Creative Writing | Lesson 1 | Sensory Imagery and Diction | Ma'am Nich | w/ Audio

Summary

This creative writing class introduces students to the concept of creative writing, distinguishing it from other literary forms by its focus on entertainment over information. The teacher, Mom Mitch, explains that creative writing employs sensory imagery to engage readers' senses and convey emotions, thoughts, and feelings. The lesson covers various sensory images like visual, gustatory, auditory, olfactory, and tactile, using examples to illustrate their use. Additionally, the importance of diction in setting tone, supporting the setting, establishing narrative voice, and bringing characters to life is discussed, with examples of different types of diction including formal, informal, colloquial, slang, and poetic.

Takeaways

• 📘 Creative writing is a form of writing that goes beyond the conventional boundaries of normal, professional, journalistic, academic, or technical literature, aiming to entertain more than inform.
• 🎨 The primary purpose of creative writing is to express feelings, thoughts, or emotions, which is what readers experience when engaging with novels, short stories, poems, or songs.
• 📚 Literary genres that fall under creative writing include poetry, short stories, novels, screenplays, stage play scripts, and lyrics, among others.
• 🌟 Creative writing is not confined to traditional school reading and writing; it extends to various forms such as magazine articles, essays, greeting cards, and feature stories.
• 👀 Sensory imagery in creative writing engages the reader's five senses—sight, taste, hearing, smell, and touch—to create vivid mental images and enhance the reading experience.
• 🌕 Visual imagery focuses on sight, describing physical attributes like color, size, and light to help readers visualize scenes, such as the moon rising over the trees.
• 🍰 Gustatory imagery appeals to the sense of taste, involving descriptions of flavors and textures, like the sensation of buttercream icing melting on the tongue.
• 🔊 Auditory imagery engages the sense of hearing, using onomatopoeia and alliteration to create sounds in writing, like the clank of plates or raindrops sizzling on the ground.
• 🌹 Olfactory imagery deals with the sense of smell, often using similes to compare scents to familiar smells, such as describing a stench similar to rotten meat.
• 🧊 Tactile imagery involves the sense of touch, describing textures and sensations, and can also evoke emotions, like the feeling of cool water or a storm-tossed beach.
• 📝 Diction in creative writing refers to the writer's choice of words and language, which can establish tone, support the setting, create a narrative voice, and bring characters to life.
• 🔍 There are five types of diction: formal, informal, colloquial, slang, and poetic, each serving different purposes and styles in writing, from professional texts to everyday conversations.

Q & A

What is the definition of creative writing according to the script?

Creative writing refers to any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal, professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature. It is less technical and is usually written to entertain more than to inform.

What are the primary purposes of creative writing?

The primary purposes of creative writing are to express feelings, thoughts, or emotions, and to entertain readers.

What are some examples of literary genres that are considered creative writing?

Examples of creative writing genres include poetry, short stories, novels, film and television screenplays, stage play scripts, lyrics, magazine articles, essays, greeting cards, and feature stories in newspapers.

What is sensory imagery and why is it important in creative writing?

Sensory imagery involves the use of descriptive language to create mental images that engage a reader's five senses. It is important because it helps readers imagine what they are reading, enhancing their experience and connection with the text.

Can you explain the concept of visual imagery in creative writing?

Visual imagery engages the sense of sight and includes descriptions of color, size, shape, lightness, darkness, shadows, and shade. It helps readers visualize the scene or object being described.

What are gustatory images and how do they relate to creative writing?

Gustatory images engage the sense of taste and can include descriptions of the five basic tastes (sweet, salty, bitter, sour, umami) as well as textures and sensations tied to eating. They help readers experience the taste of what is being described.

How does auditory imagery contribute to creative writing?

Auditory imagery engages the sense of hearing and can use literary devices like onomatopoeia and alliteration to create sounds in writing. It appeals to the reader's sense of hearing, making the writing more immersive.

What is olfactory imagery and how does it work in creative writing?

Olfactory imagery engages the sense of smell and can be challenging to write about due to its close link with taste. It uses comparisons to common smells to help readers imagine the scent being described.

What is tactile imagery and why is it significant in creative writing?

Tactile imagery engages the sense of touch and includes descriptions of textures and sensations experienced when touching something. It is significant because it helps readers feel the physical sensations described in the text.

What is diction and why is it important in creative writing?

Diction refers to the writer's choice of words or language. It is important because it helps create a certain tone, supports the setting, establishes a narrative voice and tone, and brings characters to life.

Can you describe the different types of diction mentioned in the script?

The script mentions five types of diction: formal, informal, colloquial, slang, and poetic. Each type serves different purposes and is used in different contexts to achieve specific effects in writing.