creative writing a talent

Are Creative Writers Taught or Talented?

What makes a good writer? Is it the way they capture moments so vividly, it’s almost as if we’re transported there? Is it the way they use the perfect word to describe an exact sight? Is it the way they come up with topics so enticing, it’s impossible not to read on? These are all traits of effective writers, but how does one attain these skills?

There are two generic explanations for good writers-They have either been taught to write, or they possess a gift afforded to a select few. Within this article, it will be discussed whether one is more plausible than another, and how to embody one’s gift to reach their full potential.

What is Creative Writing?

Creative writing deviates from academic, professional and journalistic writing, due to it’s less strict and formal tone. It uses techniques such as character and plot development, dialogue and themes to construct both personal and commercial works. Creative writing may be seen in advertising, fiction, poetry, songs, films and more, and takes up a variety of different forms.

Although writing is a ‘hard skill’, one that is typically taught though schools or training, creative writing is classified as a ‘soft skill’, due to the creativity involved. Imagination and innovation cannot be taught, therefore such a writing stream depends on the individual thoughts and interpretations of each person.

Why Write Creatively?

For those who enjoy the practice of creative writing, the answer may be obvious. Who wouldn’t love to write? It’s relaxing, rewarding and keeps the mind active. In truth, however, there are a plethora of reasons why one may not enjoy creative writing and these are unique to each person. For instance, a person may not possess a wide range of vocabulary. They may not be well read, and have trouble thinking of the words to describe a setting or character. They may not have the time to write and loathe spending hours staring at a computer when other tasks could be completed.

Creative writers must enjoy writing, be able to persist with an idea, from start to end and refuse to give up when inspiration is lost. They live for the exhilarating feeling when others delight in their work and love receiving positive reactions. Creative writers love stimulating their minds each day, further enhancing their works of literature. They read the words of others to find ways to better their own. This then begs the question, are creative writers born, or are they developed?

Talent or Taught?

Synonymous with the word potential, talent is defined as a natural ability or skill. Just as most people can read a book, do basic mathematics and write sentences, writing is a skill most educated people learn in primary school. But just because most people are taught how to write, that doesn’t mean everyone is talented at it. Within the word ‘potential’ is the beginning of the word ‘possible’. In this sense, it is only possible that those who can write will be talented at it. Although talents are innate, they do require nurturing and practice to expand them to their full potential.

For example, a person may be born with a natural ability for basketball. They may be of a tall build, be able to shoot hoops with accuracy and be a fast runner. But it’s unlikely that unless they practice for hours on end they’ll ever make it to the NBA level. The same goes for writing. Despite possessing the ability to write, it’s unlikely that unless a person spends countless hours working on a piece, edits the entire length of it and receives letters of rejection, they’ll ever get any work published.

Instead of definitely drawing a line between nature or nurture, it’s more fitting to say that writing ability requires passion. Whether one is talented or not, has a good teacher or not, is educated or not, to be a good creative writer, one must be passionate about their work and be constantly striving to better it. Regardless of whether words come easy to them or they have to think for hours on end, quality creative writing depends upon the desire to reach a publishable standard.

How to be a Passionate Writer

Most passionate writers cannot express where their passion came from, they simply enjoy the writing process. Some writers develop passion as they pursue their skills and persist in the process. Irrelevant of where it comes from, passion is a common denominator in creative writing.

Ways to develop passion include focusing on topics that one enjoys. Those who are athletic could focus on sport. Keen gardeners could describe gardens and sweeping landscapes. One should write about what it is that they enjoy, as this will guide the words. . In addition, writing about characters based on familiar people or even oneself will help to ensure they are believable and realistic. The more a writer is in tune with their characters, the more genuine they will be. Despite this, it is important to maintain some points of difference- Creative writing is not supposed to read like a biography!

Despite writers feeling connected to their work, it’s inevitable that there will be times when they feel immense distraction. Sometimes Facebook feels like a magnet, pulling them away from your words and into a realm of procrastination. This is okay, however, as passionate writers develop a balance between down time and hard work. To fully reap the rewards, one must dedicate themselves to their writing and hone their skills to produce at least a sentence each day. This keeps the brain connected to the task and enables it to keep subconsciously planning the next chapter even when they’re asleep.

Some writers find that writing for thirty minutes a day is all they need. They dedicate that whole amount of time to writing without distractions and in complete silence. If the ideas are still flowing after that time, that’s a bonus. Simply setting goals-Whether that be in terms of a word count or time limit-And meeting them, is key to completing a piece.

Planning is also key to writing passionately. It’s difficult to write quality words without mapping out the direction of where the piece will go. Although it may fall off track, planning is important in guiding your writing and saves lots of time-Writers who plan spend less time staring blankly at the computer screen and more time typing away on the keyboard.

Passionate writers enjoy the writing process. They delight in spending countless hours dabbling in fantasy worlds and making friends with imaginary characters. Creative writers cannot be blank-faced and serious people; they must have a vivid imagination and find delight in sharing it with others. They must dream of their stories at night and recreate them in the morning. Passionate writers have belief in their ideas and follow them until the end.

Passionate writers never give up, even when they experience rejection and or bumps in the road. Some of the worlds best authors including J.K, Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien, William Golding and John Steinbeck were all sent rejection letters in response to some of the best pieces of literature in the past century. Regardless of whether they had good teachers or possessed an innate talent, these authors persisted and persisted through sheer passion. This is what made them successful.

Am I a Passionate Writer?

This is a question one must ask themselves. The answer differs from person to person as indicators vary. For example, one passionate writer may have loved writing from a young age. They might have won literary awards and have published the first book they wrote. Another person may be a scientist and not work with words in their everyday life, however, may enjoy the process of writing and spend 30 minutes a day writing poetry. A third person may not have gone to school or been formally educated, but writes songs for a living after completing a literacy course. All three examples are those with writing passion, irrelevant from nature or nurture.

Whether a writer has been taught to write, has been mentored, has a small vocabulary, has limited time, is talented or simply enjoys the hobby, creative writers only need one thing in common- Passion. The trick is honing that passion to be the best writer they can possibly be.

What do you think? Leave a comment .

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84 Comments

As a lifelong creative writer who has been published in recent years, I appreciated this article very much. It’s true, when it comes to writing there is no definitive line between nature and nurture. Passion is a key element of writing because without it, you’re going to burn out. Even when you have it, you’ll go through times when writing feels like a grind.

I kind of wish you’d said more about mentors, though. A lot of creative writers have mentors, whether those are teachers, professors, fellow writers, or friends. They’re the ones who keep us going. They’re the ones who build us up and tell us, “Yes, you can write. Yes, what you’re doing has worth. No, you’re not crazy.” In a world where the creative arts are still highly disrespected (“starving artist,” “starving writer,”) even the most dedicated creative writers need community to stay the course. Hmmm, I smell an idea. Thanks!

Nobody seems to question the purpose of art classes, or that one can teach good practice in pottery, photography, flower-arranging or whatever else.

Thus I’ve never really had a problem with the idea that there are some fundamentals of writing that can be taught.

Exactly. I think you’ve either got artistic/musical/literary talent or you haven’t, but unless you’re an absolute screaming genius, that talent will need developing. Hence the need for classes.

In the plastic arts, as opposed to literary arts, there are actual techniques–in painting, in sculpture, and in other forms–to be learned from a classroom course and an instructor. A student has to learn brush techniques in painting as well as many other technical skills. These can indeed be taught and they have to be learned and practiced one way or another.

In writing, the analogue is the basic teaching and learning of reading and writing one’s native language and, for some, other languages.

Beyond that, yes, there is and long has been similar criticism of just where art schools’ limits properly lie in the transmission of esthetics and taste to the students of plastic arts.

Maybe the difference is that the examples you chose all require physical “hands-on” skills (not to mention equipment, in some cases).

I think there’s a lot to be said for studying a few good writing books instead of rushing off onto an expensive* course … a book can’t offer feedback, of course, but I wonder how much real feedback is an instructor is able to give to each student, during a typical course?

(*) bearing in mind the maxim that the money is supposed to flow toward the writer…

Sure they can, and they need to be. Classes dedicated to exactly those fundamentals help writers avoid common pitfalls and discover their niches (ex.: whether they’re better at fiction or poetry). But even if you get A’s in creative writing courses, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a “good” writer. You might be “technically” good, but lack a unique voice, or the ability to develop plot or characters. Yet even then, you can master those things. And with that, you circle back to who has passion, or a true love, for the art. Those who do aren’t “better” writers than anyone else, but I think they’re more likely to stick with writing and try to make a real go of it, inside or outside of their day jobs.

This was enjoyable to read.

The different methods of teaching writing, and gives evidence that it is a craft to be learned. My question for authors/teachers is aimed at how authors, as a whole, are treated. Why is writing one of the only professions that anyone can do without formal training? Why aren’t publishers/agents seeking an academic track record as a pre-req to publishing? Would we have lawyers who don’t take the bar and try a case? And yet we have writers who sometimes don’t even have a high school education or any at all publishing… maybe a rise in writers who learn the craft would produce “better” work? Or would it undercut the flow of diversity?

I am firmly of the opinion that, yes, requiring writers to have formal training would undercut the flow of diversity and make a profession which is already dominated by the wealthy middle-classes even more out of reach to those of humble backgrounds.

But, more than that, it would be a restriction of freedom of expression.

On the other hand, though, I’m being a tad inconsistent here, as I do think actors should have formal training and I can’t quite work out in my own head why I think there’s a big difference between the two.

I think you’ll find that it is very hard to get an agent unless you have been on a creative writing course. So unless you have the £10,000 or whatever to go on a CWC you can pretty much kiss goodbye to your chances of getting published.

Writing is easy, as one said, “You just sit down and open a vein.”

Nah. Writing is enjoyable. Tell stories about things you know and love, for an audience you love. The time I spend at the keyboard is precious. I can get lost for hours in alternate reality. I say write a lot, GET IT EDITED, stick it online, and derive a reasonable income. In the right reader’s market quantity trumps quality.

You actually enjoy writing! You’re one of the few writers who does. I hate it! But i do it, because it’s the only thing that makes sense in this world of consume and destroy!

I have a number of concerns around CW courses but perhaps the biggest one is that I think it risks creating a hierarchy/publishing class system (even more than the one which undoubtedly exists already) where getting an agent/getting published is increasingly reliant on having made the “right” kind of contacts you can get from a CW course.

I say this mainly because it just seems like increasingly large numbers of novelists, poets etc who are published have been on CW courses. Even most, perhaps. Obviously it was possible to write well back in the day when many writers didn’t have much formal education. Or when they did, but they tended to take literature courses rather than creative writing courses. So it’s certainly not that the standard is so much higher now that there are so many CW courses. Some might argue the opposite.

I also think that despite the fact that there are many different readers and approaches, in terms of style/content there often seems to be a sort of creative writing “thing”, if you know what I mean. A sort of standard-issue CW novel or poetry collection. I’m open to arguments that I’m wrong about that though. I’m sort of peripherally involved in the UK poetry scene, with a very keen interest in international poetry as well, and while I’ve read work by CW graduates that I’ve greatly enjoyed, I suspect that most of what I admire isn’t in that category.

An excellent article and a damned good read. The rejection slip (or more usually the rejection email these days) is a bane that I’m sure many here are familiar with. So why do we continue to write? Well, to put it simply – a writer writes. It is our passion!

With writing, it can be hard to know when one is a good writer. There’s no right way to be a good writer. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses.

there is only ONE thing you need to know to be a published author.

its not what you know, its WHO you know.

the end. period.

its also a good lesson for life.

Totally disagree. I’ve published six hundred scientific papers and eight books. I came into this world knowing no one, and no one invited me to write. I got there by the dint of persistence, drive, and hard work.

What you’re arguing is a cop-out. It’s like saying “I don’t have a bad bone in my body. Anything bad that emanates from me is the fault of some devil.”

I gave a lecture this week at my old university on creative writing and self-publishing. I spent just one minute talking about the ‘craft’ and the rest on how to format an ebook correctly how to handle Amazon/Lulu, as well as how to approach agents. I felt this was the best information I could share as it had real world application.

How to write, what to write, and what makes good writing…that’s a mystery I wasn’t going to solve in 90minutes.

I’m going to get my head “chewed off” for this comment: in the new world with its entertainment-based focus, readers no longer seem to care for finely-crafted works. They want a story regardless of how it’s written. The field of writing is one of “market prospects” rather than art. While many readers enjoy art, most simply want to be mindlessly entertained. The Kindle has altered reality. The electron is mightier than the pen tied to a sword.

Is this really a new phenomenon, linked to the Kindle? Dickens and Hardy wrote serials for the masses and their plots are driven by the need to provide a sensationalist cliffhanger at the end of virtually every chapter. Shakespeare wrote cheap entertainment and was criticised by his contemporaries for writing mindless entertainment for the market, rather than high-minded art.

Audiences have always craved a thumping good story (and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that – compelling story-telling has always been an important element of the novelist’s art. And it’s not as easy as it looks, either – Kuresihi’s main complaint about his creative writing students seems to have been, not that they couldn’t write halfway decent prose, but that he couldn’t teach them how to have the imagination to think up a decent story). This is not new.

Admittedly, the opportunities for self-publishing that the internet has brought have made it easier for writers to find an audience without first having to pass through the literary filter of a reputable publisher. But I’m not sure that’s necessarily a bad thing.

I have no wish to defend the likes of Fifty Shades Of Grey or The Da Vinci Code, but in the past audiences have often had a better record than the professional critics at identifying lasting literary merit. That’s why we now have a Royal Shakespeare Company, not a company dedicated to one of the many writers whom the literati of the day preferred.

Writing a “story” is creating art.

What has changed is the definition of what’s a “finely-crafted” work.

Good piece.

I’ve always suspected that creative writing programs were a pyramid scheme. Writers don’t need their self-esteem torn down by their teachers. They already get all they can take from the publishing market.

Somewhat disagree. I’ve had marvelous teachers in the dramatic writing field who are very inspirational. IMO, if one wants to learn what attracts an audience to a story, then study screenwriting as the basis for further creative work.

At the moment, the publishing market only seems as closed as the screenplay market. Publishers and agents already get a good income from a stable retinue of existing authors/clients and simply don’t need new ones. I find, from experience, that over 80 percent of agents won’t even bother to read a new author’s query letter. A new author will receive a form rejection from an intern or coordinator or assistant within one to three weeks. Perhaps one out of 40 agents will request a MS and it will sit for six months. Perhaps a year or two later, a publisher will be found.

As a new author, the best lessons I’ve learned from established authors were to write what I know and love for the audience I love. Get a GOOD editor and a GOOD cover artist and self publish electronically. The income from e-publishing begins immediately and results in about the same income as the traditional process (minus the delay). The author retains more rights as well. If the work is a “hit” and further opportunities arise, the author can easily put an intellectual property attorney on retainer to manage rights and profits.

A lot of people are interested in ‘being a writer’… rather than having something they want to say…

I’ve always found that very interesting. You meet so many people saying things like ‘I’ve got this great idea for a book if only I had the time’ or ‘I’ve always fancied having a go at writing, i reckon I’d be pretty good’ but nobody ever says ‘I have a great idea for a string concerto but…’ or ‘I reckon I’ve got a few really good paintings in me, if only the kids would give me some time to myself’.

Writing a novel is about making yourself and the reader feel less alone.

All the books I read and want to reread are those that ease the existential loneliness of the world.

Writing’s a bit like teaching – no, really! You can’t ‘teach’ people to do either, but you can tease out the latent competencies that aspirant teachers & writers have & give them the tools to do the job better & ‘fail better’ & better &…

I have the ‘passion’ part of being a passionate writer. I discovered my love for writing later in life, after a career in finance. Now I can’t stop writing. I read articles and books about writing. I’ve dabbled in poetry. I’ve self-published one book, and I’m busy on my second. I’m still learning and still writing.

Great piece on CW. I have never considered myself to be creative and like SusanneLeist (above), I find later in life, I have so much to express through writing. Sometimes, it feels like the articles almost write themselves.

great article

Thanks for the interesting read Courtney. I will open with a disclaimer that I am a failed writer as in someone who has tried and failed in his attempts to get published. Making it clear that I cannot back my opinion based on my success.

I do not think passion has much to do with someone being a good writer.

Case in point, Am an avid Agatha Christie fan who has read all her works multiple times and I one thing I found missing in her works was the passion to write.

She wrote more as a professional writer than someone who loved to write and lived for it as far as I can see.

Like all other profession, you need to have an aptitude, skill and the right attitude towards it to succeed. Passion has very little to do with it.

Write about what you know in your own way.

Jane Austen did!

As a CW teacher, I have learned one lesson more than any other to impart: since writers are individual humans each has a different attitude, method and viewpoint on how to write. Writers who teach writing often tend to teach just their own method – there are others that may suit the student better.

Creative writing courses are important and it seems that there are some very good, inspiring teachers out there. I would like to see more engagement between creative writing and translation courses (assuming aspiring creative writers know another language). Some of the greatest writers were also translators and the two disciplines are mutually beneficial.

