how to do a good creative writing

Tip 7: Practice Overcoming Writer’s Block

At some point in their writing journey, every writer has reached a point where writing doesn’t feel fun anymore.

There are lots of different causes for writer’s block. You might be unsure what to write, afraid of failing, or simply burned out from writing too much.

It’s important to find ways to overcome creative blocks, so you don’t end up putting down your pen for good.

One useful technique is to change your environment. If you normally write at home, try writing in a coffee shop or in your local library.

Another technique is to try a different activity for a while. Go for a walk, take a shower, do your dishes, or try another hobby. Before long, you’ll find yourself wanting to write again.

Perhaps the most underrated method is to simply take a break from writing. Give yourself permission to stop for a while—it’s always okay to take a step back.

Tip 8: Study Writing Craft

Many new writers falsely believe that writing can’t be taught; you’re either good at it or you’re not.

But the truth is that creative writing is a craft, just like woodworking, oil painting, or ballet. You wouldn’t expect anyone to be naturally good at ballet without years of training, so why is writing any different?

One way to learn new creative writing techniques is by reading craft books . Some great books to start with include On Writing by Stephen King, Story Genius by Lisa Cron, and The Creative Writer’s Handbook by Philip K. Jason.

These books can help you learn the basics of how to write well. For example, you can learn how to construct high-quality sentences, how to avoid passive voice, and how to use poetic devices.

The more you learn, the more powerful your writing will become.

Tip 9: Invent Your Own Process

When you’re just starting out as a writer, it can be tempting to copy someone else’s writing process.

Maybe you heard an interview with a bestselling author who said you have to outline a story before you draft it. Or maybe you found out your favorite author writes 1,000 words every day, and now you think you have to write 1,000 words every day too.

But it’s important to remember that no two writers have the exact same writing process. What works best for someone else might not work for you.

There’s no right or wrong way to be a creative writer. Your job is to find a writing process that makes you feel fulfilled, productive, and inspired—and if your favorite writers don’t write the same way, that’s perfectly okay.

Tip 10: Don’t Aim for Perfection

There’s a good chance your writing is never going to be perfect. Mine definitely isn’t!

Remember that writing is about the process, not the product. Even if the final product is never perfect, the process has helped you grow as a writer—and hopefully, it’s also been a lot of fun.

You should decide what your main goal for writing is. Maybe it’s writing stories you might be able to publish someday. Maybe it’s telling stories about characters you rarely see in existing stories. Maybe it’s simply a fun new hobby.

Whatever your goal is, remember that you’re already on your way to achieving it. You don’t need to aim for perfection in order to succeed.

There’s no secret to getting better at creative writing. The process is very simple—it just takes a lot of hard work.

All you have to do is follow this two-step process:

• Step 1: Write consistently
• Step 2: Ask for feedback on your writing

The first step is fairly self-explanatory. Whenever you’re learning a new skill, it’s important to practice it. The more you write, the more you’ll learn about how to be a successful creative writer.

The second step is the one that receives more pushback from writers because it requires a lot of courage and vulnerability, but it’s just as important as the first step.

If you don’t get feedback, you could write every day and still never improve. That’s because most people can’t spot the weaknesses in their own stories.

You can ask for feedback from your friends, family, or writing groups. They can help you see your work from a different perspective and identify areas for improvement.

As long as you write consistently and listen to the feedback on the work you’re producing, you’ll be able to create a positive cycle where you create better and better stories over time.

If you want to improve your creative writing skills, there are numerous resources you can use to find help.

One great method is to join a writing community where you can share your work and get feedback from other writers.

You can look for free critique groups online, on websites such as Scribophile and Critique Circle. Or you can start your own group with your friends.

You can also consider joining a local writing class or retreat. Many schools and community centers offer classes and workshops you can join.

Another option is to use creative writing tools. ProWritingAid can give you AI-powered suggestions about how to improve your prose and make your writing shine.

Good luck, and happy writing!

Be confident about grammar

Check every email, essay, or story for grammar mistakes. Fix them before you press send.

Hannah Yang is a speculative fiction writer who writes about all things strange and surreal. Her work has appeared in Analog Science Fiction, Apex Magazine, The Dark, and elsewhere, and two of her stories have been finalists for the Locus Award. Her favorite hobbies include watercolor painting, playing guitar, and rock climbing. You can follow her work on hannahyang.com, or subscribe to her newsletter for publication updates.

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• Are You Concerned About Originality in Your Writing?

by Melissa Donovan | Jul 4, 2024 | Creative Writing | 44 comments

How original does your writing need to be?

Today’s post is an excerpt from my book Ready, Set, Write: A Guide to Creative Writing , which takes you on a tour through various forms and genres of creative writing, providing you with tools, techniques, and tips to write more and write better. Enjoy!

Originality in Writing

A lot of artists struggle with originality. Of course, we all want to be original, but is it possible? Is there anything new under the sun?

Some say there are no new stories, just remixed and rehashed versions of stories we’re all familiar with. Often, when someone calls a piece of work original, a close examination reveals its roots in the creative works that preceded it.

Most of us writers have had ideas that we dismissed because we thought they were too similar to other works. But just because your idea is similar to another one, perhaps a famous one, should you give up on it?

Instead of giving up on a project that you think has been done before, you can simply make it your own.

Look at it this way: Everything already exists. The ideas, plots, characters, language, and subject matter—they’re already out there in someone else’s work. Originality isn’t coming up with something new; it’s using your imagination to put old concepts together in new ways.

To test this theory, see if you can guess the following famous story:

A young orphan who is being raised by his aunt and uncle receives a mysterious message from a nonhuman stranger. This message sets him on a new path, and he embarks on a great adventure. He receives special training from a mentor who teaches him superhuman skills. He acquires loyal allies, including a guy and a girl who end up falling for each other. Our hero eventually faces off against a terrible villain who is terrorizing everyone and everything that he knows and loves—the same villain who killed his parents.

If you guessed that this synopsis refers to Harry Potter, then you guessed right. But if you guessed that it was  Star Wars , you’re also right.

This shows how two stories that are extremely different from one another can share many similarities, including the basic plot structure and character relationships, and it proves that writing ideas will manifest in different ways when executed by different writers.

I’m not advocating for writers to go out and dissect popular stories and then rewrite them with a new twist (although that’s not a bad idea). What I am advocating is seeing writing ideas through to completion instead of casting them aside because they have something in common with a story you’ve read or seen on film or television.

Creative writing is about imagination, discovery, and sharing your thoughts, ideas, and experiences with readers. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had several writing ideas that seemed brilliant at first but later just seemed like a retelling of some old story that everyone already knew.

But when I read a superb novel or watch a fantastic movie, I often realize upon reflection that these works share elements with lots of other stories. I don’t know if J.K. Rowling ever realized that Harry Potter had so much in common with Luke Skywalker. Whether she did or not, the lesson we can all take away is that she forged ahead and believed in the story that she wanted to tell.

Creativity isn’t always coming up with something new; often, it’s simply finding new connections, perspectives, and combinations of elements. Letting go of your ideals regarding originality and reshaping them with this new understanding will send you soaring into less inhibited and better writing experiences.

Do you ever discard writing ideas that you feel have been done before? Do you find yourself on a constant quest for a fresh idea? Why do you suppose some people have a deep need to produce work that is considered original? Have you ever examined a story or a poem that you thought was original only to realize that it shared similarities with stories and poems that came before?

Use the synopsis about Star Wars and Harry Potter above to write your own story (or outline).

44 Comments

Great article — I agree with it wholly. Everything you want to write in fiction has already been done before, and it’s the truth. I had to come face to face with that fact once when I’d written a story, and later discovered that it was too much similar to someone else’s when I wasn’t even aware of it! That’s why hunting for ideas is such a useless job, when there are so many better ones to do.

You might want to check the article I wrote on this subject two months ago: Why Hunting for Plots is Worthless http://www.writerstreasure.com/plot-hunting-worthless/

Thanks for the great post.

One of the biggest challenges in creativity is the removal of imaginary barriers and limitations — and this is just one of many. Thanks, Idrees.

This was a great post. The search for an original writing idea drives me insane. I find myself constantly passing on ideas out of fear that I’ll be seen as a copycat. Your post has given me renewed hope that people will be able to see my stories not for how they are similar to other stories, but for the way I make them my own. Thanks for the morale boost!

You’re welcome, Megan. Keep writing!

Strive to be excellent. That is always rare enough to be its own kind of originality.

Originality for its own sake is almost always a failure. It may get an artist a little peer attention but the general public just shakes its head, if they even notice. Some would like to claim that this is because the masses are ignorant of aesthetics. I think it is because the masses responds to excellence foremost and only recognizes originality when it is good enough to be enjoyed despite its earth shattering uniquety.

Yes, I know uniquety is not a word. Failing to be excellent, I have no recourse but to attempt originality.

Great response, Mikel. Yes, I think one’s time is much better invested in striving toward excellence. Sometimes I wonder if originality ever did exist or if everything is just some new and improved version of something else. Even a light bulb, surely one of the most important inventions in the last 1000 years, is based on the sun.

Plato said there are no new ideas, but I think he ripped it off.

Ha! Your comment gave me a good laugh. Thanks!

Yup, I think he ripped it off from King Solomon, Ecclesiastes…”There is nothing new under the sun.”

Ah, yes, seems that he might have done just that.

(Shame on me, I had this page open and comment ready but forgot to hit submit!)

I really enjoyed this post. It felt a little comforting knowing that original ideas are difficult if not impossible to come by. I recently had a conversation with a friend about how come up with ideas. I told her the story about when I was younger, I came up with an idea for a superhero who basically controlled electricity and traveled by a hover board, similar to what was in Back to the Future 2. On top of all of that, he was a black kid with some funky hair, so basically it was me. A couple years later I’m watching Kids WB and they are airing a new action cartoon called Static Shock… which I later researched was based on a comic book and it was almost the same exact character I created. So had I tried to sell this idea, I’d definitely come into some trouble.

Today, my ideas come from life experiences. I know people have gone through whatever I’m trying to explain, but I think it’s how I tell my story that may make it sound fresh and new. I’m also interested in retelling historical stories that aren’t as popular or well known. But I can go on all day about this topic so I’ll save it for a future blog post. Thanks for inspiring me yet again!

Many years ago, I outlined a story that was about a kid who went off to magic school. It was eerily similar to a novel that came out later — Harry Potter. And when I outlined my idea, I had thought, “Nobody’s going to read this; it’s silly.” Turns out I’m the one who’s silly. Still, I just looked over those old notes a few weeks ago and realized that though the basic premise was similar to Harry Potter, my story would have been vastly different (female lead character, based more in sci-fi than fantasy). Yeah, original ideas are impossible. But I’m definitely hooked on the notion of combining things in new ways. So, how about a school for vampires? Hehee.

I cosign that idea of vampire school. Surely vampires have to go somwhere to learn all about their history and proper vampire manners.

With all this hype over vampires and werewolves, I feel kinda bad about mummies and Frankenstein’s monster (and his bride). Surely they could have a revival.

I know! Many monsters are getting neglected. What about the beasts that aren’t monsters, like unicorns? Nobody says anything about them!

I wonder what kind of twist can be plotted using unicorns as the driver.

Or winged horses… Adult versions of children’s fairytales.

