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Creative writing - Wikipedia
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Creative writing is any writing that goes outside the bounds of normal
professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature, typically
identified by an emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of
literary tropes or with various traditions of poetry and poetics. Due to the
looseness of the definition, it is possible for writing such as feature stories to
be considered creative writing, even though they fall under journalism, because the
content of features is specifically focused on narrative and character development.
Both fictional and non-fictional works fall into this category, including such
forms as novels, biographies, short stories, and poems. In the academic setting,
creative writing is typically separated into fiction and poetry classes, with a
focus on writing in an original style, as opposed to imitating pre-existing genres
such as crime or horror. Writing for the screen and stage—screenwriting and
playwriting—are often taught separately, but fit under the creative writing
category as well.

Creative writing can technically be considered any writing of original composition.

In this sense, creative writing is a more contemporary and process-oriented name
for what has been traditionally called literature, including the variety of its
genres. In her work, Foundations of Creativity, Mary Lee Marksberry references Paul
Witty and Lou LaBrant’s Teaching the People's Language to define creative writing.
Marksberry notes:
“ Witty and LaBrant…[say creative writing] is a composition of any type of
writing at any time primarily in the service of such needs as

the need for keeping records of significant experience,

the need for sharing experience with an interested group, and
the need for free individual expression which contributes to mental and
physical health.[1]

”
In academia[edit]

Unlike its academic counterpart of writing classes that teach students to compose
work based on the rules of the language, creative writing is believed to focus on
students’ self-expression.[2] While creative writing as an educational subject is
often available at some stages, if not throughout, K–12 education, perhaps the most
refined form of creative writing as an educational focus is in universities.
Following a reworking of university education in the post-war era, creative writing
has progressively gained prominence in the university setting. In the UK, the first
formal creative writing program was established as a Master of Arts degree at the
University of East Anglia in 1970 [3] by the novelists Malcolm Bradbury and Angus
Wilson. With the beginning of formal creative writing programs:
“ For the first time in the sad and enchanting history of literature, for the
first time in the glorious and dreadful history of the world, the writer was
welcome in the academic place. If the mind could be honored there, why not the
imagination?[4] ”
Programs of study[edit]

Creative Writing programs are typically available to writers from the high school
level all the way through graduate school/university and adult education.
Traditionally these programs are associated with the English departments in the
respective schools, but this notion has been challenged in recent time as more
creative writing programs have spun off into their own department. Most Creative
Writing degrees for undergraduates in college are Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees
(BFA).[citation needed] Some continue to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in Creative
Writing, the terminal degree in the field. At one time rare, PhD. programs are
becoming more prevalent in the field, as more writers attempt to bridge the gap
between academic study and artistic pursuit.

Creative writers typically decide an emphasis in either fiction or poetry, and they
usually start with short stories or simple poems.[citation needed] They then make a
schedule based on this emphasis including literature classes, education classes and
workshop classes to strengthen their skills and techniques. Though they have their
own programs of study in the fields of film and theatre, screenwriting and
playwriting have become more popular in creative writing programs, as creative
writing programs attempt to work more closely with film and theatre programs as
well as English programs. Creative writing students are encouraged to get involved
in extracurricular writing-based activities, such as publishing clubs, school-based
literary magazines or newspapers, writing contests, writing colonies or
conventions, and extended education classes.
Job options[edit]

Jobs directly related to a degree in creative writing include:

Advertising copywriter
Arts administrator
Creative director
Digital copywriter
Editorial assistant
Lexicographer
Magazine journalist
Newspaper journalist
Web content manager
Writer

Jobs indirectly related include:

Academic librarian
Film director
Information officer
Marketing executive
Primary school teacher
Public librarian
Public relations officer
Secondary school teacher
Social media manager

In the classroom[edit]

Creative writing is usually taught in a workshop format rather than seminar style.
In workshops students usually submit original work for peer critique. Students also
format a writing method through the process of writing and re-writing. Some courses
teach the means to exploit or access latent creativity or more technical issues
such as editing, structural techniques, genres, random idea generating or
unblocking writer's block . Some noted authors, such as Michael Chabon, Kazuo
Ishiguro, Kevin Brockmeier, Ian McEwan, Karl Kirchwey,[5] Rose Tremain and reputed
screenwriters, such as David Benioff, Darren Star and Peter Farrelly, have
graduated from university creative writing programs.
Controversy in academia[edit]

