what are the form of creative writing

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)

14 Types of Creative Writing

by Melissa Donovan | Apr 6, 2021 | Creative Writing | 20 comments

Which types of creative writing have you tried?

When we talk about creative writing, fiction and poetry often take the spotlight, but there are many other types of creative writing that we can explore.

Most writers develop a preference for one form (and genre) above all others. This can be a good thing, because you can specialize in your form and genre and become quite proficient. However, occasionally working with other types of writing is beneficial. It prevents your work from becoming stale and overladen with form- or genre-specific clichés, and it’s a good way to acquire a variety of techniques that are uncommon in your preferred form and genre but that can be used to enhance it.

Let’s look at some different types of creative writing. As you read through the list, note the types of writing you’ve experimented with and the types you’d like to try.

Types of Creative Writing

Free writing: Open a notebook or an electronic document and just start writing. Allow strange words and images to find their way to the page. Anything goes! Also called stream-of-consciousness writing, free writing is the pinnacle of creative writing.

Journals: A journal is any written log. You could keep a gratitude journal, a memory journal, a dream journal, or a goals journal. Many writers keep idea journals or all-purpose omni-journals that can be used for everything from daily free writes to brainstorming and project planning.

Diaries: A diary is a type of journal in which you write about your daily life. Some diaries are written in letter format (“Dear Diary…”). If you ever want to write a memoir, then it’s a good idea to start keeping a diary.

Letters: Because the ability to communicate effectively is increasingly valuable, letter writing is a useful skill. There is a long tradition of publishing letters, so take extra care with those emails you’re shooting off to friends, family, and business associates. Hot tip: one way to get published if you don’t have a lot of clips and credits is to write letters to the editor of a news publication.

Memoir: A genre of creative nonfiction , memoirs are books that contain personal accounts (or stories) that focus on specific experiences. For example, one might write a travel memoir.

Essays. Essays are often associated with academic writing, but there are many types of essays, including personal essays, descriptive essays, and persuasive essays, all of which can be quite creative (and not especially academic).

Journalism: Some forms of journalism are more creative than others. Traditionally, journalism was objective reporting on facts, people, and events. Today, journalists often infuse their writing with opinion and storytelling to make their pieces more compelling or convincing.

Poetry: Poetry is a popular but under-appreciated type of writing, and it’s easily the most artistic form of writing. You can write form poetry, free-form poetry, and prose poetry.

Song Lyrics: Song lyrics combine the craft of writing with the artistry of music. Composing lyrics is similar to writing poetry, and this is an ideal type of writing for anyone who can play a musical instrument.

Scripts: Hit the screen or the stage by writing scripts for film, television, theater, or video games. Beware: film is a director’s medium, not a writer’s medium, but movies have the potential to reach a non-reading audience.

Storytelling: Storytelling is the most popular form of creative writing and is found in the realms of both fiction and nonfiction writing. Popular forms of fiction include flash fiction, short stories, novellas, and full-length novels; and there are tons of genres to choose from. True stories, which are usually firsthand or secondhand accounts of real people and events, can be found in essays, diaries, memoirs, speeches, and more. Storytelling is a tremendously valuable skill, as it can be found in all other forms of writing, from poetry to speech writing.

Speeches: Whether persuasive, inspirational, or informative, speech writing can lead to interesting career opportunities in almost any field or industry. Also, speech-writing skills will come in handy if you’re ever asked to write and deliver a speech at an important event, such as a graduation, wedding, or award ceremony.

Vignettes: A  vignette is defined as “a brief evocative description, account, or episode.” Vignettes can be poems, stories, descriptions, personal accounts…anything goes really. The key is that a vignette is extremely short — just a quick snippet.

Honorable Mention: Blogs. A blog is not a type of writing; it’s a publishing platform — a piece of technology that displays web-based content on an electronic device. A blog can be used to publish any type of writing. Most blogs feature articles and essays, but you can also find blogs that contain diaries or journals, poetry, fiction, journalism, and more.

Which of these types of creative writing have you tried? Are there any forms of writing on this list that you’d like to experiment with? Can you think of any other types of creative writing to add to this list? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment, and keep writing.

20 Comments

What is “flash” writing or stories.

Flash fiction refers to super short stories, a few hundred words or fewer.

its very helpful especially to those students like me who wasn’t capable or good in doing a creative writing

I’m glad you found this post helpful, Elena.

I also found this to be very helpful, especially because I don’t do very well at writing.

Thanks for letting me know you found this helpful. Like anything else, writing improves with practice.

Thank you Melissa. It’s very helpful!

You’re welcome!

Over all good list. Yes blogs can be publishing platforms but only if something is written first. I read what you wrote on a blog.

Thanks a lot Good job

Are these types of creaitve writing the same or different if I need to teach children’s creative writing? Can you recommend a website to teach these?

Hi Marie. Thanks for your question. I’ve come across many websites for teaching children’s creative writing. I recommend a search on Google, which will lead you to a ton of resources.

these are very helpful when it comes to getting in college or essays or just to improve my writing

Thanks, Donte. I’m glad you found this helpful.

Free writing really helps me get going. For some reason my prose are much better when I am not beholden to an overall plot or narrative with specific defined characters. I like to free writer “excerpts” on theprose.com. It allows me to practice writing and receive feedback at the same time. I am also trying to blog about writing my first novel, both for writing practice and to keep myself accountable. It really helps!

I feel the same way. Free writing is always a fun and creative experience for me.

Was trying to give an inservice on writing skills and the different types of writing.

Your wok here really helped. Thanks.

You’re welcome.

Hi, Melissa can you assist me ? I’m trying to improve my writing skills as quickly as possible. Plz send me some more tips and trick to improve my writing and communication skills.

You are welcome to peruse this website, which is packed with tips for improving your writing. I’d recommend focusing on the categories Better Writing and Writing Tips for writing improvement. You can also subscribe to get new articles send directly to your email. Thanks!

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What Are the 4 Types of Creative Writing? Unlock Your Imagination

Explore the four primary types of creative writing. Learn their unique characteristics, purposes, and techniques to enhance your writing skills.

Creative writing is an artistic expression that allows writers to convey their thoughts, emotions, and stories in imaginative ways.

Unlike academic writing, which focuses on factual information and structured formats, creative writing emphasizes originality, creativity, and the use of literary devices.

This article explores the four primary types of creative writing, providing insights into their characteristics, purposes, and techniques.

Key Takeaways:

• Creative writing encompasses various forms, each with unique characteristics and purposes.
• Understanding the different types of creative writing can enhance your writing skills and broaden your creative horizons.
• Mastering creative writing involves practice, experimentation, and a deep understanding of literary devices and techniques.

Short Stories

Short stories are a popular form of creative writing that typically range from 1,000 to 20,000 words.

They focus on a single plot, a few characters, and a central theme.

Short stories are designed to be read in one sitting, making them an excellent medium for conveying powerful messages and emotions concisely.

Short stories often employ literary devices such as symbolism, foreshadowing, and irony to enhance the narrative.

Writers use these techniques to create memorable characters, build tension, and engage the reader's imagination.

Examples of famous short stories include "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe.