I agree with Megan. I often think my ideas have sprung from some of my favorite stories or movies and have scrapped them before I have started. Its great to know im not going crazy and am very much not alone ! Thanks !

I think all my ideas come from my favorite stories. Right now, I’m really into Lost (yes, I’m way late on that bus). I would say that it comes across as perhaps the most original show/book/movie I have ever seen. But if I take it apart, I find out that it’s just a new way of combining and retelling a bunch of old characters and stories. In some cases, the show even references its own sources! White rabbits and “going down the rabbit hole” galore!

Much of the pleasure in reading is the recognition of a well-disguised plot. If what what we read is similar to what we have read, it is an easier read – less the challenge and more the gratification. The more original a work is, the less popular it will be – sadly.

I couldn’t agree more. I’m not a lazy reader, so I definitely appreciate plots and characters that present a decent mental challenge. Some people like to read (or watch TV and movies) just to relax and tune out. That’s fine once in a while, but mostly, I like art that makes me think.

I wrote a piece of flash fiction called Sherry’s Last stand, someone who commented on it said it reminded her of a movie were people were turned into wax figures. Ah I said, House of Wax 1953 Vincent Price! LOL – I never thought about my Sherry’s Last stand being similar, but I guess it is a new twist on an old idea… and that’s it really isn’t it ? Giving new and original twists to old ideas even if we didn’t realise it was an old idea in the first place! :O)

I think this happens to writers all the time. I’ve heard countless, woeful stories from writers who thought they’d created something original only to discover there were similar stories already in existence. I think the trick is not to try so hard to be original but to be brave enough to put your own story out there even if it does share similarities with other (often more famous) works. The key is to combine different story elements in unique ways rather than try to come up with something that nobody has ever thought of before.

Well I think you are absolutely right, and really from what I’ve seen there is very little that has not already been written about, but that in itself should not stop us. I never occurred to me Whether Sherry was an original story or not, it was just a story I had to tell.

I think the value of storytelling is not in originality but in emotional content, but that’s just me.

This article has opened up a whole new perspective for me! Thank you, I’ve been trying to write this one story for years. Years. And what is stopping me is every time I get an idea I think its great but then almost immediately I shoot it down cause its similar, even in just the slightest way to a book I just read, or a movie I just saw or just by coincidence. I keep self-criticising myself, but thank you, Melissa for an exceptionally well-done article.

I think it’s inevitable. I see similarities in novels, movies, and TV shows all the time. In fact, for every story out there, I can always draw several similarities to other stories, so why should my work be an exception? That’s the thought that keeps me going when I feel like everything’s been done.

Ok. So I have an idea for a historical novel; however, I found a similar book that focuses on the same character. Of course many of the events would be the same because it is historical fiction. My idea is greater in complexity and has more breadth. This will be my first attempt at writing a novel. I was quite discouraged when I found “my book” already written. Should I pursue and write my story? Or is it a hopeless endeavor because no publisher will publish a book similar to another….but better, of course!

My guess is that once you start writing, your story will diverge and end up being quite different from the one you’re worried about. I say go ahead with your idea and see what happens.

I guess I am fortunate I never run out of ideas.Once in a while I take a break for two days or so then approach my computer again with a fresh perspective and the ideas flow freely.

That’s awesome! Most writers I know either have too many or too few ideas.

Hi Melissa,

Great article. I, too, hesitate all too often because I am writing something that feels, or I fear could be, redundant. I have begun telling myself that no matter how often or in what context a story is told, there will always be someone hearing/reading it for the first time. That has helped open the possibility of a perpetual audience. Thanks again!

Thanks, Billie! You’ve made a great point!

I’ve always said it isn’t the concept it’s the execution. Now if I could just get a concept or two I’d be on my way…

I think concepts are easy to find, but coming up with a compelling concept, one you simply must write about…that’s another story!

I feel a lot of have similar interests and it would draw us closer of we all shared our individual thoughts and experiences through the stories we write. Just keep putting yourself out there. Have no fear.

That’s another good point! We share the human experience, so it’s only natural that similar concepts and themes would appear in our work. Thanks, Teresa!

I love a romance author John a Lindsey, I’ve read about 10 books of hers. All the books have similar heroes and heroines. Do you know what keeps me going back to read more? She has different twist to the stories. Each story though set in the 17 century has unique characters that makes it really good.

Personally, I detest the idea that what I have written has no originality. Come on, it is my brain, the drama acted in my mind. A writer’s quote says “A writer is a world trapped in a person.” I’ve never had issues with originality. Though I’ve discarded badly written stories before. They were simply not good. As we all know, writers drive themselves hard and condemn their work first…*smiles*

I love this piece!

Writers can be overly critical of their own work. That’s a good thing if we use it to improve our writing, but it can also hold us back if it prevents us from writing or sharing our work. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Deb!

After reading what all of you have to say about originality I suppose I must rethink my position. I am not a writer but I have many original (or so I thought) ideas for stories. I only wish I had the talent to use those ideas. Is there such a thing as collaboration with writers that need ideas? Thanks LDon

Yes, there are many writers who work with partners. Ideally, you would find someone whose skills complement yours. But you can also practice and study the craft to improve your own skills so you don’t have to rely on a partner.

Melissa, Bravo. Excellent! I just started my website about two months ago. I am experimenting with a free website before I launch the website I really want to produce. It’s for fun really! I have been writing for a very long time. However, I have never really been good at grammar or proofreading. I did a google search and came across your website. I have bookmarked your website and will use it often as I tackle my entries. Thanks.

This particular article caught my attention. I have been telling my sister, “there is nothing new out there to write, everything has been thought of”, for a very long time. Thanks for opening my eyes to approach writing differently.

I had to comment because I am discovering it’s harder to get your ideas on this vast internet. So again I say BRAVO! Ever since starting my website I am paying more attention to the lay out of websites. Yours is fantastic! I noticed you used WordPress and I have been watching editorials on WordPress. When I launch my “dream” website that is what I plan to use, WordPress.

I wish you all of the best as you continue to produce great and helpful articles about writing.

Take care, Heartburnvents

P.S. Sorry I haven’t used my real name. I wish to remain anonymous.

WordPress is, without a doubt, the best platform for an author’s website. I think it’s a good idea to experiment on a free site before investing in a self-hosted presence. Good luck to you!

Great post. I love your synopsis of Harry Potter/Star Wars. It shows just how different two stories can be with the same basic plot. I think I’ll do your exercise and see what I come up with.

Thanks, Vivienne. I hope you have fun with the exercise.

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Creative Writing for Beginners: 10 Top Tips

These creative writing for beginners tips can help with a short story, poem or novel .

Writing is a great pursuit, but many first-time writers find that it’s not as easy as they think. If you are dabbling in creative writing activities or fiction writing for the first time, you will likely discover that writing courses and writing exercises fall short in helping you truly develop characters and overcome writer’s block.

Thankfully, you can take some steps to embrace your inner author and write your first short story or novel. Whether you have an end product in mind or are simply looking to start your writing journey, these writing tips will help you get started.

1. Dig Deep to Choose Your Topic

2. spend time reading, 3. write daily, 4. tackle writing exercises, 5. consider a writing course, 6. keep it unique, 7. practice, practice, practice, 8. try a different medium, 9. embrace your critics, 10. write first, perfect later, the final word on creative writing for beginners.

Living Writer contains time-saving templates for authors and novelists. iOS and Android apps available

First, determine what you will write about. Your starting point will guide character development and your overall plot. If you’re having trouble finding a topic, consider using these starting points:

• Start with a story — If you have a compelling storyline or main character in mind, start there.
• Use personal experiences — Something that happened in your life can help you start a story. Taking our own stories and transforming them into fiction writing can create true masterpieces because the feeling in the writing is personal.
• Consider a hot topic — Is there a political or social issue that is important to you? Weave that into compelling prose to start your story.

Starting with these ideas, you should be able to settle on a basic idea for your story.

Creative writers are usually readers. Reading helps you learn about the nuances of written language, storytelling and character development.

Read a wide range of genres too. While novels are always helpful, non-fiction writing and short stories will teach you as well.

Set aside time every day to write . Make it part of your daily routine, and protect that time as much as you can. By having it scheduled into your day, you can overcome the frustration and delays of writer’s block.

During your writing time, limit distractions. Let your housemates or family members know you aren’t available during that time. Write, even if you don’t think what you’re writing is high quality, just to keep the words flowing.

By having daily writing time, you will start to improve your writing skills . Soon you will see a quality piece of writing coming together as you work your way towards your next bestseller.

If you find that getting started with creative writing is hard for you, consider some basic writing exercises. Creative writing prompts to get your ideas flowing can be the start of compelling writing as you create your own writing style. Writing exercises can help you learn the importance of the first sentence of your story or the development of your characters.

Sometimes writing exercises do not lead to a final product that you would publish, and that’s fine. The goal isn’t always to create something to share. Sometimes the goal is simply to gain writing experience and hone your craft.

Writing courses can be a great jumping-off point for creative writers. Writing courses teach structure, character development and overall writing techniques.

In a writing course, you will have writing exercises to perform each week and accountability for those assignments. This combination can help many first time writers start writing. Over time the writing skills build up and the writing becomes more natural.

When it comes to creative writing, uniqueness is a key component. To capture readers, you need something that hasn’t been done before, or you need to approach a story from a new perspective.

To give you a source for creative ideas, take time to brainstorm . Keep a journal where you can jot down ideas as they come or explore storylines. Soon you will find a unique twist to take your characters on.

Writing is a creative process , but that does not mean that practice is futile. Practicing daily gets your creativity flowing. You will polish your writing skills and learn more about how brainstorming works for you.

Today’s writers rarely put pen to paper, but rather finger to keyboard. Sometimes, a different medium may make the creativity flow.

Ernest Hemingway knew this. He wrote all of his manuscripts on paper with pencil, only typing them for the final drafts. This gave him the chance to edit during the final typing, and he felt that writing longhand spurred his creativity.

If you’re struggling with writer’s block , channel your inner Ernest Hemingway and try writing with pencil and paper instead. It just might get you over that hump.

A good writer can make an interesting story out of nothing. A great writer can do the same thing, then learn from critics to make the writing even better. Whether in a writing class, on social media or in the proofreading stages, have people read and critique your writing.

Accept criticism and use it to grow. Sometimes, you will gain new insight into how you can make your writing better. Sometimes, you will ignore the critics and allow your writing to stand.

Either way, critics will help you polish your art and learn how to craft a story that you are proud to call your own.

When writing a book or short story, don’t focus on perfection at the start. Get your ideas down and polish your storylines and character development, not necessarily the writing and grammar. This comes later when you proofread your work.

Your first draft is the place to get the story going. After you complete that draft, go back and edit it. Make it more powerful, fix your shortcomings and try to perfect it, but only after the main ideas are complete.

Remember, striving for perfection with the first draft is sure to create writer’s block . Move past it by understanding you can perfect later.

Creative writing for beginners can feel daunting. You know you have good ideas, but getting those ideas on paper feels like an overwhelming task. By scheduling time to write every day, brainstorming your ideas and not striving for perfection at first, all while taking advantage of writing exercises and writing classes, you can succeed in becoming a creative writer.

Want more? Check out out list of writing tips .

