Creative Writing: the Art of Writing

Different people have different names for creative writing. It was traditionally referred to as literature. It is an art of imagination and making things up. In the world of writing, creative works are done in a way far from academic or technical use. It is majorly aimed at attracting an audience. In the simplest terms, creative writing is writing original works, with self-expressive ideas. We cannot, for instance, call a newspaper creative writing because it carries facts, to mainly inform, rather than entertainment. Creative writing seeks to create awareness through entertainment and sharing of human experience. It expresses anything and everything that defines humanity, i.e., love, hate, loss, politic, and much more. Creative writers attempt human stories and truth through poetics and storytelling.

Creative writing and other writings

We can define the word “creative” in several ways. First, it is the ability to create textual content from something or nothing. It can also be defined as imaginative work or productive and imaginative. Creative writing can be termed as “characterized by expressiveness and originally. It is mostly linked to the writing of fiction. The creator comes up with an even world where events, scenes, and characters flow with their imagination. This means creative writing can include all expressions, apart from instinctive utterances.

To study creative writing, we can define it as an artistic work that expresses events and emotions through imagination. The primary intent of such work in this context is to arouse emotions. This brings us to types of creative writing, which is fiction, using imaginary events, and non-fiction, which is based on facts and true events. Fiction and non-fiction writings have a fragile line between them. It is all about the level of creativity the writer uses to bring out their feelings.

To some extent, all writing is creative. As long as there is re-creation, selection of some component, and removal of others, then one can argue that whatever piece of writing they have is creative, even when it may not seem so. Human beings naturally love telling stories. They can create anything in their mind and tell in such a way that creates a picture to the listener. Consider a statement spoken in excitement, such as the following:

“Nanna, see the dog mummy gave me… he has such a big nose, just like mine.. Yesterday he ate a whole burger… he will be a big big dog Nanna, my bestest puppy.”

In this announcement, you can feel the excitement in the boy’s voice. Even the language he uses expresses the idea at his level of understanding, conveying both information and as an idea. You can tell the boy expects a particular kind of response that will reciprocate the excitement. If the statement was any less exciting, the answer would come with the same magnitude.

Communication generally has a creative aspect. All communication ends up being about reality. In other words, every piece of idea communicated tries to re-create the idea they represent. Every idea is different from another, even in their representation.

Distinctive features of creative writing

It is crucial to understand how creative writing differs from other kinds of writing. As stated above, all writing goes through a creative process and is delivered on the writer’s terms. Creative writing, therefore, conveys information, just like informative writing (detailed statements/explanations). All forms of communication aim to deliver information, and creative writing is no exception. However, the overall goal of creative writing is to evoke certain emotions, more than inform. And in so doing, it elicits a reaction based on the feeling stirred.

In a narrative, for instance, the storytellers express their feelings about a specific area of life and engage the reader in their opinions. A poet, on the other hand, uses images, people, and events, delivering more concrete emotions. For dramatists and screenwriters, it is all about providing action in dialogue. And when someone writes a feature on a magazine, their comments to real people and real lives evoking, empathy, delight, horror, or concern because it touches their lives directly.

We can write any category of written works to engage the reader in an emotional as well as intellectual manner. However, the point of emphasis may make certain work, more or less creative. Sometimes we may not even see the differences between creative and informative writing. There are many pieces of work we know very well are primarily educational, but the way they are delivered involves a lot of creativity. There are other creative works as well, which carry so much information one may think they are informative. In many other instances, creative writing and informative works carry almost the same weight.

In this case, we can say creative writing should use the same writing skills that do excellent informational writing. It should have a good basis for arguments or great exposition. A good writer with exceptional skills can use such skills to convert any works into a creative piece. Even in fiction, there are very many elements of real life. It takes part in reality; it creates fiction. Even science fiction and fantasy fiction draw in use ideas about the world and what it could be like in certain instances.

Genres and forms of writing

Genre is a term used to refer to categories of types in written works. Creative writing has several genres, the main ones being:

- Poetry

- Short stories

- Novels

- Stage play scripts

- Screenplays

- Music lyrics

Creative writing also features in:

- Magazines articles

- Features stories

- Essays

- Biographies

- Advertisements

- Card greetings and

- Books

These genres follow specific forms of writing. Regardless of the genre, most popular writing forms include:

- Reflection

- Exposition or Reporting

- Description

- Explanation

- Argument

- Narration

Creative writing is a way of expressing ideas and emotions through written work. Whichever type it takes, the work should have information as well as entertain. For those trying to get into the world of creative writing should take both informative and innovative approach. As discussed above, every idea comes from real-life experience and should be related as such.