creative writing on library and its uses

Pursuing excellence for library service to children

Inspiring Young Writers at the Library

Have your kids suggest 10-20 words at random. Take a variety – nouns and verbs, short words and long words, silly words and every day words, etc. Write them up where everyone can see them and then issue the challenge: they have five minutes to use as many of these words in a story as possible. Resist the urge to make this into an outright competition, which will diminish their creativity. Some students may only be able to use one or two words, while others may be able to use all of them, but all students are challenging and expressing themselves.

Our Friend Sticky

For this exercise, we’re creating a character together. Start by drawing a simple stick figure where everyone can see. Maybe just a circle head and a line for the body. Please do not use your best drawing skills for this activity – the sillier and messier, the better. Ask the kids to provide some details for your character. What does their hair look like? How many legs do they have? Draw everything the kids say. Usually kids will start offering up silly details, from unicorn horns to bat wings. Remember to keep drawing, the messier the better. When you can’t fit any more details on your stick figure, turn the kids over to their own papers and ask them to make up a name for the character, and somewhere for the character to go. Then challenge them to start writing the character’s story!

The Magic Box

Before your program, create two boxes. One should be beautifully alluring: wrapped in sparkly paper, or painted in glittery gold, or topped with an enormous bow. One should be slightly worrying: painted black, draped in cotton cobwebs, or topped with DANGER in big red letters. Show your kids the first box, and give them fifteen minutes to write a story where a character, or the student themselves, wakes up to find that magical box on the foot of their bed. What’s inside? How did it get there? Once they’ve written their hearts out, stop them and tell them that next in their story, a second box should appear. Get out the eerie box, and turn your writers loose again!

Three Simple Rules To Remember To Have a Great Writing Program

• Don’t help spell words or correct grammar. Tell kids to make their best guess and that these things can be fixed later if they want. Programs are short, and we don’t want to waste our precious writing time!
• Let kids break the rules. If a student doesn’t want to write about Our Friend Sticky? No problem! They can make up their own character instead. A student hates our Magic Box and wants to keep working on their Wings of Fire fanfiction? We’re here to support you. You can’t encourage someone to write by telling them they can’t write what they want.
• Always provide time to share what students have written, but never force a student to share.

Happy writing!

Today’s guest blogger is Chelsey Roos . Chelsey has been a member of ALSC’s Advocacy and Legislation committee, and was most recently a children’s librarian at the Castro Valley Branch of the Alameda County Library.

This blog relates to ALSC Core Competencies of  III. Programming Skills

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"Mapping the Imaginary: Supporting Creative Writers through Programming, Prompts, and Research"

"Creating a Local History Archive at Your Public Library"

"Incubating Creativity at Your Library: A Sourcebook for Connecting with Communities"

For Immediate Release Thu, 06/27/2019

Rob Christopher

Marketing Coordinator

ALA Publishing

American Library Association

[email protected]

CHICAGO — Information professionals and educators can help patrons find their own stories in libraries—not only as readers, but also as writers. Stories, whether fiction, nonfiction, or verse, often have research behind them; and libraries and archives can welcome writers through informed programming and knowledgeable reference service. “ Mapping the Imaginary: Supporting Creative Writers through Programming, Prompts, and Research ,” published by ALA Editions, points the way towards making it happen. Riley Hanick, Micah Bateman, Jennifer Burek Pierce’s book enables programming and outreach librarians, reference staff, and educators to understand writers’ needs and then shows how to address these needs through library services and resources. Featuring a Foreword by Elizabeth McCracken, this book:

• draws on specific writing situations to illustrate the role of librarians and library resources in inspiring and creating stories of all kinds, from novels and plays to poetry, memoirs, and nonfiction;
• provides dozens of prompts, writing exercises, and activities that libraries can utilize for outreach and programming endeavors such as NaNoWriMo and National Poetry Month;
• offers astute observations on the connections between research and writing and discusses a wide range of resources, both print and electronic, that can address writers’ information needs;
• presents select bibliographies on writing and writers’ lives integral to library collections that support a community of authors;
• demonstrates how to use reference interviews as part of the research process;
• suggests ways to cultivate a writing community at the library by hosting writing groups, staging author events, and other initiatives; and
• shares advice on recruiting volunteers by reaching out to writers and teachers within the community.

Hanick is the author of “Three Kinds of Motion: Kerouac, Pollock, and the Making of American Highways” (Sarabande Books, 2015). His writing has appeared in The Sonora Review, Seneca Review, No Depression, eyeshot, Labor World , and many other publications. He has tutored and helped to facilitate creative writing programs in prisons, public schools, libraries and domestic violence shelters. Bateman is a Ph.D. candidate in English at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is an Andrew W. Mellon Engaged Scholar Initiative Fellow and the assistant director of the New Writers Project M.F.A. program. He is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop as well as the recipient of the Poetry Society of America's Lyric Poetry Award, and his chapbook of poems, “Polis,” is published by the Catenary Press. Burek Pierce is associate professor in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Iowa and the author of “ Sex, Brains, and Video Games, Second Edition: Information and Inspiration for Youth Services Librarians ,” now in its second edition. She created the "Youth Matters" column and contributed to American Libraries for more than a decade. She was awarded the 2018 Donald G. Davis Article Award by the Library History Round Table (LHRT) for her article “The Reign of Children: The Role of Games and Toys in American Public Libraries, 1877-1925,” published in Information & Culture .

ALA Store purchases fund advocacy, awareness and accreditation programs for library professionals worldwide. ALA Editions and ALA Neal-Schuman publishes resources used worldwide by tens of thousands of library and information professionals to improve programs, build on best practices, develop leadership, and for personal professional development. ALA authors and developers are leaders in their fields, and their content is published in a growing range of print and electronic formats. Contact ALA Editions at (800) 545-2433 ext. 5052 or [email protected].

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Creative Writing in the Library: 4 Prompts to Break the Ice

Micah Bateman, Fellow, Mellon Engaged Scholar Initiative, University of Texas at Austin

Whether your library is starting a recurring writing group or you’re just programming for a one-and-done creative writing session, it’s helpful to think of ways that generative writing prompts can not only launch your patrons into their process, but also help them get to know each other, you, and your collections and services.

To that end, I’ve assembled here four writing prompts that also serve as familiarizing icebreakers.

Getting to know names

It’s important for your writing group’s rapport that you and your patrons learn one another’s name so that everyone can feel recognized and counted.

• The prompt: Write a half-page poem or scene in which your name is dramatically announced.

Memoirists might write about the embarrassing time that their gym teacher singled them out by name. Biographers might write about someone famous who shares their name. Fiction writers might write about the revelation that their name was what their mysterious protagonist called his childhood sled. The point is to associate faces with names, so have everyone (who elects to) share their exercise aloud.

Getting to know each other

Once you know each other’s names, get to know each other’s personalities.

• The prompt: Write a half-page poem or scene in which you, the autobiographical you, have a supernatural ability. What is the ability, and how does it relate to your personal character? What do you do with it? What’s its limit or liability?

Answering one or more of these questions through a fun writing demonstration will assist the group in getting to know who’s who. Have those who elect to do so share their exercises.

Getting to know the library

Scatter some recent obituaries from various newspapers that your library carries on the table. Have each patron choose an obituary of one person who was alive in 1988.

• The prompt: Write a one-page poem or scene that features the deceased person’s activities at precisely 3:42 p.m. on Sept. 28, 1988.

Obviously this exercise will likely be speculative, but this speculation will benefit from a foundation in research for which you can provide some reference. What resources does your library carry that might be helpful for the task? These might include documents or books about historical fashion, microfilmed newspapers from the time, period yearbooks, or an introduction to various databases and computer clusters. This prompt will introduce your penning patrons to you and your resources.