• Creativity Techniques

26+ Creative Writing Tips for Young Writers

So you want to be a writer? And not just any writer, you want to be a creative writer. The road to being a legendary storyteller won’t be easy, but with our creative writing tips for kids, you’ll be on the right track! Creative writing isn’t just about writing stories. You could write poems, graphic novels, song lyrics and even movie scripts. But there is one thing you’ll need and that is good creative writing skills. 

Here are over 26 tips to improve your creative writing skills :

Read a wide range of books

When it comes to creative writing, reading is essential. Reading allows you to explore the styles of other writers and gain inspiration to improve your own writing. But don’t just limit yourself to reading only popular books or your favourites. Read all sorts of books, everything from fairytales to scary stories. Take a look at comics, short stories, novels and poetry. Just fill your heads with the knowledge and wisdom of other writers and soon you’ll be just like them!

Write about real-life events

The hardest thing about creative writing is connecting emotionally with your audience. By focusing your writing on real-life events, you know that in some way or another your readers will be able to relate. And with creative writing you don’t need to use real names or details – There are certain things you can keep private while writing about the rare details. Using real-life events is also a good way to find inspiration for your stories. 

Be imaginative

Be as crazy and wild as you like with your imagination. Create your world, your own monsters , or even your own language! The more imaginative your story, the more exciting it will be to read. Remember that there are no rules on what makes a good idea in creative writing. So don’t be afraid to make stuff up!

Find your writing style

Thes best writers have a particular style about them. When you think of Roald Dahl , you know his books are going to have a sense of humour. While with Dr Seuss , you’re prepared to read some funny new words . Alternatively, when you look at R.L.Stine, you know that he is all about the horror. Think about your own writing style. Do you want to be a horror writer? Maybe someone who always writes in the first person? Will always focus your books on your culture or a particular character?

Stick to a routine

Routine is extremely important to writers. If you just write some stuff here and there, it’s likely that you’ll soon give up on writing altogether! A strict routine means that every day at a certain time you will make time to write about something, anything. Even if you’re bored or can’t think of anything, you’ll still pick up that pencil and write. Soon enough you’ll get into the habit of writing good stuff daily and this is definitely important for anyone who wants to be a professional creative writer!

Know your audience

Writing isn’t just about thinking about your own interests, it’s also about thinking about the interests of your audience. If you want to excite fellow classmates, know what they like. Do they like football , monsters or a particular video game? With that knowledge, you can create the most popular book for your target audience. A book that they can’t stop reading and will recommend to others! 

Daily Exercises

To keep your creative writing skills up to scratch it is important to keep practising every day. Even if you have no inspiration. At times when your mind is blank, you should try to use tools like writing prompts , video prompts or other ways of coming up with ideas . You could even take a look at these daily writing exercises as an example. We even created a whole list of over 100 creative writing exercises to try out when you need some inspiration or ideas. 

Work together with others

Everyone needs a little help now and then. We recommend joining a writing club or finding other classmates who are also interested in writing to improve your own creative writing skills. Together you can share ideas, tips and even write a story together! A good storytelling game to play in a group is the “ finish the story” game . 

Get feedback

Without feedback, you’ll never be able to improve your writing. Feedback, whether good or bad is important to all writers. Good feedback gives you the motivation to carry on. While bad feedback just gives you areas to improve and adapt your writing, so you can be the best! After every piece of writing always try to get feedback from it, whether it is from friends, family, teachers or an online writing community .

Enter writing competitions

The best way to improve your creative writing is by entering all sorts of writing competitions . Whether it’s a poetry competition or short story competition, competitions let you compete against other writers and even help you get useful feedback on your writing. Most competitions even have rules to structure your writing, these rules can help you prepare for the real world of writing and getting your work published. And not only that you might even win some cool prizes!

Keep a notebook

Every writer’s best friend is their notebook. Wherever you go make sure you have a notebook handy to jot down any ideas you get on the go. Inspiration can come from anywhere , so the next time you get an idea instead of forgetting about it, write it down. You never know, this idea could become a best-selling novel in the future. 

Research your ideas

So, you got a couple of ideas for short stories. The next step is to research these ideas deeper. 

Researching your ideas could involve reading books similar to your ideas or going online to learn more about a particular topic. For example, if you wanted to write a book on dragons, you would want to know everything about them in history to come up with a good, relatable storyline for your book.

Create Writing Goals

How do you know if your writing is improving over time? Simple – Just create writing goals for yourself. Examples of writing goals might include, to write 100 words every day or to write 600 words by the end of next week. Whatever your goals make sure you can measure them easily. That way you’ll know if you met them or not. You might want to take a look at these bullet journal layouts for writers to help you track the progress of your writing.

Follow your passions

Writing can be tedious and many people even give up after writing a few words. The only way you can keep that fire burning is by writing about your true passions. Whatever it is you enjoy doing or love, you could just write about those things. These are the types of things you’ll enjoy researching and already know so much about, making writing a whole lot more fun!

Don’t Settle for the first draft

You finally wrote your first story. But the writing process isn’t complete yet! Now it’s time to read your story and make the all-important edits. Editing your story is more than just fixing spelling or grammar mistakes. It’s also about criticising your own work and looking for areas of improvement. For example, is the conflict strong enough? Is your opening line exciting? How can you improve your ending?

Plan before writing

Never just jump into writing your story. Always plan first! Whether this means listing down the key scenes in your story or using a storyboard template to map out these scenes. You should have an outline of your story somewhere, which you can refer to when actually writing your story. This way you won’t make basic mistakes like not having a climax in your story which builds up to your main conflict or missing crucial characters out.

It’s strange the difference it makes to read your writing out aloud compared to reading it in your head. When reading aloud you tend to notice more mistakes in your sentences or discover paragraphs which make no sense at all. You might even want to read your story aloud to your family or a group of friends to get feedback on how your story sounds. 

Pace your story

Pacing is important. You don’t want to just start and then quickly jump into the main conflict because this will take all the excitement away from your conflict. And at the same time, you don’t want to give the solution away too early and this will make your conflict too easy for your characters to solve. The key is to gradually build up to your conflict by describing your characters and the many events that lead up to the main conflict. Then you might want to make the conflict more difficult for your characters by including more than one issue in your story to solve. 

Think about themes

Every story has a theme or moral. Some stories are about friendship, others are about the dangers of trusting strangers. And a story can even have more than one theme. The point of a theme is to give something valuable to your readers once they have finished reading your book. In other words, to give them a life lesson, they’ll never forget!

Use dialogue carefully

Dialogue is a tricky thing to get right. Your whole story should not be made up of dialogue unless you’re writing a script. Alternatively, it can be strange to include no dialogue at all in your story. The purpose of dialogue should be to move your story forward. It should also help your readers learn more about a particular character’s personality and their relationship with other characters in your book. 

One thing to avoid with dialogue is… small talk! There’s no point in writing dialogue, such as “How’s the weather?”, if your story has nothing to do with the weather. This is because it doesn’t move your story along.  For more information check out this guide on how to write dialogue in a story .

Write now, edit later

Writing is a magical process. Don’t lose that magic by focusing on editing your sentences while you’re still writing your story up. Not only could this make your story sound fragmented, but you might also forget some key ideas to include in your story or take away the imagination from your writing. When it comes to creative writing, just write and come back to editing your story later.

Ask yourself questions

Always question your writing. Once done, think about any holes in your story. Is there something the reader won’t understand or needs further describing? What if your character finds another solution to solving the conflict? How about adding a new character or removing a character from your story? There are so many questions to ask and keep asking them until you feel confident about your final piece.

Create a dedicated writing space

Some kids like writing on their beds, others at the kitchen table. While this is good for beginners, going pro with your writing might require having a dedicated writing space. Some of the basics you’ll need is a desk and comfy chair, along with writing materials like pens, pencils and notebooks. But to really create an inspiring place, you could also stick some beautiful pictures, some inspiring quotes from writers and anything else that will keep you motivated and prepared. 

Beware of flowery words

Vocabulary is good. It’s always exciting when you learn a new word that you have never heard before. But don’t go around plotting in complicated words into your story, unless it’s necessary to show a character’s personality. Most long words are not natural sounding, meaning your audience will have a hard time relating to your story if it’s full of complicated words from the dictionary like Xenophobia or Xylograph .

Create believable characters

Nobody’s perfect. And why should your story characters be any different? To create believable characters, you’ll need to give them some common flaws as well as some really cool strengths. Your character’s flaws can be used as a setback to why they can’t achieve their goals, while their strengths are the things that will help win over adversity. Just think about your own strengths and weaknesses and use them as inspirations for your storybook characters. You can use the Imagine Forest character creator to plan out your story characters. 

Show, don’t tell

You can say that someone is nice or you can show them how that person is nice. Take the following as an example, “Katie was a nice girl.” Now compare that sentence to this, “Katie spent her weekends at the retirement home, singing to the seniors and making them laugh.”. The difference between the two sentences is huge. The first one sounds boring and you don’t really know why Katie is nice. While in the second sentence, you get the sense that Katie is nice from her actions without even using the word nice in the sentence!

Make the conflict impossible

Imagine the following scenario, you are a championship boxer who has won many medals over the year and the conflict is…Well, you got a boxing match coming up. Now that doesn’t sound so exciting! In fact, most readers won’t even care about the boxer winning the match or not! 

Now imagine this scenario: You’re a poor kid from New Jersey, you barely have enough money to pay the bills. You never did any professional boxing, but you want to enter a boxing competition, so you can win and use the money to pay your bills. 

The second scenario has a bigger mountain to climb. In other words, a much harder challenge to face compared to the character in the first scenario. Giving your characters an almost impossible task or conflict is essential in good story-telling.

Write powerful scenes

Scenes help build a picture in your reader’s mind without even including any actual pictures in your story. Creating powerful scenes involves more than describing the appearance of a setting, it’s also about thinking about the smell, the sounds and what your characters are feeling while they are in a particular setting. By being descriptive with your scenes, your audience can imagine themselves being right there with characters through the hard times and good times!

There’s nothing worse than an ending which leaves the reader feeling underwhelmed. You read all the way through and then it just ends in the most typical, obvious way ever! Strong endings don’t always end on a happy ending. They can end with a sad ending or a cliff-hanger.  In fact, most stories actually leave the reader with more questions in their head, as they wonder what happens next. This then gives you the opportunity to create even more books to continue the story and keep your readers hooked for life (or at least for a very long time)! 

Over 25 creative writing tips later and you should now be ready to master the art of creative writing! The most important tip for all you creative writers out there is to be imaginative! Without a good imagination, you’ll struggle to wow your audience with your writing skills. Do you have any more creative writing tips to share? Let us know in the comments!

Marty the wizard is the master of Imagine Forest. When he's not reading a ton of books or writing some of his own tales, he loves to be surrounded by the magical creatures that live in Imagine Forest. While living in his tree house he has devoted his time to helping children around the world with their writing skills and creativity.

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Creative Writing 101

You love to write and have been told you have a way with words. So you’ve decided to give writing a try—creative writing.

Problem is, you’re finding it tougher than it looks.

You may even have a great story idea , but you’re not sure how to turn it into something people will read.

Don’t be discouraged—writing a compelling story can be grueling, even for veterans. Conflicting advice online may confuse you and make you want to quit before you start.

But you know more than you think. Stories saturate our lives.

We tell and hear stories every day in music, on television, in video games, in books, in movies, even in relationships.

Most stories, regardless the genre, feature a main character who wants something.

