GCSE English Creative Writing Tips( English Tuition Bolton) Phoenix Writers.

In my beginning is my end.‘ ( T. S. Eliot, East Coker, The Four Quartets) ‘In my end, is my beginning.’ Mary, Queen of Scots. 

This is a powerful, yet simple exercise borrowed from a writing workout Georgina Parfitt used on her Unthank, Writing for Well-being course. It really helped me to think about the organisation, direction and shape of my writing. And to reconsider the interplay between the beginning and end of a piece of writing.  

Exercise One. 

So, here is the last line of Woolf’s novel,  Mrs Dalloway. ‘For there she was.’ Now take about  30 minutes to write a short story or poem that ends with this line. Time yourself so you write freely yet focussed upon reaching the prescribed ending in your own way. Avoid censorship! 

Exercise Two.

Think about how the knowledge of an ending affected your word choices and ideas.

• Do you think that it might help you to shape a story or poem to have an awareness of the final moments?
• Does such knowledge give more authority to your writing ( and less editing!) or does it feel too constraining? 

Exercise Three.

Now, look at the opening of your piece. Think about where you have begun.

• Is this the best place to begin?
• Consider what might happen to your piece if you shifted your beginning to another place.
• To whom have you given your focus and even story?
• Is this because of the prescribed ending? 

• Try entering your piece later and see what happens. Where does your story really begin? Are you opening at a pivotal moment of change? 

‘Storytelling is an act of disrupting the status quo.’ ( Chuck Wendig)

Examples: 

‘The week after was one of the busiest of their lives.’ ( The Daughters of the Late Colonel, Katherine Mansfield.) 

‘The letter that would change everything arrived on a Tuesday. ‘ ( The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce.) 

‘Once upon a time, before the boys were killed and when there were more horses than cars, before the male servants disappeared and they made do…’ ( Mothering Sunday, Graham Swift).