creative writing 3

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: 

Gratitude Journal Prompts Mindfulness Journal Prompts Journal Prompts for Anxiety Reflective Journal Prompts Healing Journal Prompts Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Journal Prompts Mental Health Journal Prompts ASMR Journal Prompts Manifestation Journal Prompts Self-Care Journal Prompts Morning Journal Prompts Evening Journal Prompts Self-Improvement Journal Prompts Creative Writing Journal Prompts Dream Journal Prompts Relationship Journal Prompts "What If" Journal Prompts New Year Journal Prompts Shadow Work Journal Prompts Journal Prompts for Overcoming Fear Journal Prompts for Dealing with Loss Journal Prompts for Discerning and Decision Making Travel Journal Prompts Fun Journal Prompts

Inspiring Ink: Expert Tips on How to Teach Creative Writing

You may also like, how to stop multitasking and get more work done.

What is a Vision Board and How to Make A Board Your Own

A guide to cbt journaling (+ 20 cognitive behavioral therapy prompts), leave a reply cancel reply.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Productivity
• Favorite Journals

Looking to publish? Meet your dream editor, designer and marketer on Reedsy.

Find the perfect editor for your next book

1 million authors trust the professionals on Reedsy. Come meet them.

Guides • Understanding Publishing

Last updated on Feb 14, 2023

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.

Want to give short story writing a go? Give our free course a go!

FREE COURSE

How to Craft a Killer Short Story

From pacing to character development, master the elements of short fiction.

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.

Join a community of over 1 million authors

Reedsy is more than just a blog. Become a member today to discover how we can help you publish a beautiful book.

We made a writing app for you

Yes, you! Write. Format. Export for ebook and print. 100% free, always.

1 million authors trust the professionals on Reedsy. Come meet them.

Enter your email or get started with a social account:

Free Printable Creative Writing Worksheets for 3rd Grade

Creative Writing: Discover a world of imagination with our free printable Reading & Writing worksheets for Grade 3 students. Enhance their skills and inspire young minds to express themselves through words.

Explore Creative Writing Worksheets by Grades

• kindergarten

Explore Other Subject Worksheets for grade 3

• Social studies
• Social emotional
• Foreign language
• Reading & Writing

Explore printable Creative Writing worksheets for 3rd Grade

Creative Writing worksheets for Grade 3 are an essential tool for teachers looking to inspire and develop the imaginative skills of their students. These worksheets provide a variety of engaging activities and prompts that encourage young minds to explore the realms of fiction writing, while also honing their reading and writing abilities. By incorporating these resources into their lesson plans, educators can help their Grade 3 students build a strong foundation in storytelling and narrative techniques. Additionally, these worksheets can be easily adapted to suit the needs of individual learners, ensuring that all students have the opportunity to excel in their creative pursuits. In summary, Creative Writing worksheets for Grade 3 are a valuable asset for teachers who want to foster a love of literature and writing in their students.

Quizizz is an innovative platform that offers a wide range of educational resources, including Creative Writing worksheets for Grade 3, to support teachers in their mission to cultivate a passion for reading and writing in their students. This interactive tool allows educators to create engaging quizzes and games that can be used alongside traditional worksheets to reinforce key concepts and assess student progress. By incorporating Quizizz into their teaching strategies, teachers can provide a more dynamic and enjoyable learning experience for their Grade 3 students, helping them to develop a deeper understanding of fiction writing and other related skills. Furthermore, Quizizz offers valuable analytics and insights to help educators track their students' performance and identify areas for improvement. Overall, Quizizz is an excellent resource for teachers seeking to enhance their Grade 3 students' creative writing abilities through a combination of worksheets and interactive activities.

Fun Creative Writing Topics and Prompts for Third Grade

Sometimes, creative writing assignments aren’t just confusing for the student. 

What should a 3rd grader write about?

What should your expectations be? How can you help your student succeed?

Today’s post is all about helping you source creative writing topics that are perfectly suited for third grade (or upper elementary).

What Makes Creative Writing Different?

Creative writing can be tricky to explain to a student, especially if you’re working with a child who is used to thinking conventionally. 

In a nutshell, it differs from academic or essay-style writing in that it highlights the writer’s imagination and creative invention. 

The artistic nature of creative writing can make some students nervous. That’s why clear-cut creative writing examples are incredibly helpful. 

get this picture prompt printable for free!

It’s also helpful to let them read or listen to creative short stories to provide ideas of how to begin. Seeing examples illustrates how to write creatively better than trying to explain it in words.

Another important aspect of creative writing is that it doesn’t have to be true – or even based on fact. It can be difficult for a third grader to believe it’s okay to stray from reality. Eggs and ham aren’t green, so why pretend they are?

Discuss potential story writing topics with your child so you can help him or her break down those restrictions. 

Sharing examples will help them see the liberty (and fun!) that creative writing offers. 

Creative Writing Tips and Techniques for Grade 3

For elementary students, good topics for creative writing are broad enough for the student to use his imagination but not so broad that he has no idea where to begin. 

Instead of just handing him a topic such as “outer space,” try a narrower topic, such as “tell me a story about boy in the future who travels to the moon with his class for a science field trip.”

Here are a few more tips to help while you’re working on creative writing with your own third grader:

• Story writing ideas or topics can range from telling a made-up story about what happened at dinner last night to creating an amazing adventure or imaginary world.
• When you teach writing to 3rd graders , it’s helpful to give them several creative writing ideas to unleash their imaginations.
• Try recording your students as they tell a story. More than likely, just talking about the story they want to write will help them gather their thoughts.
• If you’re not sure how to start an introduction paragraph for a third grader , have her look at examples of her favorite books to see how the authors pique her interest immediately.
• Discuss the elements of the story beforehand to help it feel more real to your student. Ask him questions about the setting—when it’s happening and where—as well as the plot. Talk to him about the main characters, guiding him with questions that help him see through the characters’ eyes and better envision what they might do.
• If your student really can’t get started, set a timer and just have him write whatever comes to mind. There’s nothing uncorks writer’s block faster than just sitting down and writing—even if it starts out as nonsense.
• Encourage your student to use literary devices such as similes and metaphors, even if she doesn’t know those terms. Explain how a teddy bear’s fur can be “like a cloud” or that a hard worker can be a “busy bee.”

Above all, to encourage successful creative writing, encourage your students to write about topics they enjoy. Their pleasure will reflect in their stories.

12 Creative Writing Topics for Third Grade That Inspire Imaginative Stories

Speaking of enjoyable topics, here are some examples of creative writing topics paired with question prompts to get your student started:

1. Imagine you step outside, and all the grass has turned blue. What do you do? 

The key to a good creative writing topic is, well, creativity! Whimsical topics inspire students to unleash their imagination and enjoy writing. 

If your third grader has been reluctant to write lately, it might be time to pull out a fantastical scene like this one and “let them loose” so to speak. 

Encourage your student to brainstorm a bit before writing. 

These prompts can help:

• What made the grass turn blue?
• Is it a good thing? Does it cause problems?
• Can you fix it? Will the grass ever be green again?

2. What if you woke up and realized you had switched bodies with someone else in your family? 

A topic like this is a great exercise for the mind. It may even help him gain a little empathy as he writes and realizes how different a parent’s day is from a child’s.