Personal Essays

Personal essays are written accounts of the writer's experiences, thoughts, and reflections.

They are often introspective and explore themes such as identity, relationships, and personal growth.

Personal essays allow writers to connect with their readers on a deeper level by sharing their unique perspectives and emotions.

In personal essays, the writer's voice and writing style are crucial.

The use of vivid descriptions, anecdotes, and figurative language helps to create an engaging and relatable narrative.

Personal essays can be found in literary magazines, blogs, and anthologies, and they often resonate with readers who seek authentic and heartfelt stories.

Poetry is a form of creative writing that uses rhythm, rhyme, and imagery to evoke emotions and convey ideas.

Poems can vary in length, structure, and style, ranging from traditional forms like sonnets and haikus to free verse and prose poetry.

Poetry allows writers to experiment with language and express their thoughts in a condensed and impactful manner.

Writing poetry requires a keen understanding of literary devices such as metaphor, simile, and alliteration.

Poets often use these techniques to create vivid imagery and evoke strong emotions in their readers.

Famous poets like Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, and Maya Angelou have left a lasting impact on the literary world with their powerful and evocative works.

Creative Non-Fiction

Creative non-fiction combines factual information with creative storytelling techniques.

This genre includes memoirs, biographies, travel writing, and essays that explore real-life events and experiences.

Creative non-fiction allows writers to present factual content in an engaging and compelling manner, making it accessible and enjoyable for readers.

In creative non-fiction, the writer's ability to weave narrative elements with factual information is essential.

Techniques such as character development, dialogue, and descriptive writing help to bring real-life stories to life.

Notable examples of creative non-fiction include "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls and "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer.

Importance of Character Development

Character development is a key element in creative writing, as it helps to create memorable and relatable characters.

Well-developed characters have distinct personalities, motivations, and arcs that drive the plot forward and engage the reader.

Writers use various techniques, such as dialogue, inner monologue, and actions, to reveal their characters' traits and growth.

In short stories and novels, character development is crucial for building tension and creating emotional connections with the reader.

Characters who undergo significant changes or face internal conflicts often leave a lasting impression.

For example, in J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series, the protagonist's growth and development are central to the story's appeal.

Role of Literary Devices

Literary devices are tools that writers use to enhance their writing and convey deeper meanings.

These devices include metaphor, simile, personification, and hyperbole, among others.

By incorporating literary devices, writers can create vivid imagery, evoke emotions, and add layers of complexity to their work.

In poetry, literary devices play a significant role in creating rhythm and enhancing the overall impact of the poem.

For instance, the use of alliteration and assonance can create musicality, while metaphors and similes can add depth to the imagery.

In prose, literary devices help to create a more engaging and immersive reading experience.

Art of Writing Dialogue

Dialogue is an essential component of creative writing, as it helps to reveal character traits, advance the plot, and create tension.

Writing effective dialogue requires an understanding of how people speak and interact in real life.

Dialogue should sound natural and reflect the characters' personalities and emotions.

In short stories and novels, dialogue can be used to show rather than tell, allowing readers to infer information about the characters and their relationships.

For example, in Ernest Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants," the dialogue between the characters reveals their underlying conflict and emotions without explicitly stating them.

Power of Descriptive Writing

Descriptive writing is a technique that involves using vivid and sensory details to create a clear and immersive picture in the reader's mind.

This type of writing is essential for setting the scene, creating atmosphere, and bringing characters and events to life.

Descriptive writing can be found in various forms of creative writing, including short stories, novels, and poetry.

Writers use descriptive writing to engage the reader's senses and imagination.

By incorporating details such as sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and textures, writers can create a more vivid and immersive reading experience.

For example, in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," the descriptive passages paint a vivid picture of the opulent and decadent world of the 1920s.

Use of Figurative Language

Figurative language is a key element of creative writing that involves using words and phrases in a non-literal way to create deeper meanings and evoke emotions.

Common types of figurative language include metaphors, similes, personification, and hyperbole.

Figurative language adds richness and depth to writing, making it more engaging and impactful.

In poetry, figurative language is often used to create vivid imagery and convey complex emotions.

For example, in Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken," the metaphor of the diverging roads represents the choices and decisions we face in life.

In prose, figurative language can enhance descriptions and add layers of meaning to the narrative.

Craft of Writing Poetry

Writing poetry is an art form that requires a deep understanding of language, rhythm, and imagery.

Poets use various techniques, such as meter, rhyme scheme, and line breaks, to create musicality and enhance the overall impact of the poem.

Poetry allows writers to express their thoughts and emotions in a condensed and powerful manner.

To write poetry, it is essential to experiment with different forms and styles.

Traditional forms, such as sonnets and haikus, have specific structures and rules, while free verse allows for more flexibility and creativity.

Poets often draw inspiration from their own experiences, emotions, and observations, using vivid imagery and figurative language to convey their messages.

Impact of Creative Writing on Mental Health

Creative writing can have a positive impact on mental health by providing an outlet for self-expression and emotional release.

Writing about personal experiences, thoughts, and emotions can help individuals process their feelings and gain a better understanding of themselves.

Creative writing can also be a therapeutic activity that promotes relaxation and reduces stress.

Many writers use creative writing as a form of self-care and personal growth.

By exploring their inner thoughts and emotions through writing, they can gain insights and find healing.

For example, writing personal essays or journal entries can help individuals reflect on their experiences and make sense of their emotions.

Role of Free Writing

Free writing is a technique that involves writing continuously without worrying about grammar, punctuation, or structure.

The goal of free writing is to unleash creativity and generate ideas without self-censorship.

This technique can be particularly useful for overcoming writer's block and discovering new perspectives and insights.

Free writing can be practiced regularly as a warm-up exercise or as a way to explore new ideas and themes.

By allowing thoughts to flow freely, writers can tap into their subconscious and uncover hidden thoughts and emotions.

Free writing can also help writers develop their unique voice and writing style.

Art of Writing Novels

Writing novels is a complex and rewarding endeavor that requires careful planning, creativity, and dedication.

Novels are long-form works of fiction that typically range from 50,000 to 100,000 words or more.

They involve intricate plots, well-developed characters, and detailed settings that immerse the reader in the story.

To write a novel, it is essential to outline the plot, develop the characters, and create a detailed setting.

Writers often spend months or even years crafting their novels, revising and refining their work to achieve the desired impact.

Famous novelists like Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and J.K. Rowling have created timeless works that continue to captivate readers.

Significance of Writing Style

Writing style refers to the unique way in which a writer expresses their thoughts and ideas.

It encompasses elements such as word choice, sentence structure, tone, and voice.

A writer's style can greatly influence the reader's experience and engagement with the text.

Developing a distinctive writing style requires practice and experimentation.

Writers can study the works of their favorite authors to understand different styles and techniques.

By honing their writing style, writers can create a more authentic and compelling narrative that resonates with their readers.

Role of Literary Devices in Creative Writing

Literary devices are essential tools that enhance the quality and depth of creative writing.

Importance of Character Dialogue

Character dialogue is a crucial element of creative writing, as it helps to reveal character traits, advance the plot, and create tension.

