Creative

Writing
Activities
Dr. Will Kurlinkus
Your Main
Character as
User Persona
From the perspective
of…
Styling Your
Document
+ Single-space, no indents, double space
between paras
+ Page numbers
+ In short fiction (and all fiction, really) you
create new paragraphs rather quickly.
Shift to a new paragraph with every new
topic but also when you switch between
characters in dialogue.
+ When you shift scenes/jump through
time it’s a common practice to mark that
shift visually. You can do that through
three centered asterisks or some other
style.
Some Research & Quoting Basics
+ Remember point, evidence, and analysis from our application packet: make a claim, back it up with
quotes/paraphrases/stories, and then connect that claim back to your argument.
+ Every piece of data (numbers, statistics, etc.) needs to be cited.
+ In this class and most good professional/technical writing you want to make sure you intro/credential your sources.
• Bad: Rockets of the future are sure to be smaller: “in the future rockets will be the size of insects” (Robertson 13).
• Better: Rockets of the future are sure to be smaller. Indeed, Arnold Robertson, NASA researcher, writes in Science, “in the future rockets will be the size of insects”
(13).
• Best: Rockets of the future are sure to be smaller. Indeed, Arnold Robertson, NASA researcher, writes in Science, “in the future rockets will be the size of insects.”
(13). Robertson’s reference to insects here is especially important to the topic at hand because insects tend to takeover and colonize whatever space they enter;
that is, if we design are space travel tech with an insectoid mindset…

+ All sources should come from some kind of expert on the topic at hand: who are your experts?
+ Pay attention to quote mechanics. If you intro a quote with a full sentence and your quote is a full sentence, use a colon,
block quote quotes more than four lines, citation and punctuation after and outside the quote, three ellipses for missing
words—four for missing sentences.
+ Vary your quote structure. You don’t always need to do intro, comma, quote.
• “In the future, rockets will be the size of insects,” explains Nasa Researcher Arnold Robertson “In fact, insect-sized space vehicles will be able to travel to and
colonize new worlds easily. They may even go unnoticed by local life.”
Extended Metaphors
Extended metaphors are
Well, son, I'll tell you:
Life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
It's had tacks in it,
And splinters,
And boards torn up,
And places with no carpet on the floor --
excellent callback and
Bare.
But all the time foreshadowing mechanisms.
I'se been a-climbin' on,
And reachin' landin's,
And turnin' corners,
If you describe a man like a
And sometimes goin' in the dark
Where there ain't been no light.
So boy, don't you turn back.
spider, you be sure he’s going
Don't you set down on the steps
'Cause you finds it's kinder hard. to do something bad. You
Don't you fall now --
For I'se still goin', honey,
I'se still climbin',
don’t/shouldn’t be so blatant
And life for me ain't been no crystal stair.
—Langston Hughes
as this poetry.
Writing “Real” Dialogue
+ One of the easiest errors that people can fall into when writing dialog is to overdo it—realize
that people talk in fragments, don’t use fancy words, don’t speak in speeches, etc.
“Yes, I do want a cookie with my milk. I would also like a sandwich.”
“Chocolate chip okay?
“Yes, chocolate chip would be good. Please give me two chocolate chip cookies and one very large glass of milk. I will eat them at the
kitchen table. I cannot sit at the dining room table.”

+ Another error in dialogue is having characters explain things they already know but the
reader doesn’t
“Hey, that car’s just like the one you dad gave you when you turned sixteen,” Jenny said.
“Where?”
“Look! Here it comes again.” Kai pointed at the Camaro racing down the street. “You remember when your parents had it waiting in the
driveway? And that red bow was wrapped all around it?”
“Pink. I was into pink that year.”
“Pink? Whatever. And your brother wanted to borrow it that night. Remember? But you wanted to go out and you called me and then we
went to that party, the one weren’t supposed to go to?’