10 Creative Writing Projects
- Teacher's Workshop
- 6 hours ago
- 3 min read
Students often prefer creative writing over analytical writing. When students imagine a story, they still demonstrate their understanding of the characters and events. Instead of focusing on the events in a story, they can write freely about their own version of events. In Ben Franklin’s autobiography, he describes learning to write by imitating The Spectator and The Tatler by Addison and Steele, so I ask my students to create political and social commentary in that style on contemporary topics.
I will often assign both a creative and analytical assignment for one unit. For instance, during my unit on Dubliners, I will ask students to write on a few stories and also create a film adaptation where they set one story in the present day. These are the types of projects they remember and tell stories about later in life. Here are some examples of creative projects:
1. Prequel or sequel
Students can imagine a story that takes place before or after the novel or short story to interpret how the characters should end up or who they were before the start of the story. They might expand on a flashback and go into more detail about what happened.
2. Imitation of narrative style or poem
I will ask students to imitate a third person limited omniscient narrator like in Emma by Jane Austen or a first-person narrator like Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye. The challenge here is to maintain the voice of the character in the story. Students could also imitate a poem or poetic form.
3. Film adaptation
Phones make it really easy to create a short film using an iPhone by simply pressing the record button and then pressing pause to set up the next scene and the same button to continue recording and the stop button to conclude recording. This automatically creates one file instead of having to edit the video using software.
4. Writing on a topic or video essay
Writing about a topic or theme in a novel, poem, or short story allows students more freedom to openly express their understanding of an idea like friendship, imagination, joy, fear, technology or violence. This could also take the form of a video essay or TED Talk where students submit a video of them talking about a topic of choice. They might include slides or graphics in the video or record a voiceover to accompany video clips and images.
5. Satire
This project is one of my favorites. After reading a satirical novel or short story, students can make fun of anything they want: celebrities, politicians, movies, television, social media, or modern etiquette.
6. Story about character living in modern society
For this assignment, the question would be: what would the main character be like in today’s society? What would happen to Pip or Jay Gatsby in a school? How would Mrs. Ramsay handle being a mother of eight in today’s world?
7. Journal
Students can start journaling by thinking about what it means to journal. What stories and thoughts will be in their journal and how will they organize it? This personal style of writing allows students to be open and honest about whatever they want to write about. They can write occasionally in class or at home. This is a great way to help them discover their voice.
8. Missing information in the story
In many stories, there are details deliberately left out so the reader has to imagine and interpret what happened. This untold story will depend on one’s understanding of the personality of the character. Students might consider creating hypothetical situations or filling in the gaps in a conversation that got cut short. What if the character instead of staying silent, expressed exactly what they were feeling? What if they made a different choice? How would the story change?
9. Letter
In the same spirit of imagining missing information, students choose a part of the story where a letter could change the trajectory of the story. The letter could appear before the start of the story or at the end of the story as a way of introducing or concluding the main themes of the story.
10. Live skit or audio recording
My students once performed a skit based on the story “Mother” in Dubliners by James Joyce. The spontaneous nature of the heated argument in the story had everyone in the class laughing hysterically. If students don’t want to perform in front of the class, they might be more comfortable recording a story and dialogue like a fiction podcast.
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