How do you make yourself good in creative writing? Is it a nature-gifted talent, or can it be learnt? How do you assess yourself as a creative writer?
A creative writer is either naturally talented or learnt by some coaching or training methods. In both ways, it’s not an overnight process and takes time for the skill to be polished. In other words, a learnt creative writer has more promising skills than a nature-gifted creative thinker.
Although there is no alternative to good learning, it has been an old debate about why a creative writer should be mentally originative by thinking outside the box. This article will discuss which feature is more prominent and helps to become a result-oriented creative writer.
Let’s learn what creative writing means.
What is Creative Writing?
Creative writing is a little bit unprofessional tone of writing through which the writer tries to stimulate learner’s mind by using various characters, plots, dialogues, narrations, etc.
There are many types of creative writing, such as:
- Scriptwriting
- Poetry
- Ad copies
- Storytelling
- Songs
- Essays
- Blogs
Creative writers push themselves to become professional in one of the above types so that their writing is recognized and found credible.
Why is Creative Writing Hard to Teach?
Writing is a ‘hard skill’ and requires consistent practice sessions to become the master of the field. But creative writing is considered a ‘soft skill’ because of the imagination and artistry involved.
One cannot learn creative writing without awakening their creative part of the mind. Creative writers are self-driven, and they do not need frequent feedback to generate new ideas.
Online courses and training sessions often go in vain because most trainers often ignore the need to support learners’ thoughts.
Why is Creative Writing Important?
After the advent of the internet, social media and modern website building, creative writing is crucial for every industry’s marketing campaign.
Here are some areas where creative writing is a big helping hand:
- Scripts and Stories: A world without stories is unimaginable. They are the stories, characters and moral lessons that keep motivating us to drive forward in life. Whether stories are shared as motivational lessons or to get some social attention, creative writing is an integral part.
- Marketing Campaigns: Nowadays, online business competition has become so much cut-throat that mediocre marketing campaigns fade away in an overwhelming number of businesses trying to promote their services online. Email writing, web copies, and social media posts are written to get a human eye’s instant attention by writing the text creatively. The writer tries to imagine the situation of the reader and tries to think like him.
- Product Descriptions: E-commerce is a booming industry of the world. Without creative writing, products listed on an e-commerce store are difficult to sell. Amazon, eBay, and Etsy sellers often ignore creative writing in their products’ description due to which their number of sales remain low.
- Brand Voice: You wouldn’t want your business to be ‘just another business’ in the market. It has to be unique and sell something differently. But is it possible without a distinctive brand voice? Brand voices are delivered by a unique choice of words by the writers. They have to get themselves aligned with the business’s goal and vision.
Why Creative Writers Do?
Creative writers give words to their emotions and imagination. Since creative writers constantly think new ideas and possible outcomes of their words, it keeps their mind sharp, and they become result-oriented.
Although creative writing is an interesting profession, some people may avoid it due to various reasons.
First of all, a creative writer should have the resources available for writing. You may think about what resources a writer needs. Here is a list of them:
- A peaceful environment
- Consistent writing periods
- Plethora of words
Let’s talk about each of them briefly.
Writers cannot execute good writing pieces without working in a quiet and peaceful environment. Even if your mobile phone rings slightly, your focus will be divided, and the writing rhythm will be lost. Therefore, a writer should find a place where he or she can write without any disturbance.
Secondly, if you’re a part-time writer, you should consider writing continuously to keep your focus on writing as a consistent effort. Taking breaks after minutes can seriously affect your writing efficiency and the ideas might get drained out.’
Here is a challenging but important point; a writer should have an ocean of good vocabulary. He must know how to play with words and sentences. Good knowledge of proverbs and idioms are recommended but not necessary.
Don’t worry if you’re good at remembering difficult words; you can use thesaurus or Google to find good synonyms and antonyms. This will increase your working; you’ll eventually learn to remember words.
How to Assess Yourself as a Creative Writer?
Before jumping into the creative writing industry, ask yourself the question ‘Am I ready to dive in as a creative writer?’
Many of you might be writing since teenage, winning writing competitions and getting medals of writing words beautifully. But not everyone is good at it.
First of all, select a niche that you’re passionate about. It might be possible you are already working with one of those niches of creative writing. You might be writing poetry as a teenager. You might be working in a commercial industry or writing children stories in a magazine — Every niche is fine, and you should be able to thrive in your domain.
Final Words
Whether you’re a naturally talented creative writer or someone who has learnt it through hard struggle, you should pursue it if you find passion in writing.
Even if you have a good imagination and fast thought process, you should still get some mentoring and real experience from someone knowledgeable.
Creative writing isn’t for someone who thinks it an obligation. If you want to be a creative writer, make sure you love what you write about. Only then you will cross every hurdle in your way to becoming a successful creative writer.