Power of Descriptive Essays

Descriptive essays are a form of creative writing that focuses on providing detailed descriptions of a person, place, object, or event.

The goal of a descriptive essay is to create a vivid and immersive picture in the reader's mind.

Writers use sensory details, figurative language, and vivid imagery to achieve this effect.

In descriptive essays, the writer's ability to engage the reader's senses is crucial.

Role of Flash Fiction

Flash fiction is a form of creative writing that tells a complete story in a very short amount of words, typically under 1,000.

Despite its brevity, flash fiction can be powerful and impactful, often focusing on a single moment, character, or theme.

This form of writing challenges writers to be concise and creative, making every word count.

Flash fiction often relies on strong imagery, symbolism, and a twist ending to leave a lasting impression on the reader.

Writers must carefully choose their words and structure their stories to convey meaning and emotion effectively.

Flash fiction can be a great exercise for writers looking to hone their skills and experiment with different genres and styles.

Art of Writing Song Lyrics

Writing song lyrics is a unique form of creative writing that combines poetry and music.

Song lyrics often use rhyme, rhythm, and figurative language to convey emotions and tell a story.

Writing effective song lyrics requires an understanding of musical structure and the ability to create catchy and meaningful phrases.

Songwriters often draw inspiration from their own experiences, emotions, and observations.

They use literary devices such as metaphor, simile, and personification to create vivid imagery and evoke emotions.

Famous songwriters like Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Taylor Swift have mastered the art of writing lyrics that resonate with listeners.

Art of Writing Letters

Letter writing is a traditional form of creative writing that involves composing written messages to communicate with others.

Letters can be personal, professional, or creative, and they often reflect the writer's thoughts, emotions, and personality.

Writing letters allows for a more intimate and thoughtful form of communication.

In creative writing, letters can be used as a narrative device to reveal character traits, advance the plot, and create tension.

Epistolary novels, such as "Dracula" by Bram Stoker and "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker, use letters to tell the story and provide insight into the characters' thoughts and emotions.

Role of Speech Writing

Speech writing is a form of creative writing that involves composing speeches for various occasions, such as weddings, award ceremonies, and political events.

Writing an effective speech requires an understanding of the audience, the purpose of the speech, and the desired impact.

Speechwriters use rhetorical devices, anecdotes, and persuasive language to engage and inspire their audience.

In creative writing, speeches can be used as a narrative device to reveal character traits, advance the plot, and create tension.

Famous speeches, such as Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" and Winston Churchill's "We Shall Fight on the Beaches," have left a lasting impact on history and continue to inspire people today.

Power of Prose Poetry

Prose poetry is a form of creative writing that combines elements of prose and poetry.

It uses poetic techniques, such as imagery, rhythm, and figurative language, within the structure of prose.

Prose poetry allows writers to experiment with language and create powerful and evocative pieces that blur the lines between prose and poetry.

Writing prose poetry requires a deep understanding of both prose and poetry.

Writers must carefully choose their words and structure their sentences to create a rhythmic and impactful piece.

Prose poetry can be a great way for writers to explore new forms and push the boundaries of traditional writing.

Role of Free Verse in Poetry

Free verse is a form of poetry that does not adhere to a specific rhyme scheme or meter.

It allows poets to experiment with language, structure, and rhythm, creating a more flexible and expressive form of poetry.

Free verse can be used to convey complex emotions and ideas in a more natural and conversational tone.

Writing free verse requires an understanding of poetic techniques and the ability to create rhythm and flow without the constraints of traditional forms.

Poets often use vivid imagery, figurative language, and line breaks to create a powerful and evocative piece.

Famous poets like Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes have used free verse to create some of their most memorable works.

Role of Journaling in Creative Writing

Journaling is a form of creative writing that involves keeping a written record of personal thoughts, experiences, and reflections.

It can be a therapeutic activity that promotes self-expression and emotional release.

Journaling allows writers to explore their inner thoughts and emotions, gain insights, and find healing.

Many writers use journaling as a way to develop their writing skills and generate ideas for their creative projects.

By writing regularly, they can experiment with different styles and techniques, and discover their unique voice.

Journaling can also be a valuable tool for personal growth and self-discovery.

Impact of Creative Writing on Non-Reading Audiences

Creative writing can have a significant impact on non-reading audiences by providing an engaging and accessible form of storytelling.

Through mediums such as film, theater, and spoken word, creative writing can reach a wider audience and create a more immersive and impactful experience.

Writers who create scripts for film and theater must consider the visual and auditory elements of their work.

They use dialogue, stage directions, and descriptive writing to bring their stories to life on screen or stage.

Spoken word poets use performance techniques, such as voice modulation and body language, to enhance their poetry and connect with their audience.

Impact of Creative Writing on Daily Life

Creative writing can have a significant impact on daily life by providing an outlet for self-expression and creativity.

Many people incorporate creative writing into their daily routines through journaling, writing poetry, or working on short stories.

By making time for creative writing, individuals can explore their creative side and find joy and fulfillment in the process.

Creative writing can also improve communication skills and boost confidence.

Unleashing Creative Potential: The Final Word

Creative writing is a boundless realm where imagination meets expression, offering endless opportunities to explore and convey the human experience.

From the concise power of short stories to the introspective depth of personal essays, the rhythmic beauty of poetry, and the factual yet engaging narrative of creative non-fiction, each form of creative writing provides a unique avenue for storytelling.

By understanding and mastering these different types, you can enhance your writing skills, broaden your creative horizons, and connect more deeply with your readers.

So, pick up your pen, let your imagination soar, and embark on your creative writing journey today.

The world is waiting to hear your story.

Interested in learning more about creative writing? Check out Reedsy's video!

Want even more content about creativity and art?

Be sure to check out all of our creative chronicles !

Love writing and considering creating your own written masterpieces?

Check out some of our other articles:

- Art of storytelling

- How do I start basic writing?

- How do I write a short story?

- What is a 100 word story called?

- What are the 5 writing skills?

- How to tell a story for beginners

What is the Format for a Short Story? Mastering the Art of Short Story Writing

What Should You Not Worry About When Freewriting? Unlock Your Creativity

What Are the Basics of Fiction? Unlock the Secrets to Captivate Readers

How to Begin Free Writing: Unlock Your Inner Wordsmith

What is the Difference Between Brainstorming and Freewriting? Which Technique is Right for You?

Can Nonfiction Writing Be a Story? Unlock the Magic with Captivating Stories

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Types of Creative Writing: A Detailed Explanantion

Read the blog and discover different Types of Creative Writing offering insights and examples to help you navigate the world of literary creativity. Explore various forms such as poetry, fiction, non-fiction, and scriptwriting. Discover how each style offers unique ways to express creativity, tell stories, and engage audiences.

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Creative Writing is a diverse and exciting art that demands Writers to look into their imagination and express their thoughts in unique ways. From short stories to poetry, different   Types of Creative Writing which cater to different styles and preferences. In this blog, we will delve into the different Types of Creative Writing, offering insights and examples to help you navigate the world of literary creativity.

