REVISION NOTES.
Creative Writing Tip ONE
The Door by Helen Simpson.
Look at the way in which an apparently simple household repair becomes a way of exploring grief and loss, as well as the restoration of trust and hope. Perfect writing.
https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/magazine/thedoor
Creative Writing Tip TWO.
Give your protagonist a challenging dilemma early on in the story. Put them in a bind. Test their character and their honesty or courage. Should they speak about something they know or should they avoid the conversation?
For example, you know your best friend has seen an examination paper and is determined to use the knowledge to further his/her ambitions. Supposing he has had bad family news recently? Supposing he/she is disliked by the teacher in question? Supposing your friend is brilliant but underachieves terribly in exams and you never do? Ramp up the challenges and deepen the dilemma. How can you behave with integrity? How can you maintain your friendship?
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde with A Christmas Carol: Brief Analysis and Creative Writing Tips. .
If you doubt the uneasy brilliance of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde here’s a quick example of Stevenson’s verbal dexterity when Jekyll is describing his relationship with his doppelganger, Hyde, in the last chapter of the novel. This last chapter is somewhat misleadingly titled, Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case. In fact, it reads more like a very proud ‘confession’, of his brilliance than any deeply felt repentance for wrongdoing. This duplicity is detectable in the fascinating use of language by the narrator which gives representation to his revealing movements and behaviour.
Creative Writing Tip THREE.
In creative writing, it is important that the movement of a character reveals something about the identity of that character and what they desire. In Stevenson’s novel, we notice that the representation of movement reflects the internal life of those ‘public’ gentlemen whose private lives might be in conflict with their apparent respectability as Victorian gentlemen. Dickens too, explores the way movements are revelations of character, particularly compelling when these movements seem alien to their protagonist.
So, when Scrooge ‘fell upon his knees’ before Marley’s ghost or ‘sobbed’ before his younger, lonely schoolboy self, we recognise that Scrooge is transforming, as these movements seem alien or incongruous to the ‘ hard and sharp as flint’ self we have witnessed at the beginning of the novella. This expression of emotion through surprising movements reveals the powerful metamorphosis occurring within Scrooge because of the forceful interventions of the supernatural in his existence. As he moves physically, so we recognise a spiritual shift in his nature.
Analysis
Now. let’s return to Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Let’s consider who is actually speaking, whose voice ae we actually hearing, in the final chapter of the novel? And let’s consider where does one speaking identity end and another truly begin?
In the narrative, we notice the slippery ambiguity of Jekyll( ‘sly cast’) reflected in the slippery ambiguity of the syntax. When we read this first sentence, its ‘travelling’ aspect mimics the way the narrator is re-negotiating his now ‘unhomely space; little wonder that we become confused where Jekyll ends and Hyde begins. And vice versa!
So here’s the sentence and then I will explore how the narrator’s identity becomes slippery and appears to merge seamlessly into his other-self. The ease by which this occurs testifies to the uneasy relationship between respectability and dishonour in the narrative.
‘ I stole through the corridors, a stranger in my own house; and coming to my room, I saw for the first time the appearance of Edward Hyde. ‘
Look at the verb governing the movements of the first-person narrator/ speaker at the beginning of the sentence. ‘ I stole ‘ which announces the speaker whom we assume must be Jekyll as we arrive at the admission that they feel ‘ a stranger in my own house.’ The verb stole connotes secrecy and criminality, a sense that the speaker’s movements must need be furtive and hidden from view. We, therefore, assume that Jekyll feels an interloper in his own house because his appearance is no longer that of the respectable Victorian Doctor. The gentleman has become usurped by the appearance of a criminal other, who is actually also himself!
The repetition of the personal pronoun ‘ my’ alerts the reader to the proprietorial attitude of the speaker towards the environment he is moving through. We recognise how Stevenson has given representation to the duality of Jekyll through the divided nature of his home: the public face of his house involves his rooms for entertaining his friend, whilst the secret area of the laboratory is the place of transgression, where he gives birth to his other, ‘evil’ self, supposedly safely out of view ( and legal scrutiny) of the Victorian gentlemen like Gabriel Utterson.
The syntax mirrors the sense of secrecy and the furtive wandering connected to the revelation of Jekyll’s duality. When we read ‘coming to ‘my room’ we notice the strange choice of the verb as it has ambiguous connotations perhaps involving some revival of consciousness as if the ‘good’ version of Jekyll is but a veil of his secret Hyde-self. It does read as an illicit rendezvous and the build-up to the announcement of ‘Edward Hyde’ appears a triumphant meeting underlined by relief!
The importance of varying your vocabulary in comprehension and literary analysis.
I have been tutoring students privately for over twenty years and by far the most recurring problem expressed about answering any sort of question in English concerns a perceived ‘ lack of words.’
You can ‘ know’ in your head what you want to say and what you think you mean, but unless you can identify the exact word or phrase with which to express your knowledge, then, unfortunately, the incisiveness of your mental interpretation may fail to make it to the essay or exam paper.
This lack of manifestation is disappointing!
So here are a few words and phrases that might boost your interpretation of a text. They are like friends when you are facing the stresses of interpretation against the ticking clock.
