Here’s what you’ll learn about creative
writing:
- What is creative writing?
- Creative writing topics
- Elements of creative writing
- Examples of creative writing
- 9 powerful creative writing exercises
What is Creative Writing?
Creative writing is a form of writing in which creativity is at the forefront of its purpose by using imagination, creativity and innovation to tell a story through strong written images with an emotional impact, as in poetry writing, short story writing, novel writing, and more.
It is often seen as the opposite of journalistic or academic writing.
When it comes to writing, there are many different types. As you already know, all writing doesn't read the same way.
Creative writing uses the senses and emotions to create a strong visual image in the reader's mind, while other forms of writing generally only leave the reader with facts and information rather than emotional intrigue.
What are the Elements of Creative
Writing?
In order to get better at
creative writing, you have to understand the elements of what
makes writing a book great.
You can’t build a car engine
without understanding how each part plays a role, right…?
That’s the same case with
writing.
And just a note, this is all
stuff we cover, and you get to talk about 1-on-1 with your coach when
you join Self-Publishing School.
Here are the elements that make
up creative writing and why each is just as important as the other.
Unique Plot
What differentiates creative writing and other forms of writing the most is the fact that the first always has a plot of some kind, and a single one.
Yes, remakes are also considered creative writing, however most creative writers create their own plot made up of their own unique ideas. Without having a plot, there is no story.
And without a story, you're really just writing facts on paper, like a journalist.
Character development
Characters are necessary for creative writing. While you can creatively write a book using the second person's point of view (which I will cover below), you still have to develop the character to tell the story.
Character development can be defined as discovering who a character is and how they change throughout the story. From start to finish, readers need to be able to deeply understand their main characters.
Underlying theme
Almost every story has an underlying theme or message, even if the author did not necessarily intend to. But creative writing needs that theme or message to be complete.
That is part of the beauty of this art form. By telling a story, you can also teach lessons.
Visual descriptions
When you're reading a newspaper, you often don't read paragraphs of descriptions that represent the surrounding areas of events. Visual descriptions are largely saved for creative writing.
You need them to help the reader understand what the characters' surroundings are like.
This draws readers in and allows them to imagine themselves in the characters' shoes, which is why people read.
Point of view
There are a few points of view you can write about. With that said, the two most common in creative writing are first person and third person.
- First Person – In this point of view, the narrator is actually the main character. This means that you will read passages including, “I” and understand that it is the main character narrating the story.
- Second Person – Most often, this point of view isn’t used in creative writing, but rather instructional writing – like this blog post. When you see the word “you” and the narrator is speaking directly to you, it’s second person point of view.
- Third Person – Within this point of view are a few different variations. You have third person limited, third person multiple, and third person omniscient. The first is what you typically find.
- Third person limited’s narrator uses “he/she/they” when speaking about the character you’re following. They know that character’s inner thoughts and feelings but nobody else’s. It’s much like first person, but instead of the character telling the story, a narrator takes their place.
- Third person multiple is the same as limited except that the narrator now knows the inner thoughts and feelings of several characters.
- The last, third person omniscient, is when the narrator still uses “he/she/they” but has all of the knowledge. They know everything about everyone.
Dialogue
Although non-creative writing can have dialogue (as in interviews), that dialogue is not used in the same way as in creative writing. Creative writing (aside from silent movies) requires dialogue to support the story.
Your characters must interact with each other to further advance the plot and development.
Imaginative language
Part of what makes creative writing creative is how you choose to create the vision in your mind.
And that means that creative writing uses more anecdotes, metaphors, similes, figures of speech, and other comparisons to paint a vivid image in the reader's mind.
Emotional appeal
All writing can have emotional
appeal. However, it’s the entire goal of creative writing. Your job as a writer
is to make people feel how you want them to by telling them a story.
Creative Writing Examples
Since creative writing covers
such a wide variety of writing, we wanted to break down the different types of
creative writing out there to help you make sense of it. Y
you may know that novels are
considered creative writing, but what about memoirs?
Here are examples of creative
writing:
- Novels
- Short stories
- Poetry
- Plays
- Memoirs
- TV show scripts
- Movie scripts
- songs
- speeches
- 9 Creative Writing Exercises to Improve Your Writing
Writing is just like any other
skill. You have to work at it in order to get better.
It’s also much like other skills
because the more you do it, the stronger you become in it. That’s why
exercising your creative writing skills is so important.
The best authors out there,
including Stephen King, recommend writing something every single day.
These writing exercises will help you accomplish that and improve your talent
immensely.
#1 – Describe your day with creative writing
This is one of my favorite little
exercises to keep my writing sharp and in shape.
Just like with missing gym
sessions, the less you write, the more of that skill you lose. Hannah Lee
Kidder, a very talented author and Youtuber, gave me this
writing exercise and I have used it many times.
#2 – Description Depiction
If you’re someone who struggles
with writing descriptions or you just want to get better in general, this
exercise will help you do just that – and quickly.
In order to improve your
descriptions, you have to write them with a specific intention.
With this exercise, the goal is
to write your description with the goal of showing the reader as much as you
can about your character without ever mentioning them at all.
#3 – Edit your old writing
Believe it or
not, editing does count as writing and can actually sharpen
those creative writing skill more than you think.
It can be a little scary to pull
up a story you wrote last week or even two years ago and tear it
apart. But that’s exactly what I want you to do.
Check out this video of me editing
my old writing in order to replace weak verbs with stronger, better ones to get
a taste of what this can look like and how it can help you get better.
#4 – Voice Variations
One of my favorite parts of
writing is giving unique voices to each character. I believe that’s what truly
brings them to live.
Their dialogue as the power to
pull readers in, or push them out of the book completely.
Obviously, you want the former.
During this creative writing
exercise, your focus will be to pick 4 different emotional states and write
dialogue and narrative of how your character feels and interprets those
feelings.
#5 – Single Senses
Creating strong visuals is one of
the most powerful ways to become a great creative writer. In fact, practicing
this will help you craft books that really hook readers.
This exercise’s goal is to help
you develop writing the senses in ways that not only make sense, but are also
imaginative and unique.
#6 – Dialogue Destruction
During this exercise, you will
learn a lot about how to shape a scene using entirely dialogue.
Now, this isn’t something you’ll
always do in your writing, but it’s very important to know how to move a
scene forward using dialogue if you need to.
This will also help you
understand how to show and not tell in creative writing.
#8 – Thematic Attic
This is a fun one! The idea
behind this creative writing exercise is to focus on interpreting themes
through story.
Since all creative writing has an
underlying theme behind it, it’s really important for you to be able to
accurately depict that theme throughout the story you’re telling. Otherwise, it
can get lost. Not knowing the theme can often leave readers feeling unsatisfied
– and rightfully so.
#9 – Break Language Barriers
This isn’t quite what
you think it is. So no, we will not be creating new languages with this
exercise.
Instead, we’ll be working on
using unique language to describe very common, everyday occurrences and
experiences.
One of the beauties of creative
writing is that you have the power to change the way someone sees the world.
You can make it more appealing and special to them – if you know how.
This exercise will help you
develop the skill of using a unique narrative within your story.
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