What is creative writing?It's like a Jeopardy answer. What is creative writing? There are times when even the best creative writers find that they are confused and lost. They do not know just how to get out of the writer's block that is seemingly overwhelming. Click for Free Writer's Block Help E-Zine and Free E-Book There is no one set definition of creative writing. What does it mean to you? That is how to best define it and use it in your favor. Whatever the importance of creative writing is to you is what it truly means. To me, creative writing is a mess of words and phrases. It is the collaboration of my pen or pencil with the paper, or it is my fingers on a computer keyboard. The question of what creative writing is does not come down to a perfectly defined wording. It is just as it says: creative. If it was not creative, then what would be the importance of creative writing? Creative writing can stem from a number of ideas, events, actions, and emotions. It is the wind in your hair on a summer day. It is a brisk walk on a sandy beach. It is the fierceness of the rain as it belts you with wetness. It is your dreams. It is your hopes. It is the image on the cover of a magazine. It is the concert that you went to last weekend. If you did not do any of the aforementioned items, where would creative writing come into play for you? Creative writing employs the best of all these ideas and compels you to risk everything in your writing as you jot it all down and enjoy the moment. The wind in your hair can spur a memory about a perfect day that you once spent nestled next to a tree, reading a good book. From there, you might remember the book you read and create a new writing idea based off of a theme or topic that was present in your reading. The brisk walk may make you think of nature and the glorious feeling you have when you first smell the grass in the springtime, or when the leaves first fall come autumn. The fierceness of the rain may make you write a story lined with nervousness and worry. You may write about how you will get out of the dangerous situation you are in while the rain comes down on you. Maybe you are in a forest and the leaves are falling around you all the while and you do not know where to turn to get out of the awful situation. It may sound cliche to say that creative writing is your dreams or your hopes, but the truth of the matter is that it is those ideas. Your dreams are great jumping-off points for creative writing, and the hopes, goals, ambitions, and dreams (both literal and figurative) that you have can be the basis for exciting, ridiculously creative writing. Think about what creative writing is to you. Creative writing can be realistic, fictional, persuasive, goofy, personal, serious, humorous, or a combination of any or all of those traits. It can also be whatever you want it to be. Do not hinder your creative writing because you feel that something is not fair game. Conversely, limit yourself once in a while to only so many words, so many phrases, or so many items that must be included in your story, poem, etc. See what happens if you set guidelines and structure for yourself. Can you stick to them and still write phenomenally creative pieces of work? The answer is yes!
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