps, down under us,
Bottomless black, below our ship.
Variation:
To lead up to the Anglo-Saxon form, start with a list of nouns. eg.

Milk, Books, Rain, Moon, etc.

Choose one noun and write a sentence related to it with 4 alliterating

words. eg.

Milk: Cool cups of creamy comfort.

Rain: Drizzling, dripping, dribbling drops.

Moon: Shining shyly with a shimmering sheen.

19. Mining a text.

Milmaq was a solitary person. He would spend hours in the

forest, not hunting, simply sitting still, watching, waiting for
something to happen. A spider would swing its thread across
the canyon between two branches. A woodpecker would
drum at the trunk of a chestnut tree, its neck a blur of speed.
Above all, the trees themselves would speak to him. He
would be aware of them creaking and swaying in the wind.
He could sense the sap rising in them in the springtime; feel
their sorrow at the approach of winter. If he put his ear to
the trunk of a tree, he could hear it growing, very slowly; feel
it moving towards its final, magnificent shape.

(The Man Who Talked to Trees. Alan Maley)

20. Hiawatha.
And the lovely Laughing Water
Seemed more lovely as she stood there
Neither willing nor reluctant.
As she went to Hiawatha,…

Use the metre of Longfellow’s poem to write a poem about something

mundane – making tea, writing a letter, etc.

First I take the pure white paper,

Think of words to send my message,
With my Parker shape the letters,
Make the first black marks upon it.

etc.
21. Old tune, new words
(to the tune of Frere Jacques)
 
Salt and pepper, Humpty Dumpty
Salt and pepper
On my fries. Fatty the Banker.
On my fries. Made cash on the side
Add a squeeze of lemon. Fatty the banker
Add a squeeze of lemon. Took folks for a ride.
Nice surprise. All the poor women
Nice surprise. And all the poor men

  Lost all their savings
Again and again.
 She’ll be coming round the mountain:
She’ll be using her computer when
she comes (x2)
She’ll be using her computer,
And no one could look cuter.
She’ll be using her computer when
she comes.
She’ll be checking on her e-mail
when she comes (x2)
She’ll be checking on her e-mail,
She’s an electronic female.
She’ll be checking on her e-mail
when she comes.
She’ll be sending SMSs when she
comes (x2)
She’ll be sending SMSs
While she’s thinking of new dresses.
She’ll be sending SMSs when she
comes.
She’ll be tweeting on her i-pad when
she comes (x2)
And nothing could be sweeter
Than this i-pad-packing tweeter.
She’ll be tweeting on her i-pad when
she comes.
22. Same idea, different theme.
6
 Ways
 of
 looking
 at
 a
 pen.
 
 (Homage
 to
 Wallace
 Stevens)
 

A black torpedo She dreams of paper

Full of words To prick,
Aimed at your heart. To stab,
To scratch,
Her juices have dried up. To stroke
Now she waits for an organ Into meaning.
transplant.
This warm hand
Gathering dust on a desk, Connects her
She has been passed over To my thoughts.
For a newer love…
The sleek and seductive In the exam room
computer. She suddenly dries up.
23. Recipe Poem

Write a recipe but not for a meal. e.g. for winter, for
happiness, for disappointment, for fear, etc.

•  First brainstorm the ingredients

•  Then decide what processes are needed
•  Then decide how the dish will be eaten.
A Recipe for Drought

Take a plainful of dust,

Nine months-worth of sun,
A wind from the desert,
One cloudless sky,
Five dead cows,
Ten dried-up wells,
A child begging for food,
An old woman crying dry tears.
Mix them together
with a world full of indifference.
Cook for a year.
Serve up on Newsnight.
23. A Boy’s Head. Miroslav Holub
In it there is a spaceship
and a project
For doing away with piano lessons
And there is
an entirely new bird,
an entirely new hare
an entirely new bumblebee.
There is a river
that flows upwards
There is a multiplication table.
And it just cannot be trimmed.
I believe
that only what cannot be trimmed
is a head.
There is so much promise
in the fact
that so many people have heads.
 Use the Holub poem to generate a new poem using:

•  A cat’s head
•  A dog’s head
•  A monkey’s head
•  A sailor’s head
•  A girl’s head
•  A spaceman’s head
•  A chemist’s head
•  A doctor’s head
24. I like ending words…

•  Brainstorm words to do with ‘ending’ – end, close, terminal, finish, close

down, etc.
•  Use them to develop a simple poem like this:

I like ending words -

close, end, finish,
terminate, conclusion,
finalise, complete.
Yes, I like ending words.

