Expressing yourself through creative writing
- Carly Morton
- Jun 27, 2020
- 2 min read
Do you ever have so many thoughts and feelings running through your head that it's hard to verbalise or make any sense of them?
Well that's mostly how I feel. Being an English teacher, I provide plenty of opportunities for my students to write and what I've been appreciating lately, has been actually picking up my pen and doing it myself. One of the most powerful ways to teach someone is to model it. I like sharing my work with my students and getting them to give me feedback; what did I do well and what could I have improved upon. And let me tell you, they aren't shy in letting me know their thoughts.
A number of years ago I went on a HSC marking day and the speaker talked about the need for students to write approximately a page of creative writing every ten minutes during the exam. I'm not sure if things have changed since then, but he set the timer for seven minutes and told us to write. Here is what I created:
The twigs snapped violently under my aching, dew-drenched shoes. Dawn sounds of silence still echoed through the sparse bush and the chill of the winter air invaded my clothes as I continued to trudge with determination. This was an isolating place. The trees around me whispered with the forgotten voices of long departed souls fighting for the rights of those too oppressed to stand for themselves- generations of inequality forcing them into a silent servitude. Cracks of morning rays emerge through the green undergrowth and a clearing becomes visible in the near distance. I subtly slow my pace, exhaling violently from the arduous trek. A fog of steam projects from my mouth. At the edge of the clearing I come to a halt, pausing to catch my breath and resting my hands on my hips for support. An overwhelming flood of emotion makes my heart pulsate, thudding desperately. I hesitate, looking down at my feet, wondering how many meters exist the rotting corpses of Civil War soldiers. The significance of this place weighs on me and I come to realise how insignificant and unimportant I truly am.
Carly x
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