Bringing it all together

If you’re looking for a single prompt to introduce your writing group to you, each other, and the library all in a single go, then look no further.

• The prompt: Write a one-page letter that is addressed to you from someone in the year 1858. The letter-writer knows things about you such as your name and your primary occupation. What do they want from you? And what do they reveal about themselves and their time?

This prompt will lead patrons to reveal their names and various particulars about themselves at the same time that they’ll have to consult you for reference regarding the year 1858. After writing a single page in a single session, your group should be familiar enough with each other and with your holdings to ease into a group routine or more in-depth exercise.

Micah Bateman is the co-author of "Mapping the Imaginary: Supporting Creative Writers through Programming, Prompts, and Research" (ALA Editions, 2019).

NaNoWriMo: Last-Minute Marketing

Cursive Writing Course

Obituary Writing Workshop

A Guide to English: Creative Writing

• An Introduction to Rhetoric
• Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing
• The Writing Process
• Formatting and Citations
• The Reference Collection
• Searching for Books
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• Scholarly Associations
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• Peoples and Identities
• Periods and Movements in American Literature
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• Thematic Genres and "Genre Fiction"
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Creative Writing

• Multimodal Composition
• Text Analysis / Distant Reading
• Digital Stewardship
• Data Visualization
• GIS and Geospatial Data
• Statistical Analysis
• Programming
• Digital Scholarly Editing

photo courtesy of Nic McPhee.

With your poetic license in your back pocket you can bypass research, right? Not really. Sometimes you need to check your facts for your fiction to work. Encountering something that is factually wrong can break the spell you've cast on your reader and throw them right out of the story. Besides, research can enrich your world-building and inspire you as you put your imagination to work.

Whether you are writing a literary novel, a poem, an essay, a book for young readers, or a multi-volume epic fantasy, your imaginary world sometimes needs an infusion of reality. What does this lonely stretch of highway in Arizona actually look like? Where could I find inspiration to jump-start this poem? What kind of treatment would my protagonist with PTSD get at a VA hospital? What kind of underwear did people wear back in the 1920s, because it needs to come off in this erotic scene.

Try browsing photos using  Google Images  or  Flickr , delving into historical publications using  Google Books , or viewing locations with  Google Earth . People can be a great resource, too. Be prepared to make some phone calls, set up visits, or conduct interviews. Check with a librarian if you have factual or context questions you are having trouble answering. 

These resources will help you think about ways your writing can find support - both as you create something new and as you navigate the writing business.

On this Page

Getting published, honing your craft, fiction writing, writers on writing, writing genre fiction, nonfiction writing.

Librarian's Note: These resources can help you find appropriate venues to submit your creative writing for publication. While it is true that there are more outlets than ever to get one's work published, and self-publishing (sometimes denigrated as the " vanity press ") has yielded occasional success stories, it is wise to research publications and publishers before submitting, and observe Yog's law whenever possible.

Online Resources

Print Resources

Writing Poetry

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Creative Writing

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Useful Websites

• How to Show, Not Tell: The Complete Writing Guide “Don’t tell me the moon is shining. Show me the glint of light on broken glass.” – Anton Chekov …
• Creative Writng Prompts From Writers Digest -- Need an idea to help you get started writing? You’ll find hundreds of fun writing prompts here – perfect for beginning a new novel or short story, or simply giving your writing muscle a workout.
• 365 Creative Writing Prompts If you want to become a better writer, the best thing you can do is practice writing every single day. But we know sometimes it can be hard to think of what to write about! So we put together this list of 365 creative writing prompts to give you something to write about daily. Whether you write short stories, poems, or like to keep a journal – these will stretch your imagination and give you some ideas on what to write about!
• Visual Writing Prompts Wide varitey of picture prompts to help you develope a story
• National Gallery, London Use these paintings to write a story about them.
• Smithsonian American Art Museum Search the collectioins to find inspiration for your writing!
• Musopen Musopen is a 501(c)(3) non-profit focused on increasing access to music by creating free resources and educational materials. We provide recordings, sheet music, and textbooks to the public for free, without copyright restrictions. Put simply, our mission is to set music free. Use the music to prompt your writing; what is the story they are telling?
• How to write descriptively - Nalo Hopkinson The point of fiction is to cast a spell, a momentary illusion that you are living in the world of the story. But as a writer, how do you suck your readers into your stories in this way? Nalo Hopkinson shares some tips for how to use language to make your fiction really come alive.
• How to Become Descriptive Writer A video lesson!

Writers on Writing

Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.  --  E. L. Doctorow

Be sure to click on the link  to the left for Kids & Teens info (Kids & Teens Write)!

Writing Guides & Creativity Exercises

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• URL: https://guides.mysapl.org/creativewriting

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1.1: Intro to Creative Writing

• Last updated
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• Page ID 132138

• Sybil Priebe
• North Dakota State College of Science via Independent Published

chapter 1: intro to creative writing:

Creative writing\(^7\) is any writing that goes outside the bounds of “normal”\(^8\) “professional,”\(^9\) journalistic, “academic,”\(^{10}\) 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 nonfictional 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 playwrighting—are often taught separately but fit under the creative writing category as well.

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

the creative process: \(^{11}\)

Some people can simply sit down to write and have something to write about. For others, finding something to write about can be the hardest part of creative writing. Assuming that you are not in the first group, there are several things you can do to create ideas. Not all of these will work for all people, but most are at least useful tools in the process. Also, you never know when you might have an idea. Write down any ideas you have at any time and expand on them later.

For stories and poetry, the simplest method is to immerse yourself in the subject matter. If you want to write a short story, read a lot of short stories. If you want to write a poem, read poems. If you want to write something about love, read a lot of things about love, no matter the genre. 

the writing process “reminder”\(^{12}\)

Please Note: Not all writers follow these steps perfectly and with each project, but let’s review them to cover our butts:

BRAINSTORMING

PROOFREADING

Outline\(^{13}\) your entire story so you know what to write.  Start by writing a summary of your story in 1 paragraph. Use each sentence to explain the most important parts of your story. Then, take each sentence of your paragraph and expand it into greater detail. Keep working backward to add more detail to your story. This is known as the “snowflake method” of outlining.

getting started:

Find a comfortable space to write: consider the view, know yourself well enough to decide what you need in that physical space (music? coffee? blanket?).

Have the right tools: computer, notebook, favorite pens, etc.

Consider having a portable version of your favorite writing tool (small notebook or use an app on your phone?).

Start writing and try to make a daily habit out of it, even if you only get a paragraph or page down each day.

Keys to creativity: curiosity, passion, determination, awareness, energy, openness, sensitivity, listening, and observing...

getting ideas:

Ideas are everywhere! Ideas can be found:

Notebook or Image journal

Media: Magazines, newspapers, radio, TV, movies, etc.

Conversations with people

Artistic sources like photographs, family albums, home movies, illustrations, sculptures, and paintings.

Daily life: Standing in line at the grocery store, going to an ATM, working at your campus job, etc.

Music: Song lyrics, music videos, etc.

Beautiful or Horrible Settings

Favorite Objects

Favorite Books

How to generate ideas:

Play the game: "What if..."

Play the game: "I wonder..."

Use your favorite story as a model.

Revise favorite stories - nonfiction or fiction - into a different genre.

writer's block:\(^{14}\)

Writer’s block can happen to ANYONE, so here are some ways to break the block if it happens to you:

Write down anything that comes to mind. 

Try to draw ideas from what has already been written.

Take a break from writing. 

Read other peoples' writing to get ideas.

Talk to people. Ask others if they have any ideas.

Don't be afraid of writing awkwardly. Write it down and edit it later.

Set deadlines and keep them.

Work on multiple projects at a time; this way if you need to procrastinate on one project, you can work on another!

If you are jammed where you are, stop and write somewhere else, where it is comfortable.

