• door, more, lore

Repetition

• chamber door… chamber door

Alliteration

• Weak and weary

• Nodded, nearly napping

• Quaint, curious

Assonance

• Nearly, suddenly, gently

• Napping, tapping, rapping

• Dreary weary

Word Play

• only this and nothing more

• Raven: death

Antagonists 反派: kinds of obstacles

Is the protagonist successful?

Did they overcome the obstacles?

…

Exposition

• Explanation

• Where/ when

• Who: characters

• Inciting Incidents: usually become the conflict

• Conflict: protagonist vs. Antagonist

• The Stakes 賭注

Middle

The climax

• The main problem

The End

• Falling action

• Resolution

• Exposition: The film introduces Puyi, the last emperor of China, and his life in the Forbidden City (Beijing) as a child.

• Inciting Incidents: Puyi's father dies, and he was crowned emperor at the age of three. Japanese troops invade侵略 China, and Puyi was forced to abdicate退出；放棄權力 his throne.

• Conflict: Puyi struggles to adapt to life outside the Forbidden City and faces political and personal challenges.

• The Stakes: Puyi's life and the fate of China are at stake.

The Rising Action: Puyi becomes a puppet emperor under Japanese rule, and the Communist Party takes over China.

Middle:

• The Climax: Puyi is captured by the Communists and forced to confess his crimes. He realizes the impact of his actions on China and renounces放棄 his former life.

The falling action: Puyi is re-educated by the Communists, marries, and has a child.

The End:

• Resolution of denouement: Puyi is released from prison, and the film shows him as an ordinary citizen of China.

• He reflects on his life and the changes that have occurred in China.

They function much like parables: short narratives with a core moral lesson.

Drabble: A short story of about 100 words whose main purpose is to test the author’s skill, both in prose and

in successfully getting a meaningful point across in so few words

Feghoot: A funny short story that ends in a pun or joke.

Fable: A short story featuring anthropomorphic creatures, usually animals, whose narrative reveals some kind of

a moral point at the end.

Flash fiction or micro-fiction: Refers to stories shorter than 1,000 words. One of the most famous examples is the following, often

attributed to Ernest Hemingway: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

Sketch: A piece of writing that doesn’t contain a plot. Instead, the point of this is to illuminate a particular

character, setting, or location.

Vignette: A short scene that can be part of a larger body of work. The point is to capture a single moment or

detail about an element in the story, such as a character, idea, or object.

2. Descriptive language

3. Characters- who?

4. Point of views

5. Experiment

Playing her piano, then singing her solo,

Looking at the sapphire sky which is so wide,

Letting her lazy notes fly high, then float to the hazy sunshine.

“Do re mi” with the sound of strings,

She says music is her diamond ring

She stares out of the window,

her thoughts ride in a tiny boat and flow.

She is standing on the stage, at her perfect age.

She shows her soul through the stirring songs, and all day long.

“La ti do” with the dong dong dong

Go and wash the dirty clothes, this, that, those!

Uhh oh! two harsh voices echo.

She was daydreaming. She knows.

She takes back her hand on the piano keys.

She doubts herself and  her dream, indeed

Maybe she and her dream will never meet.

She gives up the imagination of the kids.

Writing prompt:

Your story should include ALL THREE elements:

• An unfamiliar place

• Unusual weather

• A food your character has never tried before

• Common

• Novels, fairy tales

• Exposition

• Rising action

• Climax

• Falling action

• resolution

• Denouement

• Themes

2. The Hero’s/Heroine’s Journey

• they are told you need to do sth. (you have to find sth.)

• Refusal of the call

• Meeting a mentor

• Crossing the threshold

• Facing enemies

• Building up to the climax

• Facing the climatic ordeal

• Receiving the reward

• Returning to the ordinary world

3. The Three-Act Structure

• the first act: Set up

• The second act: Confrontation

• The third act: resolution

4. The seven-point structure

• hook

• Set up

• Catalyst

• Debate

5. The snowflake methods

• 1 sentence summary of the story

• Elaborate into full para.

• Expand the para. Into one-page story

• Single sentence describe each scene

6. A disturbance and two doors

• Disturbance=problems/difficulties

• 2 doors=2 possible answers with different realities h

• Make one choice

7. Inciting incident

• sth happened and changed…leading to the beginning of the story

How do they create tension?

