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Creative writing and critical reading
Creative writing and critical reading

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2 Reading and creative writing

Described image
Figure 2 Once upon a time …

In this first activity, you will reflect on how reading a particular text influenced or inspired your own creative writing. (Or, if you choose the genre of scriptwriting, you may reflect on how viewing or listening to a particular work of film, stage or radio influenced your writing.)

Activity 1 (writing activity)

First, think of a particular text or media work that has influenced you as a writer. What aspects of it relate to your own work? For example, you might consider a certain poem sequence to be an influence on your approach to the sonnet due to its use of regional dialect and nontraditional form; or you might feel that a particular film was the example that inspired you to write a script featuring three ‘acts’, each showing the same events from a different character’s point of view.

Jot some notes on this topic in the box below.

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Drawing on your notes, now write a short critical reflection in prose (around 500–750 words) in the box below, relating your chosen text or media work back to your own writing and reflecting on what you can take from it as a writer (whether positive or negative). Be as specific as possible within the length limit.

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Discussion

Good writers are good readers. By analysing how something you have read has influenced your own work, you can see how important critical reading is to the practice of writing.