What is Creative Writing? By Eguriase S. M. Okaka

WHAT IS CREATIVE WRITING?

 

BY EGURIASE S. M. OKAKA

When you write for stage, television, or film, you operate a craft that goes beyond the ordinary. As a point of fact, it is a craft that transcends itself to become an art.  An art itself comes from genius and powerful inspiration. We probably can learn the craft because it is quite unlike that a real work of art can come from someone who hasn’t first learned the craft.

ESSENTIAL ELEMENT OF CREATIVE WRITING

You need a good idea but that idea must have a form. This is the plot. The way you organize the events that form your story is largely driven by the structure of the plot. The foundation of all forms of drama is the three-act structure. It is quite true that this observation was initially and finally stated by Aristotle in his poetics, today this old pattern is still applied to play, films, and television screens. The three Act structure is the basis on which all plays are written. It provides the framework within which:

1.     Your script will be filled. It will serve as your guide and it ensures that your story has unity.

2.     It will progress your story logically and make it believable from incident to accident.

3.     The structure will help you say what you need to say in each Act. How each Act will develop and how each Act will build to the crisis that will continuously push your story forward.

ANALYSIS OF THE THREE ACT

  ACT One

Your effort in the first 30 minutes must be towards ensuring that you get your audience hooked. It is within this period that your play will either be interesting or not. This is also where you introduce the principal character of the story.it is also where you quickly established what the principal’s character goal entails and set the scene for crisis and complications that will take place in Act two. One of the best ways to do this is to include in the first Act, an event that will make your character take the step towards his goal. This becomes his major force throughout the play.

  Always bear in mind that the audience knows absolutely nothing about your character and their circumstances. As such you need to decide quite well what the audience needs to know. This is the trend of suspense and discovery that runs throughout the play. (A writer, a good storyteller must be skilled at the art of divulging on a need-to-know basis. 

  By the time you end the first Act your major character must have a solid commitment to his major goal and dogged determination to achieve it. It is very important to bear this in mind that a successful drama is actually a series of crises in such a way that the solution seems farther and farther away. 

Act Two

Because of the organic nature of drama, each part of your story must logically grow out of one another or the one that precedes it. It follows therefore that the event of Act One should logically flow into Act Two. 

If you want to develop the middle part of your story what would you do? The second Act is when the entire major story element that will give conflict and suspense planted in the first act is germinated. Your story here gets entrenched in more crisis, twist, and further complication. It is the point at which each of his/her problems seems unsolvable.

 

You must realize that the complications that are bound in the middle part of your story are determined by the nature of the story you are telling. For example, a thriller/adventure story deals with the good versus bad, protagonist versus antagonist. Romance has a different approach to life. They are often characterized by complications like misunderstanding, disagreements, obstacles, barriers, etc.   

  The main character must progressively find him/her facing more complications. The writer must continue to show series of obstacles that will ensure that the character does not achieve his / her goal. A good writer would also orchestrate this obstacle so that they will grow as picture progresses.

THE MOMENT OF TRUTH 

This is one very important element in Act 2 which we must never forget, it is called “The Moment Of Truth”. It is the point in your story where your character embarks on his / her final and formidable battle to achieve his goal. This battle will determine whether he / she will subdue or fail. Although the battle will come up in Act Three yet the basis is set up in Act Two.

ACT THREE 

The final act of your story will take just 30 minutes not necessarily after a complication one hour of the middle part. It will play out the final conflict, the beginning of which was planted Act two. This Act would resolve the situation in one way or the other. It will determine whether the central character will achieve his/ her goal or not. The very moment your drama answers this question of whether your character achieves his goal or not, your drama ends. Any other story after this becomes an anti-climax.

 

 The resolution must be quick and done clearly. It must be done from the actions of your major character that has to achieve his goal on his own with circumstances and other force or other people working in his favor. Your audience deserves the reward of seeing him/her as the main instrument for resolving the situation. 

  Never forget this, though your entire story is made of beginning, middle, and end. (Act one, two and three) each must have an ordered sequence within the Act must be like the beginning, middle and end. This way you have a solid plot with three or more dramatic action-packed scenes.

By Eguriase S. M. Okaka