How to Write Creative Essays Using Boring Narrative and Expository Essay Prompts

Hey, Mr. Butt, what happens in your class when you give them a commonplace writing prompt like “Everyone has a favorite toy. Explain why it is your favorite toy.“

Well, if I don't give my students permission to use their imagination, I get a bunch of essays about X-Boxes, iPads, skateboards, and Android phones.

Hey, Mr. Butt, what happens in your class when you give them a
commonplace writing prompt like “Everyone has a favorite toy. Explain why it is your favorite toy.“

Well, if I don't give my students permission to use their imagination, I get a bunch of essays about X-Boxes, iPads, skateboards, and Android phones.

Eww. Those essays don't sound like much fun to read them.

They are not. Usually, I have to use toothpicks to prop open my eyelids.

So I noticed you said these essays happen if you don't give students permission to use their imagination, what happens if you give them permission to use their imagination?

Suddenly, I start reading essays about favorite toys like a robot that takes the author on trips to other planets, makes gourmet hamburgers, and turns bullies into bunnies or I read essays about magical board games that grant wishes or skateboards that take the rider back in time.

Those essays sound much more interesting to read.

Indeed they are. Now imagine that you are a reader for a standardized testing company who reads hundreds of boring essays about common toys and then you encounter an imaginative one about a robot that does wonderful things for the author. Might you score that essay a little higher than the umpteenth one you just read about the iPad?

Sure you would. But how do you make a boring prompt exciting?

Ah, it is quite simple. First I give my students permission to write about the most wonderful, exciting subject they can imagine. By giving them permission to imagine, you break them out of the ingrained “factual’ thinking mode of the student and allow them to enter the free thinking, “imaginative” mode of the creative writer. At first, it will be tough to break them out of this factual thinking mode and enter imagination mode, especially today’s “imagination-challenged” kids accustomed to being entertained, but keep at it and you will see more interesting essays especially from the best writers in the class.

Then what?

Then you change the way they think about the prompt. Say you give students the following prompt.

"Most of us have a special place we like to go. Think about a special place where you like to go. Explain why you like to go to that special place.”

Now modify the subject of the essay by inserting the following adjectives: magical, exciting.

"Most of us have a magical and exciting special place we like to go. Think about a magical and exciting special place where you like to go. Explain why you like to go to this magical and exciting wonderful special place.”

Wow, that changes how you think about the subject. It starts your imagination working.

Indeed. But first, give your students permission to make up a special place where they would love to go. It could be an undersea cave, a magical forest, etc. To practice coming up with ideas, you could do a classroom brainstorming session to demonstrate how ideas form or you could do an individual lesson focused on idea formation and pre-writing. By sticking to idea formation and pre-writing, you can practice lots of different prompts without burning kids out writing essay after essay.

Sounds like fun.

It is. If you are a fellow teacher, try it. You will be surprised by the results.

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Learn how to use Similes to Create Metaphors

So, Bonefish, remember last lesson, we learned that metaphors compare two things that are not alike in a way that makes them similar. They usually compare things that you can’t touch like emotions to things you can touch like concrete nouns. Now we are going to creates some metaphors for the emotion happiness. I find that it is easier for students like you to think of similes first and then to convert them into metaphors. To make it easier, I will give you one of the five senses to use when you create your simile. 

Okay. Mr. Butt. Silly me will create a simile.

Then get to it. Give me a simile for happiness that uses the sense of touch.

Roger.  Here’s my example: Happiness feels like snow.

How does happiness feel like snow?

Um, snow is cold and fun.

Your simile isn’t clear-cut. Snow falls from the sky and sits on the ground. How is that fun?

When it snows, you can ski and go sledding and throw snowballs.

So: Happiness feels like a fast sled gliding down a snowy hill.

Hey, the adjectives fast describing sled and snowy describing hill add details that paint a picture. That’s good, Mr. Butt.

That’s why I’m the teacher and you’re the student. Details in your similes and metaphors make them stand out. So, how does happiness sound to you, Bonefish?

Happiness sounds like a baby.

What kind of a baby? What is the baby doing that relates to happiness? Describe it in more detail.

Happiness sounds like a giggling baby waiting for her daddy to tickle her again.

First-rate. What does happiness look like?

Happiness looks like Billy Fernowicz.

Billy Fernowicz?

Yeah, Billy was my roommate at Caretaking School. He was always humming and dancing. He loved yanking weeds out of old gravesites. Happiest caretaker I ever met.

But do most people know Billy Fernowicz?

No, he was a peculiar fellow.

So clarify your simile so that people will understand. How about: Happiness looks like a caretaker pulling weeds from an overgrown gravesite?

Sounds like Billy to me. Now, for my next two answers, I wrote:

Happiness smells like fresh baked pizza coming out of the oven. 

Happiness tastes like fresh baked pizza coming out of the oven.

Wait, those two similes compare happiness to fresh baked pizza.

I know. I sure would be happy if someone gave me a slice of fresh baked pizza. I’m starving.

We’ll order a fresh baked pizza for lunch after you change your similes into metaphors.

And just how do I do that?

Easy. In your lesson cross out the guide words feels like, smells like, etc. and use a form of the verb “to be” in place of the x-ed out words. Like this:

Happiness looks like a tawny cat sitting in an empty canary cage.

Cross out "looks like" and substitute "is.”

Happiness is a tawny cat sitting in an empty canary cage. 

Happiness is cold like a bowl of pistachio ice cream.

Cross out "cold like" and substitute "is.”

Happiness is a bowl of pistachio ice cream.

You're changing similes into metaphors.

So I would write:

Happiness is a fast sled gliding down a snowy hill.

Happiness is a giggling baby waiting for her daddy to tickle her again.

Happiness is a caretaker pulling weeds from an overgrown gravesite.

Happiness is fresh baked pizza.

And I’ve got one more, Mr. Butt.

Happiness is learning how to write scary good metaphors.

And scary good metaphors keep a reader reading and that's the main goal of Scary Good Writing.