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Creative writing includes fiction, poetry and life writing, such as memoir. Your goal may be enjoyment, a piece for school, or a longer project. Choose the form and the difficulty you want to work on before choosing a tutor.

Consider this invented starting sentence:

Maya was nervous when she knocked on the door.

It tells us how Maya feels. If this is a moment you want the reader to linger over, try giving her a revealing action:

Maya raised her hand to the door, then checked the address again.

The second version delays the knock. Checking the address after raising her hand suggests hesitation, so the reader has something to interpret. Adding more adjectives would not make that choice clearer. The next question is what she is hesitating about, and whether the surrounding scene helps us understand it.

For a short practice task, keep the doorway but make Maya eager to enter. Change her action, then explain which detail suggests eagerness. A tutor can discuss whether the effect is clear without supplying the whole passage.

Summary is useful too: it can move quickly through background that does not need a full scene. OpenLearn’s character guidance treats summary, action and dialogue as different ways of portraying a character.

A draft such as ‘Maya went to her friend’s house. The house was empty. She ran down the road’ has events, but the reader does not yet know why they matter. Here is one possible way to develop it, using OpenLearn’s approach to character and conflict.

Poetry: move the line break

In this original example, the slash marks a new line:

I kept the key / after you left

Now move it:

I kept / the key after you left

The first version puts ‘key’ at the end of the line, giving the object prominence. The second briefly leaves open what the speaker kept. Read both aloud and consider which fits the feeling you want. Then write a sentence about an everyday object and try two line breaks of your own. OpenLearn explains how line endings affect emphasis. Poems need not rhyme; free verse still involves deliberate choices about rhythm, sound and structure.

Personal writing: choose one remembered moment

Instead of trying to describe a whole childhood holiday, start with one moment: arriving at a campsite in the rain, for example. Note a sound, an object and something someone did, then choose which detail belongs first. OpenLearn’s Writing what you know uses observation and memory as starting points. Choose something you are comfortable sharing, and distinguish what you remember from what you invent if you are writing memoir.

Bring a recent piece, the task if there is one, and a question such as ‘Where does the reader lose track of the action?’ A possible lesson-and-practice sequence is below; agree the pace with your tutor.