Over the years, my only concern with creative writing courses is whether the need to innovate in form and content sometimes might get lost amidst sets of rules that must be followed. It’s important to surprise readers and forge new voices that challenge perceived ideas.

Very few writers have the gift of writing even though they acquired their knowledge to write through creative writing lessons. Writing is a rigorous and therapeutic exercise and comes naturally. Writing is practical even though it is not physical. Writing is a craft and the ability to write comes easily not through learning. But even those that write may find it hard to undertake creative learning. Writing is a gift and it is precious a gift that however much a writer tries to learn it, it is just a matter of chance to succeed as a writer. Not all writers have this natural gift whatever the writer’s qualifications and accolades. Many writers struggle to learn the technical concepts of writing and you may be a good story teller but lack skills of delivering a good story. Rejection doesn’t just mean you are a lousy writer. Many books are very rigorous and tough. Who has a right to determine the success of a writer? Creative writing lessons face rigour and no writer can master the gift of writing however much learning they might have undertaken. Great writers have never acquired any learning. Creative writing is a discipline that has a rigorous structure and it is important to learn those writing ideals as a point of strength. Any imparting of knowledge should be a positive step because it is expansive and a good skill to learn. It should not be rejected but should be appreciated and embraced. All knowledge is good knowledge which provides a ladder and a pantheon or step to develop.

i wouldn’t say i want to be a writer, but i want to write better and am thinking of a creative writing course… i think i have some affinnity with language, but am concerned because i (at least as yet) have next to no idea on how to write like someone else. i.e. despite reading poetry and having an idea of how it works, i am not naturally picking up anything from that. does anyone want to comment on this – sarcastically if you like but not just to make me feel bad.

That’s not a bad start, in fact. You are expressing your own thoughts and feelings and making a direct request for help. It speaks to me because you have written from the heart and not tried to strike a pose, which is a common fault both on these pages and more generally among would-be writers.

Maybe you should just keep on writing, using it to work out what you think & feel, and have the courage to ask a friend whose views you respect to read it for you. But also learn to critically re-read and revise what you have written.

Write whatever comes to you – don’t push the river, as they say. If you find poetry hard to write, then write prose. Perhaps write a journal, or practise writing descriptions of things, people and events.

I’m not sure what you mean by having an ‘affinity with language’, but maybe you just like trying to express yourself, so I suggest you carry on.

Some writers undoubtedly have natural talent, but it is ultimately their passion that allows them to make use of their talent and advance. Passion, too, can take a novice writer and turn them into a gifted writer.

Ultimately, this was an excellent article. Good work.

I cannot dispute the factors, as outlined within the article, that go into making the great writer or the quintessential draft. I have been writing for many years, and feel that the precise moment coupled with the right frame of mind, are the vital elements for creativity, lest the theme overwhelmingly lends itself to productivity. My $0.02.

The best advice on writing I ever got came, many years ago, from Ray Bradbury: “If you want to be a writer, read. Read as much as you can, as often as you can.”

Ray Bradbury made many important insights about literature. Despite it being a novel and not a “how to” book on writing, I got some of the best writing advice when I read Fahrenheit 451 for the first time. I also think it’s important to read as much as you can to improve your abilities. You start to figure out what does and doesn’t work.

My trouble is always managing to write more than just an outline (I’ve got several movies, video games and novels in my back pocket). I feel like I’d be the greatest producer that ever lived, but that’s not the kind of job you just walk into, you’ve usually done some directing/writing/technical training/schmoozing, first.

I write well, I just have nothing to say.

A recent study at the University of Exeter in England is worth checking out. With MRI’s they wanted to see how prose and poetry affect the brain. Turns out, there are two completely different brain centres for prose and poetry. It’s worth a search to see if EVERYONE has access to both of if the prose one is universal but the poetry one is not. Given the huge amound of prosey poetry being written today I suspect it’s not coming out of the poetry part of the brain. There is something called “Prose Poetry”. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the tendency to write prose paragraphs and call them poetry. Activating the poetry centre stimulates serotonin production in the brain and makes you feel good. The prose centre gets your empathy neurons going and you feel empathy for the characters and/or the writer, hence the large amount of confessional writing going on. Malcolm Gladwell identified 4 aspects of success: you have to have talent, you have to work hard, you need support and opportunity. Those who fail may lack any or all of the above. Sharon Goodier, poet, Toronto

I found this article to be quite intriguing and informative. The essential question has within this article a satisfying answer, thus sound.

I have written many stories online, derived of course–by the mind. Yet I haven’t taken a single creative writings class, but I also have a very fine touch in drawing and math. Why not explore that correlation? Overall great piece.

Incredible article. Keep going. Nice read for me

Good article on how both affect writing. I’ve had an active imagination for as long as I can remember, but I was afraid to pick up the pen until I got a computer. For a while, I just wrote what I like, which was the “nature: part. Looking back on my old writing, I see what a difference “nurture” made. When I volunteered at summer camp, I wasn’t allowed to use my computer, and had no choice but to write the “old-fashioned way.” Based on instinct and learning, I felt more confident by then.

I once wrote a story in a creative writing class that the Professor found very interesting because I wrote about the experience of adopting my twins boys, “real life” writing is what he wrote on my paper. I have kept his notes, which I read occasionally, and his encouragement that, “I hope you continue to write in this vein”. Of course that was seven years ago and I have since graduated with a BA in English. Sadly, I have never written much since and continue working in my profession which has nothing whatsoever to do with an English degree. That was simply a goal I set myself many years ago. To get to the point of this comment, I am somewhat intimidated by the word “Creative” which makes me feel I have to write a piece of work that I have to creative from scratch. Unfortunately I cannot write this way but if I feel my writing prose is good enough, if I can engage the reader and make my story interesting, is that considered creative writing? Probably not. Some may read these writings as memoirs, blogs, diaries, or whatever else exists in the world of creative writing. Maybe being self-taught, unable to create characters, plots and dialogues, I should write simply for myself.

As for me, Creative writers are more talented. It’s like a super-power or superability which not everyone owns

This topic spoke to me right away! So many times nowadays I’ll see people advertising books with titles like “How to Write A Book”…and I wonder, is that really going to get people anywhere? Sure, it definitely might help. But are the people who read these books just as TALENTED as any other writer? Is this almost cheating? Great post!

An interesting discussion, this is such a difficult area to identify. I think perhaps many writers who even fall in the talented category would perhaps deny this label, this also would be a fascinating topic to consider from the nature vs nurture debate.

One idea that was repeated in this article was that a creative writer must love the creative process. I found this very interesting as I looked into my own work. They say starting is the hardest part and I personally find that completely true. During art school, it was easy to devote time to write because what I was writing would have an immediate reaction, whether that is a grade given or feedback from a peer. Post-college is more difficult if you are not employed in a creative writing field. Questions like when will I have the time to write and who will eventually read this may overcome one’s mind. That struggle affects the art. In many creative fields, the artist completely encapsulates their art. If a creative person is battling conversations of when and how they may not be able to devote proper time to the pre-writing process and their work will suffer. Thus, falling out of love with the creative process and eventually give up creative writing altogether.

I think it’s important for creative writers, who find that passion early on, to take interest in school. That self-discipline of having assignments and being allowed to grow into a writer who can prioritize time for assignments prepares them for the future in creative writing. However, I think you also have to be conscious about not getting too caught up in the process and enjoy the art of it. Let the creative be creative.

Glad to see this addressed; it’s been on my mind a great deal lately due to a slightly different set of circumstances– it seems like everyone, even marketers who write short blog copy, is calling themselves a writer these days, and that prompts me to wonder two things: could this put a strain on expectations of quality writing out in the world, and, yet, why should it matter; shouldn’t writing be accessible to anyone who wants it? Perhaps, then, connecting it back more specifically to this, is about motivation to learn and improve. With so many ppl fancying themselves writers, does it dampen the overall inclination to want to be a great writer? I don’t know the answer to this; it’s been on my mind.

The quality of writing is so often linked to the amount of interest in it. Passion means time is spent, time being spent leads to the development of skills.

The more hours someone works at something, the higher their chances to succeed. And the more passion someone has, the more they will work. I really liked this article. It resonated with me.

Regardless of someone’s natural talent they are born with, if they have passion they will work more, and that is the big difference. It was a nice comparison you made with someone being born as a talented basketball player, but unless that person puts in a lot of time and effort, he will never make it to the NBA. Same as writing.

This was an interesting read. I wrote creatively all throughout high school and then pursued an English degree in university. I found that my writing voice changed, and I stopped using writing as an outlet for my imagination and emotions. Even worse, since graduating, I barely write anything at all anymore. The idea that writing is a talent has deterred me; I’ve used it as an excuse that I no longer have the ability to write creatively. This article gives me hope that I can reteach myself to write. I love the idea that one can just write a sentence everyday to keep their writing going. I’m definitely giving this a try.

I think creative writing is taught to an extent. Imagination is not. Writers can hone their imagination and use it to their advantage. That and their passion to commit to a story.

I think creative writers are talented and that they have an imagination that is wide and vivid, and a way of using words to bring that imagination onto paper. I am in a creative writing class currently and it is very clear who is skilled and who lacks that talent of putting imagination onto the page. But of course just because you have the talent does not mean you don’t still need help to perfect it. It takes a lot of patience and rewriting and relearning to write creatively and that needs to be taught (even if it’s self taught). So I believe it is both talent and taught!

I’m not clear how one ‘hones passion’. It’s also a recipe I fear for developing writer’s block. There is initial freedom in the exercise of writing, which is fantastically fun like the start of a new romance. Much like romance, however, one eventually must start to work on the relationship, lest it suffers and is snuffed out.

I often tell my writing students that writing creatively is 5% talent and 95% hard work and learning. I can help students learn about convention and technique, but I can’t teach talent nor do more than encourage hard work. Thanks for sharing your ideas here.

I believe good writers have a natural talent, and that talent needs to be developed. One of my Professor’s told us “Becoming a successful writer is like becoming a champion swimmer. You need to get in the pool every day and swim your laps, get feedback and work on improving until you can enter a race and perform well”. In my case, I am a late-blooming academic having published my first article 11 years ago aged 42. I now have more than 80 publications because I write almost every day and I am always getting feedback on my work, and try to improve each time I write.

I think that in order to be a good writer, you have to become passionate about the craft of writing. Writers who have published often say that they write every day. So if it is at all possible, that is what you have to try to do, because good writers, they hone the craft of writing through practice and editing.

I am a writer; and there are days when I cannot write, and days when I can. Sometimes I have a writers block for months, and then sometimes it feels as if something inside me wants to eat out of me, or gobble me up, and I have to write. If I don’t, it’s almost like suffering. So I am not sure what that is? Or how passion is affected by that. But I do know, that if writing is NOT your passion, it will be very hard to write poetry or prose. If you don’t have the patience with yourself to write, then writing can also be extremely hard.

A good writer has to start somewhere. All good writers who want to do more than just write the odd paper for school, and whether or not their writing is purely for fun and a hobby horse, or moves them toward a career; they have invested in being trained at school or at college to write. They have taken what they have learned about writing and combined it with their natural writing talent and their passion, so that they can continue to hone their writing skills.

I believe that good writers can never sit still. They have to continue to improve their writing, whether it is through joining a writers group and reading their work out loud to a crowd, having their work edited or continuously editing their work themselves. All of that allows them to grow as writers and see how an audience might view their work, so that they can make necessary changes for themselves and for the audience they are writing for.

I think that the talent to write goes hand-in-hand with continuous learning within the craft of writing and helps to make someone a good writer. Writers must also be open to the works of others, reading them, thinking about how they were constructed — so that they can expand both their knowledge of “story architecture”, their understanding of characters, and their understanding of plot. Even if you wrote a book every year, you would still need to continue to improve yourself and the craft, so that you can write better in the future.

I think talent can be god given, but it can also be taught. Having talent without commitment is utterly meaningless.

I think that academic writing can be taught. Most people learn in school how to write essays and thesis statements. But creative and story writing like any art is subjective. We cannot dictate other peoples creativity and ideas every writer has a subjective style.

Creativity is the greatest form of rebellion. It was probably years ago that I came across this proposition, however overtime I have gradually adopted it, an idea founded on the freedom of expression. I believe the phenomenon of creativity can only be defined as an emotional state. Just like feelings, due to it’s all-encompassing and subjective nature, to pin-point whether reaching this state of being can only be taught overtime or should be put down to biological predisposition is virtually impossible. Every thought, decision, judgement you make, consciously or not, has been shaped by an internalised set of values and objectives that guide you, particularly in regards to ethical decision making. These beliefs are not stagnant – continuously being questioned, challenged, modified by external influences. This moral compass defines and controls your ability of creative expression. Yes, some can express themselves more ‘creatively’ easier than others. Yes, by attending an art class you may learn how to mount an easel. Both answers are correct. These days, a blank canvas can apparently prove a natural aptitude within the sphere of postmodern artistry. My need to express my stream of consciousness has aggressively increased since being prescribed amphetamines. Yes, a potent central nervous system stimulant potent central nervous system stimulant that is used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder fuels my desire to exploit those constant, pervading stream of thoughts. People are scared off by creativity, and this saddens me. This question has sparked my desire to encourage people to strive to attain this state of being, as it exists within all. Taught or not, this tool will provide self-gratification and assurance like no other.

Please edit this; it has many grammatical errors.

Judy Bloom says it’s a bit of both and I think she’s correct. It’s in the audience questions section at 37:30. The whole interview is brilliant though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7svP4zqCc0

its such a helpful article especially to beginner writers who wants to learn more in writing and blogging.

I think that you need both the talent and to be taught. To be a creative writer you must be imaginative which is something that can only be natural talent. But you also have to be taught the correct writing skills such as grammar and punctuation, you need to be able to do your own research and know how to edit.

Excellent post – lots of great information. This is very useful for freelancers looking to get their ideas taken seriously.

great writing here. Its also useful to look in to the word practice. Literally all art forms take practice and writing is not exempted from this.

I really enjoyed the passion motivation behind creative writing. Even through graduate studies when there is an expectation to publish academically, the key to success usually lies in finding the passion for what you research, and to then hone that passion as best as possible. How this usually plays out is through a scheduled writing time. Creative writing and academic journal writing may be similar insofar as the passion honed into a practical schedule to contribute to one’s practice of writing daily.

I do believe that the passion for writing is one that is inbuilt in us, otherwise why we want to learn more about to begin with but on saying this I do believe that there are skills are writing that need to be taught. A couple of those skills that come to mind are editing and publishing. Other than those two skills being creative needs to come from the inside and therefore can not be taught.

I think it is a combination of both. Some writers are more naturally skilled than others, but I would say that all writers can benefit from honing their skills and learning techniques to add to their toolbox. Writing is a craft.

I agree that what is a true prerequisite of great writings is a burning desire to tell stories and to take the readers with you as the author into the writing. A reader should see, hear, smell, touch, and taste, depending on what the story is about. After reading a book a reader should feel as if he or she is returning from a journey. Another question posed is, are writing taught or is it talent. My views are that there a number of factors that play a role in an authors career. Education is certainly one, talent and nurturing are vital and not wanting to do anything else other than write is another.

Talent versus Learning is essentially Heredity (H) versus Environment (E).

My hero, D. O. Hebb, wrote eloquently about their relative roles in mediating our behavior (of which writing is one example). He said that asking whether a piece of behavior is determined by H or E is like asking whether the area of a field is determined by its length or width. Its the product of both.

I think there are a lot of factors that go into making a great writer. The most important thing to do when writing is look at it from the point of view of a reader. I might know the backstory of the world and the characters, but readers will not unless I write it either implicitly or explicitly. The most important detail in any story is the setting: where are they? What do characters smell, see, hear? It’s all about the imagery. The best creative writers can do this with natural talent, but it does take practice improving descriptive words. I find it is a good exercise to write out the setting with no adjectives, and then write it again, pairing every noun with an adjective. I learned this in a course I took in college. If it had never learned this strategy, I would not be as thorough and detailed of a writer as I am now.

I love this article’s point; passion and perseverance can take a drop of creative talent (no matter how large or small) and make it flourish. If exceedingly talented writers ignore their gift of writing, their talent will atrophy, but if a novice perseveres, their talent will blossom. Everyone has the ability to create incredible things—if they have but the inclination, passion, and perseverance.

A rare medium, well done..

Writing consists of not just wrangling words, but also having one’s work shared with others so they may offer feedback for further improvement. So although talent is a boon for the budding talent, persistence and a willingness to accept critiques and change are just as, if not more, crucial.

As for teaching, a combination of traditional instructing and self-teaching can work. On one hand, having a second pair of eyes gauge your work can help one identify blind spots in their judgment of their writing. On the other hand, genuine (and good) writing stems a lot from one’s personal initiative.