Table of Contents

1) What are the various Types of Creative Writing?

     a) Fiction writing

     b) Poetry

     c) Song lyrics

     d) Journals and diaries

     e) Drama and playwriting

      f) Screenwriting

      g) Experimental writing

      h) Novels

2) Techniques used in Creative Writing

3) Conclusion

What are the various Types of Creative Writing?

 Let’s discuss the various Types of Creative Writing:

Fiction writing 

Fiction writing is one of the captivating Types of Creative Writing that transports readers into imaginary worlds, introduces them to memorable characters, and explores numerous emotions and themes. Within fiction, there are several distinct forms that Writers can explore to weave intricate tales. These forms include:

Fiction writing is a captivating part of Creative Writing that transports readers into imaginary worlds, introduces them to memorable characters, and explores an array of emotions and themes. Within fiction, there are several distinct forms that Writers can explore to weave intricate tales:

a) Short stories:

Short stories are concise yet potent narratives that distil the essence of a single plot, theme, or character arc. Writers craft short stories to deliver a powerful impact within a limited word count. The brevity of the format challenges Authors to make every word count, focusing on evoking emotions, building tension, and delivering a satisfying resolution in a short span of time.

Novels offer the canvas for Writers to embark on extended journeys of storytelling. With ample space to develop complex characters, intricate plotlines, and detailed settings, novels invite readers to immerse themselves in the fictional world fully. Writers can explore a myriad of themes, emotions, and conflicts, delving deep into the psyche of their characters and creating a lasting impact on the reader.

c) Flash fiction:

Flash fiction is the art of storytelling distilled into its most concise form. Writers embrace the challenge of telling a complete story within just a few hundred words. This form demands precision and creativity, forcing Writers to capture the essence of a narrative in a condensed space.

d) Fan fiction:

Fan fiction is a fascinating genre that allows Writers to extend and reimagine existing fictional universes. Writers create new stories, scenarios, and adventures featuring beloved characters from books, movies, TV shows, or video games. By building upon established foundations, Writers engage in a creative dialogue with the original creators and fellow fans.

d) Historical fiction:

Poetry 

Poetry is the language of emotions, a lyrical form of expression that transcends conventional prose. It's one of the most interesting and beautiful  Types  of Creative Writing that condenses thoughts, feelings, and imagery into evocative verses.

It invites readers to experience the world through a different lens. Within the realm of poetry, various forms and styles allow poets to experiment with rhythm, sound, and language, resulting in a rich tapestry of literary artistry that involves the following:

Haiku, originating from Japan, is a minimalist form of poetry that captures the essence of a moment in just three lines. With a syllable structure of 5-7-5, haikus distil nature's beauty and human experiences into concise verses. They often focus on capturing fleeting moments, seasons, and emotions, inviting readers to pause and reflect on the subtleties of life.

The sonnet is a structured and elegant poetic form dating  back to the Renaissance. Typically composed of 14 lines, sonnets follow specific rhyme schemes, such as the Shakespearean (ABABCDCDEFEFGG) or the Petrarchan (ABBAABBACDCDCD). Sonnets explore themes of love, beauty, mortality, and the complexities of human emotion.

c) Free verse:

Free verse poetry breaks away from traditional rhyme and meter patterns, allowing poets to experiment with line breaks, rhythm, and imagery. This form gives poets the freedom to let their thoughts flow naturally, creating unique and organic rhythms that reflect the pace of modern life.

d) Limerick:

Limericks are playful and humorous five-line poems with a distinct AABBA rhyme scheme. These witty verses often feature light-hearted language and unexpected twists, making them a favourite for conveying amusing anecdotes and quirky observations.

e) Epic poetry:

Epic poems tell grand narratives of heroes, gods, and legendary quests. With their lengthy verses and intricate storytelling, epic poems like Homer's "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey" have shaped cultures and inspired countless works of literature. These narratives delve into themes of heroism, fate, and the human condition, offering readers an immersive journey through time and imagination.

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Song lyrics

If you like writing poetry or you think that it can be your forte as a Creative Writer, then you can also try your hand at writing song lyrics. Song lyrics are another one of the most popular Types of Creative Writing. 

Practising writing song lyrics is one of the best ways to bring out your creativity, especially if you have a knack for music. Although it sounds interesting and fun, matching the lines in a song lyric can be a challenging task.

You need to think about maintaining not only the intent of the song but also the kind of audience you’ll be approaching. Your song lyrics need to be tangible and understandable, and most importantly, they need to carry out a story and song at the same time.

If you don’t have any proper knowledge of music, then you can try getting help from your friends or peers who have a good knowledge of music and see if your lyrics are going well with the music.

Journals and diaries

Practicing journaling is a good way of regulating someone’s emotions and understand their feelings. If you are unsure what Type of Creative Writing you want to pursue, you can simply start by jotting down the events of your day.

Understanding what you go through every day, not only helps you in your personal development, but also help you to become a good Creative Writer. You can even publish your works as we have seen so many famous people publishing their diary entries. If you want to know where to start, there are several journal entries by famous people, whose works can inspire you to start Writing.

Keeping a journal or diary, is crucial for your mental health , as it helps you to express your feelings in a constructive manner. This also gives you another boost to your writing skills, if you are a budding Writer

Drama and playwriting 

Drama and playwriting are artistic forms of Creative Writing that bring narratives to life through the dynamics of performance. These forms of creative expression explore the intricacies of human interaction, emotion, and conflict within the context of staged productions. Let's delve into the world of drama and playwriting, where characters come alive on the stage:  

a) Tragedy:

Tragedy is a dramatic genre that delves into the darker aspects of human nature and the inevitability of suffering. Tragic plays often revolve around protagonists who face moral dilemmas, internal struggles, and external forces that ultimately lead to their downfall. Tragedies offer audiences a cathartic experience, allowing them to confront and process complex emotions while reflecting on the human condition.

Comedy is the art of entertainment through humour and light-heartedness. Comedic plays explore the absurdities of human behaviour, social conventions, and misunderstandings. These works aim to amuse and uplift audiences, often featuring witty dialogue, situational comedy, and humorous characters. From slapstick to sattire, comedies provide a diverse range of comedic experiences.

c) Monologues:

Monologues are powerful soliloquies delivered by a single character on stage. They offer insight into the character's thoughts, emotions, and motivations, allowing the audience to connect deeply with their inner world. Monologues provide actors with opportunities to showcase their talent and capture the essence of a character's complexity.

d) Dialogues:

Dialogues are the heart of dramatic interaction. They reveal the relationships between characters, advance the plot, and convey emotions and conflicts. Well-crafted dialogues create tension, build connections, and propel the narrative forward, immersing the audience in the unfolding drama.

e) Experimental theatre:

Experimental theatre pushes the boundaries of traditional forms and conventions. This genre encourages innovative approaches to staging, narrative structure, and performance. Playwrights and directors experiment with non-linear narratives, multimedia elements, immersive environments, and audience interaction to challenge perceptions and evoke thought-provoking responses.

