About Creative Writing

Creative writing is any form of fiction, non-fiction, or poetry that is not technical in nature. Writing creatively is known as free writing, the type where there are no rules or structure to follow. Creative writing can be found in novels, short stories, articles, poetry and even screenplays. Writing creatively is a more modern style of writing than any other kind. Writing creatively represents anything that is original. Creative writing is the medium that celebrates self expression. It allows you to express your opinions, thoughts or ideas in any medium or form.

If you're new to writing you might want to start with something small to get a taste of it. By writing a short story you can get an idea of what's involved in creative writing. If you start with a novella or novel you'll probably quit before you finish it. Novellas and novels take a lot of passion and discipline to finish. In fact quite a lot of writers have trouble finishing long works of creative writing so many just stick to writing short stories or poetry. Novel writing can be very challenging and sometimes takes years to finish. Keep in mind that not everyone can write creatively. Some people don't do well with the freedom and lack of structure. Also coming up with characters and events that are intriguing to readers is not an easy feat. But once you do finish a novel or short story, and it's complete, the feeling you get is amazing.

Grade school teaches you the basics of writing creatively. But if you're really looking into the subject colleges and universities are where the knowledge is at. They offer courses in different areas and give you the special one-on-one attention you may need. They also show you different genres of writing and you learn what types you enjoy to write about.

Using creative writing prompts is another way to get ideas for plots and characters that will take you on a creative path.

Trying to get published in the writing industry is very competitive. Unless you have an idea that the publishers are looking for, and it's the right place at the right time, getting published by a large publishing house is not easy. In fact many authors are published only after many attempts and many rejection letters later. Either way, if you love creative writing, practise, practise, practise. The more you write and the more you read, will help you improve your writing.

Why Writing Every Day Will Give YOU the Self Confidence to Write a Novel and Get Published

Something magical happens when you write every day. Most people go through life, and have a flash of insight here, or an interesting glimpse of a new perspective there, but for most, this never really amounts to much of anything. Because you are reading this, you are likely aware of some of the benefits of writing your ideas down. Maybe you already are a seasoned writer, with several works already published; maybe this is one of your first steps to finally writing that novel you've always known you could write.

There are a number of amazing things that happen when you make a habit of setting aside a certain amount of time every day to not only write down your thoughts, but also put them in a kind of coherent set of ideas. When you make it a regular habit of publishing what you write on a regular basis, you take your creativity and clarity of expression to another level altogether.

There are many avenues of doing this. Blogs, this website, letters to your local newspaper, Internet forums. In the entire history of humankind, it has never been easier for somebody, just like you, to take a few minutes, organize your thoughts into a concise collection of ideas that can easily capture and lead the imagination of hundreds of thousands, and publish them for all to see.

And when you do this, you are showing your mind, your thoughts, your ideas a wonderful level of respect. You are giving yourself a message on a deep level that your ideas are important enough to share with the whole world. And the more you build up this belief in yourself and your ideas, the easier it will be to create novel after novel that people will not only pay to read, but tell their friends about and wait for the next one.

And the greatest thing about this is that no matter where you are in life, no matter what level of success you have experienced, you can start right now, today. And the sooner you start, the sooner you will succeed.

One way to increase your passion for writing is to always read what others are writing about. Most best selling authors agree that many of their ideas and techniques come from reading other writers on a regular basis. It is no secret that being able to learn from others is one of the quickest paths to success. Because you can naturally think of at least one way to apply your insights from this, you will likely enjoy George Hutton's widely read Zapotec. Many people like you are starting to discover that Zapotec may be one of the best novels to come out in a long time.

Creative Writing and the Internet

I have always been a pen-and-paper kind of guy when it comes to my poetry and occasional prose. However, it would be very naïve to think that the Internet has not had a profound impact on writing. Additionally, it would be foolish for any writer to discredit the Internet as a valuable resource for development and success.

That's right: Resistance is futile.

For those of us looking for feedback and exposure for our writing, we have something to benefit from using the Internet. In this article, I will focus on the basics behind the two most important Internet tools out there for writers: Blogging and Social Networking. Since there are so many other valuable uses for the Internet, I will be focusing on topics such as self-publishing in future articles.

