Are you wondering what is creative writing? The entire digitalized world works on the principles of creative writing. Every social media platform, marketing strategy, influencer content, e-commerce business, and many more works on the essence of creative writing.

How do you differentiate it? One crucial difference between all forms of writing is the style of the content. The tone of the content varies from type to type.

For instance, persuading writing is much more significant than a simple explanation. If persuading writing is tilted a little and the content that you produce has the capability of creating emotions, then it is considered creative writing.

Creative writing is one of the dominating and most in-demand skills out there. People with creative writing skills make more money than content writers and copywriters. So, you might have heard about content writing, copywriting, technical writing, and academic writing. But what is creative writing, and how is it superior to all the other forms of writing?

1. What Is Creative Writing?

If you wonder what creative writing is, it goes something like Creative Writing is the type of writing that goes beyond the professional, technical, or journalistic forms of literature. It means putting your thoughts out in a story.

To simplify it, writing thinking out of the box or the work of fiction is creative writing. As a creative writer, your imagination should be professional to create emotions among your readers as they read your work. 

In creative writing, the age of your targeted readers and the word choice matters the most. Before you start writing, you should understand what you are writing, to whom you are writing it, and how your work can relate to your targeted readers. Knowing all of these can help you produce some of the best projects.

2. Why Does Creative Writing Pay You More?

If there is one thing that humans are driven by, it is emotions. Emotions control how people live, behave, and influence people more than anything. When emotions play a vital role, why not give it a try?

And that was when creative writing was born in the year 1837. Creative writing focuses on raising feelings or emotions in a person as they read. Back then, people used these writing techniques to write non-fiction creatively to provide a long-lasting learning process.

So, as a creative writer, you move people with emotions. These days, creative writing is used everywhere, in the entertainment field, the marketing sector, and more. To understand it better, differentiate creative writing from the other types of writing.

2.1. Difference Between Content Writing And Creative Writing

Anything that contains a piece of written information is known as content writing. The main aim of content writing is to educate or inform people about a particular thing. Articles, case studies, blog posts, and YouTube video scripts are excellent examples. Here, the target audience plays a key role.

Creative writing is finding a way to write non-creative information creatively or educate people by weaving a story around the subject and delivering the final message to readers. 

For example, in message-driven movies, they understand the problem. Instead of telling the solution, they show you by plotting a story. Stories, novels, songs, and memoirs are examples of creative writing.

2.2. Difference Between Creative Writing And Copywriting

Copywriting plays with people’s interests. Any piece of information that motivates you to take action, which is a CTA, is copywriting or a copy. Buying a product online after reading the description, signing up for an email list or a course, and landing pages are examples of copywriting.

Creative writing and copywriting are two different genres. Copywriting is telling people to take action, and Creative writing is something in a narrative structure that plays with emotions.

3. Different Types Of Creative Writing:

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There are many forms of creative writing, but the motive is the same for all, to evoke emotion in readers.

• Fiction
• Movie scripts
• Memoirs
• Personal essays, and many more.

3.1. Fiction

Fiction is an imaginary world. Writing fiction expects high imaginary skills and command over the language from a writer. Working on fiction like novels and short stories will be a warm start for beginners.

In fiction, the way you present something matters the most. The plot development, character development, main characters, and how you narrate the story impact your further writing opportunities.

3.2. Movie Scripts:

Writing movie scripts is a step further than working on writing novels and short stories. Sometimes, movie scripts can even go beyond that require a high set of skills. Here, movie directors act as creative writers because they write the story. Movie scripts do not only tell the story but also contain the actor’s dialogue.

So, imagining and writing dialogues creatively that match the scene is something you can only do when you have a peaceful and broad mind. Sometimes, novels get adapted into movies. In such cases, the director only directs the team.

For example, in the Harry Potter books, the writer narrates the story in a conversational tone between the characters, which was easy for directors to shoot the film without having much to think about framing new dialogues. 

3.3. Memoirs And Personal Essays:

A memoir is a non-fiction narrative writing that is written based on the memories of an author. However, a personal essay can be about anything related to that particular person.

In either condition, the writer uses first-person language. In both scenarios being good with words to describe everything can help you.

4. Become a Creative Writer Following These 3 Steps

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Most people starting a freelancing career choose writing as their primary service. So, if you are one of those looking to expand your skills in writing, or if writing is your passion and you want to scale it up a little, creative writing can be a fresh start.

Creative writing does not only help you build a strong portfolio but also generates more money.

All you need is the command over the language you chose to write in, imaginative power, and you should be a good word player. The rest, you can learn as you progress.

However, there are a bunch of things you need to care about before you begin creative writing, which is a creative writing process.