There’s a need, a goal, some sort of effort to get that something.

The character begins an adventure, a journey, or a quest, faces obstacles, and is ultimately transformed.

The work of developing such a story will come. But first, let’s look at the basics.

• What is Creative Writing?

It’s prose (fiction or nonfiction) that tells a story.

Journalistic, academic, technical writing relays facts.

Creative writing can also educate, but it’s best when it also entertains and emotionally moves the reader.

It triggers the imagination and appeals to the heart.

• Elements of Creative Writing

Writing a story is much like building a house.

You may have all the right tools and design ideas, but if your foundation isn’t solid, even the most beautiful structure won’t stand.

Most storytelling experts agree, these 7 key elements must exist in a story.

Plot (more on that below) is what happens in a story. Theme is why it happens.

Before you begin writing, determine why you want to tell your story.

• What message do you wish to convey? 
• What will it teach the reader? 

Resist the urge to explicitly state your theme. Just tell the story, and let it make its own point.

Give your readers credit. Subtly weave your theme into the story and trust them to get it.

They may remember a great plot, but you want them thinking about your theme long after they’ve finished reading.

2. Characters

Every story needs believable characters who feel knowable.

In fiction, your main character is the protagonist, also known as the lead or hero/heroine.

The protagonist must have:

• redeemable flaws
• potentially heroic qualities that emerge in the climax
• a character arc (he must be different, better, stronger by the end)

Resist the temptation to create a perfect lead. Perfect is boring. (Even Indiana Jones suffered a snake phobia.)

You also need an antagonist, the villain , who should be every bit as formidable and compelling as your hero.

Don’t make your bad guy bad just because he’s the bad guy. Make him a worthy foe by giving him motives for his actions.

Villains don’t see themselves as bad. They think they’re right! A fully rounded bad guy is much more realistic and memorable.

Depending on the length of your story , you may also need important orbital cast members.

For each character, ask:

• What do they want?
• What or who is keeping them from getting it?
• What will they do about it?

The more challenges your characters face, the more relatable they are.

Much as in real life, the toughest challenges result in the most transformation.

Setting may include a location, time, or era, but it should also include how things look, smell, taste, feel, and sound.

Thoroughly research details about your setting so it informs your writing, but use those details as seasoning, not the main course. The main course is the story.

But, beware.

Agents and acquisitions editors tell me one of the biggest mistakes beginning writers make is feeling they must begin by describing the setting.

That’s important, don’t get me wrong. But a sure way to put readers to sleep is to promise a thrilling story on the cover—only to start with some variation of:

The house sat in a deep wood surrounded by…

Rather than describing your setting, subtly layer it into the story.

Show readers your setting. Don’t tell them. Description as a separate element slows your story to crawl.

By layering in what things look and feel and sound like you subtly register the setting in the theater of readers’ minds.

While they concentrating on the action, the dialogue , the tension , the drama, and conflict that keep them turning the pages, they’re also getting a look and feel for your setting.

4. Point of View

POV is more than which voice you choose to tell your story: First Person ( I, me ), Second Person ( you, your ), or Third Person ( he, she, or it ).

Determine your perspective (POV) character for each scene—the one who serves as your camera and recorder—by deciding who has the most at stake. Who’s story is this?

The cardinal rule is that you’re limited to one perspective character per scene, but I prefer only one per chapter, and ideally one per novel.

Readers experience everything in your story from this character’s perspective.

For a more in-depth explanation of Voice and POV, read A Writer’s Guide to Point of View .

This is the sequence of events that make up a story —in short, what happens. It either compels your reader to keep turning pages or set the book aside.

A successful story answers:

• What happens? (Plot)
• What does it mean? (Theme: see above)

Writing coaches call various story structures by different names, but they’re all largely similar. All such structures include some variation of:

• An Inciting Incident that changes everything
• A series of Crises that build tension
• A Resolution (or Conclusion)

How effectively you create drama, intrigue, conflict, and tension, determines whether you can grab readers from the start and keep them to the end.

6. Conflict

This is the engine of fiction and crucial to effective nonfiction as well.

Readers crave conflict and what results from it.

If everything in your plot is going well and everyone is agreeing, you’ll quickly bore your reader—the cardinal sin of writing.

If two characters are chatting amiably and the scene feels flat (which it will), inject conflict. Have one say something that makes the other storm out, revealing a deep-seated rift.

Readers will stay with you to find out what it’s all about.

7. Resolution

Whether you’re an Outliner or a Pantser like me (one who writes by the seat of your pants), you must have an idea where your story is going.

How you expect the story to end should inform every scene and chapter. It may change, evolve, and grow as you and your characters do, but never leave it to chance.

Keep your lead character center stage to the very end. Everything he learns through all the complications you plunged him into should, in the end, allow him to rise to the occasion and succeed.

If you get near the end and something’s missing, don’t rush it. Give your ending a few days, even a few weeks if necessary.

Read through everything you’ve written. Take a long walk. Think about it. Sleep on it. Jot notes. Let your subconscious work. Play what-if games. Reach for the heart, and deliver a satisfying ending that resonates .

Give your readers a payoff for their investment by making it unforgettable.

• Creative Writing Examples
• Short Story
• Narrative nonfiction
• Autobiography
• Song lyrics
• Screenwriting
• Playwriting
• Creative Writing Tips

In How to Write a Novel , I cover each step of the writing process:

• Come up with a great story idea .
• Determine whether you’re an Outliner or a Pantser.
• Create an unforgettable main character.
• Expand your idea into a plot.
• Do your research.
• Choose your Voice and Point of View.
• Start in medias res (in the midst of things).
• Intensify your main character’s problems.
• Make the predicament appear hopeless.
• Bring it all to a climax.
• Leave readers wholly satisfied.
• More to Think About

1. Carry a writing pad, electronic or otherwise. I like the famous Moleskine™ notebook . 

Ideas can come at any moment. Record ideas for:

• Anything that might expand your story

2. Start small. 

Take time to build your craft and hone your skills on smaller projects before you try to write a book .

Journal. Write a newsletter. Start a blog. Write short stories . Submit articles to magazines, newspapers, or e-zines.

Take a night school or online course in journalism or creative writing. Attend a writers conference.

3. Throw perfection to the wind. 

Separate your writing from your editing .

Anytime you’re writing a first draft, take off your perfectionist cap. You can return to editor mode to your heart’s content while revising, but for now, just write the story.

Separate these tasks and watch your daily production soar.

• Time to Get to Work

Few pleasures in life compare to getting lost in a great story.

Learn how to write creatively, and the characters you birth have the potential to live in hearts for years.

• 1. Carry a writing pad, electronic or otherwise. I like the famous Moleskine™ notebook. 

Are You Making This #1 Amateur Writing Mistake?

Faith-Based Words and Phrases

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Creative Writing: Start Your Creative Writing Journey

Posted on May 22, 2023

Written by Bella Rose Emmorey

Creative writing is one of those skills you can eternally get better at, but often suck at when you start… I’ve been there. I’ve so been there. Now, we’re not saying your creative writing is bad necessarily, but just that if you want to continue to push yourself in this industry, you’ll need some work since literature is more competitive now than it ever has been. You might not like to face that truth, but it is indeed a truth everyone who wants to write and publish successfully has to face. I’ll go into more detail about that in a little bit but every writer out there needs some writing tips to help them get better. And one of the best ways to get better at creative writing is to first learn and understand the craft of it, and then challenge yourself by completing writing exercises .

Because when your time comes to publish, you want a high-quality final product in order to actually sell your book and acquire raving fans.

Here’s what you’ll learn about creative writing:

• What is creative writing?
• Creative writing topics
• Elements of creative writing
• Examples of creative writing
• 9 powerful creative writing exercises

What is Creative Writing?

Creative writing is a form of writing where creativity is at the forefront of its purpose through using imagination, creativity, and innovation in order to tell a story through strong written visuals with an emotional impact, like in poetry writing , short story writing , novel writing , and more.

It’s often seen as the opposite of journalistic or academic writing.

When it comes to writing, there are many different types. As you already know, all writing does not read in the same way.

Creative writing uses senses and emotions in order to create a strong visual in the reader’s mind whereas other forms of writing typically only leave the reader with facts and information instead of emotional intrigue.

It can be a book series or a single installation, the factors that make up creative writing have more to do with how it sits with the reader artistically.

What are the Elements of Creative Writing?

In order to get better at creative writing, you have to understand the elements of what makes writing a book great.

You can’t build a car engine without understanding how each part plays a role, right…?

That’s the same case with writing.

And just a note, this is all stuff we cover , and you get to talk about 1-on-1 with your coach when you join Self-Publishing School .

Here are the elements that make up creative writing and why each is just as important as the other.

Unique Plot

What differentiates creative writing and other forms of writing the most is the fact that the former always has a plot of some sort – and a unique one.

Yes, remakes are also considered creative writing, however, most creative writers create their own plot formed by their own unique ideas . Without having a plot, there’s no story.

And without a story, you’re really just writing facts on paper, much like a journalist. Learn how to plot your novel and you’ll open up the possibility of writing at a higher level without the need to find your story as much.

Character development

Characters are necessary for creative writing. While you can certainly write a book creatively using the second person point of view (which I’ll cover below), you still have to develop the character in order to tell the story.

Character development can be defined as the uncovering of who a character is and how they change throughout the duration of your story. From start to end, readers should be able to understand your main characters deeply.

Underlying Theme

Almost every story out there has an underlying theme or message – even if the author didn’t necessarily intend for it to. But creative writing needs that theme or message in order to be complete.

That’s part of the beauty of this form of art. By telling a story, you can also teach lessons.

Visual Descriptions

When you’re reading a newspaper, you don’t often read paragraphs of descriptions depicting the surrounding areas of where the events took place. Visual descriptions are largely saved for creative writing.

You need them in order to help the reader understand what the surroundings of the characters look like.

Show don’t tell writing pulls readers in and allows them to imagine themselves in the characters’ shoes – which is the reason people read.

Point of View

There are a few points of views you can write in. That being said, the two that are most common in creative writing are first person and third person .

• First Person – In this point of view, the narrator is actually the main character. This means that you will read passages including, “I” and understand that it is the main character narrating the story.
• Second Person – Most often, this point of view isn’t used in creative writing, but rather instructional writing – like this blog post. When you see the word “you” and the narrator is speaking directly to you, it’s second person point of view.
• Third person limited’s narrator uses “he/she/they” when speaking about the character you’re following. They know that character’s inner thoughts and feelings but nobody else’s. It’s much like first person, but instead of the character telling the story, a narrator takes their place.
• Third person multiple is the same as limited except that the narrator now knows the inner thoughts and feelings of several characters.
• The last, third person omniscient, is when the narrator still uses “he/she/they” but has all of the knowledge. They know everything about everyone.

While non-creative writing can have dialogue (like in interviews), that dialogue is not used in the same way as it is in creative writing. Creative writing (aside from silent films) requires dialogue to support the story.

Your characters should interact with one another in order to further the plot and develop each other more.

Imaginative Language

Part of what makes creative writing creative is the way you choose to craft the vision in your mind.

And that means creative writing uses more anecdotes, metaphors , similes , figures of speech , and other figurative language in order to paint a vivid image in the reader’s mind .

Emotional Appeal

All writing can have emotional appeal. However, it’s the entire goal of creative writing. Your job as a writer is to make people feel how you want them to by telling them a story.

