Creative Writing Prompts- Why Creative Writing Prompts Help You Become A Better Creative Writer

How to Write Essays - 4 Easy Essay Writing Tips

f you've been consistently struggling with how to write essays, this article will show you four easy steps to writing consistently high quality essays. The main things you need to focus on are the essay subject, the opening paragraph, the overall structure of the essay, and your essay content and analysis. This article also provides links to two excellent resources for essay writing.

1. Picking a Subject for Your Essay

The first step when working out how to write essays is to decide what your subject or theme will be. Knowing the subject of your essay enables you to focus your efforts. You can immerse yourself in finding out all there is to know about a particular topic without any chance of getting distracted.

If possible, pick a subject you are interested in, because this will make writing the essay much easier. Even if you have been given a topic, try and find an 'angle' to it that has some interest to you. Good resources for essay material are the internet, written or e-books, journals or even interviews of people versed in your chosen subject.

Once you have found your topic, the next thing to focus on is the structure of your essay.

2. Structuring Your Essay

A vital part of learning how to write essays is to understand the importance of structure. Structure helps the reader to understand where your essay is going and what you are trying to tell them. Think of the structure as a 'framework' around which you can build your writing,

Firstly, while researching your topic, write down the main points in dot point form, using only a few words - these will form the main structure for your essay. It doesn't matter much at this stage what order they are in - you can sort that out later.

Under each main point, jot down 2 or 3 sub points that go into a bit more detail about that particular aspect of your essay.

Once you have this basic structure in place, you can start thinking about how many words to write for each part of your essay.

3. Number of words in your essay

This is a very important aspect of how to write essays. Let's say you have 2000 words to write for the whole essay and 5 main points, with 2 subpoints for each. Remember that you will also need an introductory and concluding paragraph, so that makes it about 12 paragraphs in total. This means you will need to write about 150-200 words per paragraph or sub point. Once you start to break it down in this way, you can see that learning how to write essays is not overwhelming - all you have to do is write a short piece of text for each of the ideas you are presenting.

Once you have the structure written down in note form, with the number of words for each paragraph, you can start to work on the details of your essay content.

4. Essay Content and Analysis

Look at what you have read for each of the main points of your essay and work out how you can talk about it in your own words, or in a more informative way. Look at your essay research notes and decide for yourself if the writers have made claims which, in your opinion, lack substance. If necessary, compare different claims and write down which of them is more valid, in your opinion, and explain why to your reader. Remember that each paragraph needs to lead into the next. This 'smooths out' the structure and helps the essay to 'flow' better.

Analysis can be a challenging thing to tackle when you are first starting to learn how to write essays, but it is well worth persevering with because it will make your essays much more worthwhile and readable.

Conclusion

In this article you have seen there are only four steps to writing a great essay. Learning how to write essays is an important part of improving your communication skills. It will be time well spent and there are many tools available to make your task much easier.

Creative Writing Prompts - Hot Wire Your Creative Writing With New Writing Prompts

Every writer has their own unique creative writing abilities, a way of spinning words together like no-one else. Also, we're all capable of improving our writing, writing more richly, more deeply, more abundantly.

Often though we simply don't write.

Our creative writing potential just sits there, desperate to be set free but somehow unable to even start.

It's like owning a beautiful, elegant and extremely fast sorts car, but it's just sitting on your front drive and you've lost the keys...

So how do you find those keys?

How do you get that sports car that is your creative writing potential started up and out to rip it up on the open road?

Hot wire it!

You need a way of getting it started, something to give that initial ignition spark that fires the engine. The best way of doing this with your creative writing is to use some kind of creative writing prompt.

A writing prompt can just be a few words, a paragraph, a short exercise, an image, something that gives your creativity a starting point to set off in its imaginative journey from.

Many of us fear or avoid creative writing prompts, because we feel it's taking a short cut somehow, or it's cheating, we should come up with every tiny part of every idea ourselves.

It's an understandable concern in principle.

But using creative writing prompts is not copying or plagiarising someone else.

It's simply using that starting point to challenge and encourage your creative writing talents to get to work and produce something interesting, something that's all your own creation.

If you wanted to adopt this purist approach of not wanting to use creative writing prompts and be totally 100% original, you could also say - OK you can't use any SEQUENCE of words that anyone else has ever used. Oh and you can't use any WORDS that anyone else has ever used either. Actually, you can't even use the same LETTERS, you must make up your own alphabet, then your own words, then you can write something that's completely 100% original. Happy?

Seems a little silly doesn't it?

What would happen then also is no-one would even understand your writing, it would just be symbols on a page.

A huge part of creative writing is to weave the words that connect with people, that touch them, prompt them to recall a memory, an emotion or an experience from their own life.

It's very hard to do that with a completely new alphabet and language!

If you've had these kind of concerns before, maybe it's time to try out some writing prompts and see where they lead, see how they can hot wire that beautiful sports car of yours.

Why let it just sit there gathering dust on your driveway any longer?

How to Use Creative Writing Prompts to Become a Better Writer

Creative writing prompts are a great tool we can use to explore and expand our writing, especially when it feels like we can only churn out the same old words and phrases time and time again.

So how do writing prompts work, and why should you consider using them in your writing?

Imagine your creative writing potential is a vast ocean, stretching off into the distance for as far as you can see. The problem is, you're merely paddling around at the shore, unable to go in any deeper than up to your ankles, while that ocean of possibility seems tantalisingly out of reach.

So you could wade out a little further, maybe even swim, and maybe you do this from time to time. But to really set sail on a voyage of writing discovery, you need a boat!

The problem isn't a lack of writing ability or a lack of ideas, or enthusiasm. The problem is taking the plunge and getting started on new writing adventures.