Go somewhere where people are. Then people-watch. Who are these people? What do they do? Can you deduce\(^{15}\) anything based on what they are wearing or doing or saying? Make up random backstories for them, as if they were characters in your story.

peer workshops and feedback acronyms: \(^{16}\)

Having other humans give you feedback will help you improve misunderstandings within your work. Sometimes it takes another pair of eyes to see what you “missed” in your own writing. Please try not to get upset by the feedback; some people give creative criticism and others give negative criticism, but you will eventually learn by your own mistakes to improve your writing and that requires peer review and feedback from others. 

If you are comfortable having your friends and family read your work, you could have them\(^{17}\) peer review your work. Have a nerdy friend who corrects your grammar? Pay them in pizza perhaps to read over your stuff!? If you are in college, you can use college tutors to review your work.

Peer Workshop activities can help create a “writing group vibe” to any course, so hopefully, that is a part of the creative writing class you are taking.

WWW and TAG

The acronyms involved with feedback – at least according to the educators of Twitter – are WWW and TAG. Here’s what they stand for, so feel free to use these strategies in your creative writing courses OR when giving feedback to ANYONE.

Are you open to the kinds of feedback you’ll get using that table above with the WWW/TAG pieces?

What do you typically want feedback on when it comes to projects? Why?

What do you feel comfortable giving feedback to classmates on? Why?

\(^7\)"Creative Writing." Wikipedia . 13 Nov 2016. 21 Nov 2016, 19:39 < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_writing >. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

\(^8\)Whoa, what is normal anyway?

\(^9\)What IS the definition of “professionalism”?

\(^{10}\)Can’t academic writing be creative?

\(^{11}\)"Creative Writing/Introduction." Wikibooks, The Free Textbook Project . 10 May 2009, 04:14 UTC. 9 Nov 2016, 19:39

< https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php...&oldid=1495539 >. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

\(^{12}\)It doesn’t really matter who created it; all you need to know is that you don’t HAVE to follow it perfectly. Not many people do.

\(^{13}\)Wikihow contributors. "How to Write Science Fiction." Wikihow. 29 May 2019. Web. 22 June 2019. http://www.wikihow.com/Write-Science-Fiction . Text available under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).

\(^{14}\)"Creative Writing/Fiction technique." Wikibooks, The Free Textbook Project . 28 Jun 2016, 13:38 UTC. 9 Nov 2016, 20:36

< https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php...&oldid=3093632 >. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

\(^{15}\)Deduce = to reach a conclusion.

\(^{16}\)"Creative Writing/Peer Review." Wikibooks, The Free Textbook Project. 16 Aug 2016, 22:07 UTC. 9 Nov 2016, 20:12

< https://en.wikibooks.org/w/index.php...&oldid=3107005 >. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

\(^{17}\)This textbook we’ll try to use they/them pronouns throughout to be inclusive of all humans.

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Creative Writing

• Getting started

Your Subject Librarian

Fiona Paterson

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Based at: Northampton Square Library

Creative Writing library guide

• Key resources
• Finding books and e-books
• Finding journals
• Literature Online (Proquest Platform) Searchable library of literary texts, full-text journals, author biographies and critical and reference resources. Includes the Companions to Literature series from Cambridge University Press. Content is updated regularly. Accessibility information for Literature Online
• JSTOR Is an archive of important scholarly journals and e-books in the the arts, business and economics, history, the humanities, law, medicine and allied health, science and mathematics, and the social sciences. Accessibility information for JSTOR
• Drama Online Extensive collection of play scripts, recordings, criticism and playwright biographies from all time periods. Accessibility information for Drama Online
• London Review of Books Is Europe’s leading magazine of culture and ideas. Published twice a month, it explores a wide variety of subjects– from art, politics and fiction to science and technology. This archive contains every piece ever published in the magazine: over 13,500 articles by more than 2000 contributors from the past 30 years. Accessibility information for London Review of Books

• Granta Granta publishes new literary fiction, memoir, reportage and poetry from around the world. The entire back catalogue and latest issues are now available from online.
• OverDrive Provides access to a wide range of fiction and non-fiction e-books. Either read books online via your browser or download the Libby app from an app store. Accessibility information for Overdrive

The majority of books relating to Creative Writing can be found in the Northampton Square Library . The table below gives you some useful shelfmarks if you want to browse the library shelves for specific subject areas. 

Explore Creative Writing journals

Help with journals, help guides:.

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• Last Updated: Jan 18, 2024 3:30 PM
• URL: https://libguides.city.ac.uk/creativewriting

• University of Texas Libraries
• UT Libraries

Creative Writing

Getting started.

• Archives & Primary Sources
• Newspapers & Magazines
• Writing Resources
• Publishing Resources
• UT Poetry Center This link opens in a new window
• Black Voices & Anti-Racist Resources

This guide is designed to aid writers and artists embarking on creative writing projects. If you are a UT creative writing student and need further help with research for your creative project, please contact Gina Bastone, Humanities Librarian for English Literature. See her contact info on the right. 

Find Background Information

Wikipedia can be a great place to get some context on a topic, but the UT Libraries subscribe to reference databases that give you context, historical background, and bibliography lists for further reading. Unlike Wikipedia, these sources are written by scholars and experts. 

For more information on ebooks see the Ebook Guide

Find Books

The UT Libraries hold more than 9 million physical volumes, as well as many ebooks! Searching for books in the Libraries' catalog can be an excellent way to get introduced to a topic, as well as help you go deeper. We recommend that writers start their research for creative projects with a library catalog search!

• UT Libraries Catalog

Find Short Stories

Looking for short stories in a specific genre or about a certain subject? Use the Short Story Index! This tool is helpful for fiction writers who want examples of short stories. You can search by author and publication, too.

Note: Keep in mind that this is an index only––you won't find PDFs of the short stories. You'll need to follow up with a search in the library catalog to access the stories, and use the Ask A Librarian chat service if you have questions. 

Find Writing Residencies & Funding

Find literary awards and prizes, writer-in-residency programs, and other funding opportunities! Use Pivot, UT's subscription database for grants and funding opportunities. Pivot is a quirky tool, so if you need help, contact Gina Bastone. 

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• Last Updated: Aug 28, 2023 2:33 PM
• URL: https://guides.lib.utexas.edu/creativewrtg

Elements of Creative Writing

J.D. Schraffenberger, University of Northern Iowa

Rachel Morgan, University of Northern Iowa

Grant Tracey, University of Northern Iowa

Copyright Year: 2023

ISBN 13: 9780915996179

Publisher: University of Northern Iowa

Language: English

Formats Available

Conditions of use.

Learn more about reviews.

Reviewed by Robert Moreira, Lecturer III, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on 3/21/24

Unlike Starkey's CREATIVE WRITING: FOUR GENRES IN BRIEF, this textbook does not include a section on drama. read more

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

Unlike Starkey's CREATIVE WRITING: FOUR GENRES IN BRIEF, this textbook does not include a section on drama.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

As far as I can tell, content is accurate, error free and unbiased.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The book is relevant and up-to-date.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is clear and easy to understand.

Consistency rating: 5

I would agree that the text is consistent in terms of terminology and framework.

Modularity rating: 5

Text is modular, yes, but I would like to see the addition of a section on dramatic writing.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Topics are presented in logical, clear fashion.

Interface rating: 5

Navigation is good.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

No grammatical issues that I could see.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

I'd like to see more diverse creative writing examples.