Creative Writing Examples

Since creative writing covers such a wide variety of writing, we wanted to break down the different types of creative writing out there to help you make sense of it. Y ou may know that novels are considered creative writing, but what about memoirs?

Here are examples of creative writing:

• Short stories
• TV show scripts
• Movie scripts

9 Creative Writing Exercises to Improve Your Writing

Writing is just like any other skill. You have to work at it in order to get better.

It’s also much like other skills because the more you do it, the stronger you become in it. That’s why exercising your creative writing skills is so important.

How do you start creative writing?

The best authors out there, including Stephen King, recommend writing something every single day . These writing exercises will help you accomplish that and improve your talent immensely.

#1 – Describe your day with creative writing

This is one of my favorite little exercises to keep my writing sharp and in shape.

Just like with missing gym sessions, the less you write, the more of that skill you lose. Hannah Lee Kidder, a very talented author and Youtuber, gave me this writing exercise and I have used it many times.

Creative Writing Exercise:

All you have to do is sit down and describe your day – starting with waking up – as if you were writing it about another person. Use your creative writing skills to bring life to even the dullest moments, like showering or brushing your teeth.

#2 – Description depiction

If you’re someone who struggles with writing descriptions or you just want to get better in general, this exercise will help you do just that – and quickly.

In order to improve your descriptions, you have to write them with a specific intention.

With this exercise, the goal is to write your description with the goal of showing the reader as much as you can about your character without ever mentioning them at all.

#3 – Edit your old writing

Believe it or not, editing does count as writing and can actually sharpen those creative writing skill more than you think.

It can be a little scary to pull up a story you wrote last week or even two years ago and tear it apart. But that’s exactly what I want you to do.

Check out this video of me editing my old writing in order to replace weak verbs with stronger, better ones to get a taste of what this can look like and how it can help you get better.

#4 – Voice v ariations

One of my favorite parts of writing is giving unique voices to each character, using multiple points of view . I believe that’s what truly brings them to life.

Their dialogue has the power to pull readers in, or push them out of the book completely.

Obviously, you want the former.

During this creative writing exercise, your focus will be to pick 4 different emotional states and write dialogue examples of how your character feels and interprets those feelings.

For this one, craft a character in your mind. It can be one you already created or a completely new one.

Choose your 4 emotional states – and get creative. You can choose sadness, anger, happiness, and excitement BUT you can also go a bit further and choose to use drunk, flirty, terrified, and eager.

After you have 4 emotional states, write one page of each using dialogue and narrative your character would use.

#5 – Single senses

Creating strong visuals is one of the most powerful ways to become a great creative writer. In fact, practicing this will help you craft books that really hook readers.

This exercise’s goal is to help you develop writing the senses in ways that not only make sense, but are also imaginative and unique.

#6 – Dialogue destruction

During this exercise, you will learn a lot about how to write a scene using entirely dialogue.

Now, this isn’t something you’ll always do in your writing, but it’s very important to know how to move a scene forward using dialogue if you need to.

This will also help you understand how to show and not tell in creative writing.

To start, choose a scene you wrote previously that has little to no dialogue, but is still very important.

Next, rewrite the entire thing using dialogue (including dialogue tags and body language descriptions). You will quickly become better at using dialogue to show and not tell.

#7 – Tell the origin story of the Tooth Fairy

This writing exercise will really help you think creatively about something a large part of the world knows about.

However, you have to think of a very unique, interesting way of presenting this common idea. The purpose of this is to help you dig deeper within your own story and plot in order to come up with the very best, most unique ideas – because that is what will stand out in your book.

Begin this story like you would any other. Develop who the very first Tooth Fairy is and understand their character. Then, start creating a backstory that coincides with how they ended up becoming the tooth fairy.

Write this in full, ending with the Tooth Fairy taking their first tooth.

#8 – Thematic attic

This is a fun one! The idea behind this creative writing exercise is to focus on interpreting themes through story.

Since all creative writing has an underlying theme behind it, it’s really important for you to be able to accurately depict that theme throughout the story you’re telling.

Otherwise, it can get lost. Not knowing the theme can often leave readers feeling unsatisfied – and rightfully so.

For this exercise, pick an overarching theme you want to focus on. This can be anything from equality to the difference between right and wrong.

Next, craft a short story with the setting being and do your best to make sure that theme shines through

Get creative! Your attic can even contain a portal to another dimension if you really want it to.

#9 – Break language barriers

This isn’t quite what you think it is. So no, we will not be creating new languages with this exercise.

Instead, we’ll be working on using unique language to describe very common, everyday occurrences and experiences.

One of the beauties of creative writing is that you have the power to change the way someone sees the world. You can make it more appealing and special to them – if you know how.

This exercise will help you develop the skill of using a unique narrative within your story.

In this creative writing exercise, you’ll start by reading. You can read a new book or even some of your old writing.

Highlight or copy sentences or paragraphs you think are very common experiences that most everyone in the world knows of. For example: the sunset, brushing your teeth, looking up at the sky.

Your job is to rewrite these experiences in the most unique way you can using visuals that you don’t normally see in writing.<

Here’s an example:

BEFORE – The sun set beyond the trees.

AFTER – The trees tucked the sun in for the night.

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Essential Creative Writing Tips and Techniques

Creative writing has no written formula and no immutable laws, you just need a good imagination and good writing skills.

And you’re good to go!

Creative writing presents us with fewer tethers than other forms of writing. This means that we have more liberty when we want to express our imagination artistically.  

With all this freedom, defining and serving creative writing techniques is a bit hard, and some tips are frowned upon as they seem to infringe upon the liberties of some creative writers.

Still, some writers need guidance.

So, I have taken it upon myself to be this guide and dish out much-needed tips and discuss some creative writing techniques.

If you’ve been looking for guidance and insight, here’s a no-frills article full of practical tips on creative writing for you.

What Is Creative Writing?

Creative writing is writing that uses imagination , creativity, and mastery of the art of writing to evoke emotion in a reader.

It could be a fictional story, a nonfiction piece, or movie script, a play, a poem, et cetera. Creative writing oftentimes springs up from experimentation and good, imaginative use of knowledge and ideas.

One of the things that make creative writing different from other forms of writing is the underlying message or theme. Unlike other forms of writing, creative writing sometimes hides a message under the entertaining, saddening, or horrifying part of the written content.

Other archetypal elements of creative writing include creating an emotional connection with the reader (and sometimes evoking a response), having a deliberate point of view, using a narrative structure, and use of imaginative and descriptive language.

What Isn’t Creative Writing?

Whatever lacks the elements I just listed isn’t creative writing. Written pieces such as company reports, statements, and other professional communications aren’t regarded as creative writing.

Similarly, personal documents and communications such as emails, social media content, and personal communications all fit in the non-creative writing category.

In addition to that, research papers and pieces that are in the “Academic Writing” category do not qualify as creative writing.

Most often the type of content that I have listed is devoid of deliberate themes. Often, these types of pieces have goals similar to those prevalent in creative writing, but they’re presented differently.

But—as a reminder to myself or you, the reader—I would like to say that they’re blurred boundaries in some forms of content. For example, we can’t outrightly classify content such as blog posts as creative writing non-creative. Blog content belongs to a broader category that is as flexible as creative writing itself.

Therefore, you would have to analyze the elements of each blog post to see if they fit a particular category.

Forms of Creative Writing

Given the freedom that creative writing gets, it is just right that it takes many forms.

Here are some of the forms of creative writing:

This is one of the most popular forms of creative writing. Novels are also the first thing people think about when it comes to books (apart from academicians who are religiously into textbooks).

Novels are extended fictional works in prose that usually (or always?) come in the form of a story.

Most of them are in the range of 50,000 to 150,000 words, but some are told in less than 50,000 and others extend beyond 150,000.

Pieces that are too short to qualify as novels and too long to qualify as short stories automatically qualify as novellas and novelettes.

Novellas often fall in the range of 10,000-40,000 words, while novelettes generally have a word count of 7,500-19,000 words.

Word count boundaries are usually varied—and they are oftentimes at the discretion of the publisher or competition organizers.

Short Fiction

Short stories as the name suggests are on the other end (the shorter word count end) of the fiction word count spectrum. 

Short stories generally fall between 2,500 and 7,500 words but sometimes extend to 10,000 words.

Unlike novels, short stories tell stories with fewer characters, details, and backstories, among other deficiencies.

Then there are other forms of short fiction told in 1,000 words, and they’re called flash fiction and micro-fiction.

The unrestricted and spontaneous nature of poetry embodies the artistic multifariousness of creative writing.

Poetry is as emotional as it is rebellious—and word counts and rhyming rarely matter for poems, i.e., those in the free verse category.

There are different types of poems such as sonnets, haikus, sestinas, limericks, and free verses.

The spontaneous nature of poetry does connote lawlessness. The thing is, the different types of poetry originated from different cultures around the world and many come with rules.

However, for most of these types of poetry, the rules are adaptable. A few types such as haikus have specific rules on the number of lines or structure.

Plus, just because there aren’t many rules governing the structure, content, and length of poetry it doesn’t mean that you can brush aside the use of perfect grammar, the importance of POV, the need for a theme, and the need to evoke the reader’s emotions.

TV scripts, stage play scripts, and screenplays

This category comprises stage plays and scripts for films, television programs, and other types of video content.

A majority of content in this category has a lot in common with novels and short stories. Although different scripts have different formatting requirements, they carry a message or central theme and try to appeal to their audience’s emotions.

In a way, these scripts depart from the highly descriptive nature of novels and short stories.  There’s much more dialogue in scripts with a bit of stage or scene directions in stage plays screenplays.

Creative Nonfiction

Creative writing doesn’t always have to be works of fiction, some nonfiction also qualifies as creative writing.

Here are some of the works that can be called creative nonfiction:

• Lyric essays
• Autobiographies
• Humor Writing
• Literary Journalism

Tips and Techniques for Creative Writing

1. read widely and learn from other writers.

You can improve by focusing on looking at your writing only. If you want to be a good creative writer, you have to read.

When you read other people’s work, you discover other writing styles and get inspired in the process.

There are lots of reading resources on creative writing out there. You can find books, essays, blog articles, and video content covering different aspects of creative writing.

Some works will comprise fiction and nonfiction pieces (novels, short stories, poetry, lyrical essays. Et cetera) while others seek to cover interviews and personal essays that talk about the authors’ creative processes.

2. Benefit from Your Imagination

A wild imagination represents superiority for creative writers, especially fiction writers.

This is the only time you’re allowed to play god!

By using a crazy imagination you can conceive an exciting story, build a unique world, and come up with convincing, never-imagined-before characters.

Heck! You can even create your own language!

Be as imaginative as you can be, even going into a trance, and create a creative piece using your own rules!

3. Focus on Understanding and Improving Yourself as a Writer

You cannot improve something you don’t fully understand; therefore, you have to understand your strengths and weaknesses as a writer to become a better writer.

I wrote an article on this, explaining some general strengths and weaknesses that writers have.  As a creative writer, you have to identify problem areas such as bad sense of rhythm, dodgy flow, lack of creativity, et cetera.

As a creative writer, there are things you must have in your armory, such as a rich and relevant vocabulary, organized writing, and a unique writing style (which also happens to be the next tip on the list).