•  Try more words: starting words, tasting words, dry words, empty words,
calm words, noisy words, etc.
Some ideas for generating poems.
•  Form poems: haiku, cinquain, clerihew, limerick, sonnet, villanelle,
acrostic, quatrain, diamond poems. etc.

•  Stem poems:
eg. I used to be…but now
When I …I always feel.
I remember what/
where/when/how

•  Grammar poems (questions, exclamations, statements, comparisons,

opposites )

•  Function poems (apologies, praise, grief, disappointment, etc.)

•  Poems based on rhyme schemes / rhythmic patterns.

•  Poems based on pictures, music, sound sequences.

•  Poems based on close observation (objects, buildings, people, trees,

flowers, food, etc.)

•  Poems based on the five senses (and synaesthesia)

•  Poems based on the elements (rain, wind etc.)

•  Poems based on memories, dreams, etc.

•  Poems based on models (including songs)

•  Poems based on stories.

•  Poems based on random principle

•  Poems based on pair/group work.

 Writing Poems: What to Avoid.
•  Sentimentality. (not greeting card poems!)

•  Facile rhyme just for the sake of rhyming.

•  Self-consciously ‘poetic’ vocabulary and syntax.

•  Letting it all hang out!

•  Flaccid language: make every word work.

Non-literary texts Literary texts

Referential (out there) Representational (in

here)
Information
Imagination
Predictable
Unpredictable
Unambiguous
Multiple meanings
Efferent reading Aesthetic reading

Extraction Contribution

Product Process

Answers More questions

Detachment Involvement

Objective Subjective

Analysis Response

Linear Recursive

Efficiency Reflection

Information Imaginative
interpretation
Expository Writing Creative Writing

Instrumental Aesthetic

Facts Imagination

External control Internal discipline

Conventions Stretching rules

Logical Intuitive

Analytical Associative

Impersonal Personal

Thinking mode Feeling mode (plus

thinking!)
Appeal to the Appeal to the
intellect senses

Avoidance of Creation of
ambiguity multiple meanings
 Why Creative Writing?
•  Language development

•  Fostering ‘playfulness’

•  Self-discovery through exploration/risk

•  Drawing on affect

•  Increased motivation from confidence/self-esteem (publishing)

•  Creative writers = Creative readers

•  CW helps improve Expository Writing.

 Creative Writing for Teachers: Why?

•  Keeps their English growing and fresh.

•  Counteracts staleness. Brings them back to
life
•  Makes them more interesting to be around.
•  Feeds into their own teaching: a better
writing teacher.
 Creative Writing: some books.
•  Fry, Stephen (2007) The Ode Less Travelled. London: Arrow Books.
•  Koch, Kenneth (1990) Rose, where did you get that red? New York: Vintage
Books.
•  Maley, Alan and Jayakaran Mukundan. (2011) Writing Poems: a resource book
for teachers of English. Petaling Jaya: Pearson Longman
•  Maley, Alan and Jayakaran Mukundan (2011) Writing Stories: A resource book
for teachers of English. Petaling Jaya: Pearson Longman.
•  Matthews, Paul (1994) Sing Me the Creation. Stroud: Hawthorne Press.
•  Ayn Rand (2000) The Art of Fiction: A guide for writers and readers. New York:
Plume (Penguin)
•  Spiro, Jane (2004) Creative Poetry Writing. Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress.
•  Spiro, Jane (2006) Storybuilding. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
•  Whitworth, John (2001) Writing Poetry. London: A and C Black
•  Wright, Andrew and David S.Hill (2009) Writing Stories. Innsbruck: Helbling
 Why I Write: A Personal View

•  To give shape to confusion

•  To sharpen observation
•  To discover unexpected connections/
associations
•  To explore the limits of my language
•  To be more alive and alert.
 Website of the Asia teacher-writer
group

h#p://flexiblelearning.auckland.ac.nz/cw  
 
 Website of the ‘C’ group

h#p://thecrea9vitygroup.weebly.com/  
 Thank you

for

your participation.

Alan Maley

yelamoo@yahoo.co.uk