• The sound effects: music and the sound of horse

• Trapped character’s identity

• The view/ the scene

• Transition

• the set-up(When they are hiding, insect, spider=more difficulties)

• Juxtaposition

• Contrast-our faces/no faces

• The uncertain image of the antagonist

• The use of close up, to show the reaction on the face

• NO immediate resolution

• Ring=the second choice

2. Engaging characters with opposing goals

3. Keep raising the stakes

4. Allow tension to ebb and flow

5. Keep making the reader ask questions

6. Create internal and external conflict

7. Create secondary sources of tension

8. Make the story unfold in a shorter space of time

Bonds seem not nervous. A dilapidated boat is docked at the shore-not far away. He knows he is safe. He stares at the modern watch on his arm, gently rotating its detailed organs. The boat magically comes toward him. Will he ride on the “saving boat” and be safe?

“Click…” The boat doesn’t move forward anymore. It is tied. Bonds aren’t safe. The crocodiles come closer. Closer and closer. They are on the island. With Bonds…

2. Dangling Cause

3. Dramatic Irony

4. Dramatic Tension

My friend is as brilliant as Stephen Hawking.

The cake is as fluffy as the teddy bear.

2. Metaphors

The classroom is a jail.

3. Personification

The butterflies are playing hide and seek with the children in the flower field.

4. Hyperbole

Me: I got a cold and my throat was scratched by a knife.

Mum: I told you not to stay up late.

5. Litotes

A: C isn’t Chef Michelin.

B: Yes. I can’t deny his restaurant isn’t the most popular.

A: It isn’t a business worth running. Haha! Not the smartest person.

6. Allusion

Food from the LU canteen is made by Satan.

7. The Sound of Words

The cat meows and licks its tail.

The boy put on his headphones and banged the door.

8. Alliteration (constant)

a) 八百標兵奔北坡，炮兵並排北邊跑。

炮兵怕把標兵碰，八了百了標了兵了奔了北了坡了，炮了兵了並了排了北了邊了跑了。

b) Not far from the farm field, a gorgeous girl with musical skills.

9. Oxymoron

Brawling, love

Loving, hate

Cold, fire

Bright, smoke

Sick, health

Still-waking, sleep

Love feel, no love

Good baddie

Fat skeleton=Greedy people, but empty inside

Metaphors暗喻: A metaphor substitutes a word or phrase with one that makes an analogy or explanation with an image.

Similes明喻: A phrase that uses the words like or as to describe someone or something by comparing it with someone or something else that is similar.

Hyperbole誇飾: An expression that takes the form of extreme exaggeration

Personification擬人: To give words qualities or abilities that people have, but the things we are describing can’t logically possess

Oxymorons反語: An expression that uses two words with opposite meanings

Onomatopoeia擬聲詞: A word that means the same as the sound it makes.

But a girl went out in a thick cloak with a small lantern to guide the way in the fog. She is Lily. In silence, the whispers came from the misty forest. Her curiosity had gotten the best of her, and she stepped into the fog‘s catch as soon as she started.

- Character

- Society

- Nature

- Technology

- Supernatural

- Fate

- Self

Anna’s best friend is herself, but not the others. Neither Amy nor Andy. Her shadow at the cold night is her only friend. She repeatedly told herself that the only person she could believe in, is herself, like brainwashing.

1. To determine the structure is size

2. All the elements of a long-form work, but in miniature.

• Subverting /changing the order

• Starting with the end

• The sound effects: music and the sound of horse

• Trapped character’s identity

• The view/ the scene

• Transition

• the set-up(When they are hiding, insect, spider=more difficulties)

• Juxtaposition

• Contrast-our faces/no faces

• The uncertain image of the antagonist

• The use of close up, to show the reaction on the face

• NO immediate resolution

• Ring=the second choice

‘Come here, my dear…’ a female whispers. A familiar voice. Laura is still sleeping, like she is having a nightmare and frowned. Only frowning? Laura is still sleeping. The owner of the weird voice seemed to be dissatisfied so she called again, ‘ I say, come here!’ The lady‘s tone was more impatient than just now-with some unwilling gasps. No one knows why she wants to wake up Laura. But this time, Laura seems to have a feeling. She said something vaguely in her mouth. What does she say?

• Place: Important

• Understanding the place -->understand your characters

• The world in which a character lives affects them

• For example, at the beginning Harry Potter lived in a cupboard under the stairs…what

What does this say about him?