4. Develop or Discover a Unique Writing Style

Creative writers are better off seeking inspiration from other creative writers while trying to follow their path.

In short: study other writers, but develop your writing style. Take a look at all the best, and you’ll discover that most of them developed a unique style.

So, have your writing style. And, it should fit the niche you want to specialize in—if it’s horror, a befitting style. You could also focus on developing vibrant writing full of eccentric characters.

Likewise, you could become a writer who always writes in a specific POV.

5. Create Space for Creative Writing and Stick to a routine

Writing routinely and total focus are tremendously important for creative writers. If you’re a spontaneous writer who scarcely writes and only writes whenever they feel like it, you’re bound to fail as a writer!

You need to have a schedule and some working space. The ideas might come spontaneously and anywhere, but it’s hard to write without proper planning and a distraction-free setting.

It’s unproductive trying to squeeze writing into your day.

When you start writing routinely, in a ‘comfortable’ place, creative writing becomes natural. Even when you’re out of ideas experiencing writer’s block, you have to practice the habit of writing stuff daily—just write some fluff if you’re bored.

6. Know your audience

“Why do you write?”

The most popular answer to the question is, “because I love it!”

But if the question was rephrased and we asked “why do you publish your works?” the previous answer would be ‘half true.’

You write because it’s the love of your life and you publish for your audience. So, creative writing isn’t always about you, but your fans too.

You have to know what your readers are like. Even when you haven’t published a single piece, it’s easy to research readers’ interests using web-based analytics resources.

Armed with this knowledge, you can craft a piece that strikes a chord with your target audience, with a high potential of becoming a bestseller.

7. Always Start and End Strong

Our English teacher constantly reminded us that when she was going through our essays, she started with the introduction and summary before moving to the body.

“They’re the most important parts of your essay.” She’d always say.

Later, I found out that this applied to almost every form of writing.  

Your readers want your piece to either start with a bang or catch their attention. Once the reader feels underwhelmed, they won’t read all the way through.

Strong endings are just as important, but it doesn’t mean that you always have to end on a happy note. You can close on a sad note or give them a cliffhanger. 

As long as you effectively use your imagination and the end doesn’t turn out to be a clichéd one.

The Best Books on Creative Writing

• 1. Plot & Structure: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting a Plot that Grips Readers from Start to Finish by James Scott Bell
• 2. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
• 3. The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
• 4. On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser

Final Words

Writing—whatever form it takes—isn’t a simple chore, but as hard as it is, it is also fun!

The goal is always to become a better writer and learn different techniques that will make our content impactful.

Every writer should fear stagnation and continue learning. Utilize today’s easy access to resources, read, ask for help, and let your wild imagination run loose.

While there’s no fixed formula in creative writing, tips from experienced writers will help you improve in some areas.

So, always be inquisitive and reach out to other writers.

Crafting an original work of fiction, poetry, or creative non-fiction takes time, practice, and persistence.

Recommended Reading...

Crafting compelling game stories: a guide to video game writing, how to write a murder mystery: figuring out whodunit, good story starters for your next bestseller, 100 fluff prompts that will inspire creativity.

Keep in mind that we may receive commissions when you click our links and make purchases. However, this does not impact our reviews and comparisons. We try our best to keep things fair and balanced, in order to help you make the best choice for you.

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

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Blog • Perfecting your Craft

Posted on Feb 11, 2021

How to Become a Better Writer: 20 Hacks and Tips

Practically speaking, writing is just about putting one word after another. But as anyone who’s struggled with the question of how to become a better writer will tell you, there are sometimes entire worlds of frustration compressed in the seconds between setting each word down. If that sounds familiar, or you’re simply trying to improve your craft without the existential writerly despair, we’ve got 20 essential tips to share with you.

In this post, we’ll be sharing writing advice for everyone, but you can head to our more specific guides on starting from scratch, writing novels, nonfiction, and children’s books if that’s what you’re after:

• How to Start Creative Writing: 7 Ways to Fast-Track Your Writing
• Reedsy's guide to novel writing
• How to Write a Nonfiction Book in 6 Steps  
• How to Write a Children's Book in 7 Surprisingly Simple Steps  

1. Start by spending more time writing

• You’ll get to know your own writing habits better, e.g. the time of day when you’re most productive, or the location where you’re most inspired to write;
• You’ll develop writerly discipline (an essential skill if you ever hope to write a book or another long form project); 💪
• You'll work out what you really like to write, whether that's literary fiction or epic fantasy;
• You’ll stick around long enough for new ideas to occur to you (especially helpful if you’re a pantser, not a plotter ).

2. Practice reading books by other authors

On the level of vocabulary, sentence structure, and rhythm, the “ease and intimacy” King talks about occurs subliminally, beneath the surface of your consciousness, quietly sharpening your perceptive skills. On the level of plot or structure, you actively discover the creative strategies of other writers. Now aware of what others are doing with their words, you become a native to that “country of the writer”. 

Ultimately, the more wonderful things you feed your brain, the richer the pool of knowledge your creativity will be able to draw from.

📚 If you need recommendations, we’ve compiled reading lists for every taste here:

• 25 Creative Writing Examples to Inspire You Today
• The 115 Best Books of All Time
• The 60 Best Nonfiction Books of the 21st Century
• The 125 Best Children’s Books of All Time
• The 30 Best Memoirs of the Last Century
• The Best Short Stories and Collections Everyone Should Read

3. Pick up writing skills from other texts

Okay, enough with the subconscious magical learning — you also need to put in serious, active effort. That means taking apart passages that impress or move you and dissecting another writer’s methodology. 

This will be most helpful if you focus on texts in your genre or form: read respected newspapers or magazines if you’re hoping to submit to such publications, poetic collections if you long to publish poetry , academic papers by reputable academics if you’re a budding scholar. 

Read each sentence carefully, asking yourself how you would have gone about writing it. Notice the differences between each version: look closely at how the other writer avoids repetition and regulates sentence length, and become aware of all the words that could’ve gone into the sentence, but were trimmed out. If you remember the lessons you draw from this exercise, you’ll be on your way to becoming a better writer. 

If you struggle to write consistently, sign up for our How to Write a Novel course to finish a novel in just 3 months.  

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4. Study examples of writing theory

Time for some homework: aside from picking up other writers’ tricks by reading their work, you can also study up on basic writing theories . Learning about structure within stories and the different models that dramatists and fiction writers rely on, like Freytag’s pyramid or the classic structure divided into three acts , is valuable for any aspiring writer. These models are guides to centuries of storytelling tradition: demonstrations of how you might apply a structure onto a story.

When it comes to expressing yourself, brushing up on your literary and rhetorical devices is also helpful. After all, as much as people like to pretend writing is a mystical art, divinely bestowed upon one by magical inspiration, a lot of it comes down to active effort on the writer’s part.

Head to these guides to literary and rhetorical devices if you’re ready for school:

💡 45+ Literary Devices and Terms Every Writer Should Know

💡 30+ Rhetorical Devices Everyone Must Know

FREE RESOURCE

Literary Devices Cheatsheet

Master these 40+ devices to level up your writing skills.

5. Create your own voice

Some people’s advice for learning improving your writing skills is to stick to templates. These can be wonderful if you’re writing something meant to be plain, like a legal document or a freelance proposal . (If this is the case, all you need to do to become a better writer is be accurate, precise, and grammatically correct.) For everything else, by all means inform yourself about things like story structure, but never adhere to templates to the point where your personality is extinguished.

If you’ve got a sense of humor, interests, opinions, or possess literally any other quality unique to human beings (as opposed to bots), you can channel that personality into your writing, and lift mundane subjects up with the buoyancy of your voice.

💡 Need an example? Check out this post on the best reading chairs written by Savannah, one of Reedsy’s writers. You might not have a passion for chairs, but you’ll stay for the engaging tone of her writing voice. 

6. Experiment with your writing style

Hit a plateau? If you don’t feel like you’re improving, it’s time to switch things up. Try writing something completely different to cleanse your palate with the literary equivalent of pickled ginger in a sushi restaurant. Experimentation seems to be working for George R.R. Martin, who has for decades been writing short stories , novellas and even reference books between instalments of his novel series A Song of Ice and Fire — evidently, switching between different forms has helped this author of epic fantasy stay inspired and motivated. 

We’ve got over 1,000 creative writing prompts you can browse for inspiration, as well as an interactive plot generator if you need someone to establish plot parameters for you. We know writers struggle to set themselves deadlines, so you could even join our weekly writing contest — we’re happy to provide you with some external pressure, and $250 if you manage to win!

7. Outline your book 

Openings and endings don’t just matter in fiction. Inherent in all good writing is story: a narrative with a full-fledged arc that must start and end in places that make sense and add value to the entire text.

Writing students commonly struggle with slow or delayed story openings — where the writer takes too long to clear their throat. They can fill two or three paragraphs, several pages, or even an entire chapter before they get to something interesting. 

To sharpen your beginning, try deleting parts of it to get a feel of your work without them. You may find a later passage is more gripping to your reader — you’ll then know you’ve found your true opening.

Endings are similarly crucial. As editor and former publisher Jasmin Kirkbride points out, “Every subplot and all the different strands of your main plot should reach satisfying, clear conclusions. If they are meant to be left ambiguously, ensure your reader knows this, and create something out of that uncertainty.”

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8. Write with a clear vocabulary

As you edit your work , you’ll be thinking of what you intended to say at the time of writing. For that reason, you’ll need to maintain a level of mental alertness that enables you to evaluate whether or not what you ended up writing actually does convey what you wanted to say. This is particularly important if you’re writing nonfiction. 

9. Self-edit for errors in your prose

While we’re discussing lazy, unmemorable writing, this is a reminder that fillers are another literary ‘bad habit’ to actively resist. Cluttering up your prose, these short words sneakily crawl into your writing and distract your reader from the essence of your point. 

In her free Reedsy course on self-editing, Lisa Lepki identifies the most common words in the English language as the culprits of literary clutter. Lisa advises writers to avoid “meandering around [their sentences’] meaning”, and offers this sentence as a wordy example:

“Andy went over to the far end of the playground to see if there was a rake that he could use to tidy up all of the leaves that had fallen down in the night.”

Lisa offers this distilled alternative:

“Mountains of leaves had fallen overnight, so Andy checked the playground for a rake. ”

Sign up to take the rest of this free course here:

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10. Cut the repetitive sentences

One practical way to become a better writer is by consciously analyzing your writing to identify repetitive patterns. This is hard to do during the drafting process, especially if you write your first draft quickly , but it’s mercifully simple in retrospect. So dig out some past writing samples ( creative nonfiction , poems, short stories — anything will do), grab some coloring pencils or highlighters, and mark every instance of repetitive language.

Study your words on multiple levels:

• The lexical level, i.e. specific verbs, adverbs or adjectives you might be repeating (are your characters constantly grinning?);
• The sentence structure level, like if all your examples come in threes;
• The narrative structure level, like if you unwittingly but consistently lapse into new flashbacks.

The point of this exercise is to identify your personal linguistic reflexes — known in linguistics as your “idiolect”. In terms of language use, it’s your fingerprint, and familiarizing yourself with it can help you identify repetition and edit it out of your writing.

💡 If you want to learn more about idiolects, check out this post by one of Reedsy’s writers.