As I stated above, textbook is good except that it does not include a section on dramatic writing.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Chapter One: One Great Way to Write a Short Story
• Chapter Two: Plotting
• Chapter Three: Counterpointed Plotting
• Chapter Four: Show and Tell
• Chapter Five: Characterization and Method Writing
• Chapter Six: Character and Dialouge
• Chapter Seven: Setting, Stillness, and Voice
• Chapter Eight: Point of View
• Chapter Nine: Learning the Unwritten Rules
• Chapter One: A Poetry State of Mind
• Chapter Two: The Architecture of a Poem
• Chapter Three: Sound
• Chapter Four: Inspiration and Risk
• Chapter Five: Endings and Beginnings
• Chapter Six: Figurative Language
• Chapter Seven: Forms, Forms, Forms
• Chapter Eight: Go to the Image
• Chapter Nine: The Difficult Simplicity of Short Poems and Killing Darlings

Creative Nonfiction

• Chapter One: Creative Nonfiction and the Essay
• Chapter Two: Truth and Memory, Truth in Memory
• Chapter Three: Research and History
• Chapter Four: Writing Environments
• Chapter Five: Notes on Style
• Chapter Seven: Imagery and the Senses
• Chapter Eight: Writing the Body
• Chapter Nine: Forms

Back Matter

• Contributors
• North American Review Staff

Ancillary Material

• University of Northern Iowa

About the Book

This free and open access textbook introduces new writers to some basic elements of the craft of creative writing in the genres of fiction, poetry, and creative nonfiction. The authors—Rachel Morgan, Jeremy Schraffenberger, and Grant Tracey—are editors of the North American Review, the oldest and one of the most well-regarded literary magazines in the United States. They’ve selected nearly all of the readings and examples (more than 60) from writing that has appeared in NAR pages over the years. Because they had a hand in publishing these pieces originally, their perspective as editors permeates this book. As such, they hope that even seasoned writers might gain insight into the aesthetics of the magazine as they analyze and discuss some reasons this work is so remarkable—and therefore teachable. This project was supported by NAR staff and funded via the UNI Textbook Equity Mini-Grant Program.

About the Contributors

J.D. Schraffenberger  is a professor of English at the University of Northern Iowa. He is the author of two books of poems,  Saint Joe's Passion  and  The Waxen Poor , and co-author with Martín Espada and Lauren Schmidt of  The Necessary Poetics of Atheism . His other work has appeared in  Best of Brevity ,  Best Creative Nonfiction ,  Notre Dame Review ,  Poetry East ,  Prairie Schooner , and elsewhere.

Rachel Morgan   is an instructor of English at the University of Northern Iowa. She is the author of the chapbook  Honey & Blood , Blood & Honey . Her work is included in the anthology  Fracture: Essays, Poems, and Stories on Fracking in American  and has appeared in the  Journal of American Medical Association ,  Boulevard ,  Prairie Schooner , and elsewhere.

Grant Tracey   author of three novels in the Hayden Fuller Mysteries ; the chapbook  Winsome  featuring cab driver Eddie Sands; and the story collection  Final Stanzas , is fiction editor of the  North American Review  and an English professor at the University of Northern Iowa, where he teaches film, modern drama, and creative writing. Nominated four times for a Pushcart Prize, he has published nearly fifty short stories and three previous collections. He has acted in over forty community theater productions and has published critical work on Samuel Fuller and James Cagney. He lives in Cedar Falls, Iowa.

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Creative Writing

creative writing n. writing which displays imagination or invention (sometimes differentiated from academic, journalistic, or other forms of writing which are more constrained in style or scope); also freq. (orig. U.S. ) as a subject of study.

Jason Seley,  1947 Books  (1983)

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What is Creative Writing? A Key Piece of the Writer’s Toolbox

Not all writing is the same and there’s a type of writing that has the ability to transport, teach, and inspire others like no other.

Creative writing stands out due to its unique approach and focus on imagination. Here’s how to get started and grow as you explore the broad and beautiful world of creative writing!

What is Creative Writing?

Creative writing is a form of writing that extends beyond the bounds of regular professional, journalistic, academic, or technical forms of literature. It is characterized by its emphasis on narrative craft, character development, and the use of literary tropes or poetic techniques to express ideas in an original and imaginative way.

Creative writing can take on various forms such as:

• short stories
• screenplays

It’s a way for writers to express their thoughts, feelings, and ideas in a creative, often symbolic, way . It’s about using the power of words to transport readers into a world created by the writer.

5 Key Characteristics of Creative Writing

Creative writing is marked by several defining characteristics, each working to create a distinct form of expression:

1. Imagination and Creativity: Creative writing is all about harnessing your creativity and imagination to create an engaging and compelling piece of work. It allows writers to explore different scenarios, characters, and worlds that may not exist in reality.

2. Emotional Engagement: Creative writing often evokes strong emotions in the reader. It aims to make the reader feel something — whether it’s happiness, sorrow, excitement, or fear.

3. Originality: Creative writing values originality. It’s about presenting familiar things in new ways or exploring ideas that are less conventional.

4. Use of Literary Devices: Creative writing frequently employs literary devices such as metaphors, similes, personification, and others to enrich the text and convey meanings in a more subtle, layered manner.

5. Focus on Aesthetics: The beauty of language and the way words flow together is important in creative writing. The aim is to create a piece that’s not just interesting to read, but also beautiful to hear when read aloud.

Remember, creative writing is not just about producing a work of art. It’s also a means of self-expression and a way to share your perspective with the world. Whether you’re considering it as a hobby or contemplating a career in it, understanding the nature and characteristics of creative writing can help you hone your skills and create more engaging pieces .

For more insights into creative writing, check out our articles on creative writing jobs and what you can do with a creative writing degree and is a degree in creative writing worth it .

Styles of Creative Writing

To fully understand creative writing , you must be aware of the various styles involved. Creative writing explores a multitude of genres, each with its own unique characteristics and techniques.

Poetry is a form of creative writing that uses expressive language to evoke emotions and ideas. Poets often employ rhythm, rhyme, and other poetic devices to create pieces that are deeply personal and impactful. Poems can vary greatly in length, style, and subject matter, making this a versatile and dynamic form of creative writing.

Short Stories

Short stories are another common style of creative writing. These are brief narratives that typically revolve around a single event or idea. Despite their length, short stories can provide a powerful punch, using precise language and tight narrative structures to convey a complete story in a limited space.

Novels represent a longer form of narrative creative writing. They usually involve complex plots, multiple characters, and various themes. Writing a novel requires a significant investment of time and effort; however, the result can be a rich and immersive reading experience.

Screenplays

Screenplays are written works intended for the screen, be it television, film, or online platforms. They require a specific format, incorporating dialogue and visual descriptions to guide the production process. Screenwriters must also consider the practical aspects of filmmaking, making this an intricate and specialized form of creative writing.

If you’re interested in this style, understanding creative writing jobs and what you can do with a creative writing degree can provide useful insights.

Writing for the theater is another specialized form of creative writing. Plays, like screenplays, combine dialogue and action, but they also require an understanding of the unique dynamics of the theatrical stage. Playwrights must think about the live audience and the physical space of the theater when crafting their works.

Each of these styles offers unique opportunities for creativity and expression. Whether you’re drawn to the concise power of poetry, the detailed storytelling of novels, or the visual language of screenplays and plays, there’s a form of creative writing that will suit your artistic voice. The key is to explore, experiment, and find the style that resonates with you.

For those looking to spark their creativity, our article on creative writing prompts offers a wealth of ideas to get you started.

Importance of Creative Writing

Understanding what is creative writing involves recognizing its value and significance. Engaging in creative writing can provide numerous benefits – let’s take a closer look.

Developing Creativity and Imagination

Creative writing serves as a fertile ground for nurturing creativity and imagination. It encourages you to think outside the box, explore different perspectives, and create unique and original content. This leads to improved problem-solving skills and a broader worldview , both of which can be beneficial in various aspects of life.

Through creative writing, one can build entire worlds, create characters, and weave complex narratives, all of which are products of a creative mind and vivid imagination. This can be especially beneficial for those seeking creative writing jobs and what you can do with a creative writing degree .