A good essay. I think of writing as an artform–it doesn’t matter what the writing is aimed at, or the type. In any writing, the writer stops to think about the choice of words and the images that they want to convey. Words are almost like paint on a palate. All types of choices are made beyond choosing words, such as the length of a description or explanation, or how much supporting information to provide. I just enjoy thinking that way since I think (at least I hope) it leads to me being a better writer.

I try to avoid that bugaboo-bugbear: Am I a good writer or a bad writer? I just try to write and get published. I’ve written stuff that got an unfairly incarcerated kid freedom and another unfairly incarcerated kid a better re-sentencing and, according to a psychologist, possibly saved another youth’s life. Some of the reviews were nasty, some weren’t .. but in the end I accomplished some good. I live to publish and keep the bugaboo-bugbear from spoiling my fun.

Quite right on the nurturing part – often, we don’t realize the talents we’ve been bestowed until we actually do something that entails practicing or perhaps gets those talents out to work.

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What Is Creative Writing? (Ultimate Guide + 20 Examples)

Creative writing begins with a blank page and the courage to fill it with the stories only you can tell.

I face this intimidating blank page daily–and I have for the better part of 20+ years.

In this guide, you’ll learn all the ins and outs of creative writing with tons of examples.

What Is Creative Writing (Long Description)?

Creative Writing is the art of using words to express ideas and emotions in imaginative ways. It encompasses various forms including novels, poetry, and plays, focusing on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary tropes.

Table of Contents

Let’s expand on that definition a bit.

Creative writing is an art form that transcends traditional literature boundaries.

It includes professional, journalistic, academic, and technical writing. This type of writing emphasizes narrative craft, character development, and literary tropes. It also explores poetry and poetics traditions.

In essence, creative writing lets you express ideas and emotions uniquely and imaginatively.

It’s about the freedom to invent worlds, characters, and stories. These creations evoke a spectrum of emotions in readers.

Creative writing covers fiction, poetry, and everything in between.

It allows writers to express inner thoughts and feelings. Often, it reflects human experiences through a fabricated lens.

Types of Creative Writing

There are many types of creative writing that we need to explain.

Some of the most common types:

• Short stories
• Screenplays
• Flash fiction
• Creative Nonfiction

Short Stories (The Brief Escape)

Short stories are like narrative treasures.

They are compact but impactful, telling a full story within a limited word count. These tales often focus on a single character or a crucial moment.

Short stories are known for their brevity.

They deliver emotion and insight in a concise yet powerful package. This format is ideal for exploring diverse genres, themes, and characters. It leaves a lasting impression on readers.

Example: Emma discovers an old photo of her smiling grandmother. It’s a rarity. Through flashbacks, Emma learns about her grandmother’s wartime love story. She comes to understand her grandmother’s resilience and the value of joy.

Novels (The Long Journey)

Novels are extensive explorations of character, plot, and setting.

They span thousands of words, giving writers the space to create entire worlds. Novels can weave complex stories across various themes and timelines.

The length of a novel allows for deep narrative and character development.

Readers get an immersive experience.

Example: Across the Divide tells of two siblings separated in childhood. They grow up in different cultures. Their reunion highlights the strength of family bonds, despite distance and differences.

Poetry (The Soul’s Language)

Poetry expresses ideas and emotions through rhythm, sound, and word beauty.

It distills emotions and thoughts into verses. Poetry often uses metaphors, similes, and figurative language to reach the reader’s heart and mind.

Poetry ranges from structured forms, like sonnets, to free verse.

The latter breaks away from traditional formats for more expressive thought.

Example: Whispers of Dawn is a poem collection capturing morning’s quiet moments. “First Light” personifies dawn as a painter. It brings colors of hope and renewal to the world.

Plays (The Dramatic Dialogue)

Plays are meant for performance. They bring characters and conflicts to life through dialogue and action.

This format uniquely explores human relationships and societal issues.

Playwrights face the challenge of conveying setting, emotion, and plot through dialogue and directions.

Example: Echoes of Tomorrow is set in a dystopian future. Memories can be bought and sold. It follows siblings on a quest to retrieve their stolen memories. They learn the cost of living in a world where the past has a price.

Screenplays (Cinema’s Blueprint)

Screenplays outline narratives for films and TV shows.

They require an understanding of visual storytelling, pacing, and dialogue. Screenplays must fit film production constraints.

Example: The Last Light is a screenplay for a sci-fi film. Humanity’s survivors on a dying Earth seek a new planet. The story focuses on spacecraft Argo’s crew as they face mission challenges and internal dynamics.

Memoirs (The Personal Journey)

Memoirs provide insight into an author’s life, focusing on personal experiences and emotional journeys.

They differ from autobiographies by concentrating on specific themes or events.

Memoirs invite readers into the author’s world.

They share lessons learned and hardships overcome.

Example: Under the Mango Tree is a memoir by Maria Gomez. It shares her childhood memories in rural Colombia. The mango tree in their yard symbolizes home, growth, and nostalgia. Maria reflects on her journey to a new life in America.

Flash Fiction (The Quick Twist)

Flash fiction tells stories in under 1,000 words.

It’s about crafting compelling narratives concisely. Each word in flash fiction must count, often leading to a twist.

This format captures life’s vivid moments, delivering quick, impactful insights.

Example: The Last Message features an astronaut’s final Earth message as her spacecraft drifts away. In 500 words, it explores isolation, hope, and the desire to connect against all odds.

Creative Nonfiction (The Factual Tale)

Creative nonfiction combines factual accuracy with creative storytelling.

This genre covers real events, people, and places with a twist. It uses descriptive language and narrative arcs to make true stories engaging.

Creative nonfiction includes biographies, essays, and travelogues.

Example: Echoes of Everest follows the author’s Mount Everest climb. It mixes factual details with personal reflections and the history of past climbers. The narrative captures the climb’s beauty and challenges, offering an immersive experience.

Fantasy (The World Beyond)

Fantasy transports readers to magical and mythical worlds.

It explores themes like good vs. evil and heroism in unreal settings. Fantasy requires careful world-building to create believable yet fantastic realms.

Example: The Crystal of Azmar tells of a young girl destined to save her world from darkness. She learns she’s the last sorceress in a forgotten lineage. Her journey involves mastering powers, forming alliances, and uncovering ancient kingdom myths.

Science Fiction (The Future Imagined)

Science fiction delves into futuristic and scientific themes.

It questions the impact of advancements on society and individuals.

Science fiction ranges from speculative to hard sci-fi, focusing on plausible futures.

Example: When the Stars Whisper is set in a future where humanity communicates with distant galaxies. It centers on a scientist who finds an alien message. This discovery prompts a deep look at humanity’s universe role and interstellar communication.

Watch this great video that explores the question, “What is creative writing?” and “How to get started?”:

What Are the 5 Cs of Creative Writing?

The 5 Cs of creative writing are fundamental pillars.

They guide writers to produce compelling and impactful work. These principles—Clarity, Coherence, Conciseness, Creativity, and Consistency—help craft stories that engage and entertain.

They also resonate deeply with readers. Let’s explore each of these critical components.

Clarity makes your writing understandable and accessible.

It involves choosing the right words and constructing clear sentences. Your narrative should be easy to follow.

In creative writing, clarity means conveying complex ideas in a digestible and enjoyable way.

Coherence ensures your writing flows logically.

It’s crucial for maintaining the reader’s interest. Characters should develop believably, and plots should progress logically. This makes the narrative feel cohesive.

Conciseness

Conciseness is about expressing ideas succinctly.

It’s being economical with words and avoiding redundancy. This principle helps maintain pace and tension, engaging readers throughout the story.

Creativity is the heart of creative writing.

It allows writers to invent new worlds and create memorable characters. Creativity involves originality and imagination. It’s seeing the world in unique ways and sharing that vision.

Consistency

Consistency maintains a uniform tone, style, and voice.

It means being faithful to the world you’ve created. Characters should act true to their development. This builds trust with readers, making your story immersive and believable.

Is Creative Writing Easy?

Creative writing is both rewarding and challenging.

Crafting stories from your imagination involves more than just words on a page. It requires discipline and a deep understanding of language and narrative structure.

Exploring complex characters and themes is also key.

Refining and revising your work is crucial for developing your voice.

The ease of creative writing varies. Some find the freedom of expression liberating.

Others struggle with writer’s block or plot development challenges. However, practice and feedback make creative writing more fulfilling.

What Does a Creative Writer Do?

A creative writer weaves narratives that entertain, enlighten, and inspire.

Writers explore both the world they create and the emotions they wish to evoke. Their tasks are diverse, involving more than just writing.

Creative writers develop ideas, research, and plan their stories.

They create characters and outline plots with attention to detail. Drafting and revising their work is a significant part of their process. They strive for the 5 Cs of compelling writing.

Writers engage with the literary community, seeking feedback and participating in workshops.

They may navigate the publishing world with agents and editors.

Creative writers are storytellers, craftsmen, and artists. They bring narratives to life, enriching our lives and expanding our imaginations.

How to Get Started With Creative Writing?

Embarking on a creative writing journey can feel like standing at the edge of a vast and mysterious forest.

The path is not always clear, but the adventure is calling.

Here’s how to take your first steps into the world of creative writing:

• Find a time of day when your mind is most alert and creative.
• Create a comfortable writing space free from distractions.
• Use prompts to spark your imagination. They can be as simple as a word, a phrase, or an image.
• Try writing for 15-20 minutes on a prompt without editing yourself. Let the ideas flow freely.
• Reading is fuel for your writing. Explore various genres and styles.
• Pay attention to how your favorite authors construct their sentences, develop characters, and build their worlds.
• Don’t pressure yourself to write a novel right away. Begin with short stories or poems.
• Small projects can help you hone your skills and boost your confidence.
• Look for writing groups in your area or online. These communities offer support, feedback, and motivation.
• Participating in workshops or classes can also provide valuable insights into your writing.
• Understand that your first draft is just the beginning. Revising your work is where the real magic happens.
• Be open to feedback and willing to rework your pieces.
• Carry a notebook or digital recorder to jot down ideas, observations, and snippets of conversations.
• These notes can be gold mines for future writing projects.

Final Thoughts: What Is Creative Writing?

Creative writing is an invitation to explore the unknown, to give voice to the silenced, and to celebrate the human spirit in all its forms.

Check out these creative writing tools (that I highly recommend):

Read This Next:

• What Is a Prompt in Writing? (Ultimate Guide + 200 Examples)
• What Is A Personal Account In Writing? (47 Examples)
• How To Write A Fantasy Short Story (Ultimate Guide + Examples)
• How To Write A Fantasy Romance Novel [21 Tips + Examples)

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10 Types of Creative Writing (with Examples You’ll Love)

A lot falls under the term ‘creative writing’: poetry, short fiction, plays, novels, personal essays, and songs, to name just a few. By virtue of the creativity that characterizes it, creative writing is an extremely versatile art. So instead of defining what creative writing is , it may be easier to understand what it does by looking at examples that demonstrate the sheer range of styles and genres under its vast umbrella.

To that end, we’ve collected a non-exhaustive list of works across multiple formats that have inspired the writers here at Reedsy. With 20 different works to explore, we hope they will inspire you, too. 

People have been writing creatively for almost as long as we have been able to hold pens. Just think of long-form epic poems like The Odyssey or, later, the Cantar de Mio Cid — some of the earliest recorded writings of their kind. 

Poetry is also a great place to start if you want to dip your own pen into the inkwell of creative writing. It can be as short or long as you want (you don’t have to write an epic of Homeric proportions), encourages you to build your observation skills, and often speaks from a single point of view . 

Here are a few examples:

“Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.

This classic poem by Romantic poet Percy Shelley (also known as Mary Shelley’s husband) is all about legacy. What do we leave behind? How will we be remembered? The great king Ozymandias built himself a massive statue, proclaiming his might, but the irony is that his statue doesn’t survive the ravages of time. By framing this poem as told to him by a “traveller from an antique land,” Shelley effectively turns this into a story. Along with the careful use of juxtaposition to create irony, this poem accomplishes a lot in just a few lines. 

“Trying to Raise the Dead” by Dorianne Laux

 A direction. An object. My love, it needs a place to rest. Say anything. I’m listening. I’m ready to believe. Even lies, I don’t care.

Poetry is cherished for its ability to evoke strong emotions from the reader using very few words which is exactly what Dorianne Laux does in “ Trying to Raise the Dead .” With vivid imagery that underscores the painful yearning of the narrator, she transports us to a private nighttime scene as the narrator sneaks away from a party to pray to someone they’ve lost. We ache for their loss and how badly they want their lost loved one to acknowledge them in some way. It’s truly a masterclass on how writing can be used to portray emotions. 

If you find yourself inspired to try out some poetry — and maybe even get it published — check out these poetry layouts that can elevate your verse!

Song Lyrics

Poetry’s closely related cousin, song lyrics are another great way to flex your creative writing muscles. You not only have to find the perfect rhyme scheme but also match it to the rhythm of the music. This can be a great challenge for an experienced poet or the musically inclined. 

To see how music can add something extra to your poetry, check out these two examples:

“Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen

 You say I took the name in vain I don't even know the name But if I did, well, really, what's it to ya? There's a blaze of light in every word It doesn't matter which you heard The holy or the broken Hallelujah 

Metaphors are commonplace in almost every kind of creative writing, but will often take center stage in shorter works like poetry and songs. At the slightest mention, they invite the listener to bring their emotional or cultural experience to the piece, allowing the writer to express more with fewer words while also giving it a deeper meaning. If a whole song is couched in metaphor, you might even be able to find multiple meanings to it, like in Leonard Cohen’s “ Hallelujah .” While Cohen’s Biblical references create a song that, on the surface, seems like it’s about a struggle with religion, the ambiguity of the lyrics has allowed it to be seen as a song about a complicated romantic relationship. 

“I Will Follow You into the Dark” by Death Cab for Cutie

 ​​If Heaven and Hell decide that they both are satisfied Illuminate the no's on their vacancy signs If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks Then I'll follow you into the dark

You can think of song lyrics as poetry set to music. They manage to do many of the same things their literary counterparts do — including tugging on your heartstrings. Death Cab for Cutie’s incredibly popular indie rock ballad is about the singer’s deep devotion to his lover. While some might find the song a bit too dark and macabre, its melancholy tune and poignant lyrics remind us that love can endure beyond death.

Plays and Screenplays

From the short form of poetry, we move into the world of drama — also known as the play. This form is as old as the poem, stretching back to the works of ancient Greek playwrights like Sophocles, who adapted the myths of their day into dramatic form. The stage play (and the more modern screenplay) gives the words on the page a literal human voice, bringing life to a story and its characters entirely through dialogue. 

Interested to see what that looks like? Take a look at these examples:

All My Sons by Arthur Miller

“I know you're no worse than most men but I thought you were better. I never saw you as a man. I saw you as my father.” 

Arthur Miller acts as a bridge between the classic and the new, creating 20th century tragedies that take place in living rooms and backyard instead of royal courts, so we had to include his breakout hit on this list. Set in the backyard of an all-American family in the summer of 1946, this tragedy manages to communicate family tensions in an unimaginable scale, building up to an intense climax reminiscent of classical drama. 

💡 Read more about Arthur Miller and classical influences in our breakdown of Freytag’s pyramid . 

“Everything is Fine” by Michael Schur ( The Good Place )

“Well, then this system sucks. What...one in a million gets to live in paradise and everyone else is tortured for eternity? Come on! I mean, I wasn't freaking Gandhi, but I was okay. I was a medium person. I should get to spend eternity in a medium place! Like Cincinnati. Everyone who wasn't perfect but wasn't terrible should get to spend eternity in Cincinnati.” 

A screenplay, especially a TV pilot, is like a mini-play, but with the extra job of convincing an audience that they want to watch a hundred more episodes of the show. Blending moral philosophy with comedy, The Good Place is a fun hang-out show set in the afterlife that asks some big questions about what it means to be good. 

It follows Eleanor Shellstrop, an incredibly imperfect woman from Arizona who wakes up in ‘The Good Place’ and realizes that there’s been a cosmic mixup. Determined not to lose her place in paradise, she recruits her “soulmate,” a former ethics professor, to teach her philosophy with the hope that she can learn to be a good person and keep up her charade of being an upstanding citizen. The pilot does a superb job of setting up the stakes, the story, and the characters, while smuggling in deep philosophical ideas.

Personal essays

Our first foray into nonfiction on this list is the personal essay. As its name suggests, these stories are in some way autobiographical — concerned with the author’s life and experiences. But don’t be fooled by the realistic component. These essays can take any shape or form, from comics to diary entries to recipes and anything else you can imagine. Typically zeroing in on a single issue, they allow you to explore your life and prove that the personal can be universal.

Here are a couple of fantastic examples:

“On Selling Your First Novel After 11 Years” by Min Jin Lee (Literary Hub)

There was so much to learn and practice, but I began to see the prose in verse and the verse in prose. Patterns surfaced in poems, stories, and plays. There was music in sentences and paragraphs. I could hear the silences in a sentence. All this schooling was like getting x-ray vision and animal-like hearing. 

