critical approaches to creative writing

Warwick International Higher Education Academy

Book review: critical approaches to creative writing, critical approaches to creative writing, author graeme harper, reviewed by dr deborah biggerstaff (warwick medical school).

  Why did I want to read this book?

I’m sure I’m not alone in the experience of hearing a student admitting that they find writing difficult, when they come to write up their assignment, however we may try to design an assignment activity that can best assess their learning. Over the years, I’ve frequently observed how many students, even perfectly competent postgraduate students, may admit to struggling with their writing, when trying to communicate their ideas clearly. As someone who generally enjoys the writing process, (although I also admit to sometimes wrestling with the challenges of writing!), I’ve become increasingly intrigued by what might be ‘going on’ among our students who say they find writing ‘difficult’. Writing can be difficult: it is hard work and requires effort. Most students I’ve met over the years are bright, keen communicators in class. They are people who are generally highly engaged with their course, but then admit to struggling to get their thoughts and ideas down on the page. What can we do, as educators, to support our students to help them become better and more confident writers?

I’ve been thinking about this conundrum for some time now and have been exploring the field of creative writing to see how I might help support my students. Hence, my discovering this little book by Graeme Harper, who, as well as being an award-winning fiction writer, and a leader in the field of creative writing, is editor of the journal New Writing .

What I found appealing with this book.

I was attracted to this text since Harper, currently Professor of Creative Writing and Dean, Oakland University, Michigan, US, was the first person to be awarded a doctorate in creative writing in Australia. The author, in this book, also considers some of the critical aspects of creative writing. Thus, this book offers us, as reader, some useful insights into both the creative and critical elements of writing to examine what creative writing actually is , in order to help the reader gain a better understanding of the actual writing process. .

What I found appealing with this book is the author’s emphasis on the critical, thus offering ideas and connections with those aspects relating to both academic writing and pedagogic enquiry. Harper examines what constitutes the process of creative writing, and how we can gain a better understanding of this process, whether for our own work, or for supporting our students’ development, to become more competent writers.

Much of the book is concerned with what Harper describes as ‘ creative exposition’ : a process whereby the practice of writing is explored, alongside thinking about the final finished ‘product’. The ideas contained within the book are suitable for any discipline where clear communication in writing is needed, however broadly one might define the field. Everyone, whether student, writer, or academic, needs to develop skills in writing, if we are to get our ideas across clearly to whoever may be our audience.

As the author observes, the art of creative writing is “both an individual practice, based on the self (you, me, other creative writers), and a holistic one, reflective of cultural, societal and historical influences upon us and upon those around us.” (preface, p. xviii). Further on, in this introduction section, Harper provides some additional definitions for creative writing as an emerging discipline, as a “field of scholarly inquiry and research”. He considers some of the dynamics involved in creative writing while also reminding the reader that much of what we might do, as writers, belongs in the field of the personal, or the individual.

The Preface and Introduction section considers the creative writing process, linking writing to our ideals of personal satisfaction and self – expression in many creative fields. Throughout the book, the author asks a perceptive selection of questions we, as reader, can use as the starting point for our own creative thinking process for getting the words down on the page. We are asked to consider writing concepts such as ‘distinctiveness’ (p. 5) or ‘Form, style, type genre’ (p. 6) while also asking us, as reader, to pay attention to how our thoughts, and things that happen in our quotidian experiences, may “impact on the dynamics of creative writing” (p.7).

Later, within this same chapter, we are asked to consider what distinguishes creative writing from other forms of writing, with Harper suggesting that it is the heightened elements of what might be novel, of originality, and aspects of inventiveness that define what may be ‘creative’. The author also explores ideas around ‘ exposition ’ in relation to those more academic aspects of our writing where we might seek to expose or reveal an academic idea or explanation; supported by facts or the ‘evidence’. This description is something we often prompt students when we ask them to support their ideas with citations from the relevant research literature. The reader is reminded that creative writing is as much a craft as a process, that includes utility, for the “purposes of both art and communication” and is associated with our lived-world experiences.

In a later chapter the reader is introduced to writing with imagination, where we may draw on observing events, or feelings from the past and present, while also perhaps re-working these experiences in the narrative telling of the story. Harper observes how, in our writing or reading, we may be “moving between different cognitive activities, in which the imagination, the intellect, our senses, memories, feelings all play a role.” ( p.23). The reader is asked to consider how such creativity in writing may involve the symbolic, longevity, and the need for the ‘story’ to be transportable. Additionally, we are also reminded how writing can be encoded; that many writing styles have observable patterns or representations, thus suggesting a consistency of style or understanding to life – style. This last point, I suggest, may perhaps also apply across some intra-disciplinary fields in academia.

For what is quite a concise volume, the main points of the use of narrative in writing are covered well. The succinct approach would be particularly useful for some of our students who may struggle with the writing process when trying to put together a cohesive ‘narrative’ within their work. The reader is offered a thoughtful depiction of time and the role of sequence in writing: time may be multi-layered but the creative writing process may also offer us, as writer, “a kind of empowerment that releases us from day – to – day time” (p. 47).

This book also explores some of the many factors that can influence the writing process. Harper, as a North American writer, reflects briefly on the role of culture in creative writing, and conceptual viewpoints across time. He also shares some of his thoughts on writing in relation to different lifestyles and the changing perceptions of ‘nation’, while ideas relating to macro-history, are also introduced. Other topics which may influence creative writing such as location and place are considered; these include environment, the tools we use, stimuli and, of note for some of the students we teach, how a writer may use research materials, and accumulated resources for whatever project they may be working on. The also explores aspects of identity, psychology and personality involved in creative writing influences, with some suggested models for the interested reader to consider.

Some of the main practices of creative writing are covered well, with sound advice on the actual process: the stages of Pre-writing; Writing and Post-writing are described clearly with some useful tips and advice as to how to help strengthen that first draft. The author reminds us that the ‘post-writing’ stage is where the skilled writer will concentrate the most time since “it is in post-writing where creativity and intelligence have most opportunity to flourish” (p. 67).

The concluding section of the book covers evidence in creative writing and how we might assess ‘value’, whether as writer or reader. The critical assessment of the evidence and the quality of that evidence is examined. We are invited to consider the different components of writing, including how a writer may choose to reveal what they have undertaken (as practice) and what role evidence may have to play on such practice. Some aspects of research methods are introduced to the potential writer, with a short summary of how such method might be incorporated, or applied, within the practice of creative writing.

Finally, and perhaps the section that offers the reader the most pedagogic utility, the reader is provided with a Checklist section where different elements relating to creative writing are set out as a series of questions. I particularly liked these short, practical exercises, linked to the content for each chapter. The questions proposed by the author help to bring home, and clarify, the main points covered within each preceding chapter. These questions could either be used by students for self-directed learning, or as a source of support when designing a teaching session where we want to help students develop their academic writing skills. Being able to communicate clearly is a core component for all our students’ professional and personal development, and their ‘employability’, whatever discipline.