Enhancing Communication Skills

Creative writing can also play a crucial role in honing communication skills. It demands clarity, precision, and a strong command of language. This helps to improve your vocabulary, grammar, and syntax, making it easier to express thoughts and ideas effectively .

Moreover, creative writing encourages empathy as you often need to portray a variety of characters from different backgrounds and perspectives. This leads to a better understanding of people and improved interpersonal communication skills.

Exploring Emotions and Ideas

One of the most profound aspects of creative writing is its ability to provide a safe space for exploring emotions and ideas. It serves as an outlet for thoughts and feelings , allowing you to express yourself in ways that might not be possible in everyday conversation.

Writing can be therapeutic, helping you process complex emotions, navigate difficult life events, and gain insight into your own experiences and perceptions. It can also be a means of self-discovery , helping you to understand yourself and the world around you better.

So, whether you’re a seasoned writer or just starting out, the benefits of creative writing are vast and varied. For those interested in developing their creative writing skills, check out our articles on creative writing prompts and how to teach creative writing . If you’re considering a career in this field, you might find our article on is a degree in creative writing worth it helpful.

4 Steps to Start Creative Writing

Creative writing can seem daunting to beginners, but with the right approach, anyone can start their journey into this creative field. Here are some steps to help you start creative writing .

1. Finding Inspiration

The first step in creative writing is finding inspiration . Inspiration can come from anywhere and anything. Observe the world around you, listen to conversations, explore different cultures, and delve into various topics of interest.

Reading widely can also be a significant source of inspiration. Read different types of books, articles, and blogs. Discover what resonates with you and sparks your imagination.

For structured creative prompts, visit our list of creative writing prompts to get your creative juices flowing.

Editor’s Note : When something excites or interests you, stop and take note – it could be the inspiration for your next creative writing piece.

2. Planning Your Piece

Once you have an idea, the next step is to plan your piece . Start by outlining:

• the main points

Remember, this can serve as a roadmap to guide your writing process. A plan doesn’t have to be rigid. It’s a flexible guideline that can be adjusted as you delve deeper into your writing. The primary purpose is to provide direction and prevent writer’s block.

3. Writing Your First Draft

After planning your piece, you can start writing your first draft . This is where you give life to your ideas and breathe life into your characters.

Don’t worry about making it perfect in the first go. The first draft is about getting your ideas down on paper . You can always refine and polish your work later. And if you don’t have a great place to write that first draft, consider a journal for writing .

4. Editing and Revising Your Work

The final step in the creative writing process is editing and revising your work . This is where you fine-tune your piece, correct grammatical errors, and improve sentence structure and flow.

Editing is also an opportunity to enhance your storytelling . You can add more descriptive details, develop your characters further, and make sure your plot is engaging and coherent.

Remember, writing is a craft that improves with practice . Don’t be discouraged if your first few pieces don’t meet your expectations. Keep writing, keep learning, and most importantly, enjoy the creative process.

For more insights on creative writing, check out our articles on how to teach creative writing or creative writing activities for kids.

Tips to Improve Creative Writing Skills

Understanding what is creative writing is the first step. But how can one improve their creative writing skills? Here are some tips that can help.

Read Widely

Reading is a vital part of becoming a better writer. By immersing oneself in a variety of genres, styles, and authors, one can gain a richer understanding of language and storytelling techniques . Different authors have unique voices and methods of telling stories, which can serve as inspiration for your own work. So, read widely and frequently!

Practice Regularly

Like any skill, creative writing improves with practice. Consistently writing — whether it be daily, weekly, or monthly — helps develop your writing style and voice . Using creative writing prompts can be a fun way to stimulate your imagination and get the words flowing.

Attend Writing Workshops and Courses

Formal education such as workshops and courses can offer structured learning and expert guidance. These can provide invaluable insights into the world of creative writing, from understanding plot development to character creation. If you’re wondering is a degree in creative writing worth it, these classes can also give you a taste of what studying creative writing at a higher level might look like .

Joining Writing Groups and Communities

Being part of a writing community can provide motivation, constructive feedback, and a sense of camaraderie. These groups often hold regular meetings where members share their work and give each other feedback. Plus, it’s a great way to connect with others who share your passion for writing.

Seeking Feedback on Your Work

Feedback is a crucial part of improving as a writer. It offers a fresh perspective on your work, highlighting areas of strength and opportunities for improvement. Whether it’s from a writing group, a mentor, or even friends and family, constructive criticism can help refine your writing .

Start Creative Writing Today!

Remember, becoming a proficient writer takes time and patience. So, don’t be discouraged by initial challenges. Keep writing, keep learning, and most importantly, keep enjoying the process. Who knows, your passion for creative writing might even lead to creative writing jobs and what you can do with a creative writing degree .

Happy writing!

Brooks Manley

Creative Primer  is a resource on all things journaling, creativity, and productivity. We’ll help you produce better ideas, get more done, and live a more effective life.

My name is Brooks. I do a ton of journaling, like to think I’m a creative (jury’s out), and spend a lot of time thinking about productivity. I hope these resources and product recommendations serve you well. Reach out if you ever want to chat or let me know about a journal I need to check out!

Here’s my favorite journal for 2024: 

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Essay on Library and Its Uses for Students and Children

500 words essay on library and its uses.

A library is a place where books and sources of information are stored. They make it easier for people to get access to them for various purposes. Libraries are very helpful and economical too. They include books, magazines, newspapers, DVDs, manuscripts and more. In other words, they are an all-encompassing source of information.

A public library is open to everyone for fulfilling the need for information. They are run by the government, schools , colleges, and universities. The members of the society or community can visit these libraries to enhance their knowledge and complete their research.

Importance of Libraries

Libraries play a vital role in providing people with reliable content. They encourage and promote the process of learning and grasping knowledge. The book worms can get loads of books to read from and enhance their knowledge. Moreover, the variety is so wide-ranging that one mostly gets what they are looking for.

Furthermore, they help the people to get their hands on great educational material which they might not find otherwise in the market. When we read more, our social skills and academic performance improves.

Most importantly, libraries are a great platform for making progress. When we get homework in class, the libraries help us with the reference material. This, in turn, progresses our learning capabilities and knowledge. It is also helpful in our overall development.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Uses of Library

A library is a very useful platform that brings together people willing to learn. It helps us in learning and expanding our knowledge. We develop our reading habits from a library and satisfy our thirst and curiosity for knowledge. This helps in the personal growth of a person and development.

Similarly, libraries provide authentic and reliable sources of information for researchers. They are able to complete their papers and carry out their studies using the material present in a library. Furthermore, libraries are a great place for studying alone or even in groups, without any disturbance.

Moreover, libraries also help in increasing our concentration levels. As it is a place that requires pin drop silence, a person can study or read in silence. It makes us focus on our studies more efficiently. Libraries also broaden our thinking and make us more open to modern thinking.

Most importantly, libraries are very economical. The people who cannot afford to buy new books and can simply borrow books from a library. This helps them in saving a lot of money and getting information for free.

In short, libraries are a great place to gain knowledge. They serve each person differently. They are a great source of learning and promoting the progress of knowledge. One can enjoy their free time in libraries by reading and researching. As the world has become digitized, it is now easier to browse through a library and get what you are looking for. Libraries also provide employment opportunities to people with fair pay and incredible working conditions.

Thus, libraries help all, the ones visiting it and the ones employed there. We must not give up on libraries due to the digital age. Nothing can ever replace the authenticity and reliability one gets from a library.

FAQs on Library and Its Uses

Q.1 Why are libraries important?

A.1 Libraries help in the overall development of a person. They provide us with educational material and help enhance our knowledge.

Q.2 State some uses of the library.