This deeply honest personal essay by Pachinko author Min Jin Lee is an account of her eleven-year struggle to publish her first novel . Like all good writing, it is intensely focused on personal emotional details. While grounded in the specifics of the author's personal journey, it embodies an experience that is absolutely universal: that of difficulty and adversity met by eventual success. 

“A Cyclist on the English Landscape” by Roff Smith (New York Times)

These images, though, aren’t meant to be about me. They’re meant to represent a cyclist on the landscape, anybody — you, perhaps. 

Roff Smith’s gorgeous photo essay for the NYT is a testament to the power of creatively combining visuals with text. Here, photographs of Smith atop a bike are far from simply ornamental. They’re integral to the ruminative mood of the essay, as essential as the writing. Though Smith places his work at the crosscurrents of various aesthetic influences (such as the painter Edward Hopper), what stands out the most in this taciturn, thoughtful piece of writing is his use of the second person to address the reader directly. Suddenly, the writer steps out of the body of the essay and makes eye contact with the reader. The reader is now part of the story as a second character, finally entering the picture.

Short Fiction

The short story is the happy medium of fiction writing. These bite-sized narratives can be devoured in a single sitting and still leave you reeling. Sometimes viewed as a stepping stone to novel writing, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Short story writing is an art all its own. The limited length means every word counts and there’s no better way to see that than with these two examples:

“An MFA Story” by Paul Dalla Rosa (Electric Literature)

At Starbucks, I remembered a reading Zhen had given, a reading organized by the program’s faculty. I had not wanted to go but did. In the bar, he read, "I wrote this in a Starbucks in Shanghai. On the bank of the Huangpu." It wasn’t an aside or introduction. It was two lines of the poem. I was in a Starbucks and I wasn’t writing any poems. I wasn’t writing anything. 

This short story is a delightfully metafictional tale about the struggles of being a writer in New York. From paying the bills to facing criticism in a writing workshop and envying more productive writers, Paul Dalla Rosa’s story is a clever satire of the tribulations involved in the writing profession, and all the contradictions embodied by systemic creativity (as famously laid out in Mark McGurl’s The Program Era ). What’s more, this story is an excellent example of something that often happens in creative writing: a writer casting light on the private thoughts or moments of doubt we don’t admit to or openly talk about. 

“Flowering Walrus” by Scott Skinner (Reedsy)

I tell him they’d been there a month at least, and he looks concerned. He has my tongue on a tissue paper and is gripping its sides with his pointer and thumb. My tongue has never spent much time outside of my mouth, and I imagine it as a walrus basking in the rays of the dental light. My walrus is not well. 

A winner of Reedsy’s weekly Prompts writing contest, ‘ Flowering Walrus ’ is a story that balances the trivial and the serious well. In the pauses between its excellent, natural dialogue , the story manages to scatter the fear and sadness of bad medical news, as the protagonist hides his worries from his wife and daughter. Rich in subtext, these silences grow and resonate with the readers.

Want to give short story writing a go? Give our free course a go!

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Perhaps the thing that first comes to mind when talking about creative writing, novels are a form of fiction that many people know and love but writers sometimes find intimidating. The good news is that novels are nothing but one word put after another, like any other piece of writing, but expanded and put into a flowing narrative. Piece of cake, right?

To get an idea of the format’s breadth of scope, take a look at these two (very different) satirical novels: 

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

I wished I was back in the convenience store where I was valued as a working member of staff and things weren’t as complicated as this. Once we donned our uniforms, we were all equals regardless of gender, age, or nationality — all simply store workers. 

Keiko, a thirty-six-year-old convenience store employee, finds comfort and happiness in the strict, uneventful routine of the shop’s daily operations. A funny, satirical, but simultaneously unnerving examination of the social structures we take for granted, Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman is deeply original and lingers with the reader long after they’ve put it down.

Erasure by Percival Everett

The hard, gritty truth of the matter is that I hardly ever think about race. Those times when I did think about it a lot I did so because of my guilt for not thinking about it.  

Erasure is a truly accomplished satire of the publishing industry’s tendency to essentialize African American authors and their writing. Everett’s protagonist is a writer whose work doesn’t fit with what publishers expect from him — work that describes the “African American experience” — so he writes a parody novel about life in the ghetto. The publishers go crazy for it and, to the protagonist’s horror, it becomes the next big thing. This sophisticated novel is both ironic and tender, leaving its readers with much food for thought.

Creative Nonfiction

Creative nonfiction is pretty broad: it applies to anything that does not claim to be fictional (although the rise of autofiction has definitely blurred the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction). It encompasses everything from personal essays and memoirs to humor writing, and they range in length from blog posts to full-length books. The defining characteristic of this massive genre is that it takes the world or the author’s experience and turns it into a narrative that a reader can follow along with.

Here, we want to focus on novel-length works that dig deep into their respective topics. While very different, these two examples truly show the breadth and depth of possibility of creative nonfiction:

Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

Men’s bodies litter my family history. The pain of the women they left behind pulls them from the beyond, makes them appear as ghosts. In death, they transcend the circumstances of this place that I love and hate all at once and become supernatural. 

Writer Jesmyn Ward recounts the deaths of five men from her rural Mississippi community in as many years. In her award-winning memoir , she delves into the lives of the friends and family she lost and tries to find some sense among the tragedy. Working backwards across five years, she questions why this had to happen over and over again, and slowly unveils the long history of racism and poverty that rules rural Black communities. Moving and emotionally raw, Men We Reaped is an indictment of a cruel system and the story of a woman's grief and rage as she tries to navigate it.

Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker

He believed that wine could reshape someone’s life. That’s why he preferred buying bottles to splurging on sweaters. Sweaters were things. Bottles of wine, said Morgan, “are ways that my humanity will be changed.” 

In this work of immersive journalism , Bianca Bosker leaves behind her life as a tech journalist to explore the world of wine. Becoming a “cork dork” takes her everywhere from New York’s most refined restaurants to science labs while she learns what it takes to be a sommelier and a true wine obsessive. This funny and entertaining trip through the past and present of wine-making and tasting is sure to leave you better informed and wishing you, too, could leave your life behind for one devoted to wine. 

Illustrated Narratives (Comics, graphic novels)

Once relegated to the “funny pages”, the past forty years of comics history have proven it to be a serious medium. Comics have transformed from the early days of Jack Kirby’s superheroes into a medium where almost every genre is represented. Humorous one-shots in the Sunday papers stand alongside illustrated memoirs, horror, fantasy, and just about anything else you can imagine. This type of visual storytelling lets the writer and artist get creative with perspective, tone, and so much more. For two very different, though equally entertaining, examples, check these out:

Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson

"Life is like topography, Hobbes. There are summits of happiness and success, flat stretches of boring routine and valleys of frustration and failure." 

This beloved comic strip follows Calvin, a rambunctious six-year-old boy, and his stuffed tiger/imaginary friend, Hobbes. They get into all kinds of hijinks at school and at home, and muse on the world in the way only a six-year-old and an anthropomorphic tiger can. As laugh-out-loud funny as it is, Calvin & Hobbes ’ popularity persists as much for its whimsy as its use of humor to comment on life, childhood, adulthood, and everything in between. 

From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell 

"I shall tell you where we are. We're in the most extreme and utter region of the human mind. A dim, subconscious underworld. A radiant abyss where men meet themselves. Hell, Netley. We're in Hell." 

Comics aren't just the realm of superheroes and one-joke strips, as Alan Moore proves in this serialized graphic novel released between 1989 and 1998. A meticulously researched alternative history of Victorian London’s Ripper killings, this macabre story pulls no punches. Fact and fiction blend into a world where the Royal Family is involved in a dark conspiracy and Freemasons lurk on the sidelines. It’s a surreal mad-cap adventure that’s unsettling in the best way possible. 

Video Games and RPGs

Probably the least expected entry on this list, we thought that video games and RPGs also deserved a mention — and some well-earned recognition for the intricate storytelling that goes into creating them. 

Essentially gamified adventure stories, without attention to plot, characters, and a narrative arc, these games would lose a lot of their charm, so let’s look at two examples where the creative writing really shines through: 

80 Days by inkle studios

"It was a triumph of invention over nature, and will almost certainly disappear into the dust once more in the next fifty years." 

Named Time Magazine ’s game of the year in 2014, this narrative adventure is based on Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. The player is cast as the novel’s narrator, Passpartout, and tasked with circumnavigating the globe in service of their employer, Phileas Fogg. Set in an alternate steampunk Victorian era, the game uses its globe-trotting to comment on the colonialist fantasies inherent in the original novel and its time period. On a storytelling level, the choose-your-own-adventure style means no two players’ journeys will be the same. This innovative approach to a classic novel shows the potential of video games as a storytelling medium, truly making the player part of the story. 

What Remains of Edith Finch by Giant Sparrow

"If we lived forever, maybe we'd have time to understand things. But as it is, I think the best we can do is try to open our eyes, and appreciate how strange and brief all of this is." 

This video game casts the player as 17-year-old Edith Finch. Returning to her family’s home on an island in the Pacific northwest, Edith explores the vast house and tries to figure out why she’s the only one of her family left alive. The story of each family member is revealed as you make your way through the house, slowly unpacking the tragic fate of the Finches. Eerie and immersive, this first-person exploration game uses the medium to tell a series of truly unique tales. 

Fun and breezy on the surface, humor is often recognized as one of the trickiest forms of creative writing. After all, while you can see the artistic value in a piece of prose that you don’t necessarily enjoy, if a joke isn’t funny, you could say that it’s objectively failed.

With that said, it’s far from an impossible task, and many have succeeded in bringing smiles to their readers’ faces through their writing. Here are two examples:

‘How You Hope Your Extended Family Will React When You Explain Your Job to Them’ by Mike Lacher (McSweeney’s Internet Tendency)

“Is it true you don’t have desks?” your grandmother will ask. You will nod again and crack open a can of Country Time Lemonade. “My stars,” she will say, “it must be so wonderful to not have a traditional office and instead share a bistro-esque coworking space.” 

Satire and parody make up a whole subgenre of creative writing, and websites like McSweeney’s Internet Tendency and The Onion consistently hit the mark with their parodies of magazine publishing and news media. This particular example finds humor in the divide between traditional family expectations and contemporary, ‘trendy’ work cultures. Playing on the inherent silliness of today’s tech-forward middle-class jobs, this witty piece imagines a scenario where the writer’s family fully understands what they do — and are enthralled to hear more. “‘Now is it true,’ your uncle will whisper, ‘that you’ve got a potential investment from one of the founders of I Can Haz Cheezburger?’”

‘Not a Foodie’ by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell (Electric Literature)

I’m not a foodie, I never have been, and I know, in my heart, I never will be. 

Highlighting what she sees as an unbearable social obsession with food , in this comic Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell takes a hilarious stand against the importance of food. From the writer’s courageous thesis (“I think there are more exciting things to talk about, and focus on in life, than what’s for dinner”) to the amusing appearance of family members and the narrator’s partner, ‘Not a Foodie’ demonstrates that even a seemingly mundane pet peeve can be approached creatively — and even reveal something profound about life.

We hope this list inspires you with your own writing. If there’s one thing you take away from this post, let it be that there is no limit to what you can write about or how you can write about it. 

In the next part of this guide, we'll drill down into the fascinating world of creative nonfiction.

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• Writing Tips

5 Creative Writing Exercises to Get Your Creativity Flowing

• 6-minute read
• 2nd February 2023

Whether you’re suffering from writer’s block or you just want to hone your talent, we’ve got five creative writing exercises to help improve your skills and inspire your creativity for your next novel , short story , or poem .

The Benefits of Creative Writing Exercises

Writing is like any skill: the more you practice it, the better you’ll get. Creative writing exercises are a way to flex your writing muscles. These tasks can help you:

●  Look at your writing from a different perspective

●  Expand your vocabulary

●  Practice certain skills, such as writing dialogue or developing characters

●  Generate ideas for longer pieces of writing

Writers of any level, from beginner to advanced, can use writing exercises. We’ve designed the five examples provided below to help you improve your skills, wherever you are in your writing journey.

1. Free Writing

Before you dive into some more specific exercises, why not try a bit of free writing?

This exercise involves writing down your thoughts and feelings as they come and acts almost like a stream of consciousness .

Here’s one way to try out free writing:

• Grab a piece of paper and a pen. Typing on a computer gives you more time to think about and edit what you’re writing – that’s not what you want to do here!
• Choose one of these prompts to start from:

●  Who are you?

●  How do you feel?

●  What can you see?

●  What are you thinking about?

●  Why are you writing?

• Set a timer for however long you want to write. If you’re new to free writing, we recommend starting with ten-minute periods.
• Write nonstop until your time is up.

The idea of free writing is to get your brain and body into the writing mind-set. It’s also a good tool for producing ideas naturally without censoring yourself or interrupting the flow by editing what you’ve written.

You might even find that your piece of free writing has turned up a few gems that you can use for your next work!

2. Describe an Object

Description can make up large portions of a story and helps ground the reader in the world you’re creating while also providing important details.

If you want to sharpen your descriptive writing skills, we’ve got three variations of the Describe an Object exercise to try.

First, choose an object near you. Now challenge yourself by writing a description of that object that meets one of the following criteria:

• Doesn’t use the name of the object (for example, if you chose a chair, you can’t use the word chair in your description)
•  Doesn’t use the word very (for example, use huge instead of very big )
• Uses only similes (for example, The chair is like a throne for a very poor king .)

If you’re looking to push yourself even further, you could try writing a description using all three rules at once!

You can also use this exercise to practice describing other things, such as people, places, or emotions.

3. The Truth Potion

Here’s a fun exercise to try if you want to practice your character-writing skills: imagine your character has accidentally drunk a truth potion and now can’t lie!

Write about what happens next and answer these questions:

●  How does the character feel about having to tell the truth?

●  What unexpected secrets are they forced to reveal?

●  How do the other characters react to learning these things?

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You can use one of your own characters for this exercise or borrow one from your favorite book.

By forcing a character to be honest in this way, you can explore their backstory, motivations, and potential development while also considering what details you would normally hide from other characters (and your readers).

4. An Alternate Universe

The plot of a novel or short story often hinges on a series of events or decisions. So what would happen if one of those events happened differently?

This question is the basis for our next exercise.

Choose a piece of your own writing or a scene from one of your favorite books and identify what happens to trigger the next stage of the plot.

For example, in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring , icy weather conditions force the protagonists to enter the mines of Moria, where a deadly battle later takes place.

Once you’ve identified the catalyst in your chosen scene, either remove it or change it. Then write an alternate version of what follows, exploring what direction the plot might now take.

Using our above example, we could write about the Fellowship’s peaceful journey through a sunny mountain pass – but would a change in weather trigger new dangers, such as melting ice?

When you make your change, think about what new obstacles it will introduce to the story and how these will affect the plot going forward.

5. Talk It Out

Dialogue can play a key part in telling a story. But it can be difficult to write dialogue that feels natural and engaging while remaining relevant to the events that unfold.

For this exercise, we challenge you to write a scene using just dialogue – that means no narration, description, or dialogue tags !

You’ll need to take two characters, then write a conversation between them.

If you’re struggling for ideas, here are some first lines you can use as a starting point:

●  I should have known it was you.

●  Where are you going?

●  This can’t wait any longer.

●  What happened last night?

●  We might have a problem.

●  I need to confess to something.

●  Do you like surprises?

As you’re writing, think about how you can tell a story and convey information about characters using only the things they say – or the things they don’t.

These are just a few examples of the many types of creative writing exercises you can use to improve your writing skills and explore new ideas.

The most important thing is to find exercises that interest you and inspire you to write.

Each exercise is designed to work on a specific aspect of writing, so it’s important to practice a variety of exercises to become a well-rounded writer.

Expert Proofreading for Authors

We hope our exercises will help you break through writer’s block and free your creativity!

If we’ve inspired you to write your next masterpiece , don’t forget to get it proofread. Our team of proofreaders is here to help 24/7 and can even offer a free proofreading sample .

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Seven Keys to Realise Your Writing Talent

A burning question many aspiring writers often torture themselves with is  “Do I have the talent required to be a writer?”

People often ask me how many talented writers come to our courses. I respond by saying, I believe everyone who has a genuine desire to write has the raw ingredients to be a writer. The truth is, everyone is a unique individual and has something worthwhile to say.

One of the pleasures of running our 4-Week Unlocking Creativity course is witnessing the process of people recognising their own talent as well as their fellow writers.

Many people walk into the first session feeling anxious and doubting their ability. Some wonder whatever made them do the course in the first place.

In contrast, at the end of the first three-hour session everyone is on a high. Recognising your own creative potential as well as that of fellow writers is an inspiring and uplifting experience.

To Kathleen and I, it always feels like a minor miracle. And is one of the many reasons we love what we do.