Screenwriting 

Screenwriting is the art of crafting stories specifically for the visual medium of film or television. It's a dynamic and collaborative form of writing that serves as the foundation for the creation of compelling on-screen narratives. Here are some key elements of screenwriting:

a) Writing for film:

Film screenwriting involves creating scripts that serve as blueprints for movies. ScreenWriters translate their ideas into a structured format that includes scenes, dialogues, actions, and descriptions. They must balance engaging storytelling with the technical aspects of filmmaking, considering camera angles, pacing, and visual cues.

b) Television scripts:

Television scripts are tailored to episodic formats, such as TV series or miniseries. Writers develop characters, story arcs, and dialogue that span multiple episodes, allowing for character development and plot progression over time. Each episode contributes to the overarching narrative while maintaining its own distinct identity.

c) Adaptation:

Adaptation involves transforming existing source material, such as books, plays, or real-life events, into screenplay format. Writers must distil the essence of the original work while making necessary changes to suit the visual medium and the constraints of time.

d) Dialogue and action:

Effective screenwriting places a strong emphasis on dialogue and action. Dialogue conveys characters' personalities, motivations, and conflicts, while action descriptions provide visual cues for directors, actors, and crew. Both elements work together to create a seamless and engaging on-screen experience.

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Experimental writing 

Experimental writing defies traditional conventions, pushing the boundaries of language and structure to create innovative literary works. It challenges readers to engage with unconventional formats, fragmented narratives, and abstract concepts. 

Through a stream of consciousness, collage writing, and visual poetry, experimental writing offers a fresh perspective, inviting readers to explore new realms of thought and emotion. It's a playground of creative freedom where Writers experiment with words as artists do with colours, producing compositions that evoke intrigue, reflection, and a deeper understanding of the limitless possibilities of language.

It is often said that good Writers are voracious readers. Well, if we take that into consideration, then there have many times where you might have loved reading novels. All the novels that you have read, or you know of, are one of the premium examples of Creative Writing.

They may vary in length, depending on the subject or genre that you choose to write on. If you are writing a long form novel, then they are divided into number of chapters. If you have a big idea waiting to be broken down into many chapters, then novels are for you.

Techniques used in Creative Writing

If you are wondering how to begin Creative Writing, you can start by following these techniques:

1) Narrative

Determining the narrative of your story is extremely important. If you control the narrative in your story, you can hold your audience’s attention for a long time, whether you are writing novels, novellas, or even short stories. In general, you should remember that whether you are doing Creative Writing or Non-fiction Writing, deciding on a narrative and then maintaining that throughout is crucial.

2) Characterisation

Characterisation is vital in building your story. If you don’t provide the details of your characters and describe their physical features, background, past, etc., you cannot help your reader imagine the situation. It is a crucial step in Creative Writing, enabling you to drive the plot forward and allow your story to build more layers.

Before you build your story, you need to have a solid plot to make your story upon. It is a blueprint to help you establish your story's theme agenda. It can also be referred to as a series of events that will help you build up the narrative. The plot has five parts: exposition or introduction, complications or rising action, climax, slow revelations and then the conclusion. The more solid your plot will be, the more you can create beautiful stories.

From the whimsical realms of children's literature to the thought-provoking depths of creative non-fiction, this blog about the different Types of Creative Writing has unveiled a world of literary possibilities. As pens meet paper and imaginations take flight, we hope this blog will guide you on your journey to weave tales that leave an indelible mark on hearts and minds.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Incorporating Creative Writing skills will help you in your professional growth. Creative Writing helps in effective communication, improved problem-solving abilities, increased empathy, improved mental health, and enhanced creativity.

The factors which influence the organisational structure in various types of Creative Writing are genre, style, narrative, expectations from the audience, length, point of view, cultural and historical context, character development, and more.

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

About the author.

Reedsy's editorial team is a diverse group of industry experts devoted to helping authors write and publish beautiful books.

About Savannah Cordova

Savannah is a senior editor with Reedsy and a published writer whose work has appeared on Slate, Kirkus, and BookTrib. Her short fiction has appeared in the Owl Canyon Press anthology, "No Bars and a Dead Battery". 

About Rebecca van Laer

Rebecca van Laer is a writer, editor, and the author of two books, including the novella How to Adjust to the Dark. Her work has been featured in literary magazines such as AGNI, Breadcrumbs, and TriQuarterly.

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.

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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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What Is Creative Writing? Types, Techniques, and Tips

by Kaelyn Barron | 5 comments

Even if you’re not a big reader of fiction, you’ve more than likely encountered creative writing—or at least, the outcomes of creative writing—at some point. In fact, you can thank creative writing for your favorite films, songs, musicals, and much more.

But what exactly makes writing “creative?”

Simply put, creative writing is any writing that falls outside of technical, journalistic, or academic writing.

You can think of it as classic storytelling. It can be written with a number of intentions: to entertain us, comfort us, or teach us a lesson; most importantly, good creative writing speaks to our shared human experience. It shouldn’t just tell us something—it should make us feel something new.

Creative Writing: An Overview

We’re all familiar with school-required “creative writing exercises.” Maybe you had a traumatizing experience when your eighth grade teacher forced you to write a story and read it aloud for the class (no? just me?).

Or maybe you think creative writing is reserved for the artsy free spirits who churn out novels in coffee shops or on sunny farms in Tuscany.

In reality, creative writing is much more than something for your great aunt to scoff at when discussing your major at Thanksgiving dinner.

In this post, we’ll break down creative writing and explain everything you need to know, including:

• Types and examples • Techniques • Who should practice creative writing? • Creative writing exercises to get started

Types of Creative Writing

Examples of creative writing can be found pretty much everywhere. Some forms that you’re probably familiar with and already enjoy include:

• Fiction (of every genre, from sci-fi to historical dramas to romances ) • Film and television scripts • Songs • Poetry • Plays • Vignettes

But creative writing doesn’t have to be limited to fictitious content. It can also include:

• Personal essays • Memoirs • Journals and diaries • Letters

As we can see from this list, some works of nonfiction can also constitute creative writing. After all, many books and films tell stories of real people and real events.

Take, for example, the 2010 film The King’s Speech . The film tells the story of real people and real events, but the script can be considered creative writing as much as the script for Jurassic Park, because it charges historical events with emotion and makes the audience feel invested in the characters.

Writing about your own life is no different. Journals and diaries—when they contain personal thoughts, experiences, or emotions—can also constitute creative writing. Even letters can be included, when they do more than stating facts (not just “today I went to the store” or “today it rained.”)

Creative writing doesn’t require you to make up names or inject unicorns into your manuscript. It just requires a bit of storytelling through more imaginative techniques.

Techniques Used in Creative Writing

You’ll want to make your story one that resonates with people, since creative writing is ultimately telling stories about the human experience. To achieve this, you can apply some of these techniques and literary devices:

Including conversations between characters can help bring them to life, while also moving the plot along without relying solely on the narrator.

This was a favorite technique of Ernest Hemingway. Famous for his simple, straightforward style, he let his characters do most of the talking, which also helped to make them more accessible and relatable.

One great example of character development through dialogue can be found in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice :

“A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”

“How so? How can it affect them?”

“My dear Mr. Bennet,” replied his wife, “how can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.”

“Is that his design in settling here?”

“Design! Nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that he may  fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes.”

Without Austen telling us anything directly, we as readers can get a feel for Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, their relationship, and what they each prioritize.