And if there is one tip I would offer above all others when analysing any text, it is that you should always look for the strange. Pay attention to the odd. Look for the detail that jars, leaps out, or is incongruous, , or fascinates; then ask yourself why am I feeling this? Remember that even if you can’t precisely explain why something is odd or different or compelling, then that difficulty is worth talking about. It is intellectually honest to talk about your limitations and why some detail or behaviour intrigues you but thwarts your easy understanding. Great writing should not make the world seem trite, because that is not how humans and animals encounter life!
Moment of Change.
Epiphany. Cathartic. Transformative, Catalyst for change. Pivotal. Epiphany. Revelation. Turning point. Moment of being. Self-realisation, Personal admission. Shocking revelation. Reversal of fortune.
Think about Tone.
Confessional. Intimate.Authentic. Arch. Ironic. Superior. Humble. Self-righteous. Duplicitous. Affectionate. Warm. Blind. Self-deceiving. Misleading. Mendacious. Insincere. Gullible. Naive. Disingenuous. Cowardly. Fatuous. Banal. Innocent.
Guilty. Self- indulgent Self-denying. Self-erasing. Self- persecuting. Ecstatic. Exhilarated. Depressed. Dismal. Witty. Fatuous. Reflective. Nostalgic. Reminiscent. Longing. Earnest. Sincere.
Apologetic. Disarming. Romantic. Regretful. Dominating. Passive. Introspective. Reverent. Sympathetic. Empathic. Remorseful. Regretful.
Reflective. Thoughtful. Introspective. Immature. Mature. Selfish. Selflessness. Objective.
Subjective. Solipsistic. Brutal awareness. Clinical. Dissecting consciousness. Acute awareness of intelligence. Confessional. Liberating awareness.
Structure.
Temporal shifts. Chronological. Recollection. Reminiscent. Flashback/ flashforwards/ Fragmented/ disorganized/ Chaotic structure/ Disorderly/ Sequential / Organised / Diary/ Epistolary/ Episodic/ Anecdotal/ Gossipy. Escalation of horror. Gathering pace. Accumulating sense of….
Personal revelation .
Growth. Personal evolution. Evolution of self. Self-recognition, Self-knowledge, Spiritual Transformation. Metamorphosis. Epiphany. Moment of being. Revelatory. Damascus moment. Revision, Self-responsibility. Accepting culpability.
Characters.
Protagonist. Hero. Mentor. Adviser. Anti-hero. Antagonist. Foil. Companion. Intellectual. Sentient. Ignorant. Suffering. Empathic. Sympathetic. identification. Relatable. Alienating. Estrangement. Isolation. Remorseful. Regret. Devoid of self-knowledge. Inhuman. Inhumanity. Callous.
Strange effects.
Depersonalisation. Unfamiliar. Untimely. Unhomely. Defamiliarization. Alienation. Disassociation, Detachment. Hallucinatory. Demi-monde. Nightmarish.
Ambiguity. Ambivalence. Enigmatic. Mysterious. Instability. Dis-ease.
Atmosphere – related to place or the personal.
Gothic. Bleak. Impersonal. Intimate. Claustrophobic. Dismal. . Feverish. Diseased. Estrangement. Insanity. Entrapment. Imprisonment. Oblivious. Nightmarish. Personal hell. Confessional. Emotional instability. Mental torment. Conflicted world. Quiet despair. Loud despair. Despairing world. Bleak atmosphere. Enervating description. Monotonous. Depressing world. Sepia coloured reality. Relentless disappointment. Inescapable misery. A blanket of emotional fog. Lethargy. Mounting horror. The insinuation of the grotesque. Unveiled terror. Acute terror. Escalating acknowledgement of mortality. Impending or inescapable mortality.
Exultation. . Exhilaration. Acknowledgement of newfound joy. Relief. Happy Release. Resurfacing of mental stability. Return of joy. The resurgence of hope. Freedom. Liberation. Escape from oppression. Delight. Ecstatic.
Staccato rhythm. Musicality. Soothing. Hypnotic. Soporific, Ritualistic, Dreamlike, Incantatory.
Attitude and perspective.
Analysis.
Intensifies the sense of jeopardy. Intensifies the dramatic situation. Heightens the drama. Underlines. Undermines. Undercuts. Dilutes. Reduces. Consolidates. Dramatizes. Theatrical. Emphasizes. Escalates. Accumulating effect. The mounting sense of, Destroys the sense of stability or equilibrium. Adds weight to, immerses, Engages, Invites the reader into a world of, Alienates the reader, Consoles the reader. Heightened sense of ambiguity or mystery. Restores a sense of, Regains a sense of, Creates, Generates, Interrogated, Queries, Demands, Restores, Acknowledgement. Gains momentum. Decreases the pace of momentum. Undermines. Subverts.
Techniques.
Exclamations, Interrogatives, Imperatives. Meandering sentence structure. Staccato sentences. Abrupt sentences. Fragmented narrative. Compound or Complex Sentences. Change in any tense to suggest recollection. Alliteration. Figurative language. Anecdotes.
First-person narrator. Intimate. Subjective. Unreliable. Dishonest. Obfuscating. Confessional. Intimate. Self-persecuting, Self- indulgent. Blind. Self-deceiving. Limited. Sensitive. Thoughtful. Retrospective. Recollection. Rewriting. Editing. Clinical. Concealing.
Third-person narrator. Objective. Detached. Fair, Balanced. Able to enter into a different consciousness. Change of focus. Focalization.