Natalie Goldberg, author of ‘Writing Down the Bones’, says, “I’m not saying that everyone is Shakespeare, but I am saying everyone has a genuine voice that can express his or her life with honesty, dignity and detail. There seems to be a gap between the greatness we are all capable of and the way we see ourselves and, therefore, see our work.”

Following are seven important elements to realising your talent as a writer:

1. Accessing the power of your imagination

This is a vital ingredient to anyone’s creative process. The first session of our 4-Week Unlocking Creativity course is dedicated to giving writers tools to enable them to access their imagination – which we believe is the true source of creativity.

When you learn to do that, you can write in a way that will make other people want to read what you have written.

You discover you have an authentic voice and realise how much untapped creative potential you have.

We often quote Henry Miller making the same point. “Every man (or woman), when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, only to discover what is already there.”

2. Writing is an art and a craft

Once you’ve learned how to access the power of your imagination, you need to learn how to make the stories and images in your mind come alive on the page so they connect with your readers.

This doesn’t happen by accident. Writing is an art and a craft that takes time to master. By learning the tools and techniques of fiction, you make your words come alive on the page for your readers.

John Tullius, author and founder of the Maui Writers’ Conference said, “I don’t care how talented you are. It’s not about contacting your muse. Success comes from taking the time to learn the craft.”

3. Talent equals hard work

It is relatively easy to become a writer, the trick is staying a writer.

The more you write, the better your writing will be. The secret is to steal back the time and make writing part of your life.

As Gordon Lish said, “I don’t think that talent or gift, if such things exist, has anything to do with what the final receipts will be. My notion is that anyone who speaks, by reason of that speech, has prospects of achieving important imaginative writing.”

“I see the notion of talent as quite irrelevant. I see instead old-fashioned notions of perseverance, application and industry…It comes down in every instance to this dualism between what one wants and what one may be afraid to have.”

On our whiteboard at the Writers’ Studio we have the following quote: Everything you want in life is on the other side of fear and discipline.

Discipline being the ability to give yourself instructions and carry them out.

By putting in the work your talent becomes ability.

4. The craft of story telling

You have to learn to structure the outpourings of your imagination into a form that works for the reader.

Classic story structure is what gives a story shape and meaning. Poor structure is why 90 per cent of novels and screenplays are rejected.

Story structure is what connects your readers with your characters, takes them on a profound journey and has them wanting to keep turning the pages. If you want to write a novel or screenplay, good structure makes a huge difference.

Robert McKee, the American scriptwriting teacher writes in his book ‘Story’, “You might have the insights of Buddha, but if you can’t tell a story, your ideas will be as dry as dust. Craft is the sum total of all means used to draw the audience into deep involvement, to hold that involvement and ultimately reward it with a moving and meaningful experience.”

“There are no undiscovered geniuses. For a writer who can tell a quality story, it is a seller’s market. Always has been, always will be.”

5. Overcoming what’s stopping/blocking you

The same principles apply to writing. Many writers stifle their creativity because they set themselves impossible standards. They feel they have to be perfect immediately and unless they judge themselves hopeless losers.

Anne Lamott said in her inspiring book Bird by Bird, “Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft.”

“I think perfectionism is based on the insane belief that if you run carefully enough, hitting each stepping-stone just right, you won’t have to die. The truth is that you will die and a lot of people who aren’t even looking at their feet are going to do a whole lot better than you, and have a lot more fun while they’re doing it. Besides, perfectionism will ruin your writing, blocking inventiveness, playfulness and life force.”

6. Writing a story is a process

According to Dwight Swain, who wrote Techniques of Selling Writer, all writers need a process. This is the key to combining both parts of your brain and making your story come alive on the page.

“As Pasteur once observed, chance favours the trained mind,” Swain said. “Feelings tell you what to say. Technique gives you tools with which to say it. Faculty lies in knowing what to do next.”

“To know what to do next, you must master process  … an ordered step-by-step presentation of materials that presses emotional buttons in your reader, so he feels the way you want him to feel.”

To write to your potential, you have to understand that writing is a four-part process – planning, writing, re-writing and editing. Mix them at your peril.

We are often reminding people in our 10-Month Novel & Script Course that they can’t judge their story until they reach the end of the process. They are always amazed how much their stories and their  understanding of storytelling develops over the duration and the entirety of the course.

It makes no sense to judge your first draft as if it were a finished, edited book. You cannot judge your work until you have finished each step of the process and put in the work required.

7. Never give up

If talent isn’t had work, it is the best substitute for it.

And finally, just remember that a professional writer is just an amateur who didn’t quit.

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Inspiring Ink: Expert Tips on How to Teach Creative Writing

The world of creative writing is as vast as it is rewarding. It’s a form of expression that allows the writer to explore different worlds, characters, and narratives – all within the power of their pen.

But what exactly is creative writing and why is it important? Let’s explore the value of creative writing and how to inspire young (or old!) minds to embark on the curious and exciting journey of writing creatively – it’s easier than you think!

What is Creative Writing?

Creative writing, in its simplest form, is writing that goes beyond the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature.

It’s characterized by its emphasis on:

• narrative craft
• character development
• the use of literary devices

From poetry to plays, scripts to sonnets, creative writing covers a wide range of genres . It’s about painting pictures with words, invoking emotions, and bringing ideas to life . It’s about crafting stories that are compelling, engaging, and thought-provoking.

Whether you’re penning a novel or jotting down a journal entry, creative writing encourages you to unleash your imagination and express your thoughts in a unique, artistic way. For a deeper dive into the realm of creative writing, you can visit our article on what is creative writing .

Benefits of Developing Creative Writing Skills

The benefits of creative writing extend beyond the page.

It’s not just about creating captivating stories or crafting beautiful prose. The skills developed through creative writing are invaluable in many aspects of life and work.

1. Creative writing fosters creativity and imagination. 

It encourages you to think outside the box, broaden your perspective, and explore new ideas. It also enhances your ability to communicate effectively, as it involves conveying thoughts, emotions, and narratives in a clear and compelling manner.

2. Creative writing aids in improving critical thinking skills.

It prompts you to analyze characters, plotlines, and themes, and make connections between different ideas. This process activates different parts of the mind, drawing on personal experiences, the imagination, logical plot development, and emotional intelligence.

3. Creative writing is also a valuable tool for self-expression and personal growth.

It allows you to explore your feelings, experiences, and observations, providing an outlet for self-reflection and introspection. By both reading and writing about different characters in different situations, readers develop empathy in a gentle but effective way.

4. Creative writing skills can open up a host of career opportunities.

From authors and editors to content creators and copywriters, the demand for creative writers is vast and varied. You can learn more about potential career paths in our article on creative writing jobs and what you can do with a creative writing degree .

In essence, creative writing is more than just an art—it’s a skill, a craft, and a powerful tool for communication and self-expression. Whether you’re teaching creative writing or learning it, understanding its value is the first step towards mastering the art.

The 3 Roles of a Creative Writing Teacher

Amongst the many facets of a creative writing teacher’s role, three vital aspects stand out: inspiring creativity , nurturing talent , and providing constructive criticism . These elements play a significant role in shaping budding writers and fostering their passion for the craft.

1. Inspiring Creativity

The primary function of a creative writing teacher is to inspire creativity.

They must foster an environment that encourages students to think outside the box and explore new possibilities . This includes presenting students with creative writing prompts that challenge their thinking, promoting lively discussions around various topics, and providing opportunities for students to engage in creative writing activities for kids .

Teachers should also expose students to a range of literary genres , styles, and techniques to broaden their understanding and appreciation of the craft. This exposure not only enhances their knowledge but also stimulates their creativity, encouraging them to experiment with different writing styles .

2. Nurturing Talent

Nurturing talent involves recognizing the unique abilities of each student and providing the necessary support and guidance to help them develop these skills. A creative writing teacher needs to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each student and tailor their approach accordingly.

This means:

• offering personalized feedback
• setting realistic yet challenging goals
• providing opportunities for students to showcase their work

Encouraging students to participate in writing competitions or to publish their work can give them a confidence boost and motivate them to improve. Furthermore, teachers should educate students about various creative writing jobs and what you can do with a creative writing degree . This knowledge can inspire students to pursue their passion for writing and explore career opportunities in the field.

3. Providing Constructive Criticism

Providing constructive criticism is a critical aspect of teaching creative writing. It involves assessing students’ work objectively and providing feedback that helps them improve .

Teachers should:

• highlight the strengths of the work
• address the areas that need improvement
• suggest ways to make the piece better

Constructive criticism should be specific, actionable, and encouraging . It’s important to remember that the goal is to help the student improve, not to discourage them. Therefore, teachers need to communicate their feedback in a respectful and supportive manner.

In essence, a teacher’s role in teaching creative writing extends beyond mere instruction. They are mentors who inspire, nurture, and shape the minds of budding writers. By fostering a supportive and stimulating environment, they can help students unlock their creative potential and develop a lifelong love for writing.

3 Techniques for Teaching Creative Writing

When it comes to understanding how to teach creative writing, there are several effective techniques that can help inspire students and foster their writing skills.

1. Encouraging Free Writing Exercises

Free writing is a technique that encourages students to write continuously for a set amount of time without worrying about grammar, punctuation, or topic. This type of exercise can help unleash creativity, as it allows students to freely express their thoughts and ideas without judgment or constraint.

As a teacher, you can set a specific theme or provide creative writing prompts to guide the writing session. Alternatively, you can allow students to write about any topic that comes to mind. The key is to create an environment that encourages creative exploration and expression.

2. Exploring Different Genres

Another effective technique is to expose students to a wide range of writing genres. This can include fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, fantasy, mystery, and more. By exploring different genres, students can discover their unique writing styles and interests. This variety also offers the chance to expand their writing skills and apply them to various writing formats.

To facilitate this exploration, you can assign writing projects in different genres, conduct genre-specific writing workshops, or invite guest speakers who specialize in different genres. You can also encourage students to critically analyze how different authors approach their work.

3. Analyzing Published Works

Analyzing published works is a powerful way to teach creative writing. This technique allows students to learn from established authors by studying their:

• writing styles
• narrative structures
• use of language.

It also provides a practical context for understanding writing concepts and techniques.

As a teacher, you can select diverse pieces of literature for analysis , ranging from classic novels to contemporary short stories. Encourage students to identify elements they admire in these works and discuss how they can incorporate similar techniques into their own writing.

These techniques for teaching creative writing are effective ways to inspire creativity, encourage self-expression, and develop writing skills. As a teacher, your role is crucial in guiding students through their creative journey and helping them realize their potential as writers.

Creative Writing Workshops and Exercises

One effective method on how to teach creative writing is through the use of targeted workshops and exercises. These interactive sessions can stimulate creativity, foster character development , and help in understanding story structures .

Idea Generation Workshops

Idea generation is a crucial aspect of creative writing. It is the starting point that provides a springboard for writers to explore and develop their narratives. Idea generation workshops can be an interactive and fun way to help writers come up with fresh ideas.

Workshops can include brainstorming sessions , where writers are encouraged to think freely and note down all ideas, no matter how unconventional they may seem. Another method is the use of writing prompts , which can serve as a creative spark.

A prompt could be:

• even an image

Editor’s Note : Encourage children to create a big scribble on a scrap piece of paper and then look for an image in it (like looking for pictures in the clouds). This can be a great creative writing prompt and students will love sharing their writing with each other! Expect lots of giggles and fun!

Character Development Exercises

Characters are the heart of any story. They drive the narrative and engage the readers. Character development exercises can help writers create well-rounded and relatable characters.

Such exercises can include character questionnaires , where writers answer a series of questions about their characters to gain a deeper understanding of their personalities, backgrounds, and motivations. Role-playing activities can also be useful, allowing writers to step into their characters’ shoes and explore their reactions in different scenarios.

Story Structure Workshops

Understanding story structure is vital for creating a compelling narrative. Story structure workshops can guide writers on how to effectively structure their stories to engage readers from start to finish .

These workshops can cover essential elements of story structures like:

• rising action
• falling action

In addition to understanding the basics, writers should be encouraged to experiment with different story structures to find what works best for their narrative style. An understanding of story structure can also help in analyzing and learning from published works .

Providing writers with the right tools and techniques, through workshops and exercises, can significantly improve their creative writing skills. It’s important to remember that creativity flourishes with practice and patience .

As a teacher, nurturing this process is one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching creative writing. For more insights and tips on teaching creative writing, continue exploring our articles on creative writing .

Tips to Enhance Creative Writing Skills

The process of teaching creative writing is as much about honing one’s own skills as it is about imparting knowledge to others. Here are some key strategies that can help in enhancing your creative writing abilities and make your teaching methods more effective.

Regular Practice

Like any other skill, creative writing requires regular practice . Foster the habit of writing daily, even if it’s just a few lines. This will help you stay in touch with your creative side and continually improve your writing skills. Encourage your students to do the same.

Introduce them to various creative writing prompts to stimulate their imagination and make their writing practice more engaging.

Reading Widely

Reading is an essential part of becoming a better writer. By reading widely, you expose yourself to a variety of styles, tones, and genres . This not only broadens your literary horizons but also provides a wealth of ideas for your own writing.

Encourage your students to read extensively as well. Analyzing and discussing different works can be an excellent learning exercise and can spark creative ideas .

Exploring Various Writing Styles

The beauty of creative writing lies in its diversity. From poetic verses to gripping narratives, there’s a wide range of styles to explore. Encourage your students to try their hand at different forms of writing. This not only enhances their versatility but also helps them discover their unique voice as a writer.

To help them get started, you can introduce a variety of creative writing activities for kids . These tasks can be tailored to suit different age groups and proficiency levels. Remember, the goal is to foster a love for writing, so keep the activities fun and engaging .

Have Fun Teaching Creative Writing!

Enhancing creative writing skills is a continuous journey. It requires persistence, curiosity, and a willingness to step out of your comfort zone. As a teacher, your role is to guide your students on this journey, providing them with the tools and encouragement they need to flourish as writers – and most of all – enjoy the process!

For more insights on creative writing, be sure to explore our articles on what is creative writing and creative writing jobs and what you can do with a creative writing degree .

Brooks Manley

Creative Primer  is a resource on all things journaling, creativity, and productivity. We’ll help you produce better ideas, get more done, and live a more effective life.

My name is Brooks. I do a ton of journaling, like to think I’m a creative (jury’s out), and spend a lot of time thinking about productivity. I hope these resources and product recommendations serve you well. Reach out if you ever want to chat or let me know about a journal I need to check out!

Here’s my favorite journal for 2024: 

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Articles on Creative writing

Displaying 1 - 20 of 46 articles.

UK’s creative industries bring in more revenue than cars, oil and gas – so why is arts education facing cuts?

Adam Behr , Newcastle University

An ode to the social realism of ‘boring’ lyrics – from The Kinks to The Streets

Glenn Fosbraey , University of Winchester

How to write a love song – three tips for beginners from a songwriting expert

‘ Cli-fi ’ might not save the world, but writing it could help with your  eco-anxiety

Rachel Hennessy , The University of Melbourne ; Alex Cothren , Flinders University , and Amy T Matthews , Flinders University

I research the therapeutic qualities of writing about art – here are three steps for trying it yourself

Patrick Wright , The Open University

Creative writing can help improve one’s health: a South African study shows how

Dawn Garisch , University of Cape Town and Steve Reid , University of Cape Town

Boxing empowered me to express my trauma – now, I help other abuse survivors do the same, combining it with creative writing

Donna Lyon , The University of Melbourne

How a poet and professor promotes racial understanding with lessons from history

Quraysh Ali Lansana , Oklahoma State University

How to understand your grief through writing

Catherine Cole , Liverpool John Moores University

Write what you know: the COVID experience is a rich resource for year 12 English exams

Janet Dutton , Macquarie University

5 ways to teach the link between grammar and imagination for better creative writing

Brett Healey , Curtin University

Writing can improve mental health – here’s how

Christina Thatcher , Cardiff Metropolitan University

In an AI world we need to teach students how to work with robot writers

Lucinda McKnight , Deakin University

To succeed in an AI world, students must learn the human traits of writing

‘Lit therapy’ in the classroom: writing about trauma can be valuable, if done right

Yannick Thoraval , RMIT University

Too many adjectives, not enough ideas: how NAPLAN forces us to teach bad writing

What my students taught me about reading: old books hold new insights for the digital generation

Kate Flaherty , Australian National University

Life sentences – what creative writing by prisoners tells us about the inside

Dr Michael X. Savvas , Flinders University

Frozen in time, the casts of Indigenous Australians who performed in ‘human zoos’ are chilling

Katherine Johnson , University of Tasmania

‘I’m in another world’: writing without rules lets kids find their voice, just like professional authors

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Lecturer in Creative Writing, University of Southern Queensland

Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, University of Stirling

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Talent Isn’t Everything

by Melissa Donovan | Jan 4, 2022 | Better Writing | 0 comments

How far will talent take you?

Every writer hopes for talent, but what is talent, exactly?

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary offers several definitions:

• a special often athletic, creative, or artistic aptitude.
• general intelligence or mental power: ability
• the natural endowments of a person

Talent gives people an edge or a head start. With talent, you can learn faster and perform better. Success isn’t guaranteed, but it’s within reach.