Would I recommend this book?

Critical Approaches to Creative Writing is a thoughtful, concise little book that I enjoyed reading. If I was to use a star rating (five stars being maximum) I would award this useful volume 4.5 stars since it has much to offer. My only reason for not giving it the full five stars? Although the author does provide a few, limited, references, personally, I would like to have seen a few more, and a complete reference list provided for the reader.

The author has distilled a lifetime of knowledge and skills, drawing on his expertise as a creative writer. This is a great little book and an engaging read: sometimes good things really do come in small packages!

Dr Deborah Biggerstaff

Warwick Medical school

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9781138931541

Graeme Harper

Taylor and Francis

03 October 2018

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This article reconsiders the perceived tensions between “creative” and “critical” practices in the study of Creative Writing. The “critical-creative problem” is first defined in broader historical and cultural contexts, then in relation to contemporary critics who recognize a more specific split within Creative Writing pedagogy. By analyzing the language of creative-critical division within AHRC funding guidelines and NAWE subject benchmarks, I argue that redefining our own terms may be the most effective first step towards changing the realities of institutional structures. The second half of this article reflects on the development of a new MA module (“Critical Approaches to Creative Writing”) in order to test these ideas in practice. Hierarchies of lesson planning and degree planning are considered, along with ways the language of validated documents might affect student expectations. Finally, the specific assignment of a “manifesto” is proposed as an alternative to “reflective commentary” or “poetics”, which might help engender a more fluid interchange of creative and critical practice. The article concludes with reflections on feedback from this module’s first run.

Keywords: creative writing, critical reflection, pedagogy, practice-based research, manifesto

Introduction: The Critical-Creative Problem

Writers and academics often bristle at the suggestion that any real divide exists between creative and critical practice. It is understandable that so-called “creative writing” practitioners would insist on the critical scope of their work, and that research scholars would point out the creativity involved in theirs. Nevertheless, practical configurations within higher education – e.g. programme design, teaching specialization, assessment modes, funding structures, and the commitments these require in writing practice – undeniably work to maintain what is, after all, a fairly ancient cultural binary. Already in 380 BC, Plato acknowledges the “old quarrel between philosophy and poetry” in his Republic . More recently, Richard Sennet has expanded on the claim that “History has drawn fault lines dividing practice and theory, technique and expression, craftsman and artist, maker and user; modern society suffers from this historical inheritance” (2008). However, the reasons for this very old “disconnection”, as Kim Lasky (2013) calls it, are less well-documented. Further along in Western philosophy, René Descartes’ (1641) nearly four-hundred-year-old conception of a mind-body divide still persists in popular notions of division within the mind, between rational and emotional, or analytic and creative thinking, often envisioned in relation to a physical division between the brain’s right and left hemispheres.

However we have inherited this abstract binary, its repercussions include the institutional divisions mentioned above, which create, in turn, very real challenges for the academic study of Creative Writing. The practical and pedagogical consequence is that, as Lasky suggests, “Somehow, conceptually, the creative and critical processes have become falsely separated” (2013). Partly, this may be due to the role a creative-critical divide plays in the conception or identity of “Creative Writing” as a distinct discipline. However, it may be worth remembering that Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1837 address to the Phi Beta Kappa Society at Harvard, which includes perhaps the first use of the term “creative writing”, defines it reciprocally: “One must be an inventor to read well … There is then creative reading as well as creative writing.” Plenty of the growing number of researchers who focus on Creative Writing pedagogy insist on a similar “synergy between the creative, the practical and the critical” (Kroll and Harper, 2013), or cite a tradition of holistic humanism, from Matthew Arnold’s idea of poetry as “criticism of life” (1880) or George Steiner’s insistence that “All serious art, music and literature is a critical act” (1991). Yet, for every suggestion of continuity, another writer-critic maintains the separation. Laura Riding, for instance, writes:

It is improper to advance that criticism and poetry spring from the same kind of personal impulse … Criticism and creation do not face the same way, but face each other, criticism forgoing creation in order to be able to describe it (2014).

For practical reasons, this is the view that often prevails in the academy. Beyond the broad ideals, the day-to-day integration of specific contemporary critical practices into a field which self-identifies as a “creative”, craft- (rather than research-) oriented discipline remains an open question. As Paul Dawson argues:

The challenge for writing programmes is how to accommodate the insights of critical theory, identity politics and cultural studies, and the critiques of literature which these offer, while still retaining the central pedagogical aim of Creative Writing, which is to teach students how to develop their writing skills in order to produce literary works (2003).

In many ways, the time seems ripe for implementing such integration on a deep level, within Creative Writing programmes and across the field. Critics like Dawson (2003) and Hecq (2013) argue that the “post-theory” state of literary study offers an opportunity for adopting a more self-reflective and self-critical stance towards now canonical “Theory” within creative contexts. Others, like Michelene Wandor (2008), have stressed the importance of critical engagement as a means beyond Creative Writing’s traditional emphasis on individual student development, or avowedly narcissistic notions of “finding one’s voice” and bringing individual work to “publishable standard”. Finally, the first generation of UK academics with PhDs in Creative Writing, whose own critical and creative practices have developed in hybrid circumstances, seem well-positioned to help re-define the subject area, and help it move beyond the compartmentalization – or “siloing”, as Madeleine Morris (2013) calls it – they have had to negotiate in defining their own place within HE institutions.

Representing one of these new crossbreed PhDs myself, and as one of many lecturers who teach across Creative Writing and English Literature programmes, I want to focus on very practical concerns for the critical and creative sides of my own pedagogic role. Again, the timing seems just right, as the planning and validation of a new introductory MA module called “Critical Approaches to Creative Writing” provided an ideal case study, or opportunity to put these ideas into practice.

A New Spectrum: Practice-Based Research vs. Research-informed Practice

Although I suggested there is a disjunction between the ideals of critical-creative “synergy” and the realities of institutional structures, I would still argue that the first step towards changing these structures involves a change in thinking. By adopting new language that reflects these goals, general or personal philosophies regarding the critical-creative relationship will inevitably interact with and eventually affect institutional or otherwise official discourses that enforce those practical realities. To achieve a more integrated and reciprocal use of the terms “critical” and “creative” (which have specific meanings that make them worth keeping), we might begin by reconfiguring, or perhaps refreshing, their already shared claims to the words “practice” and “research”. Reasserting a definition of “practice” as a process structured by repetition, or habitual activities, helps to emphasize the endless loop of exercise (or “practice” in the preparatory sense) and application involved in any criticism or creativity. We might similarly revive a broader conception of “research” as recherché , with its analogous textual pursuit, via memory and applied concepts or strategies. As Jeri Kroll reminds us, helpfully: “ Research is both a noun and a verb” (2013). Research (and re-searching), is always an on-going, circular practice, which, conversely, always involves a re-search in some form. Positing an analogy between the work of a Creative Writing classroom and what takes place in more “scientific” laboratories, Kroll stresses existent parallels:

Writers followed a similar practice-led research loop, conducting and replicating experiments, interpreting results, gathering information, before gaining fresh insights and moving on.

