On Creative Writing
Creative writing is an outpour of word-love.
It’s about:
- saying something with a dash of flair;
- burnishing vibrant ideas onto a reader’s heart; and …
- milking every single word you write in a way quintessentially your own.
Creative writing is all around us.
In business, creative writing is often referred to as copywriting — a form of witty wordsmithing blended with implicit or explicit brand messaging to emphasize product features, market position, and brand vision.
From movie scripts to books to greeting cards and much more, creative writing invokes ideas, intrigues minds, and inspires hearts.
In terms of style, anything goes.
While there are oodles of writing best practices out there, creative writing is an artistic form of expression that lends itself to rule bending (and breaking!).
Thus, the goal is less about prim and proper grammar rules and far more about squeezing all the expressive artistry from words and phrases to convey something memorable.
See my own creative writing style ethos and aspirations here.
About my own creative writing
I’ve been writing for a long time now, for all kinds of commercial projects and digital campaigns, and while I’m no novelist or grammar expert, creative writing for me is about the exhaling of emotion; period.
Keep in mind that emotion is, after all, a psychological construct comprised of:
- our social contexts and cultural cues,
- our inner dialogs,
- and our individual perceptions.
For me, therefore, creative writing attempts to:
- extrapolate meaning from said constructs; and
- articulate abstractions, based from my own emotional nature, in an artistically composed way.
Everyone’s style differs.
My style of creative writing is unique to me, and yours is unique to you.
And to the many who creatively write beyond you and me, their style is just as unique as yours and mine.
So there is no right or wrong way to creatively write, per se, as these are subjective terms.
In other words, you have to:
- love word assembly;
- seek to communicate in enjoyable and meaningful ways; and …
- … pursue creative expression with unceasing vigor and untempered passion.
What does creative writing mean to you?
And what other creative writers do you enjoy reading about?
Please share your thoughts and ideas with me in the comments and thank you for reading.