• A famous instruction to writers: Write what you know! So, write about places you know

and can describe

Jutted: 突出

Abandoned: 被遺棄的

Clutched: 抓住

Withered: 枯萎的

=Deadly

Bloomed: 盛開

Cradled: 搖籃

Boughs: 樹枝

=Full of vitality

Three new different words of green.

- Leafy

- sage

- lush

Blue:

- indigo

- azure

- navy

- royal

- Sapphire.

• multi-dimensional with personality,

• have a backstory,

• have goals,

• have strengths and weaknesses,

• be complex and understandable

The leaving of a pile of debts behind him made me suffer.

I just thought, how can I make more and more money?

Thus, I started to use my words to earn money.

I am not the kind of person who likes to be in the spotlight, but I have to be.

I am a bit of a loner, but it doesn't mean I don't enjoy the accompany of others.

Sometimes I will be jealous of those who make a lot of friends.

I can do so a long long time ago.

Yet, now, when I put myself into their roles, I will suffocate, be sure.

I just need my space to think and process my thoughts.

Some people might call me introverted, but I think it is my talent.

I think I am observant after I lost most of my social skills.

I can notice things that others might miss, and that's a valuable skill in my line of work.

It's just me, my thoughts, and my trusty pen and paper.

Writing Task 5: Write 5 lines to introduce your character to ONE conflict (of any kind).

• Self: I can’t wait to earn more and more money, for myself and for my dad’s leaving debts. But how can I make more and more inspiration in such a tiny space? I am like an ant imprisoned in a shower gel bubble. I am in a protective cover on the water. I can’t step out of my house. I dare not do this, cuz I have already lost my ability to swim.

Backstory

• Writing Task 6: Write 5 lines to introduce something from your character’s past.

When my mother was still alive, my dad drunk and smoke all the time. Since my mum has suicided , my dad started his intensity self-abandonment. He was always drinking, smoking and gambling. I never knew that he had such a huge debt, even it wasn’t out of character. I didn’t expect it. When my dad left and debt collectors came, I was still a 16-year-old teenager.

What is in a name?

• Writing Task 7: Note down a few possible names for your character – then choose JUST ONE

• Ani: Ani [afflicted] means literally “poor”

• Dach [oppressed] because he is crushed (meduchdach); he sees a thing but cannot eat it, he sees a thing and cannot taste it, and cannot drink it

• Wyatt. Although it’s an old-fashioned name, Wyatt has been gaining popularity since the 1990s. It comes from the Old English name Wigheard, which means “battle” and “brave, hardy.”

—>Wyatt Dach

Wyatt Wyatt is a popular patronymic surname and given name derived from a Middle English diminutive of an Old English personal name wīg "war" + heard "hard, brave", and of the names Guy and William.

I loved my friend.

He went away from me.

There’s nothing more to say.

The poem ends,

Soft as it began—

I loved my friend.

Distilled??

Poetry is Language at its Richest and Most Condensed.

Every single word is powerful.

“Prose: words in their best order; poetry: the best words in the best order.”

—Samuel Taylor Coleridge

So poetry isn’t the place to be fi

- Written in verse

- Artistic, playful expression

- Sounds like music: Rhythm

Cake, kick

Two, too

Sell, cell

2. Perfect Rhyme

Smell, fell

Good, food

Cook, hook

3. Slant Rhyme

Sat, set

Sheep, ship

• with a precise meter

• almost always iambic pentameter

• does not usually rhyme.

  
  

2. Rhymed poetry.

• rhyme by definition, although their scheme varies.

  
  

3. Free verse

• lacks a consistent rhyme scheme, metrical pattern, or musical form

  
  

4. Epics.

• lengthy, narrative work of poetry

• detail extraordinary feats and adventures of characters from a distant past.

5. Narrative poetry

• tells a story. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's

6. Haiku

• a three-line poetic form originating in Japan

• The first line has five syllables

• the second line has seven syllables the third line again has five syllables

• total of 17 syllables.

  
  

7. Pastoral poetry

• one that concerns the natural world, rural life, and landscapes.

These poems have persevered from Ancient Greece to Ancient Rome to the present day.

8. Sonnet

• A sonnet is a 14 line poem, typically (but not exclusively)

• concerning the topic of love.

• Internal rhymes within their 14 lines; the exact rhyme scheme depends on the style of a sonnet.

  
  

9. Elegies.

• reflects upon death or loss.

• themes of mourning, loss, and reflection.