Some prompts to help him get going:

• Which family member do you think would be most interesting to trade bodies with for a day? 
• Would it be exciting or scary to wake up as that person? 
• Would your characters keep it a secret?

3. What if your pet could talk but only to you? 

Some of the more appealing creative writing topics for kids are those where students can easily form ideas (which builds confidence). 

Most children already talk to their pets, so it’s not a huge leap to imagine them talking back. Use that headstart to build a story.

4. What would you do if you found a treasure map?

Finding a treasure map can inspire many tales. The plots are endless! 

A few questions to get your child started:

• Where was it found? 
• Was it put there by pirates, a king, or your great grandmother? 
• Is it in code? 
• How do you figure out where the treasure is?

5. What if there was a sweet, lovable, non-scary monster who lived under your bed?

This creative writing topic takes the monster-under-the-bed and transforms him into a friend. 

• What if every night, after Mom and Dad tuck you in, you get to spend some time with an interesting creature known only to you?

6. What if your closet door is really a door to another world?

This Narnia -style prompt inspires students to describe a secret fantasy world. Help them get into the groove by discussing the many characters they encounter. 

• Are they magical creatures or copies of everyday people he knows now? 
• What kind of world lies on the other side of his closet? 
• What’s happening there? 
• Is it similar to our world or vastly different?

7. Create an imaginary friend and take him on some adventures with you.

This type of freewriting prompt for 3rd grade students allows for more exploration. It’s a broader topic for the child who already thinks creatively and won’t be overwhelmed by its broadness. 

If your student likes this topic but still needs some inspiration, here are some questions to ask:

• How old is your friend? 
• Is it a boy or a girl? 
• What type of creature is he – human, animal, bug, robot, or something else? 
• What’s something you’d love to do with a friend if you could do anything you want to do?

8. Rewrite a fairy tale so that it takes place today in your own town.

This writing topic alleviates some uncertainty a third grader may have in getting started. Once your student chooses a fairy tale, then it’s just a matter of re-forming the characters and setting. 

It’s a wonderful topic for students who need more structure than the average creative writing assignment provides.

9. Explore and describe the dusty old attic of a dilapidated mansion.

This topic is one of the more descriptive writing topics for grade 3 . It’s compelling to think about, but it doesn’t have to be too bizarre.

(Check out this post for examples of descriptive writing .) 

Your student can be as creative and imaginative as he or she desires. 

Your third grader can create descriptions of realistic objects found in an old attic, or he can dive deep and paint images of ancient or other-worldly artifacts.

10. Imagine your parents won a million dollars. How would your life change?

Let his imagination soar, describing the planes he plans to pilot around the world or the mansion in which he’ll entertain world leaders.

Perhaps he’ll purchase a private island and find hidden treasure or build an orphanage in a third-world country. 

11. What if your dolls have their own secret lives when you’re not around?

This creative writing topic has, of course, been explored by many published authors, which just proves it’s a captivating one. 

Questions to get started:

• What do your dolls do when they “wake up”?
• Do they go anywhere?
• Do they have jobs?

12. Imagine your older cousin is getting married and asks you to be a bridesmaid (or groomsman). Tell me all about the wedding and your part in it.

Creative writing prompts for grade 3 can also be about a realistic but fictional situation, like participating in a wedding. 

Third grade girls, especially, may enjoy planning a fantasy wedding. She may even wish to pen her own wedding!

Have her describe the dresses, the flowers, the decorations, the ceremony, and anything else she’s interested in. 

If your child chooses this topic, be sure to tuck her written work away for later—what a fun story to share at her own “real life” wedding!

bring excitement into your student’s writing – no prep required!

About the author.

Jordan Mitchell

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.

Contribute to this Page

• Try for free

Third Grade Creative Writing Worksheets

• The Parts of a Letter
• Write Your Own Mad Libs ®
• Writing a Descriptive Paragraph (Gr. 3)
• Fill-in Story: The Halloween Party
• Fill-in Halloween Story: A Scary Night
• Fill-in Story: Halloween Carnival
• Writing a Personal Narrative (Gr. 3)
• My Friend Writing Printable
• Student Proofreading Checklist
• Creative Writing with Photo Inspiration
• Same Name Word Puzzle
• Life in the Sea
• Bio Poem Handout
• Writing a Research Report (Gr. 3)
• Favorite Foods
• Script Writing Handout
• Make Your Own Holiday
• A Note About Witches: Fill-in-the-Blanks
• Antonyms and Synonyms
• Immigration Picture Prompts
• Post Card Template
• My New Year's Resolutions (3-6)
• Discovering Pronouns 10
• Discovering Punctuation 2
• Discovering Capitalization 4
• Discovering Punctuation 9
• If I Were the Teacher
• Writing Activity: Describe the Rain Scene
• Change the Dialog in a Comic Strip
• Discovering Conjunctions
• More Creative Writing Printables, 3rd Grade

Featured 3th Grade Resources

Related Resources

About the author

TeacherVision Editorial Staff

The TeacherVision editorial team is comprised of teachers, experts, and content professionals dedicated to bringing you the most accurate and relevant information in the teaching space.

30 Fun And Creative Writing Prompts For 3rd Grade

Writing prompts can be incredibly beneficial for third-grade students as they not only stimulate their imaginations but also enhance their critical thinking and writing skills. By presenting them with different scenarios, characters, and situations, writing prompts encourage children to delve deep into their creativity and explore various narrative possibilities.

As a teacher, the key to activating third-grade students’ imaginations is to give them fun writing prompts to get them excited about writing. Below you’ll find 30 fun and creative writing prompts for 3rd-grade students that are guaranteed to spark your students’ imaginations and get their creative juices flowing.

Writing Prompts For Third Grade

• Imagine you wake up one morning to find out you’ve become a superhero. What are your powers and how would you use them?
• Write a story about a magical tree that grows in your backyard. What is special about it?
• What would you do if you could fly for a day? Describe your journey in detail.
• If animals could talk, what would your pet or a favorite animal say? Write a conversation you might have.
• Imagine that you have been given the task of redesigning your school. What changes would you make and why?
• Write a story about a character who lives in a world where colors have been lost. How do they restore colors back to their world?
• Write a letter to your future self. What advice would you give?
• Imagine that you found a door in your house that you’ve never seen before. Where does it lead to?
• Write about a day in the life of your favorite dessert. Make it as fun and wacky as possible.
• Write a story from the perspective of a raindrop on a rainy day.
• You have been given a magical pen that makes everything you draw come to life. What do you draw first and why?
• Imagine you are an astronaut exploring a new planet. Describe what you see, hear, and feel.
• If you could be any mythical creature for a day, what would you be and why? Describe your day.
• Write a story about a mischievous ghost who lives in your school.
• You’re a detective and you’ve been assigned to solve the case of the missing cookies. Who are your suspects?
• Your favorite toy comes to life! What adventures do you two have together?
• What if you woke up one day and everything was upside down? Write about your day.
• Write a story about a magical flower that only blooms once every hundred years. What happens when it blooms?
• If you had a pet dragon, what would a day in your life look like?
• Write a story about an adventure in a submarine deep under the sea. What creatures do you see?
• Imagine you could swap places with your teacher for a day. What would you do?
• Your shoes suddenly gain the ability to talk. What stories do they tell you about where they’ve been?
• Write a diary entry for a pirate sailing the seven seas in search of treasure.
• If you could invent a new holiday, what would it be, and how would people celebrate it?
• You find a magic pebble that grants you three wishes. What do you wish for and why?
• Write a story about a visit to a planet made of candy.
• What would it be like if animals were in charge and humans were pets?
• Write about a day in the life of a coin. Where does it go? What does it see?
• You have been chosen to host a party for all the fairytale characters. How would you plan and organize it?
• Imagine you could breathe underwater. Write about your adventures under the sea.