A.2 A library is a great platform which helps us in various things. We get the reference material for our homework. Research scholars get reliable content for their papers. They increase our concentration levels as we read there in peace.

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10 Types of Creative Writing (with Examples You’ll Love)

A lot falls under the term ‘creative writing’: poetry, short fiction, plays, novels, personal essays, and songs, to name just a few. By virtue of the creativity that characterizes it, creative writing is an extremely versatile art. So instead of defining what creative writing is , it may be easier to understand what it does by looking at examples that demonstrate the sheer range of styles and genres under its vast umbrella.

To that end, we’ve collected a non-exhaustive list of works across multiple formats that have inspired the writers here at Reedsy. With 20 different works to explore, we hope they will inspire you, too. 

People have been writing creatively for almost as long as we have been able to hold pens. Just think of long-form epic poems like The Odyssey or, later, the Cantar de Mio Cid — some of the earliest recorded writings of their kind. 

Poetry is also a great place to start if you want to dip your own pen into the inkwell of creative writing. It can be as short or long as you want (you don’t have to write an epic of Homeric proportions), encourages you to build your observation skills, and often speaks from a single point of view . 

Here are a few examples:

“Ozymandias” by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away.

This classic poem by Romantic poet Percy Shelley (also known as Mary Shelley’s husband) is all about legacy. What do we leave behind? How will we be remembered? The great king Ozymandias built himself a massive statue, proclaiming his might, but the irony is that his statue doesn’t survive the ravages of time. By framing this poem as told to him by a “traveller from an antique land,” Shelley effectively turns this into a story. Along with the careful use of juxtaposition to create irony, this poem accomplishes a lot in just a few lines. 

“Trying to Raise the Dead” by Dorianne Laux

 A direction. An object. My love, it needs a place to rest. Say anything. I’m listening. I’m ready to believe. Even lies, I don’t care.

Poetry is cherished for its ability to evoke strong emotions from the reader using very few words which is exactly what Dorianne Laux does in “ Trying to Raise the Dead .” With vivid imagery that underscores the painful yearning of the narrator, she transports us to a private nighttime scene as the narrator sneaks away from a party to pray to someone they’ve lost. We ache for their loss and how badly they want their lost loved one to acknowledge them in some way. It’s truly a masterclass on how writing can be used to portray emotions. 

If you find yourself inspired to try out some poetry — and maybe even get it published — check out these poetry layouts that can elevate your verse!

Song Lyrics

Poetry’s closely related cousin, song lyrics are another great way to flex your creative writing muscles. You not only have to find the perfect rhyme scheme but also match it to the rhythm of the music. This can be a great challenge for an experienced poet or the musically inclined. 

To see how music can add something extra to your poetry, check out these two examples:

“Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen

 You say I took the name in vain I don't even know the name But if I did, well, really, what's it to ya? There's a blaze of light in every word It doesn't matter which you heard The holy or the broken Hallelujah 

Metaphors are commonplace in almost every kind of creative writing, but will often take center stage in shorter works like poetry and songs. At the slightest mention, they invite the listener to bring their emotional or cultural experience to the piece, allowing the writer to express more with fewer words while also giving it a deeper meaning. If a whole song is couched in metaphor, you might even be able to find multiple meanings to it, like in Leonard Cohen’s “ Hallelujah .” While Cohen’s Biblical references create a song that, on the surface, seems like it’s about a struggle with religion, the ambiguity of the lyrics has allowed it to be seen as a song about a complicated romantic relationship. 

“I Will Follow You into the Dark” by Death Cab for Cutie

 ​​If Heaven and Hell decide that they both are satisfied Illuminate the no's on their vacancy signs If there's no one beside you when your soul embarks Then I'll follow you into the dark

You can think of song lyrics as poetry set to music. They manage to do many of the same things their literary counterparts do — including tugging on your heartstrings. Death Cab for Cutie’s incredibly popular indie rock ballad is about the singer’s deep devotion to his lover. While some might find the song a bit too dark and macabre, its melancholy tune and poignant lyrics remind us that love can endure beyond death.

Plays and Screenplays

From the short form of poetry, we move into the world of drama — also known as the play. This form is as old as the poem, stretching back to the works of ancient Greek playwrights like Sophocles, who adapted the myths of their day into dramatic form. The stage play (and the more modern screenplay) gives the words on the page a literal human voice, bringing life to a story and its characters entirely through dialogue. 

Interested to see what that looks like? Take a look at these examples:

All My Sons by Arthur Miller

“I know you're no worse than most men but I thought you were better. I never saw you as a man. I saw you as my father.” 

Arthur Miller acts as a bridge between the classic and the new, creating 20th century tragedies that take place in living rooms and backyard instead of royal courts, so we had to include his breakout hit on this list. Set in the backyard of an all-American family in the summer of 1946, this tragedy manages to communicate family tensions in an unimaginable scale, building up to an intense climax reminiscent of classical drama. 

💡 Read more about Arthur Miller and classical influences in our breakdown of Freytag’s pyramid . 

“Everything is Fine” by Michael Schur ( The Good Place )

“Well, then this system sucks. What...one in a million gets to live in paradise and everyone else is tortured for eternity? Come on! I mean, I wasn't freaking Gandhi, but I was okay. I was a medium person. I should get to spend eternity in a medium place! Like Cincinnati. Everyone who wasn't perfect but wasn't terrible should get to spend eternity in Cincinnati.” 

A screenplay, especially a TV pilot, is like a mini-play, but with the extra job of convincing an audience that they want to watch a hundred more episodes of the show. Blending moral philosophy with comedy, The Good Place is a fun hang-out show set in the afterlife that asks some big questions about what it means to be good. 

It follows Eleanor Shellstrop, an incredibly imperfect woman from Arizona who wakes up in ‘The Good Place’ and realizes that there’s been a cosmic mixup. Determined not to lose her place in paradise, she recruits her “soulmate,” a former ethics professor, to teach her philosophy with the hope that she can learn to be a good person and keep up her charade of being an upstanding citizen. The pilot does a superb job of setting up the stakes, the story, and the characters, while smuggling in deep philosophical ideas.

Personal essays

Our first foray into nonfiction on this list is the personal essay. As its name suggests, these stories are in some way autobiographical — concerned with the author’s life and experiences. But don’t be fooled by the realistic component. These essays can take any shape or form, from comics to diary entries to recipes and anything else you can imagine. Typically zeroing in on a single issue, they allow you to explore your life and prove that the personal can be universal.

Here are a couple of fantastic examples:

“On Selling Your First Novel After 11 Years” by Min Jin Lee (Literary Hub)

There was so much to learn and practice, but I began to see the prose in verse and the verse in prose. Patterns surfaced in poems, stories, and plays. There was music in sentences and paragraphs. I could hear the silences in a sentence. All this schooling was like getting x-ray vision and animal-like hearing. 

This deeply honest personal essay by Pachinko author Min Jin Lee is an account of her eleven-year struggle to publish her first novel . Like all good writing, it is intensely focused on personal emotional details. While grounded in the specifics of the author's personal journey, it embodies an experience that is absolutely universal: that of difficulty and adversity met by eventual success. 

“A Cyclist on the English Landscape” by Roff Smith (New York Times)

These images, though, aren’t meant to be about me. They’re meant to represent a cyclist on the landscape, anybody — you, perhaps. 

Roff Smith’s gorgeous photo essay for the NYT is a testament to the power of creatively combining visuals with text. Here, photographs of Smith atop a bike are far from simply ornamental. They’re integral to the ruminative mood of the essay, as essential as the writing. Though Smith places his work at the crosscurrents of various aesthetic influences (such as the painter Edward Hopper), what stands out the most in this taciturn, thoughtful piece of writing is his use of the second person to address the reader directly. Suddenly, the writer steps out of the body of the essay and makes eye contact with the reader. The reader is now part of the story as a second character, finally entering the picture.

