By Stu Leventhal
Stories, ideas, teachings, warnings, messages; these are the reasons for creative writing. Essays, poems, short stories, novels, song lyrics; about life and people going about living are the topics and subjects. We read to relax and to learn, therefore good creative writing works should be recreational, educational or both. Life is so vast that the possible subjects of a creative writing project are unlimited. We also read to bond with others of our species! Through writing we can bond with people even when we are not face to face!
Humans wish to know what other humans are doing and thinking because it makes us feel like we are no longer alone. The more info we learn about others the more we feel empathy for their struggles. Learning about other people helps us put our own feelings in perspective. Creative writing allows us all to share our most important life stories and thus share the feelings and emotions that go along with those stories with many, many people. Once written about the discussions become ongoing! The best tales can be passed down from generation to generation helping each human era become grander than the last as we all contribute to build man’s legacy.
We live our lives, meet new people, have new experiences; sometimes we witness or participate in something that is extra special thus we wish to tell everyone we can about it. Writing to inform and share something of value with others is how humans bond across the miles, across oceans and across the years!
Still creative writing is communication using written words; its beauty and magic lies in elevating our speech and traditional discussion methods to new heights…to art level!
Art can be scholarly and art can be fickle; creative writing can be both of these or any blend and combination in between. The building blocks of creative writings are words and language and both are complicated and man’s most powerful allies.
With my understanding of language there is absolutely no single definition of any word. Words are living creatures, always growing and changing. They say art is in the eye of the beholder; I say words are beautiful even the ugly ones. Thus, a word’s definition is in the eye of the beholder! If the beholder of a word’s definition is a creative writer, look out!
Words are like people they tend to become something different themselves based on the other words they are surrounded by.
Fast talkers are not always the fastest writers or the most accomplished. Writing is more deliberate than talking and even giving a prepared speech. Writing must be more precise than talk because it is on display longer and can be picked apart and scrutinized by its readers. Published writings are meant to be read and re-read many times over and over, often taken out and referred back to by its fans. This means writing must be more perfected than speech before it is shared.
Without writing man’s world would come to a screeching halt! All fine ideas need writing to be taken advantage of fully! Education needs writing to pass down learning to our children! Creative writing seeks to breathe more fun into the showcasing and framing of man’s knowledge and teachings. It lessens the pain and frustration of reading sophisticated, scholarly, entitled correspondence and explains it in simplistic terminology using common sense that people from all walks can understand immediately.
By showing off man’s greatest moments and thoughts through art we honor them and lift them onto to a pedestal where they belong! We fix them more permanently on display for future people and all mankind to enjoy and benefit from. This is the reason for creative writing!
*If you need some help with your creative writing project contact: [email protected]