In this way, we begin to see creative and critical practice in the Humanities involved in a common discursive process and goal. Both draw, first and foremost, on language’s ability to establish new possibilities of experience – whether intellectual or sensual – and do so by virtue of the relationship between their textual products and inherently textual processes. Kroll highlights this continuity: “Writers in the academy are researchers within an institutional community whose goal is the production of new knowledge” (my emphasis). Moreover, this output shares with all disciplines a commitment to established forms and genres – whether the monograph, novel, article, or poem – and their associated rhetorical “craft”. Thus, beyond the vague humanistic dream of common ground or business-like “synergy”, a spectrum of practice emerges in more concrete terms.

Creative Writing’s particular “bandwidth” along this spectrum falls between forms we might define as practice-based research and research-informed practice. In the most basic sense, practice-based research pertains to any research presented in “creative” forms. (Scientific poems like Lucretius’ On the Nature of Things (1st century B.C.) or Erasmus Darwin’s Botanic Garden (1791) are obvious historical precedents.) At the other end, research-informed practice might include all creative work that draws to some degree on research (i.e. all creative work). But rather than pinning down a piece of work at some point between those poles, the glaring paradox which closes the loop between them allows us to re-envisage Creative Writing as a self-reflexive, continuous movement along the spectrum, sliding between reading and writing strategies, collaboration and individual work, process and product, and consumption and production throughout every project. Although clearly due to the transitional, emerging status of the discipline, the fact that the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) has yet to publish a set of benchmarks specific to the Creative Writing subject area leaves us free to define that spectrum of practice in relation to the assorted Creative Writing guidelines often tacked on to English Literature. In practical terms, these attempts to accommodate creative work into traditionally critical frameworks might help us to do the opposite. For their funding awards, for instance, the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s “Definition of Research” stipulates:

Creative output can be produced, or practice undertaken, as an integral part of a research process as defined above. The Council would expect, however, this practice to be accompanied by some form of documentation of the research process, as well as some form of textual analysis or explanation to support its position and as a record of your critical reflection. Equally, creativity or practice may involve no such process at all, in which case it would be ineligible for funding from the Council (2012).

I will address the specific issue of an accompanying “form of documentation” below, but already we can see the difficulties that arise from such a rigid distinction between the “creative output” itself and the required “explanation”, assumed to be a separate document. The very notion of a potentially “ineligible” creative output – which somehow springs into existence without any evidence of research, self-explanation or self-positioning within the work itself – suggests a similarly unhelpful straw man. On the positive side, however, we see the AHRC grappling towards less restrictive structures in the definition’s lack of precision towards the output “produced, or practice undertaken”, the final form of that documentation, or the slight contradiction (i.e. wiggle room) between a creative process which is “an integral part of a research process” and one which is merely “accompanied” by critical reflection.

In lieu of ‘official’ benchmarks, (which the QAA are currently preparing for publication in late 2015), Creative Writing programmes are often designed and validated with reference to benchmarks published in 2008 by the National Association of Writers in Education. Although the NAWE benchmarks might be accused of the inverse problem, or of “tacking on” gestures towards critical integration, a bridge between the two approaches begins to develop. In points 3.1.2 and 3.2.2, the NAWE benchmarks include requirements of “critical awareness” and “critical engagement”. For pedagogical purposes, “critical awareness” measures the student’s abilities “to contextualize writing” within critical frameworks and “to reflect constructively” on their “own process and product” (3.1.2). “Critical engagement,” on the other hand, pertains to the student’s ability to employ more traditional critical practices, including analysis, argument, referencing, and response to existing criticism (3.2.2). Likewise, NAWE’s recent follow-up report, Beyond the Benchmark (2013), notes the more common emphasis on “reading like a writer” or “critical reflection”, rather than specific instances in which critical practice might be integrated into creative production. Between the AHRC’s approach from the research side and NAWE’s from the creative (and between the NAWE benchmarks themselves), the extent of a “hybridity” problem becomes clear. Both criteria maintain a certain distinction between creative and critical practice, which both expect to be manifest in double requirements – the “primary” creative work and supplementary evidence of critical facility. In my case study of a new MA module called “Critical Approaches to Creative Writing”, I will argue that the tension between these segregated guidelines and a more fluid “spectrum of practice” applies to more than mere assessment criteria, and must be considered from the first conceptions of a module or programme.

Case Study: “Critical Approaches to Creative Writing”

If changing one’s own conception of the relationship between critical and creative practice is the first and easiest step to take towards developing a pedagogy which promotes their mutual benefit, a hierarchy of further negotiations – from most immediate and flexible to most remote and inflexible – might be built up from session planning, syllabus design, and module design, to programme design, and broader faculty, institutional, or sector-wide considerations. In the second half of this paper, I want to turn from the more speculative discussion of how critical and creative practices might co-exist to a specific scenario on which these arguments came to bear. The development of a new MA module, “Critical Approaches to Creative Writing,” was part of the larger evolution of the York St John University MA in Creative Writing, which, like many writing programmes, had its initial incarnation as a pathway for students on a Literature MA. Although the separate Creative Writing award was established in 2009, the introduction of this new module represents the final break from that shared structure, where a foundational module, “Introduction to Research, Theory, and Writing Practices,” previously catered to both Literature and Creative Writing students. Although this evolution is by no means unique, it helps to emphasize the relationship between those different levels of design control.

Workshop vs. Seminar

At the level of module design, one of the first decisions, which may seem incidental, but deeply affects student expectations and perception, is whether sessions would be labelled “seminars” or “workshops”. (At the undergraduate level, the connotations of “lecture” are added to the options.) This loaded question brings baggage from the whole history of Creative Writing as an academic discipline, from its beginnings at Harvard in the 1880s. There, the novelty of Barrett Wendell’s model was the role of peer-critique for new creative work presented in the class, or what would come to be known as “workshopping” with the founding of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa in 1936. As Seth Abramson, a historian of the discipline, has noted, a key difference between the Harvard and Iowa models was that the former (which quickly became prevalent across the US in the early twentieth-century) was always integrated into a more “traditional” study of literature, partly by virtue of its instructors having advanced degrees in English and often teaching across the two disciplines (2012). The Iowa programme, on the other hand, introduced the “studio” model of workshopping – a still pervasive model, especially in non-academic settings, which is convergent with “masterclass” formats in the history of other Fine Art disciplines.