Short Fiction

The short story is the happy medium of fiction writing. These bite-sized narratives can be devoured in a single sitting and still leave you reeling. Sometimes viewed as a stepping stone to novel writing, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Short story writing is an art all its own. The limited length means every word counts and there’s no better way to see that than with these two examples:

“An MFA Story” by Paul Dalla Rosa (Electric Literature)

At Starbucks, I remembered a reading Zhen had given, a reading organized by the program’s faculty. I had not wanted to go but did. In the bar, he read, "I wrote this in a Starbucks in Shanghai. On the bank of the Huangpu." It wasn’t an aside or introduction. It was two lines of the poem. I was in a Starbucks and I wasn’t writing any poems. I wasn’t writing anything. 

This short story is a delightfully metafictional tale about the struggles of being a writer in New York. From paying the bills to facing criticism in a writing workshop and envying more productive writers, Paul Dalla Rosa’s story is a clever satire of the tribulations involved in the writing profession, and all the contradictions embodied by systemic creativity (as famously laid out in Mark McGurl’s The Program Era ). What’s more, this story is an excellent example of something that often happens in creative writing: a writer casting light on the private thoughts or moments of doubt we don’t admit to or openly talk about. 

“Flowering Walrus” by Scott Skinner (Reedsy)

I tell him they’d been there a month at least, and he looks concerned. He has my tongue on a tissue paper and is gripping its sides with his pointer and thumb. My tongue has never spent much time outside of my mouth, and I imagine it as a walrus basking in the rays of the dental light. My walrus is not well. 

A winner of Reedsy’s weekly Prompts writing contest, ‘ Flowering Walrus ’ is a story that balances the trivial and the serious well. In the pauses between its excellent, natural dialogue , the story manages to scatter the fear and sadness of bad medical news, as the protagonist hides his worries from his wife and daughter. Rich in subtext, these silences grow and resonate with the readers.

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Perhaps the thing that first comes to mind when talking about creative writing, novels are a form of fiction that many people know and love but writers sometimes find intimidating. The good news is that novels are nothing but one word put after another, like any other piece of writing, but expanded and put into a flowing narrative. Piece of cake, right?

To get an idea of the format’s breadth of scope, take a look at these two (very different) satirical novels: 

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

I wished I was back in the convenience store where I was valued as a working member of staff and things weren’t as complicated as this. Once we donned our uniforms, we were all equals regardless of gender, age, or nationality — all simply store workers. 

Keiko, a thirty-six-year-old convenience store employee, finds comfort and happiness in the strict, uneventful routine of the shop’s daily operations. A funny, satirical, but simultaneously unnerving examination of the social structures we take for granted, Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman is deeply original and lingers with the reader long after they’ve put it down.

Erasure by Percival Everett

The hard, gritty truth of the matter is that I hardly ever think about race. Those times when I did think about it a lot I did so because of my guilt for not thinking about it.  

Erasure is a truly accomplished satire of the publishing industry’s tendency to essentialize African American authors and their writing. Everett’s protagonist is a writer whose work doesn’t fit with what publishers expect from him — work that describes the “African American experience” — so he writes a parody novel about life in the ghetto. The publishers go crazy for it and, to the protagonist’s horror, it becomes the next big thing. This sophisticated novel is both ironic and tender, leaving its readers with much food for thought.

Creative Nonfiction

Creative nonfiction is pretty broad: it applies to anything that does not claim to be fictional (although the rise of autofiction has definitely blurred the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction). It encompasses everything from personal essays and memoirs to humor writing, and they range in length from blog posts to full-length books. The defining characteristic of this massive genre is that it takes the world or the author’s experience and turns it into a narrative that a reader can follow along with.

Here, we want to focus on novel-length works that dig deep into their respective topics. While very different, these two examples truly show the breadth and depth of possibility of creative nonfiction:

Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward

Men’s bodies litter my family history. The pain of the women they left behind pulls them from the beyond, makes them appear as ghosts. In death, they transcend the circumstances of this place that I love and hate all at once and become supernatural. 

Writer Jesmyn Ward recounts the deaths of five men from her rural Mississippi community in as many years. In her award-winning memoir , she delves into the lives of the friends and family she lost and tries to find some sense among the tragedy. Working backwards across five years, she questions why this had to happen over and over again, and slowly unveils the long history of racism and poverty that rules rural Black communities. Moving and emotionally raw, Men We Reaped is an indictment of a cruel system and the story of a woman's grief and rage as she tries to navigate it.

Cork Dork by Bianca Bosker

He believed that wine could reshape someone’s life. That’s why he preferred buying bottles to splurging on sweaters. Sweaters were things. Bottles of wine, said Morgan, “are ways that my humanity will be changed.” 

In this work of immersive journalism , Bianca Bosker leaves behind her life as a tech journalist to explore the world of wine. Becoming a “cork dork” takes her everywhere from New York’s most refined restaurants to science labs while she learns what it takes to be a sommelier and a true wine obsessive. This funny and entertaining trip through the past and present of wine-making and tasting is sure to leave you better informed and wishing you, too, could leave your life behind for one devoted to wine. 

Illustrated Narratives (Comics, graphic novels)

Once relegated to the “funny pages”, the past forty years of comics history have proven it to be a serious medium. Comics have transformed from the early days of Jack Kirby’s superheroes into a medium where almost every genre is represented. Humorous one-shots in the Sunday papers stand alongside illustrated memoirs, horror, fantasy, and just about anything else you can imagine. This type of visual storytelling lets the writer and artist get creative with perspective, tone, and so much more. For two very different, though equally entertaining, examples, check these out:

Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson

"Life is like topography, Hobbes. There are summits of happiness and success, flat stretches of boring routine and valleys of frustration and failure." 

This beloved comic strip follows Calvin, a rambunctious six-year-old boy, and his stuffed tiger/imaginary friend, Hobbes. They get into all kinds of hijinks at school and at home, and muse on the world in the way only a six-year-old and an anthropomorphic tiger can. As laugh-out-loud funny as it is, Calvin & Hobbes ’ popularity persists as much for its whimsy as its use of humor to comment on life, childhood, adulthood, and everything in between. 

From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell 

"I shall tell you where we are. We're in the most extreme and utter region of the human mind. A dim, subconscious underworld. A radiant abyss where men meet themselves. Hell, Netley. We're in Hell." 

Comics aren't just the realm of superheroes and one-joke strips, as Alan Moore proves in this serialized graphic novel released between 1989 and 1998. A meticulously researched alternative history of Victorian London’s Ripper killings, this macabre story pulls no punches. Fact and fiction blend into a world where the Royal Family is involved in a dark conspiracy and Freemasons lurk on the sidelines. It’s a surreal mad-cap adventure that’s unsettling in the best way possible. 

Video Games and RPGs

Probably the least expected entry on this list, we thought that video games and RPGs also deserved a mention — and some well-earned recognition for the intricate storytelling that goes into creating them. 

Essentially gamified adventure stories, without attention to plot, characters, and a narrative arc, these games would lose a lot of their charm, so let’s look at two examples where the creative writing really shines through: 

80 Days by inkle studios

"It was a triumph of invention over nature, and will almost certainly disappear into the dust once more in the next fifty years." 

Named Time Magazine ’s game of the year in 2014, this narrative adventure is based on Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne. The player is cast as the novel’s narrator, Passpartout, and tasked with circumnavigating the globe in service of their employer, Phileas Fogg. Set in an alternate steampunk Victorian era, the game uses its globe-trotting to comment on the colonialist fantasies inherent in the original novel and its time period. On a storytelling level, the choose-your-own-adventure style means no two players’ journeys will be the same. This innovative approach to a classic novel shows the potential of video games as a storytelling medium, truly making the player part of the story. 