Good dialogue should sound realistic, but also carry a purpose so that the story can progress in a natural way.

Metaphors and similes

Alternatively, writers can choose to pack their prose with imaginative language, offering the reader vivid descriptions to evoke emotion. This is typical in many forms of creative writing, and it is often achieved through literary devices, like similes and metaphors.

For example, in “A Red, Red Rose,” Robert Burns writes:

“O my Love is like a red, red rose That’s newly sprung in June; O my Love is like the melody That’s sweetly played in tune.”

Similes create images for the reader by using comparisons, rather than simple adjectives. (What kind of poem would the example above be if Burns just told us his love is “beautiful”?)

While similes can help us to imagine a scene more vividly, they can also be open to interpretation. Because similes rely on association, one word might carry different connotations for different readers (this may very well be the author’s intention).

Metaphors, instead, draw parallels and can take up a few lines, like this famous excerpt from Romeo and Juliet :

“But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!”

Or sometimes, metaphors can be recurring elements in a text, like in Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist , where the desert setting serves as a metaphor for life itself.

Good metaphors can serve as a shortcut to understanding a text because they can convey something complex in terms that are more concise, yet universal. For this reason, metaphors can add extra depth to your story.

Point of view

Deciding which point of view you want to tell your story from is an essential step because it will determine the story’s voice.

Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby , for example, is written in the first-person limited perspective—but imagine how different the story would be if Daisy were narrating instead of Nick! Changing the point of view can change the entire story.

Anecdotes are like small stories within the big story. When used in creative writing, they offer readers a chance to learn more about a character without simply stating it directly. They can be used to evoke empathy, to entertain, to teach a lesson, or simply to reveal other dimensions of a character.

We can turn to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for one such example:

“Justine, you may remember, was a great favorite of yours; and I recollect you once remarked, that if you were in an ill-humor, one glance from Justine could dissipate it, for the same reason that Ariosto gives concerning the beauty of Angelica—she looked so frank-hearted and happy. My aunt conceived a great attachment for her, by which she was induced to give her an education superior to that which she had first intended.”

This anecdote, delivered by Elizabeth to Victor Frankenstein, provides background for Justine’s character and reveals the history between the characters’ families. By testifying to Justine’s “frank-hearted and happy” nature, readers are led to sympathize with the character even more, especially in light of her tragic fate (she confesses to a crime she did not commit and is promptly executed).

Making proper use of the right techniques can make any writing better, but it’s especially important in creative writing if you want a well-developed story that resonates with readers and doesn’t feel forced.

Who Should Practice Creative Writing?

Now that we’ve gone over what exactly creative writing is and the techniques used to compose it, you might be wondering what exactly you can do with this information.

Because creative writing isn’t just for English majors and best-selling authors. We all have stories to tell, and even if you never show your work to anyone, practicing creative writing can be beneficial to just about everyone.

Aside from proven therapeutic benefits , creative writing exercises can help to:

Build your imagination and creativity: By stimulating the parts of your brain responsible for creativity, you’ll train your mind to think “outside the box” to find new, innovative solutions.

Organize your thoughts: Developing a plot requires the ability to think logically, since you’ll want to make the underlying point clear. This kind of thinking can of course be helpful in the workplace and many other parts of your life.

Grow your confidence: Putting your thoughts down on paper takes guts. Expressing yourself through writing and seeing your ideas translated to words can help build self-confidence.

Improve your communication skills : By refining your writing skills, you’ll be able to communicate more effectively, both in speech and on paper.

Give your mind a break: Like reading, creative writing offers the perfect escape from everyday life. You’re in complete control of everything that happens, so let yourself go and see the wonderful things your mind builds when you set it free.

How Can You Get Started?

If you’re new to creative writing, there are a number of ways to get started. Keeping a diary to write down your thoughts and ideas can be extremely helpful. Or, check out our many great writing prompts to get your creativity flowing!

What do you love to write about? Feel free to share with us in the comments below!

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like:

• 70 Creative Writing Prompts to Inspire You to Write
• 10 Creative Writing Exercises for Beginners and Writers
• How Writing Prompts Can Boost Your Creative Writing Skills
• Fast and Loose: 3 Ways Freewriting Will Upgrade Your Creative Career

As a blog writer for TCK Publishing, Kaelyn loves crafting fun and helpful content for writers, readers, and creative minds alike. She has a degree in International Affairs with a minor in Italian Studies, but her true passion has always been writing. Working remotely allows her to do even more of the things she loves, like traveling, cooking, and spending time with her family.

I see during my searches of creating writing that the term, snippet is not used. Why is this, as it is a very entertaining concept, as I enclose an example.

The small boy asks his grandpa, “Grand daddy, what will you do if you ever catch the last beaver in th e world?”

“Well son, that will be the saddest day that I ever could imagine.”

“You know son, that almost happened a couple hundred years or so ago. Money was hard to come by and rich people over in Europe wanted all the beaver they could buy from men that were willing to risk their lives in the new America that had a seemingly endless supply of the rich furred animals.”

The old man said, “the only thing that stopped the beaver from being totally wiped out was the silk worm.”

That didn’t stop the boy from his original line of questions about beavers, he could care less about any worms. After all he was a trapper, in his own mind.

The boy, stopped his Grandpa again, in the manner that young kids do, that are impatient for another answer. “Granddaddy, how long have you been trapping beavers?”

“Well son, let me see; I started just about the time I was your age I think.”

“How many have you caught,” came next.

“There’s no telling, maybe a truck load, maybe two.”

The boys next words took the old trapper back a step or two when the boy said, “Granddaddy do we have to catch them all, or can we leave me a few so I can take my son, someday, and show and tell him what you’ve taught me.”

Interesting

Thanks, hope you enjoyed the post!

Great article. I appreciate reading even more now. Understanding these things has opened a new door for me. I mostly wrote for my own entertainment, but what I have learned here, I am inspired to give it a try on a bigger scale.

Thank you for the inspiration.

You’re very welcome Cindy, and thank you for the kind words! I’m so glad you enjoyed the article :) Happy writing!

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10 types of creative writing with examples

Do you aspire to be the following voice of your era? If so, you will need to research greater about innovative writing and begin trying to find concepts. In this newsletter, we will discover specific types of innovative writing, from poetry to screenplays, and delve deeper into this world of creativeness and creativity. By the end of this guide, you should have a good understanding of what creative writing is and what field you should specialize in.

Table of Contents

What is Creative Writing

Creative writing is a form of artistic expression. It evokes writers to use their creativity to deliver personality and aptitude to their work. It does not consciousness entirely of greater conventional, technical kinds of writing along with journalistic and academic patterns, but alternatively presentations of imagination and invention.

It offers a platform for writers to specify themselves and attention to regions which include man or woman improvement, narrative, and story. When it comes to innovative writing, you can break free from traditional writing norms and let your imagination roam freely. There is an extensive range of different patterns and genres that you can concentrate on, which we will discuss in element under.

Also Read- What Does Copywriting Mean in Marketing?

Types of Creative Writing

There are various forms of creative writing to explore. Let’s delve into the ten most popular types, helping you choose the one where you can fully express yourself.

