Scribd
Upload
271 views3 pages

Creative Writing Checklist

This document provides a creative writing checklist with 16 tips for crafting short stories. Some key points include showing emotions through actions rather than directly telling, using a short timeframe of minutes to hours, writing in third person unless asked for first person, avoiding cliché topics like school or family, including trivial details, flipping between character perspectives, and adding subtle backstory details to develop characters realistically. The checklist aims to help writers engage readers through techniques like personification, metaphor, sensory details, and varying sentence structures.

Uploaded by

aaron7sub
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
271 views3 pages

Creative Writing Checklist

This document provides a creative writing checklist with 16 tips for crafting short stories. Some key points include showing emotions through actions rather than directly telling, using a short timeframe of minutes to hours, writing in third person unless asked for first person, avoiding cliché topics like school or family, including trivial details, flipping between character perspectives, and adding subtle backstory details to develop characters realistically. The checklist aims to help writers engage readers through techniques like personification, metaphor, sensory details, and varying sentence structures.

Uploaded by

aaron7sub
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 3

Creative Writing Checklist

1. Write ‘plomaaasss’ on your paper, or you will forget to use all the techniques!

P ersonification
L isting
O nomatopoeia
M etaphor
A lliteration
A djectives
A dverbs
S imiles
S hort Sentences
S enses

2. Include thinking/feeling/doing

“Let’s go then,” he said, wishing he had never asked her to come with him.
“Let’s go then,” he said, acutely aware of a wave of cold hitting his skin.
“Let’s go then,” he said, tossing his scarf around his neck.

3. Show / Don’t Tell

‘A rosy glow filled her cheeks and her eyes sparkled like fairy lights’

Rather than

‘She looked happy.’

4. Use a short timeframe

Your story should take place in a timeframe of minutes to hours, but no longer, as then you will lose
detail and just have one boring event after another.

5. Age-up your character / use the opposite sex

Make your character at least 30 years old and consider using the opposite sex as well. This allows for far
more mature writing and enables you to write from a wide range of perspectives e.g. a company manager,
a divorcee, a ship’s captain etc.

6. Write in third person unless specifically asked for first person

Stories written from ‘I’ perspective will always come back to you and your experiences and can be
limited.
7. Never write about school or family

These topics will invariably produce boring, baby stories e.g. teen pregnancy, getting detention, a family
outing etc. yawn…

8 Write about everyday stuff

Don’t write about car chases, bombs, aliens or anything you might see in a blockbuster movie! Keeping it
simple and everyday will let you have a far more engaging story. Sad stories can also be far more
effective than happy ones.

For example, a 40 year-old man staying late at the office as he doesn’t want to go home to the family that
he has come to see as a burden. The entire story would be what he does in the office, his thoughts, calling
home briefly with an excuse etc. Nothing would ‘happen’ as such.

9 Include trivial detail

Small, seemingly irrelevant detail can bring a story and its setting to life.

The foyer’s Christmas tree was somewhat overdone with tacky, two-tone tinsel and gaudy baubles in a
shade of purple that reminded him of overripe plums

The foyer’s Christmas tree was a delight, tastefully decorated with decoupage baubles picturing quaint
Victorian snow scenes.

10 Discard your first idea

Everyone else will have thought of it. Try to take a more unusual slant on the topic.

11 Assess the ‘cheese’ factor

Ask yourself if what you are writing is cheesy in any way. If it is, get rid of it.

12 Word choices

Replace average words with something better e.g. ‘walk’ or ‘said’ could become ‘shuffled’ or ‘muttered’
(if the context allows).

13 Stretch sentences

Try to streeeeetttccccchhh your sentences by adding something extra. Can you develop the sentence in
any way? (thinking/feeling/doing or some extra detail perhaps)

14 Flipping between characters

This is an easy way to make an interesting story. Do a paragraph on one character and then in the next
paragraph, switch to another. You could cover both perspectives of the same event e.g. two people on a
date, a couple arguing, a driver and passenger, a receptionist and the person in the waiting room etc.
15 Back-story

Subtly include a little back-story here and there so that you can to bring life to your characters.

Sam opened the wine and slipped the cork into his pocket to whittle into some kind of little animal or
other later.

16 Realism

Would that really happen? Would someone really say or do that?

You might also like