Creative Writing Class Struggles

January 21, 2025

I'm taking a grade 11 course for writing because of my passion for writing stories, even if they're just in my diary. I wrote a few fanfics as a kid and many fiction stories for classes, including this one. I wanted to become a writer, or even just share a story I wrote that could become a little popular and be something I was proud to publish. Although that dream is very possible, even for someone like me, a 16-year-old high school student who rarely pays attention to teachers as they speak and/or (as they say) teach. I get overwhelmed by certain standards writers have to live by.

Those standards are usually simple, like creativity or fancy vocabulary (which I don't have), but what I struggle with is formatting. Stuff like essays, poetry, or plot graphs. Essays have a strict format you have to follow in order for it to be considered an essay. Poetry (which I have a very small education about) follows a pattern that can't be broken or it ruins the flow of a poem. Then any type of story, whether it be a novel, graphic novel, a chapter book, or a short story, all have a plot. This plot has to have the following; an introduction or exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and a conclusion. Which is all really simple and important for a story to be interesting and, dare I say, good. It also rounds out every individual part or scene. Without an intro, there can't be any background to the story so it won't make sense. Without a rising action, there can't be any tension built for the reader to leave them wondering what will happen next. Of course, without a climax, there can't be any main conflict that the reader is anticipating, or the main character is working for. Also, without a falling action, the reader can't feel the relief of the stress from the rising action and the climax wash away. Then without a conclusion, the story wouldn't end. The story would keep going, but not in a "Part 2" kind of way, or even a "To be continued" way. It would feel like the story just stops, or a movie screen just turns black, the ending is cut off, and there is no end. You wouldn't know what happened, even after the final conflict already occurred. You would feel no closure, which is what a story ending is all about.

Day after day I write stories and (sometimes) read them, but identifying and creating these parts in a story ruins my confidence and my performance in class.

I'm currently writing a short story for my Creative Writing class, which is most definitely what I should be working on right now rather than this blog (oh well). My writing prompt was "A kid's imaginary friend isn't imaginary". Ohh~ scary. I wanted it to be a horror since it would make it easier to create a suspenseful rising action and possibly climax. Which is all great. I got my story idea, an easy way to create my plot, and I was ready. Even creating each section of my plot graph was easy. My story was through the eyes/point-of-view of the mother (who doesn't have a name or need a name) and her daughter was named Olive. Olive came home one day after school bragging about how she met a new friend. The mother knows she's a very anti-social girl and later assumes her daughter's friend was "imaginary", but she's not against that. Olive's friend starts to give her gifts which slowly progresses to dangerous items like a knife. The mother is now terrified about what is going on inside her daughter's head because again she thinks Olive's friend is "imaginary". Even with this disturbingly sharp gift lying in her daughter's hands after school she doesn't discourage her from being with her new friend, but she hears about this sinful man on TV. Identified as a child kidnapper near their area, the mother refuses to let her daughter play outside like she always does. She simply plays upstairs in her room. This goes on for a while. Olive gets home from school, runs upstairs to her room, shuts the door, and plays for hours there without making a peep. Which didn't seem unusual for the mother at all, her daughter was very isolated at times. Then one time, when the mother was lying on the couch, watching TV, she heard inaudible whispers coming from upstairs. Now that was unusual. She went upstairs to check, slowly following the voice which led to her daughter's room. She peeked into Olive's room with an expression of horror on her face after witnessing what was inside. The exact man that was featured on TV and was warned about was standing in her daughter's room slowly brushing her daughter's hair with his fingers and rubbing her shoulder as a sign of "comfort" and "familiarity" for Olive. He was whispering in her ear with a smirk on his face like he was about to do something unlawful. The mother is traumatized and furious after catching just a glimpse of this. She noticed that they were both facing away from the door with their backs to it. So she cunningly grabs a lamp resting on a side table in the hallway and creeps up behind him. She yells and screams as she gives the man a huge shock when facing a glass lamp coming straight for his face. The mother was able to knock him out and grab her daughter before any harm had come to her. She immediately called the police and hugged Olive as they waited for him. Policemen rushed into the room with their handcuffs and guns. Even after this eventful moment for Olive, she still screams "Don't hurt him!" and questions all too much about what had happened.

So that's how my story SHOULD be going!

Did you find which parts of the story were the intro, rising act, climax, falling act, and conclusion? I bet you did, BUT I DIDN'T! Even with my own story I still get frustrated with identifying which part is what. Especially the rising action and climax, maybe even the falling action. Just because I can't figure out which part has the most tension or stress for a reader makes writing this story way harder than it has to be.

You're probably thinking, "Is this girl an idiot? It's obvious where each part is." Beat it. It's just something I haven't picked up to perfection yet. The more time spent on reviewing these kinds of details helps me a lot, but with a short class time and hand-in deadlines, I can't have many luxuries such as time. Personally, I think there should be at least one more hour in a day, maybe two. I used to think days were so long as a kid, now it's like my life is just passing by and I don't even get a chance to wave at it.

To anyone reading this, if you have any writing tips or even just a fun prompt, I would love to connect with you. Comment or message, I don't care.

Wish me luck on this story. Crossing my fingers! Good grade affirmations.