The seeds of the current debate over critical-creative writing practice are sown in this history of the writing workshop, which figures pointedly into new questions of hybridity and integration. Whether or not students (or their instructors) are aware of this specific history, it plays a deep background role in their expectations when joining and paying for a programme that advertises itself as workshop-led. For all of these reasons, some critics have been keen to separate the discipline from such historical baggage, either to the extreme of Michelene Wandor’s insistence that “the workshop must go” (2008), or Jeri Kroll’s reimagining of a Creative Writing “laboratory” (2013). On the other hand, I have been heartened to witness the recent trend of applying the workshop label to Literature contexts as well, an appropriation which seems to perform the same necessary re-opening of a term for, in simplest terms, a place where work is done. In this context, the name “workshop” offers a fine reminder, for both subjects, of the circular, on-going, and literally creative practice they share. In this way, its fraught history gives the label a useful flexibility. As Paul Munden argues in NAWE’s Beyond the Benchmark :

To describe [the workshop] as an “established” or “signature” pedagogy is to misunderstand it and cast it as orthodoxy – the very thing that Creative Writing programmes strive to avoid. The workshop’s mercurial, enigmatic character is part of its purpose (2013).

I do sympathize with critiques of the workshop model that focus on its tendency to isolate creative and critical practices, and with broader criticism of the emphasis on individual development that a workshop model often entails. However, other commentators have suggested that the workshop allows for an openness that might be conducive to mixed critical approaches, while also drawing on established critical contexts as a means to counter such unproductive individualism. (See Dawson, 2003; Hecq 2013.) The validated Rationale for my “Critical Approaches” module proposes to provide students, first of all, “the opportunity to explore the relationship between critical thinking and creative writing, and to think about the role of research in their writing practice” (Welsch, 2013). However, I include “workshopping” among a list of activities, and consent to the labelling of sessions as “workshops” in the timetable, due to my hope for the open exchange of ideas and work – and ideas about the relationship between ideas and work – it might encourage.

Learning Outcomes

From this fairly pedantic start, the design for my module proceeded along a trajectory of constructive alignment through learning outcomes, assessment, and finally (after validation of the initial components) the syllabus for its first delivery. As Biggs notes, “in a constructively aligned system, all components,” including these three main areas, will “support each other, so the learner is enveloped within a supportive learning system” (2011:109). After any number of committee revisions, the final, validated wording of the four learning outcomes for “Critical Approaches” are as follows:

• Critically reflect on the nature of the literary text and its production in terms of their own work and the work of other writers.
• Articulate a sophisticated position in relation to their creative practice.
• Produce a body of original creative writing that engages with the technicalities and creative strategies within contemporary writing.
• Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of generic techniques.

On the surface, these learning outcomes might appear to support a segregation of critical and creative practices, insofar as the first two seem to suggest critical outputs and the latter two will require creative work. Within the individual outcomes as well, as much as there is an attempt to bridge the creative and critical, there remains a clear conception of them as distinct activities and/or outputs. For example, LO 1 requires that the critical “reflection” on “the nature of the literary text” be in reference to the student’s “own work” as well as “the work of other writers.” Likewise, LOs 3 and 4 imply that the student’s own creative output will “engage” with and demonstrate an “understanding” of techniques – either of which could conceivably be evidenced for assessment in the creative work itself, or else accompanying “critical” material.

One great challenge when formulating learning outcomes in any discipline is how to represent the circular processes discussed above within a seemingly linear (or, at least, assessment-oriented) structure. In the often disputed, but ubiquitous terms of Bloom’s taxonomy, the “reflection”, “articulation” of a position, and “production” of new work from outcomes 1-3 all pertain to higher levels in the (revised) Cognitive domains of Applying, Analyzing, Evaluating, and Creating. LO 4, on the other hand, with a possibly practical or possibly critical demonstration of “understanding”, might align with lower level Understanding as well as higher level application of that knowledge (Krathwohl, 2002). As an M-level module, it seems appropriate that learning outcomes would pertain mostly to those higher levels, while drawing upon and broadening basic understanding. Again though, the main concern here is in negotiating an effective balance between (1) a linear module structure, (2) this hierarchical requirement for increasingly “advanced” knowledge, and (3) the circularity of practices which move continuously between new ideas and application, free to slide easily along a creative-critical spectrum.

Assessment: the Dreaded “Commentary”

As the learning outcomes suggest, the real test for integrating creative and critical practice came with assessment design. Here again, a standard model looms. As Wandor notes, the most common strategy for assessing “critical” practice in Creative Writing

has been to develop, for both undergraduate and postgraduate students, what is variously called commentary, self-reflective writing, a critical essay, a writing journal, an exegesis, ficto-criticism, or the supplementary discourse (2008:145).

NAWE’s Beyond the Benchmark survey of HE Creative Writing programmes confirms that “the critical commentary is viewed by many to be of crucial importance”, while admitting that the “vocabulary can be confusing” (2013). At our university, on the many undergraduate and postgraduate modules which adopt this “supplementary” model, we call it a “Critical Self-Commentary” – which is perhaps no better or worse than any other name, although I do feel it helps to foreground a “critical” over vaguely “reflective” stance. While our validated module documents refrain from prescriptiveness to allow for future flexibility, students at all levels are provided with extensive guidance and support regarding the contents of a “Critical Self-Commentary”. In many cases though, this does not seem sufficient to allay students’ anxieties about the unfamiliar form. Partly, this seems related to a tension between the module designer’s conception of an on-going relationship between critical evaluation and creative output and student perceptions of a linear process, aimed solely towards the final assessment point. As Lasky writes:

Faced with the task of producing a preface, introduction, commentary, or some other critical discourse related to their work, writers often forget that they have, actually, been engaged in a wealth of critical activity during the process of composition (2013).

Another common concern relates to what Carole Satyamurti calls, only half-jokingly, the fear of “premature evaluation” (2003). In this case, the popular cultural division between creative and critical practice, or so-called imaginative and analytic thinking, seems to underlie a worry that switching from the right to left brain, even for a moment, will somehow derail the artistic process. The problem with the commentary model, however it is defined, is that it exacerbates these fears by indulging them, reinforcing a perceived difference between types of writing which belong in either the preface or main body of the submitted assignment. Wandor is similarly disparaging about this “solution, which might appear to hybridize the relationship between the creative and the critical, or even transcend their differences,” but ultimately “raises more questions and problems,” due to the commentary’s “accompanying” status (2008:145). Again, the Beyond the Benchmark survey supports this, reporting general feedback that this component “is not always well taught, [and] viewed by students as an ‘add-on’” (2013).

For this new module, I proposed a mixed strategy, with two assessment points, the latter of which, at the end of the term, consists of “A Portfolio of original writing totalling 5,000-6,000 words (or agreed equivalent for poetry),” including “a Critical Self-Commentary of no less than 1000 words” (2013). The “no less than” qualification for the Commentary, which we include on all modules, allows students to set the balance as they see appropriate to the work. (An extreme example I use is that I would be happy to mark a haiku poem followed by 6,000 words of commentary.) Furthermore, the ambiguity of “original writing”, in place of more prescriptive requirements (e.g. fiction, poems), is intended to encourage students to include writing they might not think of as primarily or entirely “creative”.

