Creative Writing: Finding Your Voice

To write creatively, we need to find our voice. I will encourage students through writing prompts, discussions, and reading others' work to find their unique voice. There isn't any right or wrong in creative writing. Through these activities, they will also build a more substantial vocabulary and learn to express their feelings in new ways. 

Lesson 1: During the first class, I will give the students short writing exercises around an object or a word. After about five minutes, each student can read what they have written to the class. If someone isn't comfortable reading out loud, that is perfectly fine. 

 We will try to include as many writing exercises as possible to awaken their creativity.

Lesson 2: We will work with describing feelings in different ways during this lesson. 
The student will be given writing homework for the third lesson. 
If the student doesn't want to read aloud in class they can post in the chat or the classroom. During this lesson, we will discuss and practice expressing feelings differently. For example: instead of writing I am angry, you can write, "It feels like a thunderstorm inside" or "Her heart was beating hard, and she ran out the door and slammed it behind her." 

Lesson 3 will cover more ways to describe feelings and explore opposite feelings, such as the opposite of anger. 

For lesson 4, the students will write a short scene with a strong emotional impact. 

Lessons 4 and 5: Everybody who feels comfortable will read their pieces. The students are welcome to give constructive and helpful input to each other. 

We will also do work during class and start by describing our surroundings.
 During this lesson, we will discuss and practice how to describe our surroundings. 

We will practice describing what is around us using all the five senses.
 What do we see? 
What do we hear?
 What do we smell? 
And what do we feel when we touch? 

When we describe something, the things we see become more alive by using all five senses. 

For lesson 6, the students will be asked to write a short piece and incorporate what they have learned about describing feelings and their surroundings. 

Lesson 6:  Everybody will read their pieces and discuss them together. If there is time, we will do a longer writing exercise or some shorter. 



 I won't set up any rules for how they write for this class. I want them to feel pleasure in writing and finding their voice. Students will already need to know how to read and write so they won't struggle with the tasks. 

This is an online video class, but if someone isn't comfortable being on video, they can only speak or listen. Learning to find your voice has to happen on your terms and can't be forced.