8 Tips for Getting Started With Creative Writing

Creative writing is a form of writing that encompasses a number of different genres and styles outside the more formal scope of technical writing or academic writing. Creative writing focuses on elements such as character development, narrative, and plot, infusing its structure with imagination and story.

Creative writing comes in many forms and is widely accessible to all kinds of writers. Some writers dabble in creative writing throughout high school, while others join creative writing programs to earn certifications like a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree. Some do it for fun, while others want to write the next The New York Times bestseller. Regardless of the reason, there are many avenues you can explore when it comes to writing creatively. Creative writing forms include:

• Children’s books: From fantasy to mystery to comedy, the same genres that adults read are often appealing to children. Plots in children’s books, however, deal with different subject matter than stories written for adults and contain storylines that are less complex and intense.
• Creative nonfiction: This category incorporates different creative writing techniques and literary styles to convey truthful, nonfictional narratives. Creative nonfiction works, like personal essays, use more emotion and tend to emphasize story and tone over more traditional subgenres of nonfiction.
• Graphic novels: A graphic novel, as its name suggests, is a novel that tells a complete story via illustrations. Graphic novels offer the type of resolution that one expects from a novel, even if it is part of a series. Effectively, this makes a graphic novel longer and more substantive than a comic book, which is a serialized excerpt from a larger narrative.
• Memoirs: Two similar forms of creative writing are memoirs and autobiographies. While autobiographies are a platform for well-known individuals to share the facts of their lives in their own words, memoirs are a format in which writers use their life experiences in service of a larger theme or idea. A reader might pick up a memoir because they’re interested in the theme, rather than because they want to read about the writer.
• Novels: With their many genres and subgenres, novels can involve a wide breadth of themes, styles, and details the authors create to build worlds that feel like real life. Writing fiction can provide a writer with plenty of freedom to craft an imaginative original story populated with fictional characters who are relatable and three-dimensional. Novels tend to be around 50,000 to 70,000 words, though of course there are plenty of examples of novels that are longer or shorter than those arbitrary guidelines. Novels with lower page counts than traditional novels are called novellas.
• Plays: Another form of creative writing, playwriting produces plays, which actors perform live on a stage. A play can consist of one act or several acts. Due to limitations on space, effects, and live capabilities, plays must utilize creativity in order to tell a complete and immersive story.
• Poetry: Rhythmic prose that expresses ideas with musicality, poetry can encompass writing, performance, or both. Poetry, like songwriting, is a versatile writing form that allows the author to use cadence and meter to enhance their expressiveness. A poem can be short or contain multiple verses. It can have no rhyme scheme or an intricate and repetitive one.
• Screenplays: Weaving a narrative into blocks of action and dialogue, screenwriting often follows a three-act structure to tell a story. Television shows, films, and other video and audio formats utilize scripts.
• Short stories: Incorporating many of the same creative writing techniques a novel requires, a short story is any work of narrative fiction from 1,000 to 10,000 words. A good short story is designed to be read in a single sitting or a day, whereas a novel is meant to occupy the reader for a longer period of time, like days, weeks, or even months.

Multiple elements come together in creative writing to elicit a response in the reader. As a writer, it’s your job to be intentional with each and every one of them. These elements include:

• Action: In creative writing, action should occur for a reason—characters’ actions should be based on their motivations, their points of view, and their previous choices. A protagonist’s actions should always propel them toward their main goal in a way that is related to the plot events at hand. A character’s goals affect their character development, forcing them to change and evolve depending on the way events unfold in your story. Depending on your narrative, you might choose to write an action scene, which will require your character to make many telling choices in rapid succession.
• Character: In literature, character development is the craft of giving a character a personality, depth, and motivations that propel them through a story. Believable characters are unique and three-dimensional. Each has real attributes, like appearance, personality, and a backstory, that make them relatable. A character’s motivations inform their actions and decisions, creating the narrative arc in the story.
• Conflict: The purpose of conflict is to move a story forward. If nothing is at stake, then a person’s choices don’t matter very much, and the audience will begin to lose interest. If you always give your characters what they want, your story will lack tension. Conflict in a novel is when the main character’s defining desire clashes with an internal or external obstacle. The central conflict molds the shape of the journey your characters will take.
• Dialogue: Good dialogue performs all sorts of functions in creative writing. It defines your characters’ voices, establishes their speech patterns, and reveals key information without being needlessly expository. Realistic dialogue also exposes the inner emotions that make characters tick.
• Genre: While some authors might rail against the idea of categorizing creative works, the concept of genre remains prominent in the publishing industry and the study of the craft. Genre fiction traditionally comprises genres such as romance, mystery, thriller, horror, fantasy, and children’s books. Popular genre fiction relies on familiar templates, character archetypes, and tropes to attract readers, but the best examples use these elements in surprising and creative ways. Genre fiction has a more mainstream, populist appeal than literary fiction. Literary fiction tends to follow nonconventional plot structures while containing embedded symbolism and allegory.
• Pacing: How fast or how slow the story is moving for the reader is called pacing. Factors that determine pacing include the length of a scene and the speed at which you, the writer, distribute information. In general, descriptive passages tend to slow things down, while dialogue and action scenes speed things up—but slowing the pacing of action down at choice moments can also build suspense.
• Plot: In creative writing, a plot is the sequence of events that creates a story. A plot begins with an inciting incident—an event that forces the main character to take action and embark on a mission. Conflict and tension arise along the way to shape the plot into a narrative arc. Every plot has five elements that create the story structure, and each has an essential function: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.
• Point of view: The “eye” or narrative voice through which you tell a story is the point of view. When you write a story, you must decide who is telling the story, and to whom they are telling it. The story could be told by a character who is involved in the story, or from a perspective that sees and knows all of the characters but is not one of them. There are three main points of view: first person, second person, and third person.
• Scene: A contained narrative unit, a scene takes place within a larger narrative. Scenes are the building blocks of stories. Most stories are made up of a series of scenes that vary in setting and advance the plot. Occasionally a short story (or even longer narrative) will be made up of a single scene. Good scenes contain tension and conflict and move the narrative forward.
• Setting: In literature, the setting is the time, location, and physical environment of a narrative. A setting can be a specific geographical location, a historical era, or a fictional location or world. Other setting examples include the modern day, or in an unknown time and place, such as the future.
• Style: A writing style is an author’s unique way of communicating with words. An author creates a style with the voice, or personality, and overall tone they apply to their text. A writer’s style can change depending on the type of writing they’re doing and their target audience. A children’s book author, for example, will have a very different writing style than a memoirist.
• Tension: An integral part of both pacing and exposition, tension can exist between characters, as an overall theme, or as a structural tool. On a basic level, building narrative tension is a matter of keeping a reader on the edge of their seat. That kind of emotional investment depends on stakes; if there are no stakes, you could argue there is no story. Whether you’re writing a novel or a short story, stakes are what keep the reader turning the pages.
• Theme: A story theme is a broad conceptual philosophy an author wishes to convey through their work. For instance, the main theme of a story might be a statement on the human condition. If a science fiction author writes about a future in which humans are enslaved by robots that provide them with entertainment, the novel’s theme might be a commentary about human nature as it relates to machines. Ultimately, a book’s theme is an idea the author hopes the audience will mine for deeper meaning.

Follow these tips if you want to boost your creativity and improve the way you write:

1. 1. Always be writing. Don’t ignore the random ideas that pop into your head. Even bad ideas can inspire good ones, and you never know what will trigger inspiration for a better idea later. Keep a notepad or download a notes app to your personal device so you can jot down or record any ideas you have.
2. 2. Embrace rewriting. A writer rarely gets it right in the first draft. You might have flexibility with your content, but don’t be afraid to strip away the fluff, eliminate what doesn’t work, or, in some cases, start over. Storytelling and worldbuilding take a lot of time and thought, and only through rewriting will you be able to craft a version that works best.
   
3. 3. Have a perspective. Fiction writing often has a story, message, or lesson to share. A narrative without a drive behind it will feel flat, and your audience won’t understand what the point of your story is or why they should care. Use your own unique voice to tell a story that resonates with your readership or audience and to connect with them in a way that will leave a lasting impression.
4. 4. Know your audience. Ask yourself whether this story is just for your fellow creative writing students or a wider population. Maybe you are an academic writer trying to break into the young adult market. It’s rare for a piece of writing to appeal to all demographics, so knowing your audience can help you narrow down its tone and scope in ways that appeal to your target audience.
5. 5. Read, read, read. It’s a lot harder to get the hang of creative writing if you don’t have any references from which to draw. Notable writers throughout history have penned excellent examples of well-written creative work that should be required reading for any budding creative writer. Read famous works by great writers in plenty of genres to get a feel for where your interests might lie.
6. 6. Start writing. Many beginners can feel intimidated or embarrassed by their creative work and where their imagination takes them. Through freewriting, creative writing exercises, writing prompts, and practice, you can improve your own writing skills to become a better writer.
7. 7. Try a writing workshop. Writing classes and writing groups expose you to a community of writers who can all aid in your creative writing process by offering feedback and constructive criticism on a variety of elements in your writing, like story, main characters, setting, and word choice. Whether you’re writing your first book or you’re an experienced writer suffering from writer’s block, a writer’s group can offer helpful suggestions or inspiration.
8. 8. Use literary devices. Integral to good writing, literary devices help you write vividly and create imaginative scenes. Metaphors, similes, and other figures of speech create impactful images that can boost your creativity and assist in painting powerful pictures. For example, alliterations, consonance, and assonance can enhance the sound and rhythm of your words.

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