Writing a composition involves imaginatively crafting a story based on real or imagined personal experiences.
Sources of good imaginative composition:
- Reading newspaper stories
- Stories from magazines
- News
- Real-life happenings
- Stories from friends
- Novels and storybooks
What to do while writing an imaginative composition
- Use the first-person point of view (I, We, Us). e.g I woke up unusually late that day...
- Only capture a single major event in your story e.g an accident, a wedding, a crime. Note that your imaginative composition should never go beyond the captured event. For instance, while talking about a wedding, details such as waking up and preparing for the party are insignificant to the composition.
- Build your imaginative composition around a problem or a conflict. As a writer, get the main character into a problem or a conflict and then resolve it at the end. Conflict is a major pillar of an imaginative composition.
- Your story should take place within a limited time frame i.e should only take a few hours not days weeks or months. The story may take place in one morning, an afternoon or a single night.
- Have a few well-developed characters for example, instead of saying John was a boy, talk of John as a handsome, tall young man... The key here is using as many adjectives as possible while describing the characters.
- Create vivid images in the minds of the readers in your imaginative composition. For example, Instead of saying a house, talk of a magnificent, big, new, brick house. Similarly, talk of a new shiny blue Mercedes car instead of just saying a car
- Give the day and time when the events in the imaginative composition took place eg last holiday, it was on 3rd June,
- Your imaginative composition should have a moral lesson at the end. This is what the reader carries home after reading your composition. To have a moral lesson, ensure that you uphold morals in your imaginative composition. This can be by ensuring that bad guys are punished for their bad deeds while the good guys are rewarded at the end
What to avoid while writing an imaginative composition:
- Avoid writing an oral narrative. Oral narratives are marked by phrases such as a long time ago, once upon a time, one day, there once lived, etc
- Avoid giving unnecessary details and descriptions of what is obvious. For instance, talking about waking up and opening your eyes, going to the bathroom etc are considered unnecessary details because they are obvious activities.
- Avoid copy-pasting stories or simply retelling well-known stories as this shows a lack of creativity while writing an imaginative composition.
- Avoid glorifying vices such as immorality and violence.
- Avoid telling a story that happens in a span of more than one day in your imaginative composition.
To write a good story,
use these important elements:
a) Characters:
The term character refers
to the actors in an imaginative composition. The characters in an imaginative composition can be people, animals or objects that
think and talk or a combination.
b) Setting:
The term setting in an
imaginative composition refers to the time and place where the story featured in the composition takes place. The
setting can be physical
for example roadside, lakeside, town etc. The setting of an imaginative composition
can also be in terms of time when the events described in the composition took
place for example: in the morning, at night, during the day etc
c) Plot:
The plot is an imaginative
composition that refers to
the series of actions that the characters go through as they try to solve a
problem or a conflict that they
are in. In other words, the plot is the unfolding of events
in the composition. In
the composition plot, we have the:
The introduction of an imaginative composition is usually short and takes the first or the first and second paragraphs of the
composition. It is in the introduction that the characters, conflicts/problems
and the setting are introduced.
- Story development:
Also called the body, the story development part of the imaginative
composition carries the bulk of the composition. It is made up of several
interlinked paragraphs that unravel the story to the reader. The body of an imaginative composition shows how the situation affects the characters
and what they do to try and solve the problem.
- Conclusion:
The
conclusion of an imaginative composition offers the solution to the problem(s) facing character(s) or
resolves the conflict(s).
Just like the introduction, the
conclusion is usually made up of a single short paragraph. The conclusion of an imaginative composition may lead to a happy, sad or surprise ending of the events.
When
writing an imaginative composition, remember to organise the
flow of your events in a way that
arouses and maintains the
reader’s interest throughout the story. The interest of the reader in an imaginative
composition can also be captured and maintained by creating an element of
suspense thus keeping the reader glued to the text to find out what happens at
the end of the imaginative composition story.
Ways of creating suspense in an imaginative composition:
You can
create suspense by:
- Include a mystery in the imaginative composition story
- Create unexpected events from time to time
in the course of the story
- Use dialogue
- Keep changing scenes featured in the story
- Move from one character to another
- Give the ending of your imaginative
composition a surprise ending
