You might have heard it called different things. Traditionally referred to as literature, creative writing is an art of sorts - the art of making things up. It's writing done in a way that is not academic or technical but still attracts an audience. Though the definition is rather loose, creative writing can for the most part be considered any writing that is original and self-expressive. A news article, for example, cannot be considered creative writing because its main goal is to present facts and not to express the feelings of the writer. While a news article can be entertaining, its main purpose is to present the facts.
The purpose of creative writing is to both entertain and share human experience, like love or loss. Writers attempt to get at a truth about humanity through poetics and storytelling. If you'd like to try your hand at creative writing, just keep in mind that whether you are trying to express a feeling or a thought, the first step is to use your imagination.
Types of creative writing include:
As you can see, some nonfiction types of writing can also be considered creative writing. Memoirs and personal essays, for example, can be written creatively to inform your readers about your life in an expressive way. Because these types are written in first person, it's easier for them to be creative.
Techniques used in creative writing include:
As a member, you'll also get unlimited access to over 84,000 lessons in math, English, science, history, and more. Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you succeed.
Get unlimited access to over 84,000 lessons.
Try it nowA poem or a song tends to be more elusive, or mysterious, because it has limited space. Because of its spatial limitations, however, it can make leaps in subject and time, and it doesn't have to rely on narrative structure. In poetry and songs, literary devices, like similes and metaphors, can be used to take the readers to surprising places. A good example of this is the opening of the poem 'A Life' by Sylvia Plath:
'Touch it: it won't shrink like an eyeball,
This egg-shaped bailiwick, clear as a tear.
Here's yesterday, last year ---
Palm-spear and lily distinct as flora in the vast
Windless threadwork of a tapestry.'
Note how shocking the comparison is, how it immediately captures the reader's attention. The goal of this poem's image is to build from this idea of life as an eyeball and makes the reader really try to visualize it.
A novel or a play, on the other hand, has plenty of time to unfold. Therefore, fiction usually contains plot and character development. As a creative writer, you want your story to captivate readers. You also want to create a relationship between the readers and the characters. This requires both physical and emotional details so that readers will empathize with the action and whatever pain or pleasure the characters undergo. To use as an example, read the following excerpt from the novel Great Expectations by Charles Dickens:
'There either is or is not, that's the way things are. The colour of the day. The way it felt to be a child. The saltwater on your sunburnt legs. Sometimes the water is yellow, sometimes it's red. But what colour it may be in memory, depends on the day. I'm not going to tell you the story the way it happened. I'm going to tell it the way I remember it.'
The character's voice in this quote is really captivating. It sounds honest and thoughtful and also a little haunting. The foreshadowing of what truly happened will want to make a reader continue forward, and the character being developed is one that readers will want to learn more about.
Creative writing is the art of using words to make things up. However, a good creative writer makes things up that people will want to read. To do this, you have to use your imagination and try to capture an emotion or a human truth, like love or loss. This does not include academic or technical writing because these types of writing cannot include made-up material nor are their purposes to express the writer's feelings.
Creative writing's goal is to captivate an audience and create an emotional or thoughtful appeal, although the type of writing will determine how it will do so. Some types of creative writing, like poems and songs, have limited space, and therefore tend to be more mysterious and less narrative. Types like novels and plays have room to explore character and plot development. Anyone can write creatively; all it takes is imagination and having something to say!
Once you are finished, you should be able to:
To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member.
Create your account
The below writing prompts allow students to flex their creative writing muscles by experimenting with different types of creative writing genres and reflecting on their finished product and writing process.
Write a poem about a common, everyday object like a pencil, a spoon, a t-shirt, or a water bottle. Think about how to create striking imagery and emotion in your work—you may take time to brainstorm possible words you can use to create a visually and emotionally engaging work. In addition, your poem should include at least two metaphors or similes. After writing your poem, which should be at least ten lines long, answer the questions that follow.
In at least 750 words, write a short story about an unlikely friendship. Before writing your short story, consider tracing a plot diagram that sketches out the story's exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. After writing your story, answer the questions that follow.
Already a member? Log In
Back