Blogging

Blogging has been around for a little while now. Blogging allows you to create your own web space in which you can post writing and thoughts to anyone else online. Some of the well-known blog websites around are Blogger, Tumblr, and WordPress, although many others exist. The reason blogging is so valuable to writers is that you can both solicit feedback on your writing as well as gain a following simply by becoming an active part of the blogging community.

My suggested simple approach to blogging is to:

1. Join a blog site (Blogger.com, Tumblr.com, WordPress.com, etc.).

2. Design your blog. This just means filling out whatever information you want anyone who visits your blog to see as well as selecting a visual template that suits you.

3. Interact with other bloggers! Find other blogs that interest you and make meaningful comments.

4. Upload your own writing or thoughts to your blog and solicit feedback from others. Thank those who follow you and those who comment on your posts.

Once you get the hang of blogging, you will start figuring out how blogging works for you. That being said, the one piece of advice I can give from many, many years of blogging is that you should always be genuine. It is more than obvious when someone involved in a discussion is simply trying to promote his or her own work. Being genuine is essential to maintaining credibility.

Social Networking

Social networking is a little newer than blogging. Most people will agree that there are two giants in social networking: Facebook and Twitter.

Started only seven years ago, Facebook has amassed over 500 million users. Facebook allows you to interact with friends, family, and other Facebook users. It also offers quite a lot of potential exposure for your writing! It allows you to post updates on current writings, blog posts, and any other thoughts you wish to share. Other people can "Like" your Facebook page and you can amass quite a following.

My suggested simple approach to setting up a Facebook page is to:

1. Sign up for Facebook under the Artist, Band, or Public Figure Category. As opposed to a regular Facebook account, this will allow other users to "Like" your page.

2. Upload a picture of yourself, include a short description, and link to any other websites you have (hopefully a blog!).

3. Post useful and entertaining links as well as updates about your own writings. I suggest posting an update somewhere between once a day and once a week. More than once a day will overload your subscribers, however you don't want to post so infrequently that they forget about you.

4. Link to your Facebook page from your blog and any other websites you have.

5. Interact! Along the same vein as blogging, find Facebook pages of other users and comments. Again, be genuine and do not constantly self-promote.

You will also want to sign up for a Twitter account. Twitter allows you to interact with others in short (140 character-or-less) messages. This character limitation can be surprisingly entertaining, and often leads to enjoyable quips, quotes, and advice.

Creative Writing for Online Publishing

If you are good at writing and have a basic command over English, then you can easily get started with creative writing and publish articles online. Online publishing is an effective way to market your creative skills and it does not cost you much too. You can gain expertise in writing and publishing while at the same time make it interesting for your readers, too.

You can start first by choosing a topic and do sufficient research on the topic and gather subject matter for writing. The next task would be to structure the entire article, for structuring is very important for the flow of information.

A neatly structured article makes it easy and interesting for the readers to read through and remember. Therefore structuring of the article in organized way is important. You can start with introduction paragraph, carry the readers through the discussion and end it with a concluding paragraph.

You can structure the entire content into small paragraphs and number them as key point. An article can start with three points and go up to a max of ten to twelve points. While some people prefer having even numbered points, many are found to like odd numbers too. It really doesn't matter as long as the reader is able to grasp all the points and remember them easily.

You ask any reader, they will tell you that most of them do not read through the entire article, unless something holds their attention. They just go through the introduction paragraph, scan through the rest of the content and read the concluding paragraph. If you structure your article with points, it holds the attention of the readers and they are likely to go through in detail as well as remember the points you have made.

Introduce each point with a short subtitle that stands as the essence of the point. Following this you can structure your content into t a crisp, short paragraph. Number them to make it look neat.

Use catchy and attractive sub titles to be able to hold the attention of the reader. Readers while going through the article will read through the paragraph only if they find the title interesting or else are likely to skip the same and go on to the rest of the page.

Always ensure your articles are structured neatly and follow a logical pattern so that the reader is able to understand what you are trying to say and is able to follow you through. With above guidelines you will be able to improve your writing skills.