So, if you had a boat, you could push off from the shore in any direction you wish, sail as far as you wanted, even go around the world and back if that's what your heart desired. No more sitting at the shore gazing out in frustration and wondering if you'd ever write anything stimulating and rewarding again. You'll be too busy enjoying your sea adventures to worry about things like that!

So, back to your creative writing... The question is, how do you find a boat?

This is where creative writing prompts come in. A writing prompt gives you an initial direction to head in, and a strong launch from the shore. You have a specific idea in your mind to start with, which your creativity, once invited, will happily take over and explore in its own unique way.

But, hang on, if the prompt isn't your own idea, isn't that "cheating"?

This is a common concern and the simple answer is no. As soon as you set sail with the prompt, where you take it is completely up to you. After that initial push off, the sails and rudder are in your hands and you can use them to head in any direction you want to.

With writing prompts you don't then have someone on your shoulder (or in your boat!) giving you instructions about what to write, how many words to use, and which punctuation is most suitable. You're free to write however you want to write. The difference is, you've been given that initial boost that you've struggled to find on your own lately. Take it, use it, write the best you can write!

How To Succeed at Essay Writing

It's the moment every parent dreads: when your child sits there, glum-faced, looking at a blank piece of paper in front of them. They have a rapidly-approaching deadline for their essay, and nothing, but nothing you do as a parent seems to help them get any closer to completion. What can you do to help? The answer is: quite a lot.

Producing a successful essay can be one of the most arduous parts of the schooling process, and yet, the need to write an essay is everywhere: from English literature, to economics, to physics, geography, classical studies, music, and history. To succeed, at high school and in tertiary study you must master essay writing.

Getting students over this barrier was one of the reasons I put pen to paper four years ago and produced a book called Write That Essay! At that stage, I was a senior academic at Auckland University and a university examiner. For nearly 20 years, in both course work and examinations, I had counselled everyone from 17-year-old 'newbies' to 40-year-old career changers with their essay writing. Often, the difference between a student who might achieve a B-Grade and the A-Grade student was just some well-placed advice and direction.

I then visited over 50 New Zealand High Schools and spoke with over 8000 kiwi kids about essay writing. These students reported exactly the same challenges as I had previously encountered, and more. The result has been two books and a DVD that have helped kids achieve some of the potential that sits inside all of us.

In this article I am going to deal with some things you can do as a parent to help your child succeed at essay writing. Because writing great essays is well within every child's grasp.

Tips for essay writing success:

1. It's an argument

Remember that an essay is an argument: the task in an essay is not to write a story or to recount a plot. The teacher knows all of this information. In an essay your child's job is to present a compelling argument-using specific evidence-for the point they are trying to make.

2. Write a plan: you'll be pleased that you did

Get your child to write a brief list-plan of the topics that their essay needs to cover. Even a short plan is better than no plan at all, and will start to give the writer a feeling that completing an essay on that topic is well within their grasp.

If your child is a visual learner, move away from the desk and go to a neutral space. Grab a large sheet of blank A3 paper and some coloured pens, and brainstorm a mind map or sketch plan of what the essay should contain. Using pictures, lines, circles, and arrows will all help the visual learner grasp the task at hand and help them see what they have to do.

3. Getting Started

A challenge many kids (and adults) face writing essays is getting started. The person sits there waiting for inspiration to hit them like a lightening bolt and it never happens. What can you as a parent do to help?

Encourage them with the thought that great essays are never written the first time over. Get them to view essay writing as a three-part process. The first draft is only to get out the ideas and words in rough form. In the second and third effort, they will add to their essay where there are blanks, clarify ideas, and give it a final polish. Realising that an essay isn't supposed to be perfect the first time you write it, really helps some people.

4. Having enough to say

If your child is still stuck, find out if they have read up enough on the topic. Some inertia with writing can be due to lack of knowledge. They will find writing so much easier if they spend another day or two reading more on the topic and gleaning some additional ideas.

5. Try using a neutral sentence

Suggest starting the essay with a neutral sentence: a sentence that merely states an interesting fact on the topic being written about. Here's one: 'Mozart was one of the most important Austrian composers of the eighteenth century.' First sentences in essays don't need to be stellar - you just need to start!

Now, go write that essay!

Titles available in this series:

Write That Essay! (for tertiary students)

Write That Essay! High School Edition

Write That Essay! High School Edition Box Set (includes book, DVD and worksheets)

Creative Writing Prompts- Can You Afford NOT To Use Them In Your Creative Writing?

Creative Writing Prompts- How They Provide The Spark That Sets Your Creative Writing Ablaze

Have you ever used creative writing prompts?

Many writers have concerns about using creative writing prompts because they feel in some way it's cheating, or taking a short cut.

This is a common misconception, and it's understandable where it comes from. We want to be original with our writing, find our own unique voice and way of expressing ourselves through our words.

If we use someone else's words, how can we say we're being original?

You're not using the prompt then adding nothing else. You're making your own major contribution to the finished piece of writing.

Imagine it being like a fire.

You creative talent is the logs in the fireplace, all stacked up and waiting to be lit. If they don't get lit, there not going to burn. It's as simple as that.

What you need is that initial spark to get your creative fires crackling away.

And this is where creative writing prompts come in, and can be so effective.

They are the tiny match that provides the initial flame that sets your creative talents ablaze.

Once you've got going, it's far easier to keep the fire alive, by adding fuel in the form of your new ideas and creative talents.

If you tried to build a whole writing project from just creative prompts it wouldn't work. This would be like trying to make a bonfire out of individual matches. It would burn fiercely for a few seconds then die.

There's no real fuel of any substance there to keep the flame alive. That's what you provide and where your stack of creative talent comes in.

Creative writing prompts can help you become a better creative writer.

You've just got to be willing to try them out and see for yourself what a fantastic stimulus they can be.