Creative writing is considered by some academics (mostly in the USA) to be an

extension of the English discipline, even though it is taught around the world in
many languages. The English discipline is traditionally seen as the critical study
of literary forms, not the creation of literary forms. Some academics see creative
writing as a challenge to this tradition. In the UK and Australia, as well as
increasingly in the USA and the rest of the world, creative writing is considered a
discipline in its own right, not an offshoot of any other discipline.
“ To say that the creative has no part in education is to argue that a
university is not universal.[6] ”

Those who support creative writing programs either as part or separate from the
English discipline, argue for the academic worth of the creative writing
experience. They argue that creative writing hones the students’ abilities to
clearly express their thoughts and that creative writing entails an in-depth study
of literary terms and mechanisms so they can be applied to the writer’s own work to
foster improvement. These critical analysis skills are further used in other
literary study outside the creative writing sphere. Indeed, the process of creative
writing, the crafting of a thought-out and original piece, is considered by some to
be experience in creative problem solving.

Despite the large number of academic creative writing programs throughout the
world, many people argue that creative writing cannot be taught. Louis Menand
explores the issue in an article for the New Yorker in which he quotes Kay Boyle,
the director of creative writing program at San Francisco State for sixteen years,
who said, “all creative-writing programs ought to be abolished by law.” [7]
Contemporary discussions of creative writing at the university level vary widely;
some people value MFA programs and regard them with great respect, whereas many MFA
candidates and hopefuls lament their chosen programs' lack of both diversity and
genre awareness.
Elements[edit]
Forms and genres of literature[edit]
See also[edit]
Further reading[edit]

Brewer, R.L. (ed.). 2014 Writer's Market. Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books,
2013.
Cox, M. "A Dictionary of Writers and Their Works." Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2010.
Everett, Nick. 2005. "Creative Writing and English." The Cambridge Quarterly.
34 (3):231-242.
Fenza, D. "The AWP Official Guide To Writing Programs". Fairfax, Va:
Association of Writers & Writing Programs, 2004.
Mark McGurl (2009), The Program Era: Postwar Fiction and the Rise of Creative
Writing, Harvard University Press, ISBN 978-0-67-403319-1
Myers, D. G. The Elephants Teach: Creative Writing since 1880. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2006.
Palmer, A.J. "Writing and Imagery - How to Deepen Your Creativity and Improve
Your Writing." [Aber Books]2010. Republished as Writing and Imagery - How to Avoid
Writer's Block (How to Become an Author). [Aber Books 2013]
Roy, Pinaki. “Reflections on the Art of Producing Travelogues”. Images of Life:
Creative and Other Forms of Writing (ed. Mullick, S.), Kolkata: The Book World,
2014 (ISBN 978-93-81231-03-6), pp. 111–29.

References[edit]

^ Marksberry, Mary Lee. Foundation of Creativity. Harper's Series on Teaching.

(New York ; London: Harper & Row, 1963), 39.
^ Johnson, Burges and Syracuse University. "Creative Writing", 3.
^ "Creative Writing - UEA". www.uea.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 2014-
05-22. Retrieved 2014-05-14.
^ Engle, Paul. "The Writer and the Place." In A Community of Writers: Paul
Engle and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, edited by Robert Dana, 2(Iowa City:
University of Iowa Press, 1999).
^ JOHN SWANSBURG (April 29, 2001). "At Yale, Lessons in Writing and in Life".
The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2011-03-31. Retrieved 2010-10-15.
"Karl Kirchwey, who graduated from Yale in 1979, recently became the director of
creative writing at Bryn Mawr College, after having run the Unterberg Poetry Center
at the 92nd Street Y for over a decade."
^ Engle, Paul. "The Writer and the Place," 3.
^ "Show or Tell - Should Creative Writing be Taught?" by Louis Menand - The New
Yorker, June 8, 2009, Newyorker.com Archived 2009-08-30 at the Wayback Machine

External links[edit]