4.1. Read More:

A famous quote, “Read. Read. Read. Just do not read one type of book. Read different types of books by various authors so that you develop different styles“, by R.L. Stine, explains everything.

All writers may not read, but a good writer always does because he understands the importance of reading books. Reading books can boost your creativity and help you in writing prompts better while letting your brain explore different creative minds. The more you read, the better you become. 

Reading books written by other writers is a surer way to improve your skills as a creative writer because it gives you an idea and clears all of your how questions.

4.2. Keep Writing:

Writing is neither an inborn quality nor rocket science to learn. If there is one way that can help you write better, it is to practice writing every day. Writing something every day not just improves your memory, builds your vocabulary, and refines communication skills but also lets you understand your writing skills.  

Every successful writer should start with small to big. So, write something every day challenging yourself. And that will let you see improvements as you progress.

4.3. Understand What You Are Writing:

Understanding what you are writing is just as crucial as writing every day. You should know what you are writing and who reads it. Having a point of view can help you be more specific to the topic you are writing. 

All these three steps go hand-in-hand. If you have a passion for writing and a habit of reading books, you are more likely to show interest in writing something because of the creative juices flowing in your body.

With that said, let’s look at how you can become a great creative writer.

5. The 7 Elements Of Creative Writing

Yes, like everything has a set of rules, even creative writing carries a few things you need to follow to create a whopping story for your readers.

• Theme
• Characters
• Setting
• Plot
• Conflict
• Narrative
• Voice

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5.1. Theme:

The story’s theme is like the foundation of the building on which the whole story depends. It is the idea or the message you want to convey to your readers. Rather than just telling the message directly, you narrate it in the form of a story that includes multiple other elements while writing. But the final draft should convey the information you have thought about at first. 

For instance, let your theme be that hard work always pays back. So, instead of telling it out, you frame a creative story that can drive people with emotions. 

In Harry Potter’s case, the story’s theme is The Magical World or The Wizard World. 

5.2. Characters:

A simple paragraph looks tedious to read, no matter how well it is written and structured, which is why the characters play a crucial part in creative writing. As people relate to characters and connect with characters more than anything, characters have the power to drive emotions among people, and they run the plot of the story. 

The selection of characters has to be selected wisely based on the story since characters have the potential to make or break your creative work. 

For instance, based on the story’s theme and the size of the story, you can include multiple characters.

In Harry Potter, the characters align perfectly with the story, and they can create emotions among readers. This is why Harry Potter became such a phenomenal success. 

5.3. Setting:

It is where the actual thing happens, writing the story. Writing a story is not only about writing lines, but it is also about the way how you write and present it. The story’s setting means the context of the story in which the story is taking place. It includes place, time, and environment. However, each component should focus on building the story. 

For instance, the story you write should always follow a path, where each paragraph you write should make sense with the continuing para. It includes the time a particular incident takes place, the movement of characters, and others. 

Just imagine, how would want a fiction book to be if you were to read it? Finding the answer to this can be a little strong, but this will always elevate your writing.  

In the case of Harry Potter, the story follows a path in all parts. The structure does not bore you, and it is not confusing. Instead, it develops an interest.

5.4. Plot:

The plot is another crucial thing to care about in a story. If you want the story to be engaging, the plot is necessary. The conspiracy is not simple events or situations in the story. It is a point where a sudden change takes place – an interruption, a turning point, or an action that raises a dramatic question are some of the considered plots in the great works. A story is always about grabbing the attention of the reader. 

For example, to spice up your writings, you can frame a situation like this- they both have gone on a late-night drive on a pouring night, and they have called me to say that they were returning home, but… whenever you hear or read but, you get a sense of feeling that something is wrong. In the above situation, it increases the attention and curiosity of the reader to find out what happens next.

5.5. Conflict:

The problem a particular character faces in the story is called a conflict. The character wants something but cannot get it just because something got in its way. Conflict situations are the best ways to grab the reader. 

5.6. Narrative:

The way you tell the story is the narration of the story. Anything you write should have proper narration to get the best results from readers to stand ahead of your competitors.

5.7. Voice:

Anything you write, the voice in creative writing includes vocabulary, tone, point of view, phrasal syntax, sentences, the flow of paragraphs, and many more. But predominantly, point of view and the tone matter. So, the more precise you become about the topic and your readers, the more you can adjust the tone. 

These are the 7 elements every creative writer follows in their writings.

Final Words:

Creative writing is an art that anyone can learn. It is just that the person should have a broad mind, a good vocabulary, and should be a persuasive writer. The rest will get into place as you progress in the process. 

Last Updated on September 3, 2023 by Laveleena Sharma