The artistic area of poetry is one of the greater popular sorts of creative writing that you could specialize in. There are many exceptional kinds of poetry, inclusive of free verse, haiku, sonnet, limerick, and more. If you are just beginning to test with formative writing, poetry is an outstanding location to start. You can set the length, writing style, and complexity of your poems, tailoring your work to your selected fashion.

It also encourages you to play with different literary techniques, including alliteration, simile, imagery, and irony. Poetry serves as an excellent gateway to grasp the effective use of literary devices and when to employ them. Whether you prefer long-winded prose or short, concise rhymed poems, this serves as a great opportunity to get in touch with your creative side and begin some highly imaginative written work.

Song Lyrics

If poetry floats your boat, chances are you also enjoy writing song lyrics. When you’re learning to write creatively, lyrics can be an excellent introduction to this world, especially if you’re interested in music. Although matching your lyrics to music can be a lot of fun, it can also be very challenging. You not only have to think about the written side of song creation but also the genre of music you’re writing for. This can also be a great group exercise with friends. Especially if you are not particularly interested in music and want to hear how your songs are performed during a performance. 

Also Read- What is Article Writing Meaning, Types, and Formats

Journals and Diaries

Written accounts of one’s experiences and feelings, journals, and diary entries are great ways to express yourself and document your life. It qualifies as a type of creative writing if you’re doing more than just keeping a log of events, and instead focusing more on emotions and storytelling. 

Whether you decide to keep your work private or publish it is entirely your choice. Either way, journaling can be a great way to use your writing skills and experiment with different techniques like imagery, foreshadowing, and flashbacks. Keeping a journal or diary can also be great for your mental health, helping you express how you feel without having to do it verbally.

Plays and screenplays

If you’ve always dreamed of a career in the dramatic arts, exploring your originative writing talents through plays and screenplays might be the perfect fit for you. Plays have been written for centuries and remain an extremely popular art form today. If you want to have your written work brought to life and performed on a stage near you, creating a play is a great way to get your story heard and show off the characters. Writing a script encourages you to think outside the box, create character dialogue, and stage direction, and bring ideas together.

Personal Essays

Focusing on the writer’s life and experiences, a personal essay is a form of creative non-fiction that functions almost as an autobiography. A personal essay focuses on a message or theme, with the writer using his or her personal experience to communicate his or her story. However, the main elements of the story must be true, otherwise it will become a piece of short fiction. If you have a personal story you wish to share, personal essays provide an ideal entry point into creative writing, allowing your narrative to resonate with others.

Short Fiction

If you don’t have time to write a novel but have lots of wonderful, imaginative ideas that you want to combine into fiction writing, short stories are for you. By using short stories, you can create an engaging piece that won’t take the reader long to digest.

In a constantly changing world where people are short of time and are always in a hurry, short stories provide a great alternative to novels and are becoming popular on a large scale. If you have ambitions to write novels then this is a good place to start, as it can help you hone your writing, develop your storytelling abilities, and develop the right literary techniques like imagery and foreshadowing.

Also Read- Copywriting vs Content Writing: Understanding the main Differences

Letters differ from journal and diary entries in that they focus specifically on a target reader. Again, this is a great example of originative writing where you can create a personal account of a particular event or examine in depth the relationship between two people. 

With letters, you can use hyperbole, flashbacks, and motifs to creatively reveal the dynamics of sender and recipient, which can make for an excellent story in its own right. Many famous writers publish their letters, as it allows them to showcase a different side of their personality and experiment with a completely different written format.

As soon as someone mentions creative writing, the first thing that often comes to mind is writing novels. One of the maximum famous styles of creative writing, novels are fictional works that inspire you to imaginatively inform a story to communicate with your reader. Usually divided into chapters, novels are a longer form of creative writing that takes time and commitment to get right. To write the best novel you’ll need to be patient and notably prompted.

Writing an e-book may be pretty worthwhile, which is why such a lot of innovative writers decide to take this, to begin with a difficult venture. It permits you to work with an entire range of literary devices, from metaphors and personification to imagery and symbolism.

Free Writing

If you need to allow your creativeness run wild and get the creative juices flowing speedy, freelance writing ticks all of the right boxes. This type of innovative writing lets you write without any consideration of common sense, sentence shape, or grammar. Freewriting is something to do with, encouraging you to place phrases and snapshots onto a web page as you spot healthy. Freelance writing may be a remarkable exercise when you first start writing, as it gives you complete freedom to experiment and test many special writing techniques without putting any stress on the final results.

An iconic speech will spring to thoughts for everybody analyzing this. Good speeches are usually remembered, but handing over them effectively can be very hard. Whether they’re motivational, inspirational, or instructional, speeches let you hook up with your target audience and explicit yourself. Skilled speechwriters are always sought after, whether it’s for a corporate function, wedding, award ceremony, or any other public event. That’s why speechwriting can be an invaluable ability and one worth gaining knowledge of. Ultimately, the motive of a speech is to inspire and motivate the target market, so as soon as you have mastered speech writing, you will be able to turn your hand to most other forms of innovative writing.

Creative writing serves as a medium of inventive expression. This can come in many bureaucracy, from screenplays and speeches to poetry and flash fiction. But what businesses these kinds of exceptional sorts of creative writing below the “innovative” umbrella is the display of a writer’s imagination, creativity, and linguistic abilities.

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18 Types of Creative Writing

• September 14, 2022
• One Comment

What is Creative Writing?

Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary tropes or with various traditions of poetry and poetics. Due to the looseness of the definition, it is possible for writing such as feature stories to be considered as one of the type of creative writing, even though they fall under journalism because the content of features is specifically focused on narrative and character development. Both fictional and non-fictional works fall into this category of different types of creative writing. This list of different types of creative writing also includes novels, biographies, short stories, and poems. In the academic setting, creative writing is typically separated into fiction and poetry classes, with a focus on writing in an original style, as opposed to imitating pre-existing genres such as crime or horror. Writing for the screen and stage—screenwriting and playwriting—are often taught separately, but fit under the creative writing category as well. Source: Wikipedia

What are the different types of Creative Writing?

Whether you’re a reader or a writer, understanding different types of creative writing can be confusing. The category is so vast and so rich that it is easy to lose your bearings. Worry not- we’ve made a list of the major types of creative writing. Equipped with this, you will be able to tell the difference between all the major types of creative writing!

( P.S – Check out the examples for extra clarification on the types of creative writing. ) 

Dear poet/writer, we’d love to know you better. What are you writing?

In prose, you prefer…

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Types of Creative Writing

Novels are one of the most popular types of fiction around. Any work of fiction that is of considerable length, and uses characters to tell a story may be considered a novel. The essential components in a novel are generally agreed to be the characters, the plot, the setting, the conflict, and the resolution. The traditional structure for a novel includes the exposition, the climax, and the conclusion. Novels may be standalone or part of a series. 

Because novels consist of such a vast category, there are many, many different kinds of novels that form sub-categories. These subcategories may be on the basis of language, genre, style, literary school, time period, or setting. 

Example: A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry 

Learn more about ‘Writing Feature Articles’ from our blog post HERE .