What Remains of Edith Finch by Giant Sparrow

"If we lived forever, maybe we'd have time to understand things. But as it is, I think the best we can do is try to open our eyes, and appreciate how strange and brief all of this is." 

This video game casts the player as 17-year-old Edith Finch. Returning to her family’s home on an island in the Pacific northwest, Edith explores the vast house and tries to figure out why she’s the only one of her family left alive. The story of each family member is revealed as you make your way through the house, slowly unpacking the tragic fate of the Finches. Eerie and immersive, this first-person exploration game uses the medium to tell a series of truly unique tales. 

Fun and breezy on the surface, humor is often recognized as one of the trickiest forms of creative writing. After all, while you can see the artistic value in a piece of prose that you don’t necessarily enjoy, if a joke isn’t funny, you could say that it’s objectively failed.

With that said, it’s far from an impossible task, and many have succeeded in bringing smiles to their readers’ faces through their writing. Here are two examples:

‘How You Hope Your Extended Family Will React When You Explain Your Job to Them’ by Mike Lacher (McSweeney’s Internet Tendency)

“Is it true you don’t have desks?” your grandmother will ask. You will nod again and crack open a can of Country Time Lemonade. “My stars,” she will say, “it must be so wonderful to not have a traditional office and instead share a bistro-esque coworking space.” 

Satire and parody make up a whole subgenre of creative writing, and websites like McSweeney’s Internet Tendency and The Onion consistently hit the mark with their parodies of magazine publishing and news media. This particular example finds humor in the divide between traditional family expectations and contemporary, ‘trendy’ work cultures. Playing on the inherent silliness of today’s tech-forward middle-class jobs, this witty piece imagines a scenario where the writer’s family fully understands what they do — and are enthralled to hear more. “‘Now is it true,’ your uncle will whisper, ‘that you’ve got a potential investment from one of the founders of I Can Haz Cheezburger?’”

‘Not a Foodie’ by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell (Electric Literature)

I’m not a foodie, I never have been, and I know, in my heart, I never will be. 

Highlighting what she sees as an unbearable social obsession with food , in this comic Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell takes a hilarious stand against the importance of food. From the writer’s courageous thesis (“I think there are more exciting things to talk about, and focus on in life, than what’s for dinner”) to the amusing appearance of family members and the narrator’s partner, ‘Not a Foodie’ demonstrates that even a seemingly mundane pet peeve can be approached creatively — and even reveal something profound about life.

We hope this list inspires you with your own writing. If there’s one thing you take away from this post, let it be that there is no limit to what you can write about or how you can write about it. 

In the next part of this guide, we'll drill down into the fascinating world of creative nonfiction.

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Creative Writing: Online Resources for Writers

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• Online Resources for Writers
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Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Poetry

• Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Poetry This code of best practices helps poets understand when they and others have the right to excerpt, quote and use copyrighted material in poetry. To create this code, poets came together to articulate their common expectations.

Grammar and Writing Help

• Grammar Girl Grammar Girl provides short, friendly tips to improve your writing. Covering the grammar rules and word choice guidelines that can confound even the best writers, Grammar Girl makes complex grammar questions simple with memory tricks to help you recall and apply those troublesome grammar rules. Whether English is your first language or second language, Grammar Girl’s punctuation, style, and business tips will make you a better and more successful writer.
• The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) Welcome to the Purdue OWL. We offer over 200 free resources including: Writing and Teaching Writing, Research, Grammar and Mechanics Style Guides, ESL (English as a Second Language), Job Search and Professional Writing

Literary Resources

• American Verse Project Full-text access to volumes of American Poetry prior to 1920.
• Celebration of Women Writers Provides access to works by women and resources about women writers.
• Dickinson Electronic Archive Features writing by the Dickinson family, writing about Emily Dickinson, and more.
• The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Check out this encyclopedia for all things science fiction.
• Encyclopedia Mythica Internet encyclopedia of mythology, folklore, and religion
• Glossary of Poetic Terms Browse alphabetically for the definitions of various poetic terms.
• Literature for Children Full-text access to children's literature.
• Luminarium For dozens, if not hundreds of major writers, poets and important English literary figures, who lived and worked in the 17th century or in the Renaissance or Medieval periods, you will find the following types of information: Quotes; Biographical Information; Indexes/Access to digitized full-text works; a number of works rendered in audio; relevant Essays/Articles (about or by); relevant Images; and Additional Resources.
• The Mark Twain Papers & Projects Contains the full-text private papers of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain).
• Postcolonial and Postimperial Literature Browse by geographic location, topic, and more.
• Poetry Archive Archive of audio recordings containing poets reading their own work.
• Poets.org Excellent poetry resource containing hundreds of essays relating to poetry, biographies of more than 500 poets, nearly 2000 poems, and over 150 audio clips of poems.
• Shakespeare Searched Search engine that allows you to quickly find words in Shakespeare's plays and sonnets.
• Voice of the Shuttle: Literature in English Contains links to information on English literature.
• Voice of the Shuttle: Non-English Literature Contains links to information on non-English literature.
• Social Science Research Network Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is a world wide collaborative of over 267,100 authors and more than 1.7 million users that is devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of social science research.
• Association of Writers and Writing Programs Find up-to-date information on careers, contests, writers' conferences and centers, the AWP conference, and much more.
• CLMP: Literary Press and Magazine Directory Every year, CLMP compiles a directory of literary magazines, including but not limited to our membership, called the Literary Press and Magazine Directory. The directory is useful for writers who want to submit their work to literary magazines, librarians and bookstore buyers looking to add magazines to their collections, and publishers who wish to advertise their books and magazines to an audience of avid readers.
• Creative Writers Opportunities List [CRWROPPS] This is a listserv. This group posts calls for submissions and contest information for writers of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction.
• Duotrope Use this resource to locate publishers for your fiction and poetry. Search by genre, length of publication, royalties, and more. It includes response times, rejection information, payscale, etc. [This is subscription-based]
• Literary Magazines and Journals Database| Poets & Writers From Poets & Writers: Connect your poems, stories, essays, and reviews to the right audiences by researching over eight hundred literary magazines in our database. Here, you’ll find editorial policies, submission guidelines, contact information—everything you need to direct your work to the publications most amenable to your vision.
• VIDA Count A "tally [of] the gender disparity in major literary publications and book reviews.
• Writer Beware Writer Beware’s mission is to track, expose, and raise awareness of the prevalence of fraud and other questionable activities in and around the publishing industry.
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Creative Writing: Poetry: Diction

• Introduction
• Lineation & Syntax
• Rhetoric & Mode
• Meter & Prosody
• Stanza & Rhyme
• Analysis, Criticism & Reference

The selection of words in a literary work. A work's diction forms one of its centrally important literary elements, as writers use words to convey action, reveal character, imply attitudes, identify themes, and suggest values. We can speak of the diction particular to a character, as in Iago's and Desdemona's very different ways of speaking in Othello. We can also refer to a poet's diction as represented over the body of his or her work, as in Donne's or Hughes's diction (Glossary of poetic terms, 2002).

Resources for Diction

Distinguishing Words offers a unique alternative to traditional vocabulary books by approaching vocabulary acquisition through the study of synonym groups rather than words lists or through Greek and Latin roots, prefixes, and suffixes.By learning new vocabulary through the study of synonym groups, readers relate new words to a centrally shared meaning, learn the definition of each individual word in the group, and compare meaning between the words. This structure allows readers to distinguish between words to make critical, correct vocabulary choices whenever they speak, read, or write. Each chapter presents a list of synonymous nouns, adjectives, and verbs as new words for study. Utilizing lessons, exercises, readings, and discussion questions, Distinguishing Words gives readers the tools they need to not only sharpen their vocabularies but also to decipher shades of meaning.For those interested in developing their vocabulary skills.

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