In writing, we see a variety of talents. Some authors are natural storytellers. Others have a way with words. Some are fast learners who quickly pick up new writing skills without a lot of effort. Some are simply good at organizing and communicating their thoughts, ideas, or knowledge in writing.

However, I’ve never encountered a writer who was born with the ability to whip out a brilliant piece of writing without years of learning, practice, or dedication.

Some aspects of writing simply must be learned.

Learning to Write

We’re not born knowing letters or language. We must be taught. It might come easier to the lucky ones, but that doesn’t mean they glanced at a book and gained some magical ability to write brilliantly. We all have to learn and practice, no matter how much talent was bestowed upon us.

And luck is a factor too. The most genius writer on the planet will never write a book if they don’t have the opportunity to learn how to read and write. I’ve sometimes wondered how many illiterate Mark Twains or Maya Angelous might be living in our world. Can you imagine the great literature we’re missing out on? That’s why education is so important.

Talent doesn’t give writers every advantage they need in order to write well. One child might struggle with reading comprehension but easily put their thoughts and ideas into prose. Another might inhale books with ease from a young age but find organizing their thoughts on paper challenging. Some other kid might have a knack for storytelling but struggle with spelling. It’s nice to have an edge, but since writing requires a vast set of skills, talent is unlikely to give you a complete edge.

Luckily, if there’s a weak spot in our abilities, we can study and practice to sharpen our skills. If your dialogue is boring, you can study compelling dialogue, practice writing better dialogue, and improve your dialogue writing. Same with fight scenes or love scenes, poems, or essays. We should all leverage and exploit our writing strengths, and we should always be strengthening our weaknesses.

Talent doesn’t give you a work ethic. You could be the most talented writer in the history of the world, but it won’t matter if you can’t force yourself to sit down and do your work. Books don’t write themselves. And it’s not like there’s a boss hovering over your shoulder, demanding to see the latest chapter of your first manuscript. You can build a support system that will hold you accountable, but ultimately you — and only you — must produce the work.

I have worked with a lot of authors over the years. Sometimes I read a rough draft and think, hm, there’s something here — something compelling — something special . But if the author isn’t willing to dig the diamond out of the coal and do the hard work of accepting criticism and revising, it really doesn’t matter.

Event the most talented authors don’t produce first drafts that are ready to go to the printer. We all have to revise, multiple times. I have seen authors — talented authors — get so frustrated with the revision process or so enchanted with some other, newer idea for a project, that they simply walk away. They never finish anything. Many of them eventually give up on writing altogether. They lack a willingness to push through the tedious tasks, and they refuse to cultivate the discipline necessary to complete publishable works.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the decades, it’s that talent is certainly alluring, but discipline is a far better indicator of success.

Success Without Talent

Plenty of things can hold talented writers back from success:

• Some people only write when they feel like it.
• Some can’t accept criticism or stick it out through revisions and tedious or unpleasant phases of a project.
• Some refuse to learn new skills and practice the craft.
• Some give up too easily or drop projects to chase after newer ideas that seem more exciting.
• Some lack discipline, which encompasses just about everything else on this list.

Notice a theme? Discipline, not talent, is a more reliable path to success.

With a willingness to learn and some discipline, average writers can produce more writing and better work than their more talented counterparts. In fact sometimes an average writer can surpass a talented writer’s skill level.

Talent is just another word for something that comes easily. And it’s useless if you’re not willing to work hard, because there’s no talent that will carry you all the way to the finish line. If you truly want to succeed as a writer, don’t worry about talent. Get determined to be a writer. Be willing to learn and practice the craft. And most importantly, develop discipline.

What aspects of writing come naturally to you? Which aspects do you struggle with? How do you strengthen your weaknesses? What steps do you take to stay disciplined and get your work done?

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9 Online Platforms To Showcase Your Creative Writing Talent

Creative writing is imaginatively expressing ideas and thoughts. unlike academic and journal writing, it allows you to let your words flow and express without bondages. for such wild minds and creative pens, it is imperative to have a platform that provides the necessary freedom and cradles their talent sincerely..

Let’s say you’re a creative writer and have written a piece of fiction or poetry. You start by writing with a pen on paper or type it up on any of the available note-making apps. After writing and editing in physical or digital form, you want to post it online.

But where to post your short stories and poems? Which online platform will nestle your writings and help you get discovered. These are some of the questions that cloud a writer’s mind when posting their work online.

Several online creative writing platforms have mushroomed since the onset of the internet. With so many of them, it is often perplexing to narrow down on one that best complements your writing style and requirement. More than how to post, it is important to know which site or app is actually worth your efforts. You do not want to invest your time in a place that may shut down in a short time or hardly has any active readers.

As a creative writer, I’ve tried quite a few online creative writing platforms out there over the last few years. This includes the big and the small, the novice and the established, the good and the bad. With that experience, I have a list of websites and apps which are worth sharing your art and spending your valuable time.

Here are some apps and sites where you can write your poem, story, or quote, and post online. These online sites are not only filled with interesting features but can also help you get feedback, fans, and more!

The very first on the list has to be Wattpad . Developed in 2006 by Allen Lau and Ivan Yuen, Wattpad boasts of being one of the largest libraries of stories on the internet. It claims to have an audience of more than 80 million. This allows writers to reach out to a global audience. 

Wattpad welcomes a wide range of genres from romance to paranormal. The content produced by writers is protected by copyright law in areas such as distribution, performance, and creation of your work. This means that writers retain rights to their work. Available in over 50 languages, most of its stories are teen-focused and comprise of novel or novella. Readers can directly interact with the writers and share their feedback and opinions. The massive audience size can make feedback levels a hit or miss but it is possible to build a loyal reader-base once your stories start to connect with the audience. There as many writers who enjoy a star status on the website with millions of reads.

Getting noticed requires efforts and patience. Because the site is so big and there are so many writers competing to get attention, it’s quite tough. However, if you engage with the community regularly, you can get some readers. Coming up with interesting and intriguing content consistently will eventually help you in building a huge audience. 

Wattpad lets you write and edit your stories on the go to enhance your content quality as you receive the reader’s response. Some people have got publishing deals and some have even received movie deals. The number is small, but there’s nothing wrong with trying, right?

One big complaint readers have about the platform is that poorly written content surfaces quite often. Wattpad is dealing with it by making improvisations in its algorithm. But with the innumerable benefits the site offers, this is something that can be looked over. Moreover, Wattpad is completely free, both the site and the app.

Founded by Evan Williams and Boz Stone, Medium is an online publishing platform launched in 2012 where you can post any form of writing. It was initially developed as a means to publish writings and articles longer than Twitter’s 140-character limit which has now exceeded to 280-character. Thus, Medium hosts a lot of articles in the 1000-3000 words category.

Despite its preference for non-fiction articles over fiction, fiction still has its place. There are a few publications within Medium that are entirely dedicated to fiction. Such communities are relatively small but they are pretty active and have been producing quality content. 

Medium focuses on reading time. The average reading time is quite amazing, usually between 7 and 11 minutes. Building a large audience here is difficult unless you post life hack sort of posts. If you post something insightful, inspiring, and interesting, your content has a greater chance of making a stronger impact on Medium. The audience on Medium is smart and well-read. If you have blog content anywhere on the web, Medium allows you to import it. 

One of the great features of Medium is that it constantly helps you to reach out to a new audience. This is regardless of your current audience size. Although the more thumbs up you receive, the wider Medium’s algorithm takes your content to.

Other than regularly writing good content, you can gain exposure by starting your own Medium publication. So, even if people don’t follow you as an individual, they might start following your publication. This increases the probability of them being exposed to your content anyway and can eventually boost your number of followers.

Certain industries perform better on Medium. They have a well-established reader base. Topics such as life learning, business, entrepreneurship, startups, culture, technology, and politics have a committed audience.

While writing on Medium is free, you need to get a paid subscription to read. A one-month subscription to Medium costs ₹330 and you get an annual subscription for ₹3,250. Both of these support multiple devices and the amount is said to be given to the writers you interact with.

3) YOURQUOTE

YourQuote is a mobile app by Harsh Snehanshu available on iOS and Android. Made in India in 2016, YourQuote is comparatively an infant on this list. 

Currently used by over 5 million writers worldwide, it is available in more than 14 languages and hosts over a hundred million original posts on the platform. It allows writers to pen quotes, stories, poetries, and a lot more. It lets you broadcast your writings on beautiful, hand-picked wallpapers and cinemagraphs available in YourQuote libraries or that from your gallery. YourQuote helps you get discovered by making your work searchable on Google. It holds contests and games throughout the year to challenge users and polish their writing skills.

The audience on YourQuote is dominated by teens and is quite encouraging. There is a considerable fraction of the elderly population as well. People can interact with each other through comments, team games, and by collaborating on each other’s work which creates a friendly atmosphere. Most of the backgrounds on YourQuote are free to use and supports up to 1200 words. Long-forms can be extended in the caption. Shorter posts revolving around life, philosophy, and love perform better in comparison to others. However, the audience is kind enough to accept other forms of writing and take time to give feedback.

YourQuote, like other platforms on this list, only supports original content and is extremely stringent when it comes to plagiarism. The app comes with an option to check if the content is plagiarized. If found copied, the post gets deleted. Repeatedly posting copied content can even lead to banning a user’s account. Writers on YourQuote retain the rights of their content and can republish their content anywhere they wish to.

Recently, the platform has also entered into publishing and has started its in-app book store. You can publish your work and earn real-time royalty up to 10% on MRP. Also, you get a published writer badge on YourQuote. In addition to this, you can buy beautiful handmade notebooks made by traditional artisans. The app also has an in-app wallet for making the purchase.

You can upgrade to a paid version to enjoy an ad-free experience, access premium wallpapers, statistics, recent visitors and flash a premium badge. One month of a paid subscription is priced at ₹149 and an annual subscription costs ₹749.

4) COMMAFUL

Founded by Sydney Liu and Ryan Choi, Commaful is an online platform that houses a variety of fiction, short stories, poetry, and more, shared in a picture book-style format.

This format has many advantages. A writer can get as creative with visuals as much they like. It allows them to decide the amount of content they would like to have in a single picture. Considering that people have less attention span these days, it makes sense to tell stories in a format like that of web series. It keeps writing interesting and captivating. From a reader’s perspective, this format helps to decide whether to tap and continue or jump to another story.

For someone new to Commaful, posting their work might initially seem like a task but once you get used to it, you’d enjoy the format that has been termed as multimedia-fiction. This posting style on Commaful is its USP which differentiates it from traditional writing at other platforms. So, writing a novel may not be a great idea if you’re looking to write just copy and paste a novel onto the site. Short stories work best for this site.

The site mostly comprises of teens but also spans a wide range of experienced professionals such as teachers, professors, editors, and even bestselling authors. The community is active, friendly, and very engaging. This facilitates in keeping the spirit alive and acts as a motivation against writer’s block of any kind.

The site is smaller than Wattpad, but the community is extremely active and many readers and writers love its fresh format for storytelling. Also, it is easier to get discovered here in comparison to Wattpad for new writers. Commaful has grown significantly, with monthly readership hitting the hundreds of thousands, and over a million in overall reach. This has led to fresh opportunities for its community members, from small publishing deals to press opportunities. The site has also hosted several writing contests to encourage its users to write more.

To top it all, Commaful is absolutely free. With all of these features, it wouldn’t be wrong to list Commaful as one of the best places to pour your heart out and pen your imagination.

Registered by NameCheap, Inc. in the year 2012, Quotev is a teen-oriented site flooded with short stories, fanfiction, and fun quizzes. With Quotev, you get to create your own quizzes and publish your own stories.

Since the majority of its audience is teenagers and young adults, young adult is rightly the genre that is the heart of this website. 

Qoutev has a fun atmosphere where earning fans is easier than other websites. It has an activity page where you can interact with the people you follow. Some people prefer to role play, you can make new friends, join and create groups. And if you love drama and gossip, then there’s a lot of that in it too. So Quotev is more for you if you’re a social person. But if you want your stories to be exposed to more users, Wattpad is any day a better choice as it supports the smartphone app which allows your content to be exposed to more readers, and if you got enough reader base you can earn from that. 

Stories on Quotev have a lot of room for improvement. The website lags in this aspect. Also, receiving actionable feedback is a bit difficult. Many of the young readers aren’t the best at giving constructive feedbacks that can be used. Despite the quality of stories being average, there are writers whose words work like magic. These stories are mostly romance or fanfiction. This makes Quotev one of the largest fanfiction archives only second to its competitor Archive of Our Own. 

Quotev is completely free and readers and writers can enjoy their time on the website without any interruption by ads. The user interface of quotev.com is simple, clean, and sleek which adds to a wonderful experience

6) ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN

Archive of our own also known as AO3 is a not for profit open-source repository for fanfiction and other fanworks contributed by users. Created in 2008 by Organization for Transformative Works, Archive of our own hosts nearly 6 million works in over 36,700 fandoms. 

Archive of our own is the go-to fanfiction website at this point. It is the most popular platform for fanfiction in the world. It is the place to be if you are writing fanfiction with popular novel and movie characters or would simply like to read some fanfiction. With millions of readers and writers, this site is very active. Teens form the largest reader base on Archive of our own with the presence of senior audiences in a small number. The site holds many challenges in which people can participate. It also allows you to import your work and publish it on the website. Feedback can be a hit or miss, but there are surely some mature readers and editors who read through there and give great advice.

For those who are new to fanfiction, they need to scroll with caution. There can be some very mature and aggressive themes floating around so if you aren’t prepared for that you can get caught off-guard. Archive of our own allows users to rate their stories by intended reader age.

Being a nonprofit organization, Archive of our own is a free website. You cannot earn cash by posting your work on the website. The site has, however, received positive acclaim for its curation, design, and overall organization mostly done by readers and writers of fanfiction. The site has won Hugo Award for Best Related work in 2019 and continues to maintain its position as the most sought after place for fans of fanfiction.

7) FANFICTION.NET

Fanfiction.net often abbreviated as ff.net or FFN is an automated website meant primarily for fanfiction stories. Fanfiction is stories written around popular characters of books, TV shows, movies, and comics. Founded by Los Angeles based computer programmer Xing Li on October 15, 1998, it is the largest and second most popular fan fiction site after Archive of your own in the world. It has more than 12 million registered users and nestles stories in over 40 languages.

The site is divided into nine categories which include Anime/Manga, books, cartoons, games, comics, movies, plays/musicals, TV shows, and miscellaneous. The first two categories are among the most popular ones on the platform. Harry Potter tops the list as the most favorite fandom while Naruto and Twilight grab a distant second and third position as per a survey conducted by Alexa.

Over the years, the site has grown tremendously in spite of newer sites popping up now and then. The longest work of fan fiction ever written on a fanfiction site is more than four million words long and has garnered massive media attention.

The site is free for readers and writers and does not provide any monetary benefits. It uses advertisements to pay for its costs.

8) FANSTORY.COM

Fanstory.com is home to some amazing stories, poems, and a lot more. It has been helping writers since the year 2000 irrespective of their skill level. There are plenty of contests featuring poetry, flash fiction, etc. The site has live rankings and daily writing prompts to keep writing exciting. Many of these features and contests require you to pay. So, it’s not entirely free.

Although it is an old school site from the early 2000s, it is still around and has a pretty active community. The site seems to be growing pretty slowly but has a decent user base already for people looking to build an audience.

This site offers cash prizes for the winners of its contests and related short fiction contests.

9) ROYALROAD

RoyalRoad is a place of web novels and fanfiction sites with a pretty active community. The community is a mix of various talented individuals who are hobbyist writers and those who write professionally. People are very friendly and actively provide valuable feedback and encouragement. There are also a good number of artists around who collaborate on book covers. The site has a forum for members to hang out, chat, and support each other. This is why the community seems to be their strong suit. The site has a list of its members that can be easily accessed. It helps you discover writers and showcases their accomplishments on the site to date.

Like most other platforms on this list, RoyalRoad’s audience is ruled by teenagers. Romance, fanfiction, and young adults are a few genres that perform well on this site. With other genres, it is tough to get the audience’s attention. It isn’t impossible though. Many popular stories have millions of views over the last few years. 

The design of the website is elementary and caters to effortless navigation and reading.  It offers light as well as a dark theme. RoyalRoad is absolutely free and maintains itself through advertisements and affiliate marketing.

Other than these, Miraquill, formerly known as Mirakee is pretty good if you want to post your quotes, poems, and short works on alluring backgrounds. Writers can collaborate on each other’s work and interact with one another. HaikuJAM is another great creative writing app. It also offers a mood tracker with a premium subscription. There are many other apps and websites that have emerged as amazing platforms to showcase one’s creative writing talent. It should be great to get you started writing online and sharing your stories!

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Good Writing vs. Talented Writing

By maria popova.

