Creative Writing Defintion and 7 Tips to Clear Writer’s Block
I call myself a creative writer. Those two words are the last two words at the bottom of the last page of my business resume. Partly, because it is tongue in cheek and partly because it is the truth. I really can’t tell if I love being a writer more than an oil painter, gourmet cook, business woman or mother. Being a writer is definitely up there in the top ten. And being a creative writer is the equivalent of have authentic European style mocha butter-cream frosting on my birthday cake.
Creative writers are generally at one end of the spectrum while technical writers are at the other. It’s somewhat like using artists and engineers to create a spectrum. It’s not to say that an engineer couldn’t be an artist of any sort, far from it as I have known and taught several engineers how to oil paint, but for the sake of this blog entry, let’s just look at creative writing and how you need it to help your blog be fresh and engaging and perhaps remove some “blog writer’s block”.
Straight out of Wikipedia.org is this creative writing definition:
Creative writing is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems. Writing for the screen and stage, screenwriting and playwriting respectively, typically have their own programs of study, but fit under the creative writing category as well.
All right, maybe that wasn’t very helpful and I suggest you read the rest of their page as it is loaded with the “dreams and imaginings of youth” and “English Literature departments” and so forth. The main idea of the above definition is to show how wide a net can be cast on the subject of creative writing. Where do you fit in? I’m definitely fiction and non-fiction, novels, short stories and play- and screenwriting although I have yet to be formally published. (Psssst! I’ll be blogging in the future about my self-publishing experiences).
Even if your blog is technical, creative writing can round out the dry material with juicy comments and you can use humor to lighten the boring material and make you more memorable. After all, people return to blogs that have short stories that are well crafted, engaging –perhaps entertaining and/or contain useful information. (Creative writing can even be done without words by using images only –and that I would call story boarding which could only be created by a mind that has strong creative writing skills and great storytelling abilities. Check out Squidoo for some cool storyboarding if you are looking for something to write about or be inspired by.)
Most people who blog are approaching their website content from the “creative writing blog” standpoint without realizing it. It is important that you become aware of this so that you can constantly seize fresh material with zeal and write new posts with urgency.
If you find you experience writer’s block, do not worry! Just remembering that you are a creative writer is all you need to get you in the spirit of things. Try these 7 tips the next time you get stuck: (Remember to keep your answers short and positive, not sassy and negative)
1.) Read a creative writing definition or two on the web or in a dictionary.
2.) Write down the ways that you are a creative writer.
3.) Write about why you think you are stuck, even if you think it isn’t productive.
4.) Write about the purpose of your blog.
5.) Write about how it feels to have to forgive the reason why you think you are stuck even if this makes you angry. This generally will clear the block. If you think you can’t do this step, write about how it will feel to be stuck with the feeling of writer’s block forever.
6.) Write this affirmation down and say it out loud as a test of your willingness to forge ahead: “I allow myself to have and enjoy all good things.” (I’ll be curious…did you sigh? Yawn? Feel emotions come up when you said this? That’s the best sign that the block is releasing!)
7.) Remember that “all things exist in time and space” and that the blog entry that you desire already exists and is waiting for you to remember it. Perhaps when you think about this concept, you can simply express gratitude that you know this little known fact and reclaim some peace of mind.
My own creative writing definition is this:
Creative Writing allows me to have permission to write what I feel, what I think, what I want, what I need, what I love or hate; at any time, any place, with or without anyone present –or any thing; and, it is okay to use any words or images in any sentence or paragraph without grammar, spelling, punctuation or writing rules, other mind trips or head games to stop me. I believe I have a gift for creative writing because I have Irish genes in me. I think the storytelling gene is part and parcel to the DNA package.
All my creative best…
BONUS POINTS: What’s your creative writing definition? –or how do you solve writer’s block?
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