Creative Writing: a Stylistics Approach

This chapter presents an overview of a relatively new approach to creative writing, complementing more ‘traditional’ methods of teaching, by focusing on stylistic and narratological approaches to the discipline. The method proceeds from the premise that the ambition to write creatively presupposes an interest in the ‘expressive mechanics’ of language. A more in-depth understanding of these processes will benefit the writer in many ways, for example by providing them with a precise taxonomy with which to describe various fictional, poetic and dramatic techniques. This will aid detailed analysis of their own and others’ creative work.

Stylistics-based modules have often taught the subject by presenting theory in conjunction with textual examples. This approach to the practice of creative writing takes such a process one step further, by encouraging practioners subsequently to produce creative work in the form of short exercises which exemplify and creatively explore the theory. A ‘two-pronged’ approach is adopted, then, whereby writers are at first introduced to various stylistic and narratological concepts and models (e.g. plot versus narrative, linguistic deviation, deixis, register, focalization, ways of representing thought/speech, and metaphor), then asked to respond to them creatively; for example, an exercise might ask writers to use linguistic deviation to foreground themes and images; another might get them to deploy varying focalizations to tell the same story from different perspectives.

This chapter discusses the rationale behind this approach to the discipline, and its intended content in some detail. A brief selection of exercises for further practice is also presented.