Though they have things in common, good writing and talented writing are not the same. […] If you start with a confused, unclear, and badly written story, and apply the rules of good writing to it, you can probably turn it into a simple, logical, clearly written story. It will still not be a good one. The major fault of eighty-five to ninety-five percent of all fiction is that it is banal and dull. Now old stories can always be told with new language. You can even add new characters to them; you can use them to dramatize new ideas. But eventually even the new language, characters, and ideas lose their ability to invigorate. Either in content or in style, in subject matter or in rhetorical approach, fiction that is too much like other fiction is bad by definition. However paradoxical it sounds, good writing as a set of strictures (that is, when the writing is good and nothing more) produces most bad fiction. On one level or another, the realization of this is finally what turns most writers away from writing. Talented writing is, however, something else. You need talent to write fiction. Good writing is clear. Talented writing is energetic. Good writing avoids errors. Talented writing makes things happen in the reader’s mind — vividly, forcefully — that good writing, which stops with clarity and logic, doesn’t.

Virginia Woolf knew subtlety was the key to craftsmanship when she counseled that “we have to allow the sunken meanings to remain sunken, suggested, not stated.” “All bad writers are in love with the epic,” Hemingway admonished . The talented writer, Delany reminds us, is a master of induction, suggesting the general through the deft deployment of the specific, and in the process producing an even greater dramatic effect than the bombast of sweeping statements ever could:

The talented writer often uses specifics and avoids generalities — generalities that his or her specifics suggest. Because they are suggested, rather than stated, they may register with the reader far more forcefully than if they were articulated. Using specifics to imply generalities — whether they are general emotions we all know or ideas we have all vaguely sensed — is dramatic writing. A trickier proposition that takes just as much talent requires the writer carefully to arrange generalities for a page or five pages, followed by a specific that makes the generalities open up and take on new resonance. … Indeed, it might be called the opposite of “dramatic” writing, but it can be just as strong — if not, sometimes, stronger.

“Words have their own firmness,” Susan Sontag reflected in her diary . “Use the right word, not its second cousin,” Mark Twain famously advised , but great writing isn’t just a mere matter of concision. As E.B. White reminded us , “Writing is not an exercise in excision, it’s a journey into sound.” Delany bisociates this dual requirement for precision and eloquence, with precision and eloquence:

The talented writer often uses rhetorically interesting, musical, or lyrical phrases that are briefer than the pedestrian way of saying “the same thing.” The talented writer can explode, as with a verbal microscope, some fleeting sensation or action, tease out insights, and describe subsensations that we all recognize, even if we have rarely considered them before; that is, he or she describes them at greater length and tells more about them than other writers. In complex sentences with multiple clauses that relate in complex ways, the talented writer will organize those clauses in the chronological order in which the referents occur, despite the logical relation grammar imposes.

In fact, the true potency of “talented writing,” Delany suggests, lies in its ability to compress subtle yet all-consuming sensation into an enormously efficient information packet. In many ways, the talented writer possesses the same qualities Wordsworth ascribed to the poet when he described him as someone “endowed with more lively sensibility, more enthusiasm and tenderness, who has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than are supposed to be common among mankind.” Delany concludes:

Talented writing tends to contain more information , sentence for sentence, clause for clause, than merely good writing. … It also employs rhetorical parallels and differences. . . . It pays attention to the sounds and rhythms of its sentences. . . . Much of the information it proffers is implied. … These are among the things that indicate talent.

About Writing: Seven Essays, Four Letters, and Five Interviews goes on to explore such facets of the craft as character and plot development, the intricacies of “pure storytelling,” and how to manage creative doubt.

— Published May 20, 2013 — https://www.themarginalian.org/2013/05/20/good-writing-vs-talented-writing/ —

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Department of English

M.f.a. creative writing.

English Department

Physical Address: 200 Brink Hall

Mailing Address: English Department University of Idaho 875 Perimeter Drive MS 1102 Moscow, Idaho 83844-1102

Phone: 208-885-6156

Email: [email protected]

Web: English

Thank you for your interest in the Creative Writing MFA Program at the University of Idaho: the premier fully funded, three-year MFA program in the Northwest. Situated in the panhandle of Northern Idaho in the foothills of Moscow Mountain, we offer the time and support to train in the traditions, techniques, and practice of nonfiction, poetry, and fiction. Each student graduates as the author of a manuscript of publishable quality after undertaking a rigorous process of thesis preparation and a public defense. Spring in Moscow has come to mean cherry blossoms, snowmelt in Paradise Creek, and the head-turning accomplishments of our thesis-year students. Ours is a faculty of active, working writers who relish teaching and mentorship. We invite you in the following pages to learn about us, our curriculum, our community, and the town of Moscow. If the prospect of giving yourself three years with us to develop as a writer, teacher, and editor is appealing, we look forward to reading your application.

Pure Poetry

A Decade Working in a Smelter Is Topic of Alumnus Zach Eddy’s Poems

Ancestral Recognition

The region surrounding the University of Idaho is the ancestral land of both the Coeur d’Alene and Nez Perce peoples, and its campus in Moscow sits on unceded lands guaranteed to the Nez Perce people in the 1855 Treaty with the Nez Perce. As a land grant university, the University of Idaho also benefits from endowment lands that are the ancestral homes to many of the West’s Native peoples. The Department of English and Creative Writing Program acknowledge this history and share in the communal effort to ensure that the complexities and atrocities of the past remain in our discourse and are never lost to time. We invite you to think of the traditional “land acknowledgment” statement through our MFA alum CMarie Fuhrman’s words .

Degree Requirements

Three years to write.

Regardless of where you are in your artistic career, there is nothing more precious than time. A three-year program gives you time to generate, refine, and edit a body of original work. Typically, students have a light third year, which allows for dedicated time to complete and revise the Creative Thesis. (48 manuscript pages for those working in poetry, 100 pages for those working in prose.)

Our degree requirements are designed to reflect the real-world interests of a writer. Students are encouraged to focus their studies in ways that best reflect their artistic obsessions as well as their lines of intellectual and critical inquiry. In effect, students may be as genre-focused or as multi-genre as they please. Students must remain in-residence during their degrees. Typically, one class earns you 3 credits. The MFA requires a total of 54 earned credits in the following categories.

12 Credits : Graduate-level Workshop courses in Fiction, Poetry, and/or Nonfiction. 9 Credits: Techniques and Traditions courses in Fiction, Poetry, and/or Nonfiction 3 Credits : Internships: Fugue, Confluence Lab, and/or Pedagogy 9 Credits: Literature courses 12 Credits: Elective courses 10 Credits: Thesis

Flexible Degree Path

Students are admitted to our program in one of three genres, Poetry, Fiction, or Nonfiction. By design, our degree path offers ample opportunity to take Workshop, Techniques, Traditions, and Literature courses in any genre. Our faculty work and publish in multiple genres and value the slipperiness of categorization. We encourage students to write in as broad or focused a manner as they see fit. We are not at all interested in making writers “stay in their lanes,” and we encourage students to shape their degree paths in accordance with their passions. 

What You Study

During your degree, you will take Workshop, Techniques, Traditions, and Literature courses.

Our workshop classes are small by design (typically twelve students or fewer) and taught by core and visiting MFA faculty. No two workshop experiences look alike, but what they share are faculty members committed to the artistic and intellectual passions of their workshop participants.

Techniques studios are developed and taught by core and visiting MFA faculty. These popular courses are dedicated to the granular aspects of writing, from deep study of the poetic image to the cultivation of independent inquiry in nonfiction to the raptures of research in fiction. Such courses are heavy on generative writing and experimentation, offering students a dedicated space to hone their craft in a way that is complementary to their primary work.

Traditions seminars are developed and taught by core and visiting MFA faculty. These generative writing courses bring student writing into conversation with a specific trajectory or “tradition” of literature, from life writing to outlaw literature to the history of the short story, from prosody to postwar surrealism to genre-fluidity and beyond. These seminars offer students a dynamic space to position their work within the vast and varied trajectories of literature.

Literature courses are taught by core Literature and MFA faculty. Our department boasts field-leading scholars, interdisciplinary writers and thinkers, and theory-driven practitioners who value the intersection of scholarly study, research, humanism, and creative writing.

Award-Winning Faculty

We teach our classes first and foremost as practitioners of the art. Full stop. Though our styles and interests lie at divergent points on the literary landscape, our common pursuit is to foster the artistic and intellectual growth of our students, regardless of how or why they write. We value individual talent and challenge all students to write deep into their unique passions, identities, histories, aesthetics, and intellects. We view writing not as a marketplace endeavor but as an act of human subjectivity. We’ve authored or edited several books across the genres.

Learn more about Our People .

Thesis Defense

The MFA experience culminates with each student writing and defending a creative thesis. For prose writers, theses are 100 pages of creative work; for poets, 48 pages. Though theses often take the form of an excerpt from a book-in-progress, students have flexibility when it comes to determining the shape, form, and content of their creative projects. In their final year, each student works on envisioning and revising their thesis with three committee members, a Major Professor (core MFA faculty) and two additional Readers (core UI faculty). All students offer a public thesis defense. These events are attended by MFA students, faculty, community members, and other invitees. During a thesis defense, a candidate reads from their work for thirty minutes, answers artistic and critical questions from their Major Professor and two Readers for forty-five minutes, and then answer audience questions for thirty minutes. Though formally structured and rigorous, the thesis defense is ultimately a celebration of each student’s individual talent.

The Symposium Reading Series is a longstanding student-run initiative that offers every second-year MFA candidate an opportunity to read their works-in-progress in front of peers, colleagues, and community members. This reading and Q & A event prepares students for the third-year public thesis defense. These off-campus events are fun and casual, exemplifying our community centered culture and what matters most: the work we’re all here to do.

Teaching Assistantships

All students admitted to the MFA program are fully funded through Teaching Assistantships. All Assistantships come with a full tuition waiver and a stipend, which for the current academic year is roughly $15,000. Over the course of three years, MFA students teach a mix of composition courses, sections of Introduction to Creative Writing (ENGL 290), and additional writing courses, as departmental needs arise. Students may also apply to work in the Writing Center as positions become available. When you join the MFA program at Idaho, you receive teacher training prior to the beginning of your first semester. We value the role MFA students serve within the department and consider each graduate student as a working artist and colleague. Current teaching loads for Teaching Assistants are two courses per semester. Some members of the Fugue editorial staff receive course reductions to offset the demands of editorial work. We also award a variety of competitive and need-based scholarships to help offset general living costs. In addition, we offer three outstanding graduate student fellowships: The Hemingway Fellowship, Centrum Fellowship, and Writing in the Wild Fellowship. Finally, our Graduate and Professional Student Association offers extra-departmental funding in the form of research and travel grants to qualifying students throughout the academic year.

Distinguished Visiting Writers Series

Each year, we bring a Distinguished Visiting Writer to campus. DVWs interface with our writing community through public readings, on-stage craft conversations hosted by core MFA faculty, and small seminars geared toward MFA candidates. Recent DVWs include Maggie Nelson, Roger Reeves, Luis Alberto Urrea, Brian Evenson, Kate Zambreno, Dorianne Laux, Teju Cole, Tyehimba Jess, Claire Vaye Watkins, Naomi Shihab Nye, David Shields, Rebecca Solnit, Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Susan Orlean, Natasha Tretheway, Jo Ann Beard, William Logan, Aisha Sabatini Sloan, Gabino Iglesias, and Marcus Jackson, among several others.

Fugue Journal

Established in 1990 at the University of Idaho, Fugue publishes poetry, fiction, essays, hybrid work, and visual art from established and emerging writers and artists. Fugue is managed and edited entirely by University of Idaho graduate students, with help from graduate and undergraduate readers. We take pride in the work we print, the writers we publish, and the presentation of both print and digital content. We hold an annual contest in both prose and poetry, judged by two nationally recognized writers. Past judges include Pam Houston, Dorianne Laux, Rodney Jones, Mark Doty, Rick Moody, Ellen Bryant Voigt, Jo Ann Beard, Rebecca McClanahan, Patricia Hampl, Traci Brimhall, Edan Lepucki, Tony Hoagland, Chen Chen, Aisha Sabatini Sloan, sam sax, and Leni Zumas. The journal boasts a remarkable list of past contributors, including Steve Almond, Charles Baxter, Stephen Dobyns, Denise Duhamel, Stephen Dunn, B.H. Fairchild, Nick Flynn, Terrance Hayes, Campbell McGrath, W.S. Merwin, Sharon Olds, Jim Shepard, RT Smith, Virgil Suarez, Melanie Rae Thon, Natasha Trethewey, Philip Levine, Anthony Varallo, Robert Wrigley, and Dean Young, among many others.

Academy of American Poets University Prize

The Creative Writing Program is proud to partner with the Academy of American Poets to offer an annual Academy of American Poets University Prize to a student at the University of Idaho. The prize results in a small honorarium through the Academy as well as publication of the winning poem on the Academy website. The Prize was established in 2009 with a generous grant from Karen Trujillo and Don Burnett. Many of our nation’s most esteemed and celebrated poets won their first recognition through an Academy of American Poets Prize, including Diane Ackerman, Toi Derricotte, Mark Doty, Tess Gallagher, Louise Glück, Jorie Graham, Kimiko Hahn, Joy Harjo, Robert Hass, Li-Young Lee, Gregory Orr, Sylvia Plath, Mark Strand, and Charles Wright.

Fellowships

Centrum fellowships.

Those selected as Centrum Fellows attend the summer Port Townsend Writers’ Conference free of charge. Housed in Fort Worden (which is also home to Copper Canyon Press), Centrum is a nonprofit dedicated to fostering several artistic programs throughout the year. With a focus on rigorous attention to craft, the Writers’ Conference offers five full days of morning intensives, afternoon workshops, and craft lectures to eighty participants from across the nation. The cost of the conference, which includes tuition, lodging, and meals, is covered by the scholarship. These annual scholarship are open to all MFA candidates in all genres.

Hemingway Fellowships

This fellowship offers an MFA Fiction student full course releases in their final year. The selection of the Hemingway Fellow is based solely on the quality of an applicant’s writing. Each year, applicants have their work judged blind by a noted author who remains anonymous until the selection process has been completed. Through the process of blind selection, the Hemingway Fellowship Fund fulfills its mission of giving the Fellow the time they need to complete a substantial draft of a manuscript.

Writing in the Wild

This annual fellowship gives two MFA students the opportunity to work in Idaho’s iconic wilderness areas. The fellowship fully supports one week at either the McCall Outdoor Science School (MOSS), which borders Payette Lake and Ponderosa State Park, or the Taylor Wilderness Research Station, which lies in the heart of the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area. Both campuses offer year-round housing. These writing retreats allow students to concentrate solely on their writing. Because both locations often house researchers, writers will also have the opportunity to interface with foresters, geologists, biologists, and interdisciplinary scholars.

Program History

Idaho admitted its first class of seven MFA students in 1994 with a faculty of four: Mary Clearman Blew, Tina Foriyes, Ron McFarland (founder of Fugue), and Lance Olsen. From the beginning, the program was conceived as a three-year sequence of workshops and techniques classes. Along with offering concentrations in writing fiction and poetry, Idaho was one of the first in the nation to offer a full concentration in creative nonfiction. Also from its inception, Idaho not only allowed but encouraged its students to enroll in workshops outside their primary genres. Idaho has become one of the nation’s most respected three-year MFA programs, attracting both field-leading faculty and students. In addition to the founders of this program, notable distinguished faculty have included Kim Barnes, Robert Wrigley, Daniel Orozco, Joy Passanante, Tobias Wray, Brian Blanchfield, and Scott Slovic, whose collective vision, rigor, grit, and care have paved the way for future generations committed to the art of writing.

The Palouse

Situated in the foothills of Moscow Mountain amid the rolling terrain of the Palouse (the ancient silt beds unique to the region), our location in the vibrant community of Moscow, Idaho, boasts a lively and artistic local culture. Complete with independent bookstores, coffee shops, art galleries, restaurants and breweries, (not to mention a historic art house cinema, organic foods co-op, and renowned seasonal farmer’s market), Moscow is a friendly and affordable place to live. Outside of town, we’re lucky to have many opportunities for hiking, skiing, rafting, biking, camping, and general exploring—from nearby Idler’s Rest and Kamiak Butte to renowned destinations like Glacier National Park, the Snake River, the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area, and Nelson, BC. As for more urban getaways, Spokane, Washington, is only a ninety-minute drive, and our regional airline, Alaska, makes daily flights to and from Seattle that run just under an hour.

For upcoming events and program news, please visit our calendar .

For more information about the MFA program, please contact us at:  [email protected]

Department of English University of Idaho 875 Perimeter Drive MS 1102 Moscow, ID 83844-1102 208-885-6156

Poetry, creative writing and just listening can combat teen mental health risks | Opinion

They’re experiencing heartache, depression and anxiety. Sometimes they’re falling in love, but often it’s unrequited, or they’re navigating a bad break-up. They care about the environment, they fight for social justice, and they don’t care what your personal pronoun is — as long as you respect theirs. 