11. Avoid clichéd language  

Clichés are every writer’s stumbling block, ever an uphill battle — though the battle has its ups and its downs, and what matters most is not the destination, but the friends we made along the way. You get our point, hopefully: clichés are lazy, overly familiar, platitudinous, and often boring. Every time you use a cliché, you’re wasting an opportunity to be original and authentic. 

Primarily, our issue with clichés is no moral qualm about authenticity. It’s the simple fact that they completely drain your writing of its ability to be memorable. Lifeless, it falls to the ground, faceless and forgotten.

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12. Understand the ideas behind your work

You’ve already taken the first step toward seeing the bigger picture by honing your opening and ending. Now it’s time to look at all the extraneous stuff outside your text: in other words, situate your writing within a wider framework of similar work. 

13. Respect your reader’s attention 

Don’t lose sight of the fact that there’s a person on the other end of the line. Be a compassionate writer by imagining yourself as the reader: is that fourth paragraph detailing the history of a secondary character’s nomadic tribe really necessary? It’s certainly great world-building , but if it puts your reader to sleep, it’s got to go. 

Similarly, do not manipulate your reader. Pointless plot twists or clickbait will erode your readers’ trust, and hollow hot takes will impress no one. Stick to substance, and skip the paratextual circus act.

14. Get feedback from an editor

Nobody writes flawlessly. Most published writing undergoes significant editing both by its author and professional editors. For example, Raymond Carver’s classic short story collection What We Talk About When We Talk About Love is known to have been extensively shaped by Carver’s editor, Gordon Lish. 

No matter what you’re writing, give your work time to cool before stepping back into it with the fresh eyes of an editor. Assess the clarity of your meaning, expressions, overall structure, your tone, and the mood of the piece, and compare these to the vision you had when you were writing.

Any writing intended for publication should also be professionally edited — and lucky for you, you can hire some of the most experienced fiction or nonfiction editors in the publishing world, right here on Reedsy.

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The best editors are on Reedsy. Sign up for free and meet them.

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15. Be open to constructive criticism

Becoming a writer means releasing your work into the world, and with that comes both praise and criticism. But neither will help you become a better writer if you shut all feedback out. Though some of the criticism you’ll receive may not be helpful, some of it will be, and you’ll struggle to improve your writing if you refuse to see that. Open your heart up to constructive criticism, and you’ll see your writing flourish.

16. Invest in your career with a writing course

While we’re on the topic of learning: there’s plenty of classes and courses you can take, if you’d rather study in a more structured way. If you’re serious about becoming a better writer, whether that’s an author, journalist, ghostwriter , or freelancer , a class can give you access to the wisdom of more experienced professionals — and a real-life class also means meeting mentors and kindred spirits. 

You can check out writing courses online — we’ve got a bunch of completely free courses you can take:

FREE COURSE

Author and ghostwriter Tom Bromley will guide you from page 1 to the finish line.

👩‍🎓 How to Write a Business Book —  taught by business coach Alison Jones

👩‍🎓 The Non-Sexy Business of Non-Fiction — taught by author coach Azul Terronez

Still hungry? Consider pursuing a writing degree. These aren’t just for people looking for creative writing classes — MFAs also focus on nonfiction, so if that’s what you see yourself writing, there are plenty of options. Only you know which program and school would be the best fit for you, and the Internet will be your friend as you work the answer out.

17. Keep company with other writers

Everything’s better with company. Whether your choice is to join a local writing group, critique circle , or an online Facebook group, having friends who are writers means you’ll have someone to bounce ideas off, someone to support you if you feel insecure about your writing, someone to inspire you to work harder, and someone to offer you advice and opinions about your project. All important aspects of improving your skills! ✊

18. Write content consistently

Writing takes a lot of determination and discipline, especially when you’re working on a longer work like a book or a series . Sometimes things won’t work out, and you’ll be frustrated, impatient, demotivated, and temporarily hopeless. All of this is fine, and an entirely normal part of the process. When you get to this stage, be gentle with yourself, but do not give up. 

Writers are often the most stubborn of people: so go ahead and keep writing in spite of yourself, in spite of your insecurities or personal failures, and in spite of what anyone else might think. If that doesn’t earn you the ‘badge’ of a writer, we don’t know what does.

19. Don’t give up on your words

Your ideas will be exciting, but they won’t always be masterpieces. Some you can fix with a zealous edit. Others, not so much. Accept this as a reality and let them float down the river of oblivion. 

We know this sounds contradictory to our last bit of advice, but trust your intuition to decide whether it’s worth persevering with a particular project. For example, there’s no point in trying to resurrect the passion you had for a project you started long ago, if the inspiration has long since left you. There is also little point in pursuing something you began simply because you felt it was what you were supposed to be writing. If it doesn’t speak to you anymore and you see no way to revive the spark, cut your losses and move on. 

20. Embrace failure to become a better writer

Finally, just as you’ll have to handle criticism, you’ll also undoubtedly face rejection and failure. Whether you’re rejected by literary agents , fail to get a publishing deal, or have your stories, pitches, or poems rejected by literary publications, you must remember that failure is an inescapable and inevitable fact of life, and does not determine your worth as a writer. 

Be assured that others fail, too, even if they only fail in private. One of our favorite reminders of how common failure is is the famous CV of failures published by Princeton professor Johannes Haushofer , where he lists every program, award, and position he was rejected from, as a reminder that everyone experiences failure. And if you need a writer-specific example of success despite failure, remember that Douglas Stuart’s novel Shuggie Bain , winner of the 2020 Booker Prize, was rejected 32 times before it received a publisher’s offer.

You don’t need anybody to officially ordain you as a writer — you’re a writer if you believe you’re a writer and write anyway. 

We hope these tips help you figure out how to become a better writer. Your quest is noble, and we believe in you! 

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10 Effective Ways to Improve Your Creative Writing

Writing a story is a craft that requires constant tweaks, edits and trial and error by the writer. Here are ten tips to improve your creative writing and save you hours of painful re-writing in the future.

(1) Don’t underestimate your reader

You have a fantastic plot, your characters are realistic, the setting is ideal and you want to make sure that the reader gets every little detail that you have in mind. Great!

The only problem is that you may be tempted to bombard your reader with many intimate details so that they see it exactly as you do. In-depth descriptions can be useful and effective, but don’t overdo it. Keep your writing neat and tight; don’t waste space on long, rambling descriptions about things that aren’t necessary to your story.

Wouldn’t it be ideal if editors received submissions and decided to look past the typos and incorrect formatting because they think it might be a little gem of a story? The fact is that if your manuscript is full of errors or doesn’t follow the required guidelines then it’s going in the trash.

Don’t rely on your computer’s spell checker. If you make a typo, the computer will not warn you if you’ve still spelt a valid word. Your gorgeous heroine meets the bog (boy) of her dreams? The wealthy doctor places his golf ball on his tea (tee)?

(3) Give Your Characters Life

Characters are vital to your story so treat them with care and give them that breath of life that you, the writer, have the power to give. Give them unique characteristics; make them believable by making them have a purpose, motivation and conflicts to resolve.

(4) Use Strong Words

You want your writing to sound decisive, so use words that get the point across. Did Bob’s really big headache cause him a lot of pain or did Bob’s migraine cause excruciating pain? But remember not to overdo it: don’t use words that the reader won’t understand, you want to use strong words, not confusing or extravagant ones.

(5) Show Don’t Tell.

Who hasn’t heard that one before? But it’s a valid point and a useful rule for all writers. Fiction is for entertainment, so entertain your reader! Give them an excuse to escape into the reality that you have created. Let them see, hear, feel, smell, laugh, cry, love and hate. Show your reader the world that you’ve created, don’t just tell them about it.

(6) Check your Commas

While commas can be effective many inexperienced writers tend to sprinkle their sentences with them. When placed incorrectly, commas can chop up your sentences and sometimes even alter the meaning. Brush up on your high-school grammar; your work will improve with that alone.

(7) Grab their Attention from the Start

Opening lines are often referred to as ‘the hook’ because that’s exactly what you want them to be. You get the reader’s attention and reel them in for the rest of the story. Try something powerful to kick-start your story. For example: ‘Mark’s back broke with an audible crack’ or ‘Eliza didn’t realize that she was going blind’ or ‘The bullet that pierced Henry’s back and left him paralyzed was meant for a homeless man’. Each of these lines makes the reader ask ‘why?’ and once they ask that question, the reader will keep on reading until they find the answer.

(8) Give Your Reader a Satisfactory Ending

You can leave the reader speculating or wondering why at the end of your story, but try to resolve as much as you can. If your reader finishes the last sentence and is still asking questions about what happened to who and why, then you still need to tie up the loose ends.

(9) Sober up

Think of writing as going out to a bar: you go out, the lighting is dim, it’s noisy, maybe you drink too much but you meet a person who’s attractive, witty, shares the same interests as you and you’re smitten by them. A few days later you meet for coffee: are they as good looking or charming as you remember?

This can happen with writing. You become intoxicated with the feeling of success and think that you have written an award-winning piece. The question is, once you’ve sobered up, is it as good as you thought it was? Put your manuscript away and try not to think about it for a couple days. Then take it out and read it with a clear, open mind. Read it through once from beginning to end, then break it up into sections, then read it sentence by sentence. Is it as good as you remembered? If so, then well done! But the odds are that if you were too excited about finally wrapping it up, then you’ll find some points to revise.

(10) Challenge Yourself

Are you trying too hard to write in a specific genre or style? Do you only write short stories or novels or poems or movie scripts? Give that creative muscle a workout and try something different. It will be a refreshing exercise for your mind and you might be surprised by the result. If you don’t succeed then you have still learnt a valuable lesson.

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What Is Creative Writing? Types, Techniques, and Tips

by Kaelyn Barron | 5 comments

Even if you’re not a big reader of fiction, you’ve more than likely encountered creative writing—or at least, the outcomes of creative writing—at some point. In fact, you can thank creative writing for your favorite films, songs, musicals, and much more.

But what exactly makes writing “creative?”

Simply put, creative writing is any writing that falls outside of technical, journalistic, or academic writing.

You can think of it as classic storytelling. It can be written with a number of intentions: to entertain us, comfort us, or teach us a lesson; most importantly, good creative writing speaks to our shared human experience. It shouldn’t just tell us something—it should make us feel something new.

Creative Writing: An Overview

We’re all familiar with school-required “creative writing exercises.” Maybe you had a traumatizing experience when your eighth grade teacher forced you to write a story and read it aloud for the class (no? just me?).

Or maybe you think creative writing is reserved for the artsy free spirits who churn out novels in coffee shops or on sunny farms in Tuscany.

In reality, creative writing is much more than something for your great aunt to scoff at when discussing your major at Thanksgiving dinner.

In this post, we’ll break down creative writing and explain everything you need to know, including:

• Types and examples • Techniques • Who should practice creative writing? • Creative writing exercises to get started

Types of Creative Writing

Examples of creative writing can be found pretty much everywhere. Some forms that you’re probably familiar with and already enjoy include:

• Fiction (of every genre, from sci-fi to historical dramas to romances ) • Film and television scripts • Songs • Poetry • Plays • Vignettes

But creative writing doesn’t have to be limited to fictitious content. It can also include:

• Personal essays • Memoirs • Journals and diaries • Letters

As we can see from this list, some works of nonfiction can also constitute creative writing. After all, many books and films tell stories of real people and real events.