02. Novella

A novella is essentially a short novel. Generally, if a work of fiction is between 20,000-50,000 words, it may be considered a novella and not a novel. Just like novels, novellas can be of many types. 

Example: A Flight of Pigeons by Ruskin Bond

03. Short stories

Short stories are pieces of narrative fiction writing that are considerably shorter than novels and novellas. A short story is prose that deals with imaginary events and characters and are less complex than a novel. They can be of various types, and span most genres.

Example: The Blue Umbrella by Ruskin Bond

04. Flash Fiction

Flash Fiction is fiction that is shorter than a short story- in other words, a very short story. Structurally, it is similar to a short story but generally less complex. Flash fiction can even be a sentence long, as long as it is an entire story. 

Examples: Unseen by Jose Varghese

Brush up on your knowledge of writing styles with our blog post – Different Kinds of Writing Styles with Examples

05. Vignettes

A vignette is a very short piece of fiction writing. It differs from flash fiction in one crucial aspect. Flash fiction must have a plot. A vignette can be less structured and is generally used to evoke a feeling. It can be a brief account of anything but does not need to follow a strict structure. 

Example: Various excellent examples can be found in Ruskin Bond’s ‘It’s A Wonderful Life: Roads to Happiness’. 

06. Narrative Nonfiction

Narrative Nonfiction is writing where real events are narrated in the style of a fictional novel or story. It is also known as literary or creative nonfiction. This is also a vast category under which various types of narratives can be classified. A common and popular example of narrative fiction is travel books and accounts. 

Example: Shadow City: A Woman Walks Kabul by Taran Khan

07. Biography and Autobiography

Biographies and autobiographies are both nonfiction books that narrate the life of a person. Autobiography refers to an account of a person’s life written by said person. A biography is written by someone else. Some biographies are approved by the individual whose story is being told. Other times, especially where historical figures are concerned, many people attempt to write biographies. How a biography is written depends on who is writing it, and why. Where scholarly biographies may be concerned with certain details of someone’s life, a personal biography may focus on completely different details. 

Example: And Then One Day: A Memoir by Naseeruddin Shah

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An essay is a short piece of writing focused on a particular topic. It could be written to analyze, persuade or explain. Essays can be of many different kinds, but broad categories include descriptive, narrative, and argumentative essays. A descriptive essay, as the name implies, focuses on describing an event, an object, or something else. Narrative essays are similar to short narrative nonfiction or fictional short stories. Argumentative essays are opinion pieces that are meant to persuade readers to accept a certain side of an argument, while clearly outlining the debate.

The usual structure of an essay includes an introduction, the main body, and the conclusion. The introduction generally contains a thesis statement, which poses the main question of the essay. The conclusion should include the restatement of the thesis statement. While this does not apply to every essay, for most types it is a useful rule of thumb. 

Examples: Walking with the Comrades by Arundhati Roy 

Poetry is a form of writing that is difficult to define. According to Merriam-Webster, poetry is ‘writing that uses rhythm, vivid language, and often rhymes to provoke an emotional response.’

Because poetry is so loosely defined, it encompasses vastly different styles from all over the world. Poems may be classified by style, literary school, era, language, region, content, or form. Poems may follow a rigid structure or no structure at all. They are not necessarily narrative in nature. Generally, poems are shorter than prose, though there are works of epic poetry that are novel length and longer. 

Example: On Killing A Tree by Gieve Patel

10. Songwriting 

Songwriting may be considered a form of poetry. However, it is specifically poetry that is meant to be sung, with accompanying music. Unlike a poet whose work is meant to be read, the songwriter is concerned much more closely with rhythm, beat, and rhyme.

Songwriting has to take into account that their work will be composed and sung, and be mindful that the lyrics are compatible with the song. Often, songwriters compose the music for their own lyrics, but it is equally common for the composition to be done by someone else. 

Example: Empire of Fear by Anoushka Maskey 

Rap is a form of songwriting, and by extension, poetry. Associated with hip-hop, rap is a very specific kind of performance poetry. Rap is a type of music that involves fast speech, strong rhyme, and rhythm. It is not sung. It is also strongly associated with street culture and the poetry of resistance and anger. 

Examples: On My Own by Brodha V 

12. Screenplays

Screenplays are scripts for movies, TV and web series, and short films. Writing screenplays requires not only an understanding of prose writing but also the movie-making process. For example, it is important to keep in mind that the dialogues written will be spoken on screen by actors. Similarly, a director and cinematographer will decide what the content looks like on screen. Screenplays are divided into scenes and within scenes, shots. The location is clearly established, and dialogues are of utmost importance. 

Example: The Disciple by Chaitanya Tamhane 

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13. Playwriting

Playwriting is a kind of dramatic writing. It is the writing of scripts that are to be performed on the stage. There are many, many kinds of plays that are different from each other in almost every respect. For example, the absurdist theatre has very little in common with classical theatre, and the respective playwrights use a variety of different tools. However, all plays are supposed to be performed, so there are many practical commonalities between playwrights. 

Example: Harlesden High Street by Abhishek Majumdar

A blog is a personalized online platform where a person writes about any topic that is of interest to them. Sometimes, organizations and companies also have a blog with a theme and different writers contribute to it.  The style of writing, as well as the content, can vary hugely. Blog writing is a fairly flexible medium that allows for different kinds of expression. 

Example: 82 Women Writers on The Himalayan Writing Retreat blog by Vanya Singh 

15. Speeches

Speeches are generally addressed to the public and have a purpose behind them. Political figures and leaders of all sorts need to make speeches all the time. They may be to inspire, persuade or explain. Speeches are written with a clear aim in mind, and try to evoke strong emotion of some sort. 

Example: ‘Tryst with Destiny’ by Jawaharlal Nehru

16. Journalism

Merriam Webster defines journalism as the act of collecting and editing news for presentation through the media. Journalists write for different media- print, radio, and television being the most prominent. The presentation of news in all of these follows different formats, as does the job of a journalist. However, the fundamental role of the journalist- the collection of relevant news, and editing remain common. 

Example: Newslaundry

17. Comic Strips/ Graphic Novels

Comic strips and graphic novels are interesting avenues for creative writing. They essentially present a collaboration between writers and artists. The artist draws the comic panels, and the writer writes in them. The way characters and stories are developed through this medium is very different from other types of fiction. The collaborative aspect, as in film and stage, cannot be forgotten. 

Example: Corridor by Sarnath Banerjee

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18. Letter Writing

Letters are addressed to people and fall into two broad categories. Formal letters, and informal letters. Formal letters are written in an official or professional capacity. For example, letters to the municipality complaining about an issue is a formal letter. Informal letters are more personal in nature and more relaxed in their tone and use of language. For example, a letter written by a sister to her brother is an informal letter. 

Example: Letters From A Father to His Daughter by Jawaharlal Nehru

Conclusion 

While this list is by no means exhaustive, an effort has been made to include the main types of creative writing. All of the above can be published- but there are also other types of creative writing, like personal diaries and journals that are usually kept private.

We hope this helps you to better navigate the wonderfully chaotic world of reading and writing!

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One Response

It is true that creative writing can be very rewarding. It can also be very difficult. your article is very helpful for writers thanks for sharing with us!

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