Enhancing Creative Writing with Traffic Light Grading Techniques

Editing Your First Draft

Tip: 👇🧑‍💼

To highlight text in Word, select the text, go to the Home tab, click the arrow next to the Text Highlight Color icon (looks like a marker pen), and choose your colour. Please don't forget to select all and click on 'no colour' after rewriting.

Traffic Light Grading for Creative Writing 

Do you get as frustrated as I do over what to include or exclude from your poem after writing that first draft?

A tried and tested way is for you to colour code your piece to see what could be redacted.

           Are there sections that started off as poetic then veered into prosaic language?

Have you delved too much into your subject matter so that it sounds like a journalistic article and not a poem?

Have you told only one story in 40 words or bits of one story?  

Where’re your imagery coming from- outside the poem or from the body of the text?

Is the whole poem a metaphor? Or is it broken at the end?

Does the piece contain cliched expressions or serious grammatical errors?

I’ve tried to demonstrate using a poem submitted in the Nature & You Poetry Competition, 2025.

Greener Pasture: For all or For few

Copyrighted: Joy Omotinuola Agbaje

Early in the morning, each mature mind rises with a vision to seek pasture  

 it might not seem like it, but the truth is,  

 everyone embarks on a mission

 before we all say here comes rapture. 

 Some decide to go beyond the sea in search of green trees  

 because this is what they desire to see, 

 while some decide to remain behind the sea 

 to seek for their green trees. [Phrase/s in bold makes no sense, is redundant or uses poor grammar}

 Day after day, everyone holds the belief that 

 nobody knows what the future holds— 

 equipped in a journey for success; 

 screaming aloud, uncertainty [Phrase/s in bold makes no sense, is redundant or uses poor grammar}

 Heightened. And wider, the road leads. 

 Some on the radar: focused to see their desire fulfilled, 

 holding on; fighting through the battles as they come; 

 fulfilling the course for the sacrifices. 

 In the long run, the fate of a mature mind lies in the ability [Phrase/s in bold makes no sense, is redundant or uses poor grammar}

 to grasp their desired future, 

 a picture so hard to see,  

 through every phase life tosses at them.  

 The sun rises, marking each day— a new dawn, 

 bringing hope, strength and vitality to the course; 

 and as the night draws nigh, 

 hope becomes silent, and strength—weakened. 

A growing fear in some as they aged on the journey—  

 a display of chapters yet to come, 

 unfolding through every step, here and there 

 a search for greener pasture. 

Times and seasons happen to all,  

 that which shapes us through the thick and thin, 

 making decisions through time —  

 a value creation 

 The future we all long to see, seems like it— 

 depends on the earlier we get, 

 to find our greener pasture, 

 the brighter the future. 

 And at the end, what if? [Phrase in bold makes no sense, is redundant or uses poor grammar}

 what if we're able to pull through the challenges, 

 does that make it certain to get the bright future 

 which we've always pictured? [Phrase in bold makes no sense, is redundant or uses poor grammar}

Suggested Edits:

Early in the morning, each mind rises with a vision to seek pasture  

 it might not seem like it, but the truth is,  

 everyone embarks on a mission

 before we all say here comes rapture. 

 Some decide to go beyond the sea in search of green trees  

 because this is what they desire to see, 

 Day after day, everyone holds the belief that 

 nobody knows what the future holds— 

 Some on the radar: focused, holding on,

fighting through the battles as they come.  

The fate of a mature mind lies in the ability

 to grasp its desired future— a picture so hard to see

 through every phase life tosses at them.  

 A growing fear in some as — they age on the journey —  

 the future we all long to see, seems like it

 depends on, the earlier we get, 

 to find our greener pasture, 

 the brighter the future would be. 

 What if we're able to pull through the challenges, 

 does that make it certain to get the bright future 

 which we've always pictured?