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.