The Manifesto

The major innovation for this module, however, is the requirement of “a Manifesto of approximately 2,000 words” at a separate, earlier assessment point, for 20% of the overall mark. In some ways, the “manifesto” assignment chimes neatly with Lasky’s advocacy (in an article published after our validation) of having students write a “poetics”. For Lasky, the Greek term poetics , with its etymological emphasis on “making” and its historical association with Aristotle’s famous treatise (380 B.C.), make it an ideal framework for helping students

to develop a reflective critical perspective on their work continuously throughout the composition of a piece [and] encourages them to gather together a storehouse of material that will inform a critical discourse about their creative work (2013).

Lasky’s emphasis on drawing out the circularity of the critical-creative process fits well with the philosophy above. Likewise, the notion of gathering a “storehouse” underscores the relationship between that on-going process and a final assessment point that includes a “critical discourse.” The stress placed on how a working “poetics” might facilitate the development of a “knowledge that grows in the shift between writing and reflecting modes,” is also most welcome.

Nevertheless, Lasky’s conception of a poetics still fails to provide for the possibility of writing output that integrates critical and creative processes on a deeper, formal level. Without delving too far into the history of the manifesto form, it will suffice to point out the way many well-known examples of literary or artistic manifesto – following F.T. Marinetti’s genre-founding First Futurist Manifesto (1909) – use the form as a means to enact the same principles they espouse. Where some manifestos adopt an integrated hybrid approach – such as William Carlos Williams’ Spring and All (1923), with its prose argument broken up by verse “illustrations” – others present themselves in formally innovative modes that make their case almost entirely by way of demonstration. The many Dada manifestos by Tristan Tzara, or Guillaume Apollinaire’s visual texts of L’Antitradition Futuriste and other manifestos fall squarely in this category. The fact that the literary manifesto (like all writing genres) has such a specific cultural history provides a further opportunity for critical-creative engagement with tradition, which might include its longer history in political, religious, and legal contexts, for instance. One could argue, furthermore, that the emphasis on “manifest” form (literally “to be held in the hand”) in the Latinate name, manifesto , finally offers a structure in which – and through which – to reflect on the complex, circular relationship between thought and work, or process and product, at the often unseen root of all Creative Writing study, as discussed above.

For all of these reasons, the module rationale also specifies that “Part of [students’] learning will involve analysis and discussion of various ‘manifesto’ style pieces” (2013). The topic and assignment are introduced to students within these historical and formal contexts, and with an emphasis on the form’s inherently hybrid, critical-creative nature. This includes discussion of the growing body of critical theory around manifestos, such as Jerome Rothenberg’s description (1997) of it as “personal accounting & a prescription/directive for future acts,” or Mary Ann Caws’ emphasis (2000) on what she calls the manifesto’s “madness” and its “deliberate manipulation of the public view”. Beyond this, we are deliberate broad in our examples and deliberately vague in our prescription of the shape a student’s manifesto might take. Some students stick to a bullet-pointed list of principles; some submit fiction or poetry which takes a “meta” approach to illustrating its values; others create visual text collages or parodies that would have done the Dadaist proud.

Conclusion: “Critical” Reflections

“Critical Approaches to Creative Writing” ran for the first time in Autumn 2013. I never saw the relatively small and not terribly radical intervention of assessing a manifesto as a “solution” to the critical-creative problem, partly because such problems often seem as productive as they are niggling. Having taught and directed the module’s first run, I am also much more aware of the variety of responses such unexpected assignments will generate, especially from a cohort with such a variety of backgrounds and interests. Those responses can be quantified to the extent that no student failed the assignment (or scored below 50%), and that 70% of the 20-strong cohort received a mark of 60 or higher. The fact that none of the manifestos were marked either very low or very high (nothing above 75%) might reflect its place as the first assessment point on the degree, when students may not yet have the confidence for more ambitious approaches. In any case, informal feedback and the qualitative responses in module evaluations have already proven more useful as we plan towards another year.

As we might have expected, one frequent question was of the manifesto’s relevance to the students’ development as writers – as opposed to feedback on the “writing itself”, presumably. The flip side of this is a more general anxiety about guidelines for the assignment. Although the intentions behind manifesto-writing were more specific, this echoes the worry Lasky saw in students tasked with writing the less familiar “commentary”, which motivated the “poetics” assignment. The frustrating, but understandable double-standard here is a general preference for very open-ended guidelines when dealing with supposedly known quantities – a short story, or set of poems, for example – and the sense of guidance being “insufficient” for an assignment intended to break down assumptions about form and to encourage experimentation. In this regard, our first-run students seem decidedly split between those who felt encouraged or discouraged by the manifesto assignment. One simply “found the guidance insufficient.” Another “did not understand what I was supposed to be doing … [and] did not find the instructions clear.” A few more moderate views were able to “appreciate that because of the nature of the module, these things had to be quite open.” And from the other side, a student writes: “We were given freedom on this assignment, the Manifesto, with some examples but no real guidelines; I really liked this approach. I felt it allowed us to think carefully about what was important to us as fledgling writers.”

I wouldn’t want to cherry-pick positive responses any more than I’d wish to dwell on the negative. Nor would I protest that our guidance was exhaustive, when we may have erred on the side of deliberate vagueness in this first run, hoping to encourage creativity with a more hands-off approach, once we had taught the history and offered a range of examples. The challenge of getting the balance right in future seems deeply bound up with the bigger open questions about the balance between creative and critical practices within the discipline. Given the assignment’s place at the start of their programme, the stark disparities in these responses also point to the range of expectations, partly engendered by that wider cultural insistence on a divide. All the same, I don’t expect new AHRC or QAA guidelines to effect from above the sort of subtle changes in perception and week-to-week pedagogy that will result a wide-scale shift away from perspective delineations of “critical” or “creative” output, within which students and tutors can work together towards the greatest range of real work. Achieving that balance, given the diverse needs of any given cohort, depends upon first changing our own language and seeking forms of learning flexible enough to respond to those needs.

Abramson, S. (2012) A Brief History of the Creative Writing MFA. Seth Abramson: The Suburban Ecstasies (blog). http://sethabramson.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/brief-history-of-creative-writing-mfa.html

Arts and Humanities Research Council (2012) Definition of Research. Research Funding Guide. http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/Funding-Opportunities/Research-funding/RFG/Pages/Definition.aspx )

Biggs, J. B. (2011) Teaching for Quality Learning at University . 4th ed. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Caws, M. (2000) Manifesto: A Century of Isms. Lincoln: Nebraska University Press.

Dawson, P. (2003) Towards a New Poetics in Creative Writing Pedagogy. TEXT: A Journal of Writing and Writing Courses , Vol. 7, No. 1, April 2003.

Emerson, R. W. (1983) The American Scholar [1837]. Emerson: Essays and Lectures. New York: Library of America.