Tips For Using These Writing Prompts In Class

As a third-grade teacher, you are likely aware that merely providing students with a writing prompt may not yield the most effective outcomes. To help students fully tap into their creative writing abilities, consider these actionable strategies.

Offer Clear Instructions

Make sure to explain the prompt clearly and in a way that your students understand. If the prompt is complex, break it down into smaller parts. Ensure they understand the task at hand before they start writing.

Create a Safe Environment

Encourage creativity and originality. Let your students know that it’s okay to make mistakes and they should not be afraid of expressing their unique ideas.

Provide Examples

Sometimes, students may find it challenging to start. Providing an example or two can help them understand the prompt better and stimulate their own ideas.

Use Prompts as Conversation Starters

Discuss the writing prompts in class before students start writing. This will help stimulate ideas, and hearing their peers’ thoughts can inspire students who may be having difficulty.

Use Visual Aids

For younger students, visual aids can be really helpful. Draw a picture, show a video or use storyboards to help illustrate the prompt and get their creative juices flowing.

Allow Choices

If possible, offer more than one writing prompt at a time. Giving students the ability to choose their writing topic can make the task more engaging and personal for them.

Encourage Peer Reviews

After students have written their pieces, encourage them to exchange their stories with their classmates for peer review. This can help students learn from each other and also improve their editing and critiquing skills.

Provide Constructive Feedback

Giving feedback is crucial. Praise students for their efforts and provide constructive criticism to guide them on how to improve their writing.

Include Prompts Related to Current Lessons

While creative prompts are excellent, try to include some prompts that relate to what students are learning. For example, if they’re learning about animals’ habitats, include a prompt about it.

Schedule Regular Writing Time

Make writing a regular activity. Consistency can help students get into the habit of writing and improve their skills over time.

More Writing Prompts

Thanks for reading! I hope your students have lots of fun creating awesome stories using these writing prompts. Before you go, check out these related articles for writing prompt ideas: 1st Grade Writing Prompts 4th Grade Writing Prompts Adventure Writing Prompts Fantasy Writing Prompts

If you’re looking to inspire your students’ writing and creativity, turn to these fun and exciting writing prompts. Perfect for overcoming writer’s block or even starting a brand-new short story in a different narrative, creative writing prompts can help students begin a new piece with confidence.

Plus, these story starters can also encourage students to explore different genres while honing their writing skills. There are a lot of ways you can use writing prompts in your classroom. Try: 

Reading a book in a genre, then having students use a story starter in that same genre. 

Starting off class with 10 minutes of writing, using one of the prompts below. If you'd like, you can ask a volunteer to share their story! Students may be surprised by the variety of stories that are written based on the same prompt. 

Using these prompts as an introduction to a creative writing unit. 

Providing fast finishers with a way to stay busy — and have fun. 

Using story starters to encourage students to write at home.

Adventure Story Starters 

Take inspiration from classics like Treasure Island and newer popular series like The Bad Guys to explore how to write thrilling adventure stories. And to encourage students to begin writing their own adventure-focused stories, share these creative story starters: 

You’re part of a pirate crew in search of a long-lost storied treasure trove. What is happening on the ship and where do you find the treasure? 

You get the chance to use a time machine to meet one historical figure of your choice. Who do you go meet, and what will you do to explore that time period?

You receive a fortune in a fortune cookie that changes the course of your life. What does the fortune say, and what happens when it comes true?

Get students excited about adventure stories with these great books: 

Fantasy Story Starters 

Have fans of dragons, unicorns, wizards, and other mythical creatures in class? Encourage them to give fantasy writing a shot. 

You’re on a quest through a hidden underground world that no one else has ever seen. What magical creatures do you come across? What do they look like, and how do they act? 

There is a witch who lives in a nearby legendary haunted house. She puts a hex on you that needed to be broken by the time the clock struck midnight the next night. What kind of hex is it, and how do you break it? 

You stumble into an enchanted forest. How did you find it, and what do you discover in it?

Check out these fun fantasy titles for more inspiration:

Sci-Fi Story Starters 

Kids interested in STEM concepts will love science fiction! Try these prompts to see how your students combine science with their wildest imaginations. 

• You’re the first person to ever set foot on Mars. What is it like? What do you explore first? 
• You and your friend have the same dream in the middle of the night about a prophecy that involves another dimension. What is the prophecy, and what is this other dimension? What do you and your friend have to do to reach and alter this dimension?
• After NASA discovers a whole new world of giants in a nearby nebula, they send a team of scientists through a wormhole to study them. You are one of the scientists on board. What does the journey feel like? What do the giants look like in this world? 

Plus, find great kid-friendly sci-fi here:

Genre Scrambler Story Starters 

Have some fun with genre studies by combining them! Try these prompts to get started:

• You are on an expedition in the Arctic and discover a new species of animals living in the harsh climate that no one has ever seen before. What kind of species is it, and what characteristics do they have? 
• You’re walking home from school and notice that the front door of a neighbor’s house is wide open, and no one is in sight. The old man who normally lives there is nowhere to be found. Curious, you go into the house and find that everything is fake: the furniture, the food, the technology, etc. In fact, the whole property is made of plastic, even the grass and trees! What happened to the old man who lives here? Why does this house exist, and why is everything fake? 
• You are a child living in the early 1800s in an unnamed country when an asteroid hits, releasing aliens that want to make contact with your leaders. What do these aliens want? How does everyone react?

Shop popular books of all genres that will inspire young writers below! You can find all books and activities at The Teacher Store .

ChatGPT vs Claude 3 Test: Can Anthropic Beat OpenAI’s Superstar?

Since ChatGPT was introduced to the world more than 18 months ago, a range of other chatbots have also been rolled out. Some have proved useful, but others, not so much. But along with Gemini (previously Bard) , the chatbot that has proved to be more than competitive is Claude, created by AI startup Anthropic.

We've set up a ChatGPT vs Claude 3 head-to-head to mark the launch of Claude 3, a family of language models that includes Claude 3 Haiku, Claude 3 Sonnet, and Claude 3 Opus. According to Google-backed Anthropic, Claude 3 performs better than the GPT family of language models that power ChatGPT on a series of benchmark cognitive tests. On our tests, we found that Claude is more articulate than ChatGPT, and its answers are usually better written and easier to read.

But how do they compare side by side? To find out, we asked ChatGPT and Claude 3 a variety of different questions, ranging from queries designed to test the chatbot's approach to ethical questions to generating spreadsheet formulas.

In this guide:

Claude 3 vs ChatGPT: What's the Difference?

