How do I get started with creative writing?
I have a small background in magazine journalism but my new job requires no writing at all, except for emails.
I would like to start doing some creative writing but I don’t know where to start, as in, what do I write about, and whether it’s actually worth bothering with or not. I’d probably be more inclined to do it if there was a competition or group I could join online or something like that.
Does anyone do any writing or their own, if so, how did you get started? And what have you gotten out of it?
I was a creative writing major, and some of the exercises they professor gave us were pretty neat. Here are some:
- Start with ten individual sentences. From each sentence, create ten more sentences that are connected to it. Afterward, you will have a total of 100 sentences. Believe me, it’s a lot harder than it seems. For example, if you start with sentence 1. The house is painted in green. 2. The garden needs weeding, 3, 4, and so on, and I gather that you want to be more creative than those simple sentences. So from that first sentence, 1. The house is painted in green. The following sentence will be 2. The green color resembles the mucus fallen out of Tommy’s nostrils as coughed for the fifth time in two minutes. 3. Tommy had never seen the house before, or else he would be reminded of that embarassing evidence once he’d seen the yucky color. 4. But the house can’t help that it is painted in green. 5. Mr. Martin, the owner, only has twenty bucks left in his pocket, and on a whim, he drove to Home Depot and bought the first bucket of color that fits his budget. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, will continue. You get one story. Then start again with the second sentence above. This should keep you busy and wrinking your head as it did mine. Although these examples are just created now on the spur of the moment.
- Another creative idea is to write sentences, or even a small paragraph without any word that has an "e." For example, "Holly laughs out loud on our front porch. Holly’s grandma scowls at Holly’s hilarious mouth. It winks and works up and down as though it is ill." Etc. See, no "e."
- This exercise is a difficult one. Start with sentence, and from that sentence, focus on it and feel as though that sentence will "give birth" to the second sentence," and so on. This is not a stream of conscious writing. It is not supposed to work that way. Rather, you will have to feel the writing. When you write that sentence, and the following sentences, you feel as though the language writes for itself. You’re an instrument that writes. But the sentence that you created will actually breeds more sentences so that they flow seamlessly from one to the next.
That’s all I can think of at the moment. The bookstore and library also offer exercise tips for creative writing from poets and fictional writers. Good luck and enjoy! If you follow these examples and write them, you’ll be surprised at your work. It will not be the typical work and ideas that you’re used to, but you’ll love it. I know I did.
If you just want to write fiction…try fictionpress.com. It’s an online forum and it would allow people to read your writings and review them. There’s also another one fanfiction.net but that’s for like…if you want to write something based on another media, like a book or tv show.
References :
For a warm-up, try writing about 500 of a place you remember from your childhood. Describe not only the technical aspects of the place(like space or condition), but also go into what sort feelings the area evokes.
It doesn’t have to be a place though. You could talk about your first day of school, or a nightmare you had. Anything. That’s what my teacher did for a first assignment in a beginners course in Creative Writing…though I have been writing for who knows how long–I sure don’t remember how long.
What did I get out of writing? Well, for one–an imaginative world I can visit when times are rough in the real world. And happiness and satisfaction. Despite the ups and downs writing gives me–it’s something I love to do. I like stories, and I like storytelling.
References :
The best ideas for creative writing are taken from the author’s life, unless they just have an amazing imagination. Personally, I just use metaphors for exaggerated events of my life for the foundations of my writings. Is it worth it? That depends on who you ask and what their original intentions for writing were. I’ll never be published or win an award, but when I have kids I plan to use my writings for bed time stories.
References :
There’s a couple of options. First you can join a local writing group. Attend it a few times to see if you like the group or not. There’s a lot of variation between them and they’re very much driven by personalities of the writers. If you don’t like one, attend another. This will let you get a good feel for the quality of writing and general feel of the group, without having to put too much of yourself on the line up front. Any good group would be glad to let you sit in on a few critiques.
Secondly, you could consider taking a class at a local college, or community annex. It’ll cost you some money, but they’ll introduce you to the basics of style and other aspects.
Personally, stories just come to me. Sometimes they pop in my head in great details, other times I get just a little inkling of an idea that I play with and fold around in my head or on screen until it fills out. Before long, all of my ideas are pretty much forcing themselves out of brain through my finger tips, lest I go insane.
However, not everyone does it the same way. I know several writers who have to really look and search for story ideas. Either way it really takes a lot of work and discipline to sit at a keyboard, writing despite how many ideas we have.
Good luck!
References :
I was a creative writing major, and some of the exercises they professor gave us were pretty neat. Here are some:
- Start with ten individual sentences. From each sentence, create ten more sentences that are connected to it. Afterward, you will have a total of 100 sentences. Believe me, it’s a lot harder than it seems. For example, if you start with sentence 1. The house is painted in green. 2. The garden needs weeding, 3, 4, and so on, and I gather that you want to be more creative than those simple sentences. So from that first sentence, 1. The house is painted in green. The following sentence will be 2. The green color resembles the mucus fallen out of Tommy’s nostrils as coughed for the fifth time in two minutes. 3. Tommy had never seen the house before, or else he would be reminded of that embarassing evidence once he’d seen the yucky color. 4. But the house can’t help that it is painted in green. 5. Mr. Martin, the owner, only has twenty bucks left in his pocket, and on a whim, he drove to Home Depot and bought the first bucket of color that fits his budget. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, will continue. You get one story. Then start again with the second sentence above. This should keep you busy and wrinking your head as it did mine. Although these examples are just created now on the spur of the moment.
- Another creative idea is to write sentences, or even a small paragraph without any word that has an "e." For example, "Holly laughs out loud on our front porch. Holly’s grandma scowls at Holly’s hilarious mouth. It winks and works up and down as though it is ill." Etc. See, no "e."
- This exercise is a difficult one. Start with sentence, and from that sentence, focus on it and feel as though that sentence will "give birth" to the second sentence," and so on. This is not a stream of conscious writing. It is not supposed to work that way. Rather, you will have to feel the writing. When you write that sentence, and the following sentences, you feel as though the language writes for itself. You’re an instrument that writes. But the sentence that you created will actually breeds more sentences so that they flow seamlessly from one to the next.
That’s all I can think of at the moment. The bookstore and library also offer exercise tips for creative writing from poets and fictional writers. Good luck and enjoy! If you follow these examples and write them, you’ll be surprised at your work. It will not be the typical work and ideas that you’re used to, but you’ll love it. I know I did.
References :