Creative writing is a vast and expansive topic, that can be done in a multitude of ways. Teaching about genre tropes and how to write them, the proper level of description for any particular paragraph, how to build complex and interesting characters, the list goes on. But this topic is sorely underrepresented in the current curriculum. This essay will argue, nay convince you, that not only should creative writing be a qualification at national five, but higher and advanced higher as well. Creative writing shows employers, as well as colleges and universities, that those with a said qualification are creative, and can think outside the box.
I propose creative writing, not as an alternative to English, but another course. Qualifications like media studies and Art show that candidates can create things out of their imagination and analyse work done by others. Creative writing shows these skills as well but they would be done differently. The other courses I have mentioned must an artistic eye and a cooperative hand, but unfortunately, not all creative people have these talents. Now, I am not for a moment suggesting that these subjects be replaced, as they are valuable in their own right, but so is creative writing. Studies have shown that creative writing alters brain function and it shows a similar structure to that of a professional athlete into the way it processes complex information. Along with that, creative writing would teach new and valuable skills like description and analysing language features, and how to put them into practice.
A huge part of creative writing, and writing in general, is description. Creative writing would teach how to describe characters, objects, places, and feelings, all of which can be put into practice in other areas. In a reflective piece, the writer, let’s call them person A, attempts to describe a red car. They say “the red car drove down the road”, but if they had better description skills they could have said, ‘The large angular crimson car trundled slowly down the quiet street’. In the second description, Person A demonstrates a better understanding of the description and manages to convey more emotion, creating a more descriptive and engaging essay. This example also shows the use of language features. Emotive language is very important when it comes to essay writing, and being able to write using it successfully will also improve the understanding of the technique and candidates will then be able to analyse it better in exams, leading to higher marks. Media studies are a large part of the course is understanding, and analysing genre conventions. Creative writing could also teach this but go about it differently. It could teach different kinds of languages that are used. Action writing is often fast-paced and lacks vast amount of description, drama is speech oriented and quite slow, fantasy has a good mix of description and fight sequences. This could teach students about pace and dialogue. Pace could be taught by showing when, and when not to use descriptions, dialogue can be taught through historical texts, teaching mannerisms of the times, or even how to create them, period depending.
It could also teach about accents, and how to distinguish between characters, this could be paired with different character archetypes that often appear in specific genres. And by being able to write different types of characters it will be easier to analyse and spot them in other contexts. I have mentioned how creative writing shows and improves analysis skills, but why does that matter, surely creative writing is about the actual creation of pieces? Wrong. I propose that the creative writing course will have three parts. An exam that demonstrates candidates ability to analyse creative writing in a similar way to English, by having pupils talk about plot, theme, affect, and structure. The second part is, of course, actual creative writing, for which I suggest two folio pieces in two different genres. The third is slightly more unusual, a second exam paper. This one testing candidate’s ability to describe, give them four different things to describe. A place, an item, an emotion, and a person.
All done like the art exam, give pupils options of photos and let them choose one of each category. Each section would be worth 25% and be awarded on the level of detail, relevance to genre and accuracy (if relevant). This is all well and good but what about other subjects, why add another one when there are plenty already? First of all, creative writing would solidify already cultivated skills in other subjects like, as I have already mentioned, analysis, but also understanding. This would be developed by candidates learning more in-depth ways of seeing, for example, sentence structure. Whilst the curriculum as it shows basic ways of analysing it and putting it in your own words, being able to write it adds a new perspective and allows candidates to see from the author’s perspective and gets more in-depth knowledge as to why they use it. Being able to write and achieve the desired purpose, will help to be able to point it out in an exam setting. In conclusion, creative writing would be a valuable and diverse course that would improve the marks of all analysis and creative subjects, like art, media, English, music, RMPS, history, geography, the list goes in… AND it would allow students to become creative in a different way that the current curriculum is currently lacking