Hecq, D. (2013) 'Creative Writing and Theory: Theory Without Credentials' in Kroll, H. and Harper, G. (eds.)  Research Methods in Creative Writing . London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Krathwohl, D. (2002) A Revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy: An Overview. Theory into Practice , Vol. 41, no. 4.

Kroll, J. (2013) 'Introduction' in Kroll, H. and Harper, G. (eds.)  Research Methods in Creative Writing . London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Lasky, K. (2013) 'Poetics and Creative Writing Research' in Kroll, H. and Harper, G. (eds.)  Research Methods in Creative Writing . London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Marinetti, F. T. (1909) First Futurist Manifesto. Reprinted in Caws, M. A. (2002) Manifesto: A Century of Isms . Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.

Morris, M. (2013) Critical Fictional Voices: An Approach to Integrating Theory into Creative Writing. Investigations into Reading and Writing Erotic Fiction (blog).

Munden, P. (2013) Beyond the Benchmark: Creative Writing in Higher Education . York: Higher Education Academy.

National Association of Writers in Education (2008) Creative Writing Subject Benchmark Statement . York: NAWE.

Plato (380 B.C.) The Republic , trans. Benjamin Jowett. New York: Vintage Classics.

Riding, L. (2014) Contemporaries and Snobs . eds. Laura Heffernan and Jane Malcolm. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.

Rothenberg, J. and Joris, P. (1997) Poems for the Millennium, Vol. 2. California: Berkeley University Press.

Satyamurti, C. (2003) '“First time ever”: writing the poem in potential space' in Satyamurti, C. and Canham, H (eds.)  Acquainted with the Night: Psychoanalysis and the Poetic Imagination . London: Karnac.

Sennet, R. (2008) The Craftsman . New Haven & London: Yale University Press.

Steiner, G. (1991) Real Presences . Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Wandor, M. (2008) The Author is Not Dead, Merely Somewhere Else: Creative Writing Reconceived . London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Williams, W.C. (1923) Spring and All. New York: New Directions.

J. T. Welsch is a lecturer in Creative Writing and English Literature at York St John University, where he teaches various writing forms and theory, and with a particular emphasis on creative research and employability skills. His primary research interests are in High and Late Modernism, with forthcoming articles on William Carlos Williams, James Joyce, and John Berryman. He has also published five chapbooks of his own poetry.

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Creative writing and stylistics : creative and critical approaches

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• Contents Acknowledgements Introduction: Style, Composition, Creative Practice
• 1. Seeing Through Language
• 2. Building Blocks I: A Grammar of Creative Writing
• 3. Building Blocks II: Narrative and Structure (Story Narratology)
• 4. Through the Looking Glass: Who Sees? Who Tells? (Discourse Narratology)
• 5. Writing Voices: Presenting Speech and Thought
• 6. Creating a World: Text-world Theory and Cognitive Poetics
• 7. Creative Writing: Figurative Language
• 8. Meaning and Play: Metaphor
• 9. Creating Soundscapes: Rhythm and Meter, Sound and Sense Appendix Notes Bibliography References and selected further reading.
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Creative Writing for Critical Thinking

Creating a Discoursal Identity

• Hélène Edberg 0

Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden

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• Introduces a new analytical model, based on activity theory, making it possible to analyse learning through writing in student texts
• Examines student trajectories as they learn to think critically through creative writing
• Offers practical advice as well as theoretical grounding to support this new approach

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Table of contents (10 chapters)

Front matter, introduction.

Hélène Edberg

Creative Writing and Critical Thinking: From a Romantic to a Sociocritical View on Creative Writing

Basic outlines of the research, discoursal identity and subject, text as a site of negotiation: a model for text analysis, writers’ positions, critical metareflection, a follow-up study: creative writing for critical metareflection in a different context, concluding discussion about discoursal identity and learning critical thinking through creative writing, creative writing for critical metareflection: some educational implications, back matter.

• discourse analysis
• textual analysis
• meta-reflection
• creative writing
• identity negotiation
• critical thinking
• literary diction

Book Title : Creative Writing for Critical Thinking

Book Subtitle : Creating a Discoursal Identity

Authors : Hélène Edberg

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65491-1

Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan Cham

eBook Packages : Social Sciences , Social Sciences (R0)

Copyright Information : The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

Hardcover ISBN : 978-3-319-65490-4 Published: 20 February 2018

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-319-88041-9 Published: 11 May 2019

eBook ISBN : 978-3-319-65491-1 Published: 08 February 2018

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : IX, 416

Number of Illustrations : 2 b/w illustrations, 2 illustrations in colour

Topics : Discourse Analysis , Language and Literature , Stylistics , Creative Writing , Popular Science in Linguistics

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Writing Speculative Fiction: Creative and Critical Approaches (Approaches to Writing, 5) Paperback – May 3, 2019

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In this engaging and accessible guide, Eugen Bacon explores writing speculative fiction as a creative practice, drawing from her own work, and the work of other writers and theorists, to interrogate its various subgenres. Through analysis of writers such as Stephen King, J.R.R. Tolkien and J. K. Rowling, this book scrutinises the characteristics of speculative fiction, considers the potential of writing cross genre and covers the challenges of targeting young adults. It connects critical and cultural theories to the practice of creative writing, examining how they might apply to the process of writing speculative fiction. Both practical and critical in its evaluative gaze, it also looks at e-publishing as a promising publishing medium for speculative fiction. This is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students of creative writing, looking to develop a critical awareness of, and practical skills for, the writing of speculative fiction. It is also a valuable resource for creators, commentators and consumers of contemporary speculative fiction. Chapter 8, 'Horror and the Paranormal' was shortlisted for the Australasian Horror Writers Association (AHWA)'s 2019 Australian Shadows Awards.

• Part of series Approaches to Writing
• Print length 196 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication date May 3, 2019
• Dimensions 5.5 x 0.45 x 8.5 inches
• ISBN-10 1352006057
• ISBN-13 978-1352006056
• See all details