Take, for example, the 2010 film The King’s Speech . The film tells the story of real people and real events, but the script can be considered creative writing as much as the script for Jurassic Park, because it charges historical events with emotion and makes the audience feel invested in the characters.

Writing about your own life is no different. Journals and diaries—when they contain personal thoughts, experiences, or emotions—can also constitute creative writing. Even letters can be included, when they do more than stating facts (not just “today I went to the store” or “today it rained.”)

Creative writing doesn’t require you to make up names or inject unicorns into your manuscript. It just requires a bit of storytelling through more imaginative techniques.

Techniques Used in Creative Writing

You’ll want to make your story one that resonates with people, since creative writing is ultimately telling stories about the human experience. To achieve this, you can apply some of these techniques and literary devices:

Including conversations between characters can help bring them to life, while also moving the plot along without relying solely on the narrator.

This was a favorite technique of Ernest Hemingway. Famous for his simple, straightforward style, he let his characters do most of the talking, which also helped to make them more accessible and relatable.

One great example of character development through dialogue can be found in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice :

“A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”

“How so? How can it affect them?”

“My dear Mr. Bennet,” replied his wife, “how can you be so tiresome! You must know that I am thinking of his marrying one of them.”

“Is that his design in settling here?”

“Design! Nonsense, how can you talk so! But it is very likely that he may  fall in love with one of them, and therefore you must visit him as soon as he comes.”

Without Austen telling us anything directly, we as readers can get a feel for Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, their relationship, and what they each prioritize.

Good dialogue should sound realistic, but also carry a purpose so that the story can progress in a natural way.

Metaphors and similes

Alternatively, writers can choose to pack their prose with imaginative language, offering the reader vivid descriptions to evoke emotion. This is typical in many forms of creative writing, and it is often achieved through literary devices, like similes and metaphors.

For example, in “A Red, Red Rose,” Robert Burns writes:

“O my Love is like a red, red rose That’s newly sprung in June; O my Love is like the melody That’s sweetly played in tune.”

Similes create images for the reader by using comparisons, rather than simple adjectives. (What kind of poem would the example above be if Burns just told us his love is “beautiful”?)

While similes can help us to imagine a scene more vividly, they can also be open to interpretation. Because similes rely on association, one word might carry different connotations for different readers (this may very well be the author’s intention).

Metaphors, instead, draw parallels and can take up a few lines, like this famous excerpt from Romeo and Juliet :

“But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Juliet is the sun!”

Or sometimes, metaphors can be recurring elements in a text, like in Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist , where the desert setting serves as a metaphor for life itself.

Good metaphors can serve as a shortcut to understanding a text because they can convey something complex in terms that are more concise, yet universal. For this reason, metaphors can add extra depth to your story.

Point of view

Deciding which point of view you want to tell your story from is an essential step because it will determine the story’s voice.

Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby , for example, is written in the first-person limited perspective—but imagine how different the story would be if Daisy were narrating instead of Nick! Changing the point of view can change the entire story.

Anecdotes are like small stories within the big story. When used in creative writing, they offer readers a chance to learn more about a character without simply stating it directly. They can be used to evoke empathy, to entertain, to teach a lesson, or simply to reveal other dimensions of a character.

We can turn to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for one such example:

“Justine, you may remember, was a great favorite of yours; and I recollect you once remarked, that if you were in an ill-humor, one glance from Justine could dissipate it, for the same reason that Ariosto gives concerning the beauty of Angelica—she looked so frank-hearted and happy. My aunt conceived a great attachment for her, by which she was induced to give her an education superior to that which she had first intended.”

This anecdote, delivered by Elizabeth to Victor Frankenstein, provides background for Justine’s character and reveals the history between the characters’ families. By testifying to Justine’s “frank-hearted and happy” nature, readers are led to sympathize with the character even more, especially in light of her tragic fate (she confesses to a crime she did not commit and is promptly executed).

Making proper use of the right techniques can make any writing better, but it’s especially important in creative writing if you want a well-developed story that resonates with readers and doesn’t feel forced.

Who Should Practice Creative Writing?

Now that we’ve gone over what exactly creative writing is and the techniques used to compose it, you might be wondering what exactly you can do with this information.

Because creative writing isn’t just for English majors and best-selling authors. We all have stories to tell, and even if you never show your work to anyone, practicing creative writing can be beneficial to just about everyone.

Aside from proven therapeutic benefits , creative writing exercises can help to:

Build your imagination and creativity: By stimulating the parts of your brain responsible for creativity, you’ll train your mind to think “outside the box” to find new, innovative solutions.

Organize your thoughts: Developing a plot requires the ability to think logically, since you’ll want to make the underlying point clear. This kind of thinking can of course be helpful in the workplace and many other parts of your life.

Grow your confidence: Putting your thoughts down on paper takes guts. Expressing yourself through writing and seeing your ideas translated to words can help build self-confidence.

Improve your communication skills : By refining your writing skills, you’ll be able to communicate more effectively, both in speech and on paper.

Give your mind a break: Like reading, creative writing offers the perfect escape from everyday life. You’re in complete control of everything that happens, so let yourself go and see the wonderful things your mind builds when you set it free.

How Can You Get Started?

If you’re new to creative writing, there are a number of ways to get started. Keeping a diary to write down your thoughts and ideas can be extremely helpful. Or, check out our many great writing prompts to get your creativity flowing!

What do you love to write about? Feel free to share with us in the comments below!

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like:

• 70 Creative Writing Prompts to Inspire You to Write
• 10 Creative Writing Exercises for Beginners and Writers
• How Writing Prompts Can Boost Your Creative Writing Skills
• Fast and Loose: 3 Ways Freewriting Will Upgrade Your Creative Career

As a blog writer for TCK Publishing, Kaelyn loves crafting fun and helpful content for writers, readers, and creative minds alike. She has a degree in International Affairs with a minor in Italian Studies, but her true passion has always been writing. Working remotely allows her to do even more of the things she loves, like traveling, cooking, and spending time with her family.

I see during my searches of creating writing that the term, snippet is not used. Why is this, as it is a very entertaining concept, as I enclose an example.

The small boy asks his grandpa, “Grand daddy, what will you do if you ever catch the last beaver in th e world?”

“Well son, that will be the saddest day that I ever could imagine.”

“You know son, that almost happened a couple hundred years or so ago. Money was hard to come by and rich people over in Europe wanted all the beaver they could buy from men that were willing to risk their lives in the new America that had a seemingly endless supply of the rich furred animals.”

The old man said, “the only thing that stopped the beaver from being totally wiped out was the silk worm.”

That didn’t stop the boy from his original line of questions about beavers, he could care less about any worms. After all he was a trapper, in his own mind.

The boy, stopped his Grandpa again, in the manner that young kids do, that are impatient for another answer. “Granddaddy, how long have you been trapping beavers?”

“Well son, let me see; I started just about the time I was your age I think.”

“How many have you caught,” came next.

“There’s no telling, maybe a truck load, maybe two.”

The boys next words took the old trapper back a step or two when the boy said, “Granddaddy do we have to catch them all, or can we leave me a few so I can take my son, someday, and show and tell him what you’ve taught me.”

Interesting

Thanks, hope you enjoyed the post!

Great article. I appreciate reading even more now. Understanding these things has opened a new door for me. I mostly wrote for my own entertainment, but what I have learned here, I am inspired to give it a try on a bigger scale.

Thank you for the inspiration.

You’re very welcome Cindy, and thank you for the kind words! I’m so glad you enjoyed the article :) Happy writing!

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Writing Nestling

How To Improve Creative Writing (18 Effective Ways)

Embarking on the journey to improve one’s creative writing is like setting sail into an uncharted sea of boundless imagination and linguistic exploration.

Creative writing, a realm where words transform into vivid narratives, characters come to life, and emotions are painted across the pages, is a skill that thrives on constant growth and evolution.

In this guide, we will traverse the landscape of creative writing, delving into its various forms, mastering the craft, and unlocking the secrets to becoming a more skilled and imaginative writer.

Whether you’re a seasoned wordsmith seeking refinement or a budding writer just beginning your literary voyage, the path to improvement is a rich tapestry waiting to be woven, where inspiration knows no bounds, and storytelling becomes an art form.

So, fasten your literary seatbelt, for the journey to enhance your creative writing prowess is about to commence.

Table of Contents

How To Improve Creative Writing

To improve your creative writing skills, follow these steps:

Read Widely:

Read a diverse range of literature, including fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and different genres. This exposure will help you understand various writing styles and techniques.

Write Regularly:

Practice writing consistently. Set aside dedicated time each day or week to write. The more you write, the better you’ll become.

Expand Your Vocabulary:

Work on building a rich vocabulary. Learn new words, their meanings, and how to use them effectively in your writing.

Study Grammar and Punctuation:

A strong grasp of grammar and punctuation is essential. Review the rules and practice to avoid common mistakes.

Create a Writing Routine:

Establish a routine that works for you. Whether it’s early in the morning, late at night, or during lunch breaks, find your optimal writing time.

Outline Your Ideas:

Plan your writing in advance. Create outlines, mind maps, or notes to organize your thoughts before you start writing.

Set Writing Goals:

Define clear goals for your writing projects. Whether it’s completing a short story , novel, or a series of articles, having goals keeps you motivated.

Seek Feedback:

Share your work with peers, writing groups, or mentors. Constructive feedback helps you identify areas for improvement.

Revise and Edit:

Writing is rewriting. After you’ve completed a draft, revise and edit your work for clarity, coherence, and style.

Experiment with Style and Genre:

Don’t be afraid to try different writing styles and genres. Experimentation can help you discover your unique voice.

Read Aloud:

Reading your work aloud can help you catch errors, awkward phrasing, and improve the rhythm of your writing .

Be Observant:

Pay attention to the world around you. Observing people, places, and events can provide inspiration and authenticity to your writing.

Overcome Writer’s Block:

When you’re stuck, try free writing, brainstorming, or taking a break to refresh your creativity.

Stay Inspired:

Surround yourself with inspiring sources, whether it’s art, nature, music, or conversations. Inspiration can fuel your creativity.

Edit and Proofread:

Once you’ve completed your writing, thoroughly edit and proofread it for spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors.

Publish and Share:

Share your work through blogs, social media, or submit it to publications. Public sharing can provide valuable feedback and exposure.

Learn from Feedback:

Take feedback seriously and use it as a tool for improvement. Analyze critiques to enhance your writing skills.

Keep Learning:

Writing is an ongoing journey. Continuously seek to learn and grow as a writer by attending workshops, reading about writing, and experimenting with new techniques.

Remember, improving your creative writing skills takes time and dedication. Patience, persistence, and a willingness to learn are key to becoming a better writer.

Understanding Creative Writing

Understanding creative writing is like embarking on a journey into the boundless realm of imagination, where words become brushstrokes, painting the canvas of your mind with vivid worlds, complex characters, and emotions that dance off the page.

It’s a realm where you’re the architect of reality, bending the rules of ordinary language to conjure extraordinary stories that tickle the senses and stir the soul.

It’s about wielding the power of narrative to shape destinies, provoke thought, and make hearts skip a beat.

In the realm of creative writing, you’re both the magician and the audience, crafting spells with sentences that transport you and your readers to places unknown, unraveling mysteries, and exploring the infinite possibilities of human expression.

Different forms of creative writing

Creative writing encompasses a kaleidoscope of diverse forms, each a