How To Write Creatively

Creative writing is one interesting topic to explore in the field of writing, but before we proceed with discussing the main aim of this article, let’s have a brief brush-up of the basics.

Creative writing explores the more informal aspect of writing which always involves the deliberate focus on elements like plot and character developments, a narrative, and imagination. In other words, it’s a type of writing that covers the aspect of writing other than the formal forms of writing — that includes Essay Writing, Email Composition, and Formal Letter Writing.

Creative writing cuts across many types and genres, but the major categories of creative writing include:

- Creative Fiction Writing; involves the development of imaginary narratives and 3D characters based on a plot that isn’t entirely factual.

- Creative Nonfiction Writing; is the entire opposite of the former — the plots of this writing type are partially or wholly related to true life events.

- Poetry; this writing type gives the advantage to convey the emotions of the writer (poet) through rhythmic and expressive words.

- Screenwriting; is a creative writing type whose narrative is fixed into acts and dialogues and later transformed into a story with a 3-act structure. It’s most popularly dispensed through television, but now we have other channels through which they can be put out.

- Playwriting; is a form of creative writing which is meant to be performed on a live stage.

Creative writing, as I had mentioned earlier, is an interesting field to explore for many reasons. Depending on the interests of the interested, people venture into this field to either get better at writing genuinely, become a superb and well-known author, or just explore what they love doing best.

Writing could be a gift bestowed upon specific sets of people, but it takes lots of shaping and guidance to morph it into a skill that makes your creative writing style stand out and be unique.

Starting up in the field of creative writing can be quite overwhelming; as you sometimes tend to doubt if you stand the chance to progress further in the field given other globally known authors who are still triumphing in the field.

Below are some key tips and guidelines to follow if you’re considering learning how to write creatively.

It’s always easy to develop a mindset to venture into something or have a foresight of what the future holds if you take up a certain decision, but remember this simple declaration or thought wouldn’t be what drives you towards your goal. It’s easy to say that you wish to become better at writing creatively, but then ask yourself: how true are your words? Remind yourself there’s no going back or taking breaks once you embark on this journey; for if you do, procrastination might become your best friend — trust me, you wouldn’t want that.

You must have heard of the saying:

“A good writer is morphed from an avid reader.”

You just can’t jump into the field of creative writing without having an idea of what it is. How do you get to do this? Read. Be conscious of your niche — or simply put — area of focus and gather up books relating to your niche. Explore the styles in which the authors of the books you choose to read utilize, the type of grammar and punctuation style they apply, the dialogue and paragraph arrangement they make use of, and every other possible thing you can point out. You can always read for the fun of it, yes, but you will be able to tell the feeling of difference when you become conversant with reading books relating to your field of interest. It comes with lots of advantages, a few include you getting conversant with various grammar types, new words/ idioms, more knowledge about varying cultures, locations, settings, and so on.

This is optional advice to follow, but one thing to note is that vocabulary development is just as essential as every other thing when you’re on the journey to becoming a better creative writer. The size of dictionaries alone scares you; discouraging the idea of befriending them. But hey, let’s break that fear now. There might be some sects of humans who can chomp down on every single word in the dictionary, fine. You are not them, so relax. In a few steps, I’d highlight how you can get conversant with new words.

- Learn an average of three new words daily.

- Don’t just know their meanings; get conversant with their synonyms and antonyms.

- From the moment you get to know about these new words, begin to apply them in your speech and writings. Never stop making use of them.

This should be easy, right?

No, no, we aren’t talking about being a judge here. This is just as important as getting conversant with reading books relating to your niche. Why is this so? A good observer makes a good critique. Read intensively the books of authors and poets and try spotting what you believe could be better or hasn’t worked well. If you don’t know, considering this would also bring about an increase in your improvements, because being able to point out the flaws in a certain piece of writing would become a tip you take into consideration against the next piece of writing you attempt to work on.

Remember this isn’t some sort of writing type where what is required of you is to compose a letter or composition; it involves your ability to imagine (we’d be discussing this in the next tip) and bring your imagination to life. That is what defines your creativity in the sphere of creative writing. In other words, you need to be conscious of how realistic you pen your imagination and ideas, for there are poor writers with amazing imaginations. Such sects of writers wouldn’t be able to accurately convey the message to the readers they wish to with their imaginations.

I’m guessing you’re asking now: how do I enhance my creativity? Get acquainted with nature, become conversant with the shapes and structures of buildings and objects, and of course, descriptive words.

This might be a hard part to take in, but believe me; YOU WILL NEED THIS. The end goal of being a better creative writer involves one important feature that you can’t do without, and that is the readers who devote their attention to your books. It’s advisable to present your piece of writing to a trusted friend whom you believe would tell you the truth about your writing regardless, or rather to a respected personality who is in your field of interest. You can always critique your works yourself; to me, that is the best way to realize you are accepting the flaws in your writings. This is the point where you begin to learn to deal with the reviews that come from people who go through your writing piece. Be it constructive or degrading, always learn to transform these reviews into a tip to apply for the next writing piece you develop. The goal is to develop and keep developing; have this in mind always.

This tip focuses more on the Fiction and Non-Fiction Creative Writing types than the others; though this tip can be applied to all. One thing you should be trying to avoid incorporating in all of your writing pieces is shoving all the details and clues to the reader’s comprehension. Give them the task of figuring out what exactly is being hidden in the obvious descriptions, for the feeling of being intrigued and pushed to explore a creative writing piece is fuelled by the need to figure out what they don’t know.

I believe I’d make more emphasis on this. Do not feel that a few attempts later and you are already an award-winning and globally recognized writer. It doesn’t work that way. It takes time, and of course, practice. Implementing the previous tips discussed will point out the areas of improvement as you continue to write more and more. It’s just like the saying goes:

The tons of writers whom you get to see today also had their starting stages just like you. Suddenly resolving to become more effective at writing creatively isn’t an achievement that can be gotten in one night — no. So, dear writer, BE PATIENT. Start somewhere. Take it slow. Build up the spirit of consistency void of procrastination and discouragement.

Many thanks for reading. I hope this article will be of help, and I would love to hear from you in the comment section.

REFERENCE: MasterClass.

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