Most often, they just want people — especially adults — to listen to them. 

This is what I learned from the students performing their original poetry at the Detroit Youth Poetry Slam hosted by InsideOut Literary Arts. Fifteen brave teens competed to be one of the top five prize-winning finalists, and over 100 audience members cheered them on. 

I’m no stranger to youth poetry performances. As executive director of InsideOut Literary Arts, I’ve been to countless open mics, creative writing workshops and public performances. I’ve been moved to tears more times than I can count, and I’ve been pulled to many a standing ovation with whoops and hollers that would rival any sporting event. There is always something deeply powerful about what young people have to say — their voices are raw and real and courageous. 

At the same time, I’ve known for several years that adolescent mental health has continued to worsen post-pandemic. ( Check out the CDC’s full report on youth risk behavior, which includes the fact that nearly half of high school students reported feeling persistently sad or hopeless. ) But we also know something else: Just one caring adult can make a difference. According to the CDC, "Research shows that surrounding youth with the proper support can reverse these trends and help our youth now and in the future."

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The young people who touched the stage wrote on perennial topics for teens through the ages — parents and first loves — and pressing issues for recent generations in particular — racial injustice and climate change.  

But something about this particular event felt different: that surrounding of support from the audience really stood out.

I can’t remember the last time I watched a room full of strangers become a community before my eyes. As each teen approached the mic, took a deep breath, and prepared to bare their soul, the audience was there to meet them. They clapped and cheered them on. There were hugs and high fives. This event was not just about the bravery of the young poets, but the love, joy and enthusiasm of the crowd.  

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When one teen struggled to find their words, they were met with finger snaps. When another shared the difficulties of living in a “broken home” the audience yelled encouragement. And when a student earned a rare “perfect score” for a bilingual protest piece modeled after Tracy Chapman’s “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution,” the audience erupted into thunderous applause. 

This was “one caring adult” personified — a whole room of them in fact.  

It’s also the answer to an unintended burden many adults place on young people; it’s tempting to think that these brave young poets, and the many youth activists of their generation, will “save” us. But this is unfair, shrugging our responsibility to really show up for them. 

While poetry may be the frame for InsideOut’s programming, what we’re really building is community — a place where caring adults hold space and really listen, and where students know they belong. When it comes to the young people in your midst, I hope you’ll join me in the audience. Listen earnestly. Ask questions, or better yet, just say: Tell me more.  

Suma Karaman Rosen is the Executive Director of InsideOut Literary Arts, based in Detroit. 

Book Tour: At home with Amor Towles

The author of “A Gentleman in Moscow” and “The Lincoln Highway” guides us through his personal library.

Photographs by Jeenah Moon for The Washington Post

The library in Amor Towles’s beautifully appointed home not far from Gramercy Park in Manhattan looks and feels like the Platonic ideal of the concept: tall windows, tasteful art on the walls, many comfortable seating options and well-ordered shelves filled with classic literature. Perfect for reading in, of course, but when I visited in March, Towles first wanted to talk about writing. This is the room where he composed, among other books, his acclaimed bestsellers “A Gentleman in Moscow” and “The Lincoln Highway.” (His newest, “Table for Two,” a collection of stories and a novella, was published last month.)

Towles first brought out a few of what he calls the “design books” for his novels — notebooks that he fills with details for about four years before he starts officially writing. “I’m just trying to imagine: What happens? Who are the people?” he said. “Where are they from, what’s their personality? What are the settings? Who says what, and why? What are the tones?”

Some of the notes he scribbles are longer and more fully realized than others, but Towles estimates that he writes 80 percent of what ends up in his fiction on a computer, once the handwritten design books have done their duty.

Guides from the past

To conjure all those details and tones, Towles partly and very happily relies on documents dating from the eras he writes about. His shelves still include classic travel guides to Moscow, including one published by Intourist in 1932 and a Baedeker guide from 1914. “Intourist was the Politburo-owned tourist agency of Russia,” Towles said, “and at one time its offices were in the Metropol Hotel [the primary setting of ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’]. I had street maps from the ’30s that I could look at. Part of it was to see how they described for the Westerner something that they were trying to impress them with, et cetera.”

A framed picture of Ewan McGregor, in character, used in the production of the recently released adaptation of “A Gentleman in Moscow,” sits on a shelf nearby. Towles said it appeared as part of a secret police file in the show: “You don’t even notice it on screen, but it’s tucked under a paper clip on top of the file.”

A full encyclopedia set from 1931 is another treasure that combines pleasure and work for Towles. “I think it was 48 cents per book. My first novel, ‘Rules of Civility,’ happened to be set in 1938, and I thought: ‘This is great, I can check the population of New York City right there.’ I love old, weird reference.”

A treasured checklist

Towles majored in literature as an undergraduate at Yale and took the few creative-writing courses the school offered at the time. When he was a sophomore, the experimental-fiction writer Walter Abish was a visiting professor.

“At the end of the class,” Towles remembered, “he said to us: ‘All this has been great. I liked your work. I hope my comments have been helpful. But probably the most valuable thing I can do is give you a hundred books that I like.’ So he gave us this list. And because he was an avant-gardist, it was a lot of people who, at the age of 19, I had never heard of: Andre Breton, Barthelme, Beckett, Heinrich Böll … international writers, but all playing with form, that’s what he was interested in.”

Towles immediately started checking for the recommended titles anytime he visited a used-book store. “I’d stack them up, and I’d read a novel a day off of his list,” he said. “That was a totally different kind of experience than studying Henry James or Shakespeare or Chaucer in the academy. A lot of these books [on Abish’s list] were not perfectly made. A lot of them are stabs at something.”

Matthiessen, mentor and friend

The year after Abish taught at the school, Peter Matthiessen arrived for a semester. Matthiessen was already a celebrated writer of both nonfiction (“The Snow Leopard”) and fiction (“At Play in the Fields of the Lord”). He singled out Towles’s work for praise and told the young writer, “I’m going to take your time here very seriously, and I hope that you’re going to take your time with me very seriously, too.” The encouragement was “a gift,” Towles said. The next year, Towles worked with him again, and the two struck up a long friendship.

Towles laughed remembering Matthiessen’s underwhelmed reaction to the draft manuscript of “Rules of Civility” (“He didn’t know why I was writing a book set in 1938”), but when the book became a bestseller, the mentor wrote him a note of congratulations, saying that his sister had loved it and was thrilled to find her brother’s name in its acknowledgments.

New ideas, new language

In addition to his fond remembrances of his formal education, Towles referred to himself more than once during the tour as a “reader-writer,” someone who is constantly refining each of those skills in a conscious conversation between them. He stopped at a shelf of books — the “big ideas” collection, kept together — by Augustine, Darwin, Nietzsche, Marx, Freud and others. “What these things have in common for me is that [their authors] had to invent a new language to express their discovery. They weren’t doing the new version of something or doing a ‘spin’ on so and so. [Freud’s] ‘Interpretation of Dreams’ is a totally radical, weird book.”

“Marx and the group around him, they invented that whole thing of, ‘There is no more time! Now is the time to make a decision!’ This sweeping, bold things in single-sentence paragraphs: ‘ All people must …’ That’s electric. And you realize that you can apply that language in your novel. It’s doing something very different. I get very interested in how non-narrativists turn on language in the pursuit of a particular outcome, that I can then sort of use in some weird way.”

“Now you’re in the first-edition zone,” Towles said, opening the glass doors directly behind his writing desk. “And now you’re really into heroes: Faulkner, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Conrad, Emily Dickinson.” (Towles also listed the Transcendentalists in this league; he was born and raised in the Boston area and said that “a lot of the personality aspects of Emerson and Thoreau are second nature to me.”)

“This is kind of crazy, just time coming around the corner,” he said, pulling one modest-size blue book off the shelf. “This is a first edition of ‘The Great Gatsby.’ It was owned by Dorothy Ann Scarritt,” he noted, pointing to her signature inside the book. “This is August 1925. She later becomes famous because she is Oppenheimer’s secretary at Los Alamos. She’s like the second employee at Los Alamos; she’s there the entire time and she organizes his entire life. She’s involved with bringing everyone in, getting them set up.”

Scarritt’s signature has a lot of company among Towles’s books. A signed copy of Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize lecture — a small book nestled inside a larger case — was a gift from his wife. Towles is a longtime fan of Dylan’s and mentioned him in the same sentence as Rimbaud and T.S. Eliot, so when the singer received the Nobel in literature in 2016 to divided opinion, Towles was ecstatic. “It was not controversial for me at all .”

Going back a century further, Towles took down a copy of Proust signed by its translator, C.K. Scott Moncrieff, to Joseph Conrad in 1922.

On a shelf across the room, Towles has another edition of Proust’s work, as well as several books about what he calls “Proust-y stuff” — “different things about Proust — Proust’s letters, paintings in Proust, the music of Proust …”

A long-running book club

Proust also holds a place of honor in an intense book club that Towles has been in with three close friends for just over two decades. “We basically read a novel a month, and we do projects. And we do almost explicitly dead authors; occasionally we veer from that, but mostly it’s dead. We started with Proust. Twenty years ago, we read it as a team. That took longer. We didn’t do it over seven dinners [one per book], more like 14 — over a year and a half.”

The club’s creation was inspired by Harold Bloom’s “Where Shall Wisdom Be Found?,” in which the literary scholar and critic pondered which writers he’d learned more from about the human condition: Plato or Homer? Freud or Proust?

“I was turning 40 in like two months,” Towles said, recalling when he read Bloom’s book. “I thought, if I live to 80 and read a book carefully a month, that means I have 480 books left. And if that’s true, I better focus on books that you could reread at 20, 40 and 60 and learn something new. I was ranting about this to my friend Ann Brashares at a cocktail party, and she said, ‘I’m in.’ And we’ve been going ever since.”

Given the size and ambitions of the books they normally choose, one of the friends recently suggested a “palate cleanser,” which led to “a dinner we called the Fitzgerald-Salinger Death Match. We realized that we’d all read ‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ as children . So the question was: Which was better? We would reread both in a week and then come back and debate.” I later realized I had left Towles’s home without asking who won.

An earlier version of this article misidentified the person who sent Peter Matthiessen a note after reading "Rules of Civility." It was Matthiessen's sister, not his daughter.

About this story

Editing by John Williams. Photography by Jeenah Moon for The Washington Post. Design and development by Beth Broadwater. Photo editing by Annaliese Nurnberg. Copy editing by Jennifer Morehead.

• Press Release

May 23, 2024

Bma announces ainsley burrows and vonne napper selected as 2024 jjc summer artists-in-residence at mica.

BMA affiliate Joshua Johnson Council initiative embeds artists at Maryland Institute College of Art for eight weeks

BALTIMORE, MD (May 23, 2024)—The Baltimore Museum of Art, (BMA), Joshua Johnson Council (JJC), and the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) today announced Ainsley Burrows and Vonne Napper have been selected for the 2024 Summer Artist-in-Residence program at MICA jointly sponsored by the three organizations. Launched in 2022, the residency program provides selected artists the opportunity to work in MICA’s Fred Lazarus IV Studio Center Studio over the course of eight weeks in June and July, allowing the artists to expand their work and scale, as well as embedding themselves within the college community. Burrows and Napper are both Baltimore-based artists who were selected by a five-panel jury comprised of Benjamin Kelley, Donna Rawlings, and Annie Roberts, representing each organization, as well as Nicoletta Daríta de la Brown and Charles Mason III, the previous JJC artists-in-residence.

“The JJC summer residency at MICA is an important collaboration to support the careers of Baltimore-area artists and share their practice and knowledge with the MICA community,” said Jean Thompson, JJC President. “We have been excited each year to facilitate and witness the growth that occurs through relationships strengthened by the BMA, JJC, and MICA. The artists tell us how rare it can be to have a studio and a welcoming community to work in and the gift of resources to develop their practice.”

Ainsley Burrows (b. 1974, Kingston, Jamaica) is a full-time multidisciplinary artist who explores untold stories and unspoken emotions. He is a poet, musician, and performer, as well as a painter, and his different creative pursuits influence each other. As a self-taught artist, Burrows began working with acrylic paint on canvas in 2009, transforming his talent and success in writing into a visual language. During the pandemic in 2020, he was forced to take a break from his livelihood and hit the ground running in the art world. He had spent the previous four years creating a series of 125 acrylic paintings called The Maroons: Rebellion . Selections from that series were the subject of Burrows’ first solo exhibition at State University of New York Oneonta in 2022. Since then, Burrows has had solo exhibitions at Rush Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Creative Alliance, Baltimore, MD; The DC Arts Center, Washington, DC; and an upcoming solo exhibition at Gallery In The Sky (World Trade Center), Baltimore, MD. He has also participated in group exhibitions at Artscape, Baltimore, MD; 11:Eleven Gallery, Washington, DC; Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA; and Amos Eno Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. His work is included in several private collections.

Vonne Napper (b. 1989, Washington, DC) is a community-based interdisciplinary artist born and raised in Washington, DC. As a child, they displayed great interest in learning new things, with one door of inspiration opening to the next. Consequently, their art practice spans various mediums including music production, printmaking, graphic design, videography, painting, writing, sewing, movement performance, installation, and assemblage. Napper’s practice centers on social justice, new-age healing, and preserving Black queer and trans narratives. Identifying as nonbinary and trans-masculine, Napper pulls from their lived experience to highlight the challenges of existing at a particularly targeted intersection in today’s society and employs their spirituality to establish connections between the communities to which they belong. Their work has been presented in galleries and included in numerous programs throughout the Baltimore-Washington region.

Benjamin Kelley is the Director of Fabrication Studios and Adjunct Faculty at the Maryland Institute College of Art, as well as a Baltimore-based artist who re-contextualizes found objects and alters their orientation with fabricated structures. Donna Rawlings is a member of the Joshua Johnson Council. Annie Roberts is Assistant Curator at the Baltimore Museum of Art, who worked at the Museum of Modern Art in New York prior to joining the BMA. Nicoletta Daríta de la Brown  is a Baltimore-based award-winning interdisciplinary artist and  curandero chamána  (shamanic practitioner) and a 2023 JJC Artist-in-Residence.  Charles Mason III is a Baltimore-based artist and curator who creates abstractions around identity politics and the “performative act of blackness” experienced and manifested through physical materials and a 2023 JJC Artist-in-Residence.

Joshua Johnson Council

The Joshua Johnson Council (JJC) is an affiliate group of the BMA and one of the oldest museum support groups dedicated to Black Diaspora artists and their art.  Named after an 18th-century African American portrait painter, the JJC has 40 years of furthering its mission of forging meaningful connections between the BMA and Baltimore’s African American communities. JJC members are artists, administrators, museum professionals, collectors, and others who share the same goals. The group supports artists through programming initiatives in conjunction with the BMA, its virtual platform JJC Talks, museum internships, and by supporting acquisitions. The directives of the JJC have seen over three decades of artist support and development, creating a body of work that is truly visionary, intergenerational, and responsive to the needs of the moment.

Maryland Institute College of Art

The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), founded in 1826, is consistently ranked in the very top tier of visual arts colleges in the nation and enrolls approximately 1,400 undergraduate students and 300 graduate students. MICA offers programs of study leading to the BFA, MA, MAT, and MFA degrees, as well as post-baccalaureate certificate programs and a full slate of credit and noncredit courses for adults, college-bound students, and children. Located in the City of Baltimore, MICA is committed to an expanded understanding of the role of creative citizens in communities and unique approaches to cross-cultural, economic, and political contexts and partnerships. MICA accelerates the knowledge, skills, habits, and work of creatives who are self-reflexive, visionary, and entrepreneurial. MICA is also recognized as an important cultural resource for the Baltimore/Washington region, sponsoring many public and community-based programs, including more than 100 exhibitions by students, faculty, and nationally and internationally known artists annually, as well artists’ residencies, film series, lectures, readings, and performances. Visit the College’s website at www.mica.edu.

About the Baltimore Museum of Art

Founded in 1914, the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) inspires people of all ages and backgrounds through exhibitions, programs, and collections that tell an expansive story of art—challenging long-held narratives and embracing new voices. Our outstanding collection of more than 97,000 objects spans many eras and cultures and includes the world’s largest public holding of works by Henri Matisse; one of the nation’s finest collections of prints, drawings, and photographs; and a rapidly growing number of works by contemporary artists of diverse backgrounds. The museum is also distinguished by a neoclassical building designed by American architect John Russell Pope and two beautifully landscaped gardens featuring an array of modern and contemporary sculpture. The BMA is located three miles north of the Inner Harbor, adjacent to the main campus of Johns Hopkins University, and has a community branch at Lexington Market. General admission is free so that everyone can enjoy the power of art.

Press Contacts

Anne Brown Baltimore Museum of Art Senior Director of Communications [email protected] 410-274-9907

Sarah Pedroni Baltimore Museum of Art Communications Manager [email protected] 410-428-4668

Alina Sumajin PAVE Communications [email protected] 646-369-2050

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