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Editorial Reviews

“Writing Speculative Fiction is permeated by an upbeat and playful tone that is entertaining and motivating. It is an informative and enjoyable read that will serve as a valuable resource for creative writing students and their teachers, and indeed anyone interested in the mechanics of writing and publishing dynamic and engaging speculative fiction. The book is packed with helpful advice for writers of any genre – covering diverse topics such as form, characterisation, voice, plotting, poetic expression, research, establishing a writing practice with discipline, and discerning reputable online publishing markets.” ― Dr Bronwyn Lovell, TEXT Journal “As a book it is quite comfortable setting the writing of speculative fiction within the broader approaches to writing and linking those back to the giants of speculative writing over the last half-century or more. It is a concise and well-structured book that gently leads readers through the basics, while at every stage addressing its topic with appropriate examples, and exercises.” ― Shane Strange, University of Canberra, Australia “This is an exciting book from a writer who knows how to enliven her prose with ideas, analysis, anecdotes and stunning quotations from her deep and wide reading. The compelling beauty of this book is the way it moves between ideas and stories, between analysis and narrative.” ― Kevin Brophy, University of Melbourne, Australia “The insights are often provocative and always useful. It sensibly focuses on how a writer can approach the idea of speculative fiction, and then brings in a critical perspective.” ― George Green, Lancaster University, UK “Indispensable, rich and enabling: no writer of speculative fiction should be without this book. Obligatory reading for students of creative writing. Working from examples and providing easy-to-use analytical tools, Writing Speculative Fiction provides essential reading for anyone involved in the creation or consumption of speculative fiction in its many guises … This is a generous offering, relaying well-researched advice leavened with encouragement and a gentle, wry humour.” ― Dr Clare E Rhoden, author of The Pale and Broad Plain Darkening “As boundaries between genres increasingly break down, editors and educators need to put aside genre cringe and assumptions of genre limitations. Writing Speculative Fiction comes as a timely and valuable addition to the bookshelves of students, writers and educators alike. Writing Speculative Fiction is a valuable addition to writers at any stage of development. Bacon delivers practical information, stimulating exercises and thought-provoking analyses with enthusiasm and authority.” ― Melissa Ferguson, scientist and author of The Shining Wall “Eugen Bacon's book offers a paradox that is extraordinarily liberating. On the one hand it provides carefully researched, nuanced distinctions between fantasy, science fiction, horror and paranormal genres and their sub-genres to include fairy tales, dark fantasy, myths and legends, and magical realism, for example. On the other it embraces speculative fiction as an umbrella for bending traditional genre fiction, crossing into hybrids, or cross-genre forms rich with playful text that is also literary.” ― Louisa John-Krol, Australian Fairy Review “Writing Speculative Fiction is Eugen Bacon's new and exciting non-fiction stroke of genius. The book explores creative and critical approaches to writing speculative fiction. But, regardless of your preferred genre, if you're an aspiring writer of any style this impressive guide is for you!” ― Angela Wauchope, Other Terrain Journal, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia “Eugen Bacon weaves together extracts from a variety of creative texts, commentary about storytelling, and anecdotes from her experiences as a teacher of creative writing to build a palatable, engaging, and endlessly useful guidebook.” ― Rebecca Langham, Celestial Book Reviews “Writing Speculative Fiction is a resource worth revisiting again and again. It is a book designed for notetaking, highlighting, and dog-earing pages - the perfect companion for any writer of speculative fiction” ― Glam Adelaide

As a book it is quite comfortable setting the writing of speculative fiction within the broader approaches to writing and linking those back to the giants of speculative writing over the last half-century or more. It is a concise and well-structured book that gently leads readers through the basics, while at every stage addressing its topic with appropriate examples, and exercises. – Shane Strange, University of Canberra, Australia

This is an exciting book from a writer who knows how to enliven her prose with ideas, analysis, anecdotes and stunning quotations from her deep and wide reading. The compelling beauty of this book is the way it moves between ideas and stories, between analysis and narrative. – Kevin Brophy, University of Melbourne, Australia

The insights are often provocative and always useful. It sensibly focuses on how a writer can approach the idea of speculative fiction, and then brings in a critical perspective. – George Green, Lancaster University, UK

Indispensable, rich and enabling: no writer of speculative fiction should be without this book. Obligatory reading for students of creative writing. Working from examples and providing easy-to-use analytical tools, Writing Speculative Fiction provides essential reading for anyone involved in the creation or consumption of speculative fiction in its many guises… This is a generous offering, relaying well-researched advice leavened with encouragement and a gentle, wry humour. – Dr Clare E Rhoden, author of The Pale and Broad Plain Darkening

As boundaries between genres increasingly break down, editors and educators need to put aside genre cringe and assumptions of genre limitations. Writing Speculative Fiction comes as a timely and valuable addition to the bookshelves of students, writers and educators alike. Writing Speculative Fiction is a valuable addition to writers at any stage of development. Bacon delivers practical information, stimulating exercises and thought-provoking analyses with enthusiasm and authority. – Melissa Ferguson, scientist and author of The Shining Wall

Eugen Bacon’s book offers a paradox that is extraordinarily liberating. On the one hand it provides carefully researched, nuanced distinctions between fantasy, science fiction, horror and paranormal genres and their sub-genres to include fairy tales, dark fantasy, myths and legends, and magical realism, for example. On the other it embraces speculative fiction as an umbrella for bending traditional genre fiction, crossing into hybrids, or cross-genre forms rich with playful text that is also literary. – Louisa John-Krol, Australian Fairy Review

Writing Speculative Fiction is Eugen Bacon’s new and exciting non-fiction stroke of genius. The book explores creative and critical approaches to writing speculative fiction. But, regardless of your preferred genre, if you’re an aspiring writer of any style this impressive guide is for you! – Angela Wauchope, Other Terrain Journal, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia.

Eugen Bacon weaves together extracts from a variety of creative texts, commentary about storytelling, and anecdotes from her experiences as a teacher of creative writing to build a palatable, engaging, and endlessly useful guidebook. – Rebecca Langham, Celestial Book Reviews

Writing Speculative Fiction is permeated by an upbeat and playful tone that is entertaining and motivating. It is an informative and enjoyable read that will serve as a valuable resource for creative writing students and their teachers, and indeed anyone interested in the mechanics of writing and publishing dynamic and engaging speculative fiction. The book is packed with helpful advice for writers of any genre – covering diverse topics such as form, characterisation, voice, plotting, poetic expression, research, establishing a writing practice with discipline, and discerning reputable online publishing markets. – Dr Bronwyn Lovell, TEXT Journal

Writing Speculative Fiction is a resource worth revisiting again and again. It is a book designed for notetaking, highlighting, and dog-earing pages - the perfect companion for any writer of speculative fiction – Glam Adelaide

About the Author

Product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury Academic; 1st ed. 2019 edition (May 3, 2019)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 196 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1352006057
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1352006056
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.3 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.45 x 8.5 inches
• #435 in Science Fiction & Fantasy Writing
• #8,522 in Fiction Writing Reference (Books)

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Discover 7 Types of Creative Writing to Spark Your Imagination

April 10, 2024

Dive into the diverse world of creative writing, exploring everything from poetry to screenwriting. Uncover strategies and techniques for compelling storytelling. Learn about the various styles, from descriptive to persuasive writing. See how AI is reshaping the creative process, offering new possibilities for writers.

Introduction

Exploring different forms of creative writing.

Creative writing is an art form that opens up worlds of possibilities, allowing writers to explore realms beyond the confines of conventional writing. It encompasses a variety of styles and formats, each offering a unique way to express thoughts, emotions, and stories. This exploration delves into the imagination and linguistic prowess that define creative writing, setting it apart from more structured forms of writing.

Understanding Creative Writing Strategies and Techniques

Mastering creative writing involves more than just a fertile imagination; it also requires a toolkit of strategies and techniques. From the initial planning stages to the final publication, each step in the writing process plays a crucial role in bringing a piece of writing to life. This section will discuss how these tools can enhance storytelling and engage readers more deeply.

