Creative Writing

"Celeste grabbed a hold of the top of the open window and propelled herself through it like a performer on a trapeze. With one quick, graceful movement, the slender young woman now stood outside, her long red hair flapping in the wind as the snow began to accumulate on top of her head. Her eyes darted from building to building, looking for the quickest route away from her pursuers, but there was no escape to be had..."

Creating a truly compelling piece of creative writing is all about setting a scene, but there's a lot more to creating a scene than most people think. Let's take the sample above as an example. In this sample, we know that Celeste is being pursued, but who is actually pursing her? Obviously, there's no way to tell, but what would happen if we changed the last phrase?

For example, if we replaced "but there was no escape to be had" with "but the men in black suits were close behind." Who are her pursuers now? Government agents, perhaps?

What would happen if we replaced the last phrase with "but Celeste knew she was nearly out of time as the smell of beer and sweat wafted from the men behind her." What's the first thing that pops into your head? A bunch of drunks who have gotten entirely too rowdy?

And what would happen if we replaced the last phrase with "but Celeste knew she was nearly out of time as the footsteps of the cloaked man with the wooden stake echoed off the cobblestones." Now, what do we have? A vampire and a vampire hunter, perhaps?