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What is Creative Writing?

Part I | II | III | IV

by Laurie Rozakis, Ph.D.

This is my letter to the world,
That never wrote to me, --
The simple news that Nature told,
With tender majesty.

Her message is committed
To hands I cannot see;
For love of her, sweet countrymen,
Judge tenderly, of me!
-- Emily Dickinson

~~~~

Every time we write for others, we send our "letter to the world." It is often terrifying to expose our innermost thoughts and private ideas to the judgment of others. "What will they think of my writing?" we worry. "What will they think of me?" we fear. It's no wonder that poet Emily Dickinson begged her readers to judge her "tenderly."

Today we regard Emily Dickinson as one of the foremost poets in America, if not the world. Yet during Dickinson's lifetime (1830-1886), few people outside her native Amherst, Massachusetts, had ever heard of her. And if they had, they considered her to be somewhat odd: a recluse who never married and dressed only in white. She never held a job; she never traveled.

During her lifetime, Dickinson wrote 1,775 poems -- yet she published only seven, and all anonymously. The complete collection of her poetry wasn't published until 1955, long after her death.

Ahead of the Curve

There were many reasons why Emily Dickinson didn't share her creative writing with others. In part, her hesitancy was based on the unusual form of her poems. Her writing was so creative that it was unlike anything ever seen before.

In her day, poems rhymed and concerned "acceptable" topics such as nature, love, and famous people. Dickinson wrote about radical topics in radical ways. In fact, the poem you read in the beginning of this chapter didn't look that way at all originally. Dickinson's first editor "cleaned" the poem up to pass muster with readers. Here's the original version:

This is my letter to the World
That never wrote to Me --
The simple News that Nature told --
With tender Majesty

Her Message is committed
To Hands I cannot see --
For love of her -- Sweet -- countrymen --
Judge tenderly -- of Me

As you can see, Dickinson didn't use conventional punctuation. Instead, she used dashes in place of commas, semicolons, periods, and colons. She also shunned the everyday rules of capitalization. Her poems just didn't look and sound like poems were supposed to look and sound, and so she could not get them published. So why did she persist writing in the face of such disappointment?

Music of the Heart

Emily Dickinson wrote because she wanted to; she wrote because she had to. Creative writing filled her soul with joy, as it does yours and mine. She wrote because it fulfilled a need, because she had something to say. She wrote because creative writing nourishes the soul as few other artistic endeavors can. Writer Kate Braverman put it this way: "Writing is like hunting. There are brutally cold afternoons with nothing in sight, only the wind and your breaking heart. Then the moment when you bag something big. The entire process is beyond intoxicating."

Creative writing allows you to:

• assert your demands
• cement a friendship
• channel your emotions
• declare your love
• entertain others
• express your feelings
• explore yourself
• free yourself from inhibitions
• inspire others to create
• move others to action or belief
• pledge your support
• raise your self-esteem
• rouse others to action
• settle disputes, even wars!
• stretch the boundaries of the form
• travel the road to self-discovery
• vent your frustrations
• boost your creativity
• communicate your ideas
• cope with traumatic loss
• display your inventiveness
• evaluate something
• explore an idea
• find solace in a confusing world
• interpret information
• make a difference in the world
• persuade others
• promote self-understanding
• report information
• record a memory
• share your artistry
• tap into the well-spring of your energy
• wash away bitterness
• work through anger and despair

Creative writing is self-expression, liberation from the constraints of everyday life. And when you write, you are strong. Modern writer John Updike compares being a creative writer to being a sailor who sets a course out to sea. A creative writer is like an explorer, a groundbreaker. Creative writing allows you to chart your own course and boldly go where no one has gone before.

There are many different ways that people write, just as there are many different reasons why they write. Later in this book we'll explore the ways -- the methods of writing -- so you can find the ones that best suit your audience and style. Right now, let's look at some of the reasons why people write, their purpose for writing. Then you can begin to see which ones will help you to express your creativity.

Part I - What Is Creative Writing?
Part II - Write for Self-Discovery >>>
Part III - Write for Knowledge
Part IV - Write to Evaluate Something

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