What is creative writing? Writing creatively, you might say. Or, creative writing is the opposite of writing factual stuff, like an instruction manual or a textbook. Well, yes, but what does this mean? 

I’m teaching a creative writing class this semester at my local homeschooling co-op. For fifty minutes once a week, I’m teaching 11-15 year-olds the basics of storytelling. I started off the class with my own interpretation of what “creativity” and “creative writing” mean. Below is a version of what I gave to them as handouts at the beginning of class. Hopefully it will get them thinking about what it means to be creative and to tell stories. 

What is Creativity? 

Creativity is a way of thinking about or reacting to a situation or a concept that is new or different from what’s been done before. Creativity is “thinking outside the box.” 

Creativity involves using our imagination. With imagination and creativity, we can make our thoughts become real, we can turn one thing into something completely different, we can make something from nothing. Every human achievement throughout history (from the controlling of fire and the invention of the wheel, all the way to inventing smart phones and the International Space Station) is because of human creativity. 

Humans are unique among all creatures because of our ability to create. Even highly intelligent animals, like birds or apes, who can use tools or mimic human speech, do not have the same level of creativity that can turn nothing into something. Animals cannot think about an abstract concept, like love or sadness or sacrifice, and turn that concept into a novel or an opera or a painting. Even intelligent animals cannot make nothing into something. 

What is Creative Writing?  

There are many ways to be creative, but creative writing is about using words to tell stories.  

Stories can instruct, inform, or entertain. We write for these reasons, as well as to experience something ourselves in the act of writing, to reach beyond ourselves and our time and leave a legacy, or to understand a concept. 

The most impactful stories are about the human condition. No matter the time period or the culture, all humans share a desire to be loved and respected, a desire to learn and explore, a desire to protect the things we care about. We all have experienced love, sadness, fear, or excitement. The best stories, those written long ago and new stories that haven’t been written yet, all involve some of these basic human concepts and experiences. 

There are certain ways to tell a story (and thus portray some of these human experiences) that are more effective than others. When it comes to creativity, there’s no right or wrong way to do it – however, there are certain techniques to telling a Really Good Story that make that story resonate with people across time and cultures. 

There are three basic parts to building a Really Good Story: Plot, Setting, and Characters. With our gift of human creativity, a writer can put together a series of events (plot), a place (setting), and a few people (characters), and can tell a Really Good Story that people can enjoy over and over again. 

What does creative writing mean to you?