So many of us aspiring to be writers read pieces of advice on being ‘good writers’ by tens and hundreds every day. Presumably, we think taking classes from certified teachers and professionals and practicing writing wordy essays upon essays will help improve our creative writing skills. I find this approach to creative writing slightly flawed.
The secrets of good creative writing have been discussed time and again, but maybe ‘good’ creative writing is not the right pursuit. One key difference between good creative writing and talented creative writing is that the former is a product of mere technique and grammatical rules, whereas the latter is informed by linguistic and aesthetic sensitivity.
Advertising agencies and other writing-related jobs are looking for talented creative writing skills in their writers therefore, that’s what you should be flaunting in your writing. Let’s blend this pursuit of creative writing skills with constructive advice from renowned writers and critics of the English language, and see how we can dramatically improve our creative writing skills.
1.“Talented writing makes things happen in the reader’s mind — vividly, forcefully — that good writing, which stops with clarity and logic, doesn’t.” – Samuel Delany
As much as you need correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling in your writing, with creative writing, the focal point of writing must always pivot on making things alive for your readers. While good creative writing corrects grammar and punctuation to convey the right meaning to the readers, talented creative writing makes your work a page-turner. And to make things happen in the reader’s mind, the writer must first see them move in real time in his/her own mind.
To put it straightforwardly, creative writing is a product of brutally strong imagination. Widen and strengthen your imagination with exposure to imaginative works of art, music, and literature. Instead of copying the works of your creative ideals, try to learn how they think and produce masterpieces of your own.
2.“My belief in book writing is much the same as my belief in shoemaking. The man who will work the hardest at it, and will work with the most honest purpose, will work the best.” – Anthony Trollope
It is very important to add a part of yourself to your creative writing. This little part of you in all of your writings is what determines your signature style as a writer. You will only be able to produce high-quality work that people can relate to if you write integrate honesty and truth in your writing. Hence, write what you believe in, write what you stand up for, write what comes in line with your opinion, and never the opposite.
Secondly, “No art ever came out of not risking your neck”, says Eudora Welty. Like all art forms, writing demands physical and mental exertion; even more so in this age of laptops and smartphones. Be prepared to spend days and nights, isolated, working, until you finally produce something worthwhile. Invest time, lots of it, in reading, writing, editing, proofreading, and critically analyzing your own work before you make it public.
3.“Work on one thing at a time until finished.” – Henry Miller
More often than not, as a creative writer, you will have the feeling as if words have escaped you. You will think over and over, harder and harder, to come up with something substantial to write or the right words to describe accurately that something substantial, but to no avail. In the world of writers, this state of mind is referred to as ‘Writer’s Block’. However, once a creative writer gets too comfortable in this state, he/she gradually begin to lose their ability to write altogether.
Try and overcome your writer’s block by setting deadlines and finishing the work you started. Don’t fret too much about quality, but emphasize quantity. “You have to finish things — that’s what you learn from, you learn by finishing things”, is Neil Gaiman’s advice to aspiring creative writers. Do not move on to the next thing until you’ve finished the first. Focus primarily on finishing the writing and only then move on to editing and fine-tuning the piece.
4.“You can only write regularly if you’re willing to write badly… Accept bad writing as a way of priming the pump, a warm-up exercise that allows you to write well.” – Jennifer Egan
This advice from Jennifer Egan is an essential part of the process of creative writing. Most people lose their heads when they can’t write up to a certain standard. They fail to understand that bad writing is a warm-up exercise, a draft for top-notch creative writing. However, the key lies in learning from the flaws in your bad writing and working on improving them.
5.“A page of Addison or of Irving will teach more of style than a whole manual of rules, whilst a story of Poe’s will impress upon the mind a more vivid notion of powerful and correct description and narration than will ten dry chapters of a bulky textbook.” – H.P. Lovecraft
These words from H.P. Lovecraft should be engraved in the creative writing bible (if there is one). Creative writing is not learned or acquired; it’s inspired. An English teacher or an English textbook can tell you what the literary circle deems technically correct, but they cannot instill a creative writing style in you. That comes from reading. No one but you can figure out for yourself your source of inspiration. Read the works of writers whom you can closely relate to and those who help shape your inner inclinations into words.
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