• explore themes of redemption and consolation.

10. Ode.

• a tribute to its subject, although the subject need not be dead-or even sentient, as in John Keats' "Ode on a Grecian Urn".

11. Limerick

• a five-line poem that consists of a single stanza,

• an AABBA rhyme scheme

• subject is a short, pithy tale or description.

  
  

12. Lyric poetry.

• refers to the broad category of poetry

• concerns feelings and emotion

• distinguishes it from two other poetic categories: epic and dramatic.

13. Ballad

• a form of narrative verse that can be either poetic or musical.

• follows a pattern of rhymed quatrains.

14. A soliloquy

• a monologue in which a character speaks to him or herself

• expressing inner thoughts that an audience might not otherwise know

• not definitionally poems, although they often can be— most famously in the plays of William Shakespeare.

15. Villanelle

• A nineteen-line poem consisting of five tercets

• a quatrain with a highly specified internal rhyme scheme.

• Juxtaposition

• Irony

I'm a moral human. 

In the order of life,

No leap in the bloodstream's span.

Repeating, like a robot, relentlessly.

Only the cell sighs endlessly.

I wish to be green grass.

Wondrously, my wish was fulfilled.

I’m green grass.

In the order of season,

No happiness in the root mass.

Ravaged, razed, ruthlessly.

Only the water weeps endlessly.

I desire to be a panther.

Delightedly, my desire came true.

I’m a prowling panther.

In the order of ecosystem,

No peace in the molars.

Ruling, rudely.

Only fractures roaring endlessly.

I wish to be a human.

Novels usually fall into four categories:

• literary fiction

• genre fiction

• mainstream fiction

• creative non fiction

Genre fiction comprises genres such as:

• romance

• mystery

• magical realism

• thriller

• horror

• science fiction

• historical

• fantasy

• speculative

• young adult.

1. Character-driven plots that focus on the inner lives and emotions of the characters

2. Complex and nuanced themes that explore the human condition and society

3. Rich and descriptive language that creates a vivid and immersive reading experience

4. A focus on literary techniques such as symbolism, metaphor, and imagery

5. A slower pace and more contemplative tone than genre fiction

6. An emphasis on exploring the complexities of human relationships and interactions

My name is Aesir. I have always been fascinated by the power of words and their ability to inspire, provoke thought, and transport readers to different worlds.

I believe that writing is not just an art, but also a means of self-expression and communication. Thus, I hope to refine my skills, explore various writing styles, and bring my ideas to life on paper.

I look forward to learning from all of you and sharing our passion for writing.

1. How did you feel doing your spoken word piece? 

It is actually a new try for me. I have never tried spoken word before.

2. Note down what you did well and why? 

I think I have paid effort on this work. Also, I tried to make all the steps naturally. Some figurative languages were used, like rhyming words, alliterations, etc.

3. Note down what you could improve and why? 

Before listening to my classmates’ work. In fact, I found myself did something wrong in the spoken words. It could be said that we can use figurative languages in the spoken words. But at the end, this device should not be used too much. Otherwise, it would be more like a poem.

Primary 4. I was a senior student in the primary school. My English teacher said I had a bad attitude toward the others because I have a stinky face.

About ten years ago, I was still a primary school student but a senior student. The former school life would have been wonderful for me if I had never met my senior teachers. Once I thought the adults were always telling the truth when I was a child. Adults were mature and brilliant. Soon, the opinion I had held was breached by what I experienced.

The various writing exercises, such as spoken word performance, short story writing, dramatic adaptation, and poem writing and performance, have not only honed my writing skills but also broadened my understanding of the different forms of creative expression. Each exercise presented its own unique challenges and rewards, pushing me to explore new territories in my writing.

Reviewing and commenting on my fellow students' work was an enlightening process allowed me to see different perspectives and approaches to writing. It taught me the importance of constructive criticism and how it can lead to improvement and growth. I learned that every piece of writing has its own strengths and areas for development, and this insight has helped me become more objective and balanced in my own writing.

The process of writing, redrafting, and completing my work was a journey in itself, teaching me patience, resilience, and the importance of perseverance. Redrafting my work helped me understand the value of revision and the impact it can have on the final piece. Every draft is a step closer to the piece I envision.

Overall, this course has been a valuable learning experience. It has not only improved my writing skills but also enriched my understanding of the creative process. I am excited to apply the knowledge and skills I have gained in my future writing endeavors.