Types of Creative Writing

Poetry is an intensely personal form of creative writing that allows for the expression of feelings and thoughts through rhythm, rhyme, and imagery. Poets like Emily Dickinson and Pablo Neruda have touched the hearts of many by mastering this concise, emotive form.

Fiction writing creates worlds and characters that offer escapism, reflection, and commentary on the human condition. Novels, novellas, and short stories allow writers like J.K. Rowling and George Orwell to explore complex ideas within the confines of narrative structure.

Non-Fiction

Non-fiction creative writing, such as memoirs and personal essays, allows writers to explore real events with a narrative flair. This style focuses on conveying factual information through a compelling writing style, exemplified by works like 'The Year of Magical Thinking' by Joan Didion.

Writing for theatrical performance, drama involves crafting dialogues and scenes meant to be performed in front of an audience. Playwrights like Tennessee Williams demonstrate how dialogue and stage directions intertwine to bring stories to life.

Screenplays

Screenwriting is the art of writing scripts for film or television. It combines visual elements with dialogue and requires a unique formatting style to guide production teams, as seen in classic films scripted by writers like Quentin Tarantino.

Blogs offer a more informal approach to creative writing, often blending personal insights, informational content, and a conversational tone to engage readers directly through personal or professional websites.

This form of creative writing focuses on delivering messages through spoken word, often intended to persuade, inform, or entertain an audience. Great speeches, such as those by Martin Luther King Jr., utilize rhetorical techniques to impact listeners profoundly.

Styles of Creative Writing

Creative writing can manifest in various styles, each serving a unique purpose and engaging the reader in different ways. By understanding the characteristics and aims of each style, writers can choose the most effective way to convey their message or story.

Descriptive Writing

Characteristics.

Descriptive writing aims to immerse the reader in a vividly portrayed scene, object, or feeling. It utilizes sensory details and powerful adjectives, creating a rich tapestry of images that allows the reader to visualize and experience the writer's world as if they were there.

The goal of descriptive writing is not just to describe for the sake of description but to paint a picture so real and vivid that the reader can see, feel, smell, taste, and hear the described scene or object. It enhances the reader's engagement and emotional connection with the text.

Narrative Writing

Narrative writing is the art of storytelling . It constructs a narrative with a clear beginning, middle, and end. This style is foundational in both fiction and non-fiction, involving character development, plot setting, and often reaching a climax or conclusion that resolves the tale.

The purpose of narrative writing is to tell a story that is engaging, thought-provoking, and emotionally resonant. It aims to transport the reader through time and space, offering them a glimpse into different worlds, perspectives, and experiences.

Persuasive Writing

Persuasive writing seeks to convince the reader of a particular point of view or argument. It is characterized by clear logic, emotional appeal, and the use of credible evidence to support the argument. The writer's stance is presented in a way that aims to persuade the reader to agree.

The aim here is to influence the reader's beliefs or actions. Whether it's convincing them to adopt a new perspective, make a decision, or take a specific action, persuasive writing seeks to change the way the reader thinks or behaves.

Bonus: How to ensure the Factual Accuracy of your Content?

Expository Writing

Expository writing is informative and explanatory. It presents facts, discusses ideas, or explains processes in a clear, concise manner. This style of writing is research-based , presenting a balanced analysis without the influence of the writer's personal feelings or opinions.

Its primary aim is to inform and educate the reader about a specific topic. By presenting facts and analysis, expository writing helps the reader understand complex subjects, making informed decisions or gaining new insights.

Reflective Writing

Reflective writing is introspective, exploring the writer's personal experiences, thoughts, or feelings about a particular subject or event. It allows for a deeper exploration of the writer's personal growth, understandings, and emotional journey.

The goal is to offer insights into personal development or to reflect on the significance of events and experiences. Reflective writing encourages self-awareness and critical thinking, allowing both the writer and the reader to explore deeper meanings and perspectives.

Experimental Writing

Experimental writing challenges traditional narrative forms and structures. It plays with conventional grammar, syntax, and form, often breaking the rules to create a unique reading experience. This style seeks to innovate and explore new ways of storytelling and expression.

The aim of experimental writing is to push the boundaries of how stories are told and how language is used. It seeks to engage the reader in new and unconventional ways, challenging their expectations and perceptions of what writing can be.

Incorporating AI in Creative Writing

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into creative writing represents a significant shift in how writers approach the creative process. From enhancing productivity to challenging the very notion of originality , AI tools offer both solutions and raise questions in the literary world.

Advantages and Challenges of AI in Creative Writing

• Speed and Efficiency : AI can dramatically speed up the writing process, offering assistance with data gathering, idea generation, and even the initial drafting of texts. This allows writers to focus more on refining their ideas and less on the labor-intensive aspects of writing.
• Creative Assistance : AI tools can suggest prompts, help overcome writer's block, and provide stylistic suggestions, acting as a digital muse for writers in search of inspiration or direction.
• Emotional Depth : While AI is adept at processing data and generating text, it often struggles to replicate the nuanced, deeply emotional undertones that human writers can convey. This limitation can impact the perceived authenticity and emotional resonance of AI-generated content.
• Artistic Integrity : The use of AI in creative writing brings into question issues of originality and authorship. As AI becomes more involved in the creative process, distinguishing between the writer's voice and the machine's contribution becomes increasingly complex.

Examples of AI Tools for Creative Writing

Openai's gpt models.

OpenAI's GPT (Generative Pretrained Transformer) models have revolutionized the field of creative writing by offering tools that can generate writing prompts, draft texts, and even suggest stylistic changes. These models leverage vast amounts of data to produce text that can mimic a wide range of writing styles, making them valuable assets for writers seeking inspiration or assistance in their creative endeavors.

LongShot AI

LongShot AI is another innovative tool designed to assist writers, particularly in the realm of content creation and enhancement. It goes beyond simple text generation, offering features tailored to the needs of content writers, such as generating article outlines, suggesting headlines, and optimizing content for search engines. LongShot AI's focus on utility and specificity makes it a powerful tool for writers looking to streamline their workflow and enhance their content's effectiveness.

Navigating the Intersection of AI and Creativity

As AI continues to evolve, its role in creative writing is likely to grow, offering new tools and technologies to aid writers. However, navigating this intersection requires a careful balance, ensuring that the essence of creativity — with its inherent unpredictability and emotional depth — remains at the heart of the writing process. The challenge lies in leveraging AI's capabilities without diminishing the personal touch and unique voice that define a writer's work.

The exploration of different creative writing styles and techniques reveals a rich landscape of expression. Each style serves a unique purpose and caters to various audiences, emphasizing the importance of choice and adaptation in creative endeavors. As writers continue to evolve and experiment, the integration of innovative tools like AI can further enhance the narrative capabilities and efficiency of creative writing.

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