• Claude 3 vs ChatGPT: Head-to-Head Test 
• Claude 3 vs ChatGPT: UI & User experience 
• Claude 3 vs ChatGPT: Data and Privacy 
• Using Claude 3 and ChatGPT at Work 

Get the latest tech news, straight to your inbox

Stay informed on the top business tech stories with Tech.co's weekly highlights reel.

By signing up to receive our newsletter, you agree to our Privacy Policy . You can unsubscribe at any time.

Claude 3 is a new family of language models from Anthropic, used to power their chatbot Claude. There are (coincidentally) 3 models: Haiku, Sonnet, and Opus. Currently, Claude Sonnet is powering the free version of Claude, and is 2x faster at processing information than Claude 2.1, Anthropic says.

Claude Opus, on the other hand, powers the pro version. Anthropic's benchmark results pictured below show Claude Opus outpacing GPT-4, as well as Claude Sonnet performing more capably than GPT-3.5.

How Claude 3 compares to ChatGPT and Gemini on benchmark tests. Image: Anthropic

Since its launch, ChatGPT has been powered by different members of the GPT family of language models. Free users currently have access to GPT-3.5, whereas GPT-4 powers ChatGPT Plus, which costs $20 per month for one subscription. This is the same price as Claude Pro. Here's some key difference between the software:

ChatGPT vs Claude 3: Head-to-Head Test

We've put ChatGPT and Claude head-to-head, asking them 13 very different questions designed to test aspects such as reasoning and natural language processing, but also how good they are at completing handy workplace tasks like scanning documents for information and composing emails.

I found that Claude produced a better response on seven of the tests, while ChatGPT triumphed on three . The remaining four (including one of the brainstorming tests) ended in ties, meaning Claude won this match-up . Here's the full list of questions we asked both chatbots:

• Ethical Reasoning 
• Creating Product Descriptions 
• Brainstorming Ideas (2 tests)
• Understanding of Natural Language
• Summarizing Text 
• Personal Advice
• Analyzing Text 
• Providing Factual Information
• Creative Writing 
• Writing Poems
• Riddles & Reasoning
• Composing an Email
• Creating Spreadsheet Formulas

1. Ethical Reasoning

First up, I posed a difficult ethical dilemma to ChatGPT and Claude. I chose this dilemma in particular because the correct answer (if there is one) isn't necessarily clear-cut or straightforward:

A man is driving an armored car into a town center, intent on doing the most damage and causing the most harm possible. He has three passengers hostage in the back of the car. The car is so well-armored that those inside will survive any collision. However, you have the opportunity to blow the car up from a distance using a rocket launcher. Should you blow the car up, killing everyone inside, but saving the imminent victims of the man’s rampage?

Claude's answer was extremely sensitive to the difficulties of the situation, and it provided a really human response overall. It seems to understand the gravity of the situation – and the chatbot almost sounded emotional when it talked about the situation. This made it feel very compelling.

ChatGPT, on the other hand, clearly sets out the different viewpoints and approaches you could take to the situation. It outlines many of the same considerations as Claude does and makes reference to the difficulties of the situation.

Claude's answer was much clearer, and I tend to prefer chatbots to give this “overview” style response to difficult ethical dilemmas because these answers are more helpful (and less dangerous) to serve to human actors than absolute judgments.

Best Answer? Claude

2. Creating Product Descriptions

if you're running an online store or simply selling lots of products online, creating unique and compelling product descriptions for every single one is no easy task. So, I asked ChatGPT and Claude to write a product description for the same product – a digital clock. Here's how Claude got on:

I ended up asking Claude for a slightly longer description, as I haven't seen it write as many product descriptions as ChatGPT. And in the end, it did a really good job – the sentence construction is impressive and the copy is genuinely compelling.

Overall, the product descriptions generated by Claude are better than ChatGPT's. Much like its ethical reasoning, it sounds so much more human. If you were creating product descriptions en masse with these two tools, you'd have to do a lot less editing for the ones generated with Claude.

3. Brainstorming Ideas

Next, I set both Claude and ChatGPT two brainstorming tasks – coming up with blog post ideas for two very different blogs. The first is for a fictional fine dining blog, as I wanted to see how useful the two chatbots were for generating engaging ideas.

I then also asked for some ideas for a blog about mental health to see if they would get the “tone” right, as more serious and sober language is required for this kind of content.

Fine dining blog posts

Again, Claude wins on this task. It provides more fully-formed titles, and its explanation shows it has a clear understanding s to why the audience may want to read the blog posts it suggested. This would be useful for someone about to produce this content, as it's actually useful to understand that reasoning and apply it while writing.

ChatGPT doesn't really show it's working in the same way, and all things considered, the ideas are more generic. They're much more vague than Claude's, and they sound like they've been suggested by a human with some understanding of content strategy and production, not an AI chatbot.

Mental health blog posts

Next up, I wanted to see if both chatbots could adjust their tone and the approach they took to suggestions when asked to generate blog posts about a more sensitive topic that would require more sincerity than a fine dining guide. Here's Claude's attempt:

These are all great suggestions and they definitely get the tone right – there's nothing out of the ordinary here. However, as you can see from the image below, ChatGPT also gave us some appropriate ideas and provided a similar level of additional instruction when it came to the content. There's really no separating them here!

Best Answer? Tie

4. Understanding Natural Language

Next up, I wanted to see if a well-known maths question that plays on our intuitions about mathematics would trip either ChatGPT or Claude up.

Matt has an apple and a banana that cost $3.10 together. The apple costs $3.00 more than the banana. How much does the banana cost?

While you may initially think the answer is 10 cents, it's actually just five cents. Claude was too clever to be fooled and explained exactly how it got to the correct answer:

Unwilling to be embarrassed, ChatGPT also spat out the correct answer, meaning there's really nothing to separate the two heavyweights in this round.

5. Summarizing Text

Both ChatGPT and Claude are highly capable of summarizing large amounts of text, pulling out the key points so their users don't have to read the whole thing. For this test, I asked them to summarize a recent Guardian article about President Joe Biden's final State of the Union address.

Claude did a really good job of keeping its summaries short and concise:

ChatGPT's are more than satisfactory too – but if we're going to split them, I'm going to have to say I prefer Claude's. It doesn't attempt to overload you with too much information – which is important, considering we asked for a summary – and once again, it's just better written.

6. Personal Advice

For this test, I wanted to see how ChatGPT and Claude reacted if asked to give personal advice to someone impacted by poor mental health. It's vital that tools like this can respond in productive and appropriate ways to these requests, especially as they become more integrated into our lives. Here's Claude's reply:

These are perhaps the most similar answers served by these two chatbots out of all of the 13 tests we ran. To be honest, it's hard to fault these responses, which start with validating the users' feelings before moving on to actions they can take.

Both chatbots suggested taking very similar steps, and the same sorts of steps any well-meaning person would suggest to a friend struggling with the issues specified in the prompt.

7. Analyzing Text

This is a very basic test to see how good a chatbot is at scanning text. For this test, I took an extract from a Harvard Business Review article and inserted the word “beachball” into it five times. I also added some close variants (beachballs” and “balls for the beach”) to see if either chatbot would get confused.

Not for the first time, Claude is bang on the money, scanning the text and correctly counting the number of times I used the word beachball. Unlike ChatGPT, if you paste too much text into Claude it'll submit it as a sort of “document”, as seen in the picture below:

Disappointingly, ChatGPT got the answer wrong – it was only able to identify two instances of the word, less than half of the total number. ChatGPT seems to struggle with this genre of task specifically. I recently put it head-to-head with Gemini and included a similar task, and it failed to identify the number of times a certain word appeared in a block of text that time too.

8. Providing Factual Information

For this task, I wanted to see how good ChatGPT and Claude were at providing an answer to a question that isn't necessarily clear-cut but is still grounded in fact. So, I asked both of them to explain how and why the dinosaurs died out – something for which there are several historical and scientific explanations and factors.

First up, Claude provides a really good overview of the theories and generally accepted truths about the extinction of the dinosaurs

Claude again provides an incredibly articulate explanation, which includes pretty much all of the same information as ChatGPT – it just sets it out and talks about it in a better way. It also references the fact that the dinosaurs didn't all die out at once, an important point that ChatGPT didn't include.

9. Creative Writing

Who writes the best stories, ChatGPT or Claude? We asked both of them for a short, 300-word story. Claude's up first:

Strangely, Claude actually provided me with a short, 301 -word story, one word over the specified word count. ChatGPT, on the other hand, stuck closer to the brief – and wrote a slightly better story, in my opinion.

I have to give this one to ChatGPT, simply because Claude not only ignored my instructions, but rubbed it in my face before starting the story! Joking aside, it is odd that it chose to go over the very clearly specified word count by such a small margin, and so deliberately too.

Best Answer? ChatGPT

10. Writing Poems

ChatGPT and Claude both went with similar structures for the poems we asked them to generate, and that's making it really hard to separate them once again. Claude opted for four-line verses with rhyming couplets:

And ChatGPT effectively did the same. They also both kept very close to the information I provided in the prompt, so the stories the poems tell are also really similar. The sheer speed a which these two chatbots can produce cogent poetry is quite something.

Despite the similarities, having read through both a couple of times, I'm going to give this one to Claude – the structure is slightly more complex in a couple of areas, and there are more nice flourishes and turns of phrase.

Best Answer?  Claude

11. Riddles and Reasoning

For this task, we asked the two chatbots to solve a riddle. Claude's up first and was spot on with its answer, explaining clearly why the maid is the culprit.

ChatGPT also got the riddle correct, so there's really nothing to separate them in this regard.

12. Composing an Email

Here, I asked ChatGPT and Claude to compose an email to my boss explaining why I should be allowed to transition to fully remote work. Claude wrote a perfectly serviceable email, as you can see below:

However, ChatGPT's sounds more professional and you'd have to do a lot less editing before you sent that over to your boss. Claude dives into the stress the commute has supposedly caused me, and while that's worth mentioning, ChatGPT's introduction is a lot more diplomatic.

Considering how close ChatGPT's answer is to the finished article, I have to crown it the winner of this one.

13. Creating Spreadsheet Formulas

For this final test, I asked ChatGPT and Claude to generate a spreadsheet formula for me. This is the request I sent:

Column B contains a set of values. I want to match them with the corresponding values of column E in sheet ‘Filter Down' and take the matching values from column F, G, and H in filter down across to the current sheet using a formula.

Here's how Claude got on:

“Claude has tried to make one simple, multipurpose formula that uses where it is placed in the sheet to work out what to do, which is cool, but it probably not gonna work as quickly and will probably be broken, to be honest,” Says Matthew Bentley, Tech.co's resident Spreadsheet whizz.

“There's no need to overcomplicate simple requests”, he continued. “ChatGPT for this one I think is better. It's quite a simple Vlookup request and doesn't require all that extra formula provided by Claude”.

Claude 3 vs ChatGPT: UI and User Experience

Of course, ChatGPT and Claude are both pretty easy to use, and their interfaces look very similar in terms of their format and structure. The same can be said of Gemini, Perplexity AI, and Copilot . Most of these chatbots provide a smooth, straightforward user experience.

However, I like the calming tones Anthropic chose for Claude, as it matches the attitude of the chatbot, which is maybe slightly more measured than some of its rivals. ChatGPT, on the other hand, can feel a little clinical sometimes with its greyish color scheme. Overall, Anthropic's design is just a light nicer than ChatGPTs.

Like Gemini, Claude generally does a better job of formatting its answers, something ChatGPT isn't as good at (find out more in our Gemini vs ChatGPT head-to-head). Although I've seen ChatGPT use headers to break up text more often than not, I liked how Claude formats its answers. Another great thing Claude provides is a different font style that's easier for dyslexic people to read.

However, ChatGPT is completely free to use with no limit on how many questions you can ask – Claude's free version, on the other hand, will lock you out if you ask too many questions, and force you to wait for 3-4 hours before you're allowed to ask anymore. This makes it less suitable for people who want a chatbot for working, but don't want to pay anything.

Claude 3 vs ChatGPT: Data and Privacy

Claude 3 and ChatGPT treat their users differently. If you're concerned about your privacy, it's important to know what they save, store, and view, and what they don't. ChatGPT reserves the right to use your data to train its models, and Claude does the same. Both OpenAI and Anthropic say that they encrypt the connection between their servers and users end-to-end for maximum security.

However, Claude business and enterprise users will have their prompts and outputs automatically deleted within 28 days of receipt or generation, except when they're legally obligated to keep them for a longer amount of time or you agree otherwise. Consumer users will have their prompts deleted after 90 days, but if one of your prompts is flagged as potentially malicious, harmful, or unsafe, it could be retained for up to two years.

What ChatGPT does with your data is slightly different. Essentially, if you want to save your chats and have ChatGPT hold them on the system, then you also agree that they may be used to train the model, and in that sense, may be accessed by other humans. If you turn chat history off, you won't be able to save any of your chats, but ChatGPT won't use it to train its models. Any business data stored in the ChatGPT API is not used to train GPT LLMs.

Using Chatbots at Work

Of course, there are tons of ways that businesses can use ChatGPT and Claude for work – in fact, we mentioned quite a few of them in this article. But if you're using chatbots regularly at work, there are some considerations it's worth reviewing.

For example, does your company have a set of guidelines for using AI tools ? If you're unsure, you should clarify this with your manager or the head of your department. You might not know it yet, but your company might have strict rules on the types of data you can input into third-party tools, and perhaps even AI tools more specifically.

Secondly, you must be open and transparent about your use of AI, particularly with your line manager. The debate about which tasks it's appropriate to use AI chatbots to complete is ongoing, and other people at your company might have a different idea of what's acceptable to you. Plus, most managers and business leaders think you should seek permission before using AI tools.

Whatever task you're using AI tools for, remember to check over their work as if it had been completed by a new employee. While scarily speedy and amazingly accurate most of the time, AI tools can of course hallucinate and provide incorrect information. So, don't get too carried away!

We're sorry this article didn't help you today – we welcome feedback, so if there's any way you feel we could improve our content, please email us at [email protected]

• Artificial Intelligence

Written by:

Microsoft: Copilot Doesn’t Suck, Your Prompts Do

Customers believe that Copilot doesn't match up to ChatGPT...

How to Access Gemini in Google Messages

Currently, the beta is available to a select number of...

7 Surefire Signs That ChatGPT Has Written an Essay Revealed

Researchers at Cambridge University have revealed how to...

Study: 77% of Businesses Have Faced AI Security Breaches

AI systems are particularly vulnerable to security...

• Undergraduate Admission
• Graduate Admission
• Tuition & Financial Aid
• Communications
• Health Sciences and Human Performance
• Humanities and Sciences
• Music, Theatre, and Dance
• IC Resources
• Office of the President
• Ithaca College at a Glance
• Awards and Accolades
• Five-Year Strategic Plan
• Public Health
• Directories
• Course Catalog
• Undergraduate

Summer 2024 Courses

Study writing online this summer.

WRTG 10600 Academic Writing I

This introductory writing course teaches academic writing as a craft that includes multiple genres and technologies. Students locate, evaluate, and integrate information into projects that see them forming and supporting their own arguments and positions. Academic writing as a craft is anchored in rhetorical situations of audience, context, purpose, language, and image. It is also an ethical practice that grapples with questions of diversity, equity, and inclusion. The course therefore enables students to enter academic, civic, and professional conversations with rhetorical awareness. (F,S,Y) Attributes: 3A, HU 4 Credits

WRTG 17500 Introduction to Creative Writing

This class offers a hands-on exploration of what creative writing is and why we write it. Students experiment with genres of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry while also challenging the boundaries of genre. Students analyze strategies used by other writers from a diverse range of cultural experiences and reflect on how creative writing engages identity in intentional ways that unveil systems of power. (F,S,Y) Attributes: 3A, CA, FA, HM, MC, TIDE, TIII 4 Credits

WRTG 20500 Personal Essay

Introduction to writing essays in which students explore their own memories, experiences, observations, perspectives, and identities. Emphasis is placed on self-interrogation and inquiry, as well as craft techniques such as narration, description, reflection, and analysis. Course material will provide examples of the personal essay form and help students examine the insights and limitations of personal experience as they consider the self within the context of the larger world. Prerequisites: ICSM10800 , ICSM 11800, or WRTG10600 . (F,S,Y) Attributes: 3A, CA, HM, HU, TIDE, WRCW, WRRC 4 Credits

WRTG 21100 Writing for the Workplace

Basic on-the-job writing necessary to join, manage, and promote any organization, whether profit or nonprofit. Focus is primarily on short forms: résumés, memos, business letters, summaries, brochures, newsletters, press releases, informal proposals, and reports. Course also explores how various social, economic, and ethical issues affect workplace writing. Prerequisites: ICSM10800 , ICSM 11800, or WRTG10600 . (F,S,Y) Attributes: ESTS, HU, WI, WRPW 4 Credits

WRTG 21700 Inquiry, Research, and Writing Across the Disciplines

Prepares students across the disciplines to engage in inquiry-based research, examining questions relevant to their fields and interests and producing substantial formal writing in a range of research genres. Emphasizes writing and research as recursive processes. Focuses on development of effective research practices, including identifying, locating, evaluating, and integrating sources ethically and effectively. Prerequisites: ICSM10800 , ICSM 11800, or WRTG10600 . (F,S,Y) Attributes: HM, TIII, WI, WRRC 4 Credits

WRTG 25200 Sophomore Internship

Work and study project designed by the student early in undergraduate career, in consultation with a faculty sponsor and a practicing professional. The H&S internship proposal includes learning objectives, a detailed work plan, and a description of the student's plans for reports to the faculty sponsor. May be repeated up to 3 cr total. Offered on demand only. Prerequisites: Two WRTG courses. (F,S,U,Y) 1-3 Credits

WRTG 29400 Writing Heals: Self Reflection as Daily Practice

Engage in a daily practice of contemplative writing as a way to return to our bodies, to be IN our bodies, to make sense of our past traumas/conflicts or current stressors as told by the narrator, the body. Write in multiple genres to better understand past traumas or stressors (e.g., poetry, short story, research presentation, reflection essay). Build a theoretical and practical foundation for writing as a healing practice, but more importantly, participate in an inclusive community of writers to process the emotional, physical, and psychological stress of college. Prerequisites: WRTG 10600, ICSM 10800, or ICSM 11800.

WRTG 35400 Selected Topics in Creative Writing: Writers’ Practice

This advanced creative writing workshop leads students to experiment with writing, creative, and revising new work in a series of directed exercises. Participants will share emerging drafts for peers’ and professor’s response toward improvement. Prerequisites: Junior standing and WRTG 20500; or permission of instructor.

How to Use Milanote as a Creative Writer

I f you’re the type of writer who plans their books or short stories ahead of time, make sure you check out Milanote, a versatile app that helps organize projects.

Here’s everything you need to know about Milanote’s tools for creative writers. See what’s available and try out the features that interest you the most.

What Is Milanote?

Milanote is a platform for planning projects. It's available online, but also as a desktop app , browser extension , and mobile app for Android and iOS .

You can work on your project from any device without missing a beat. And the platform has tools for more than writers. It’s great for designers, marketers, business owners, and more.

In other words, you can use Milanote to organize your whole career as an author, even combine it with other apps to boost your skills and prospects. For instance, practice creative writing on Story Shack’s Taleforge , while managing your book, publication, and marketing campaign.

1. Create a New Board

Milanote is a prime example of why creative writing apps are useful . After signing up as a writer, you gain access to your workspace. It’s a clean-cut grid surrounded by planning tools—plenty of room for your imagination to take shape.

To start a project, click on Board on the left-hand panel and drag your new addition into your grid. Double-click on the new board’s name to change it.

You can also connect boards with arrows and create a map. To do this, select a board. Then, click and drag the white dot that appears in the top-right corner.

Once set, bend the arrow, choose a different color, give it a label, change its thickness, or make it dashed. Play around with your options and make your book’s plan inspiring.

2. Choose a Creative Writing Template

Double-click on your new board to open it. You can start planning from scratch, but Milanote offers templates, too, specifically for writers.

If you don’t like your initial selection, click on More templates > Writing . You’ll get several options to choose from.

Novel Mood Board

You may just want to get a feel for your story. There’s a template that lets you create a mood board with pictures, videos, text, and files.

Brainstorming

You can then expand your mood board into a plan. Milanote starts you off with boxes and arrows that you fill in as necessary to help you specify what your story is about and where you’re going with it.

A big part of creative writing is doing research. Whether you need to know the history of a place, how to pilot a plane, or how to defend against a sword maneuver, note-taking is essential.

Milanote’s research template helps you keep everything in one place, complete with images, links, file uploads, and neat text boxes.

World-Building

To give your story texture and a convincing setting, it's important to give your fictional universe the attention it deserves. World-building apps on Android and iOS are handy, but sometimes you need a grander view of your book.

Try the world-building template on Milanote, where you can elaborate on your narrative’s places, people, history, maps, and anything else you want to add.

With this template, you can organize your whole novel on one board. You start with your inspiration, structure, and characters, not to mention a to-do list, images, and embedded boards. Make changes as you see fit.

Story Outline

The best plots take a lot of thought and planning, which Milanote’s outline template can help with. You can break down every milestone in your narrative and embellish it with text, images, and files.

Another app to consider as a creative writer is Novelist and its book planning tools , also available on both your browser and mobile device.

If you like following established structures, Milanote provides the space to lay out the best possible storyline. Just like the story outline template, the map asks for your narrative’s key moments, but it focuses on more generic concepts, such as the premise, stakes, core conflict, resolution, and lesson.

Three-Act Structure

A well-known layout for any story is the three-act structure. Milanote has a template specifically for this purpose. You get the three acts broken down with text, arrows, and other visuals to make your life as a creative writer easier and more exciting.

Character Profile

If you want to plan each character in depth, go for this template on Milanote. You could even connect the boards on your main grid and organize your cast’s relations.

The template’s default sections include the character’s picture, profile, backstory, characteristics, quirks, flaws, and arc.

Character Relationship Map

If you’d rather use your main grid to plan your overall project, not just your characters, use the relationship map template for a board dedicated to visualizing your full cast.

It lets you add everyone’s names and pictures. You can then connect them with arrows and labels. This is invaluable for a complex plot that completely depends on its characters.

3. Customize Your Template

Milanote provides a range of tools for writers to customize their boards. Here’s what you can do with them.

Edit the Template’s Details

Before clicking Use this template for the one you want, you can also tick the Keep example content box. Otherwise, Milanote will leave your template with blank fields.

Either way, you need to add your own content. So, go ahead and type in your text, upload images or files, and edit any other details the template comes with.

Add Relevant Boards

Your template might already contain its own boards, which you can rename and edit as normal. This gives your plan useful layers.

If something’s missing, the Board button is available here, too. Click and drag your new item into a pre-existing box or the background grid. And adjust the board’s details.

Add Other Features to Your Template

The sidebar offers several elements you can add to your project. We’ve already mentioned boards, images, videos, uploads, arrows, to-do lists, and links, but there’s a lot more.

You can also have different text boxes, columns, maps, sketches, audio files, and even color schemes. Depending on what kind of book you’re writing, your Milanote plan can reflect it completely.

Delete Items as Necessary

Anything you don’t like, you can easily remove. Just click and drag the item to the Trash icon.

Alternatively, right-click on the item and choose Delete from the menu. You’ll see many more available actions, including cutting or duplicating the item, changing its color, and converting it into a template.

The best way to really get to know Milanote’s capabilities is to try it out yourself for various projects.

4. Share, Export, or View Your Book's Plan as a Presentation

While inside a board, you can share it with people you want as editors. A read-only link is also available, which you can customize with enabled comments, downloads, passwords, and other features.

Your next option is to export the board. Choose between a PDF or PNG file, a linear document in a Word, markdown, or plain text format, or a ZIP file.

Finally, you can view your board as a full-screen presentation. Scroll through the whole plan and click on items to zoom in on them.

Master Milanote to Perfect Your Creative Writing

Milanote is easy to use and very versatile, so take advantage of its templates and tools. You can write, organize, and share your book with the help of this multifunctional app.

In the end, instead of a mess of papers and sticky notes, you can have a neat plan for your book on your computer and smartphone. This change can boost your confidence and productivity as a creative writer.

Even if it doesn’t suit you, don’t give up on digital tools. There are many services out there tailored to the creative writing process.

• Manage Account

NCT DREAM Open Up on Maturing & Taking More Creative Control in Group’s ‘New Chapter’

The K-pop act brings "the message that we've always wanted to deliver" via musical encouragement for young peoples' hardships in their just-released  DREAM( )SCAPE  EP.

By Jeff Benjamin

Jeff Benjamin

• Share this article on Facebook
• Share this article on Twitter
• Share this article on Flipboard
• Share this article on Pinit
• + additional share options added
• Share this article on Reddit
• Share this article on Linkedin
• Share this article on Whatsapp
• Share this article on Email
• Print this article
• Share this article on Comment
• Share this article on Tumblr

Beyoncé & Post Malone's 'Levii's Jeans' Puts Levi's in 'Cowboy Carter' Mode

See latest videos, charts and news

Trending on Billboard

Represented through the intense  five-part  ( )SCAPE Film  on YouTube  and their most experimental mini album, NCT DREAM tweaked their signature style for tracks that recognize hardship and offer an empowering, encouraging message.  MARK  opens intro track “icantfeelanything” announcing, “I might’ve been afraid to be brave,” followed by  CHENLE  crooning, “‘Cause I’m lost and confused” before an intense breakbeat switches into a chant of frustrated yells.

The septet tackles anxiety on the pacifying R&B of “UNKNOWN” (Encouraging the listener to slowly but surely “Go chase your dreams/ Dive in, dive in, into the unknown”) as they yearn for freedom on hip-hop/ pop cut “BOX” (“I don’t need controllin’, Let me go/Nobody lockin’ me up, nobody stoppin’ me”). The hook-heavy single “Smoothie” flips the group’s tried-and-true foodie styling by inspiring the audience to share their worries with NCT DREAM so they can blend it into a healing formula: “Throw in that doubt and fake, pour in all that pain / Shower that in all this ice, eventually it all melts.”

Before then, read more from MARK , RENJUN , CHENLE ,  JENO ,  JAEMIN ,  HAECHAN  and  JISUNG  on creating their latest album, upcoming world tour and more.

Congratulations on the new album. From the teasers to the music itself, NCT DREAM shares a lot through  DREAM( )SCAPE . Overall, what are you looking to show in this album?

RENJUN: As expressed through the ( )SCAPE Film trailers, although we have all different jobs and are in different locations, we experience the same external stress and, through those processes, we almost feel like we are liberated. And also the title song itself, you can see that it’s titled “Smoothie,” but it means that we will grind all these bad ingredients and mix them up [into something positive].”

HAECHAN: To be honest, I personally don’t feel like the form or the type of the album itself is important because this project has a large scale and bigger size. So, whether it’s a full-length album or a mini, we still made this album with our full effort and I think it’s enough to enjoy as much as any full album.

JENO: This album is the starting point of this year in our new chapter so I think we now want to focus more on that stories that lie within.

What message did you all want to share?   MARK opens the album by saying, “I might’ve been afraid to be brave,” and the idea of is mentioned a few times in the record. What’s the significance of bravery here?

RENJUN: It’s always hard to start something and take that first step. Actually, it’s very difficult to be brave and requires a lot of courage. And with this album, we wanted to help others at their own starting line to be brave by themselves.

MARK : Our producers and label were like, “Is there something that you guys want to say in particular for this album?” So, we were thinking among our members but RENJUN was actually thinking, “Musically and visually, we’ve always been so bright and very optimistic, but I think we can kind of express how it’s still NCT DREAM and sometimes we can also have bad dreams as well, you know?” Even though we are going for our dreams, there are hardships that we face in reality. Our hope is to let our audiences escape their fears and negativity; we really want to encourage that. That kind of formed the title of our album as well, which is DREAM( )SCAPE .

And I wanted to clarify because I feel like a lot of people would pronounce it as “Dreamscape,” but it’s “Dream Escape.” They took the “e” out because the parentheses are supposed to symbolize a gate, you know? We have to call it “Dream Escape,” I guess — the “e” escaped.

Teaser Image : icantfeelanything NCT DREAM [DREAM( )SCAPE] ➫ 2024.03.25 6PM (KST) 💿Pre-save&add https://t.co/zbLhG5MkOk #NCTDREAM #Smoothie #NCTDREAM_Smoothie pic.twitter.com/BjmFtQaSNC — NCT DREAM (@NCTsmtown_DREAM) March 6, 2024

It felt like  DREAM( )SCAPE   was viral the moment you unveiled these dark teasers that we haven’t seen from NCT DREAM—I thought the bruised and bloody feet were very striking. Can you explain them and your take on the reactions?

RENJUN: The initial teasers meant that the clothes on top are very neat and sleek, but you also see these wounded feet from the members. This signifies that, in real life, everyone seems to be comfortable and put together, but we have hidden feelings inside and wounds in our hearts—and that’s normal. We’re trying to express that going through struggles and pain eventually leads to an escape.

JENO: As you can see in the ( )SCAPE Film , we are locked in our own rooms to show each of the member’s own dreams and identities in this suppressed reality. Eventually, we get to escape after the seven of us gather up, and that’s the storyline that we focused on when we were filming.

MARK:  It was really fun seeing how after every photo got released, the fans were like, “Oh, what does this mean? What does this symbolize? I think there’s a story behind all this.” I really liked to see how they were very attentive to each and every detail of the photo, and sometimes even, we were surprised by how they interpreted some parts of a photo or video — their trying to detect what it all meant before everything was released was one of the things that we really liked about this promotion.

Not to pry, but that’s a great message that I imagine many artists relate to. Is there anything you dealt with where things looked good on the outside, but something else was going on inside?

JENO:  To continue that, I think the rooms that I described earlier really relate to this album, and that’s where the story and concept came from.

MARK: I think there are a lot of times where I feel very hungry on set, but I just can’t show that to the people because I feel like that might be delaying the whole schedule, you know? Very painful…

RENJUN: He’s joking! He’s always kidding.

MARK: I mean, there’s a seed of truth. [Group laughs.] But don’t worry too much.

Why was “Smoothie” the right song to choose the single for this important album?

MARK: So, it was really hard choosing the title track because we had a lot of meetings and heard a lot of different options of songs for the title track [single], but we eventually chose “Smoothie” because one of the main goals we had for this comeback was to come up with a song that had the easiest hook but still had an impact. In a way, we could have chosen a more complex song, but we wanted to really narrow it down to the simplest type of hook that anyone can kind of catch on, even from the first listen, and I remember how we agreed that “Smoothie” would be the one because of that reason specifically.

JAEMIN: There are a lot of ingredients from which you make a “Smoothie” pictured in the music video, and what we wanted to express was cutting through all these bad ingredients to viewers — that’s the plot point that you might want to look forward to the most when watching.

One of my favorite tracks from your LP last year, ISTJ: The 3rd Album , was “Yogurt Shake,” and I wondered if “Smoothie” was related to it.

Looking at some of the other  DREAM( )SCAPE  tracks you were involved in, I love the lyrics in “BOX,” which MARK co-wrote. Did this come from a personal place or do you ever feel NCT DREAM is put into a box?

RENJUN: We wanted to more so summarize a universal feeling because I think everyone, whether it’s at home or work, I think everyone has felt that kind of feeling of being put in a box so wanting to explore and feel free.

MARK: I relate to what RENJUN said because, whether we are or aren’t aware of it, we all have our own boxes internally as well. I realized that this song’s theme and energy really fit the album’s concept — we can’t be trapped in your frame or opinions anymore. If you were to put that as a “BOX,” this song helps us come out of that and I just wanted to put that energy into the verses that I wrote.

MARK and JENO took part in “UNKNOWN,” which I found comforting and I think fans will too. 

MARK: Just from the word, “unknown,” I think a lot of people can relate to being afraid when it’s something that you’re not familiar with — even though they know that they have to take that step. We use the analogy of a body of water as something being “UNKNOWN” so you can dive into the unknown by taking a leap of faith. When me and JENO were writing, we really wanted to express how we know that we want to take that dive so let’s just take the leap of fate together — because it’s always better to do something with someone you trust rather than do it alone.

The album closes with “Breathing,” co-written by MARK, JENO, JAEMIN and JISUNG.

RENJUN: The first part of the song starts with “Where I am” and the last part ends with “Here I am.” When we were recording, we put our emotions and struggles into this idea of feeling lost, but when we were getting close to the end, we felt like, “Oh, I am here and I am determined.”

You’ll soon take these songs on stage with THE DREAM SHOW 3 world tour. How are the preparations going?

JISUNG: I think it’s going to be a better concert than THE DREAM SHOW 2. We’re still working on it, but we set DREAM( )SCAPE as the direction and focus on THE DREAM SHOW 3 tour. It’ll be a very different concert because we’re now more experienced, we have new songs and I think we can put out more diverse and improved sides of ourselves.

JENO: This year, fans can look forward to a show where each section has its own strong, independent color and various charms in each section — that’s the key point.

RENJUN: It’s almost like riding a rollercoaster because our emotions throughout the sections have a dynamic to it. So, fans can also ride the ups and downs with us.

What else do fans need to know right now ?

CHENLE:  We worked really hard on this album, so I hope you guys look forward to it from the trailer to the stages we’re going to perform when we have the album out. It’s going to be a very busy year for us and we’re going to look to do a lot of things. We’ll be getting closer with you all so please look forward to all that.

Get weekly rundowns straight to your inbox

Want to know what everyone in the music business is talking about?

Get in the know on.

Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Billboard Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

optional screen reader

Charts expand charts menu.

• Billboard Hot 100™
• Billboard 200™
• Hits Of The World™
• TikTok Billboard Top 50
• Song Breaker
• Year-End Charts
• Decade-End Charts

Music Expand music menu

• R&B/Hip-Hop

Culture Expand culture menu

Media expand media menu, business expand business menu.

• Business News
• Record Labels
• View All Pro

Pro Tools Expand pro-tools menu

• Songwriters & Producers
• Artist Index
• Royalty Calculator
• Market Watch
• Industry Events Calendar

Billboard Español Expand billboard-espanol menu

• Cultura y Entretenimiento

Honda Music Expand honda-music menu

to submit an obituary

Please send an email with the full text of your obituary to [email protected] . Text in the body of the email is best but we can take attached word and .txt documents as well--PDFs will not work. If you would like to include a photo, please attach it as a separate file from the text. Please specify the dates for the Obituary to run. We will send you a proof with cost for your final approval.

All obituaries need to be approved and paid for in advance. To pay by credit card call Melissa 530-896-7718 or Rene at 530-896-7726.

Submission Deadlines:

By noon to be printed in next day's paper.

Friday noon to be printed in weekend papers.

Drummer’s ‘Dunes’ is set for release

Share this:.

• Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
• Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
• Click to print (Opens in new window)
• Sponsored Content

Things To Do

SUBSCRIBER ONLY

Ask the doctors | acl repair options depend on degree of injury.

Lifestyle briefs | Quilters to meet

Sense and Sensitivity | Bride-to-be has hesitations as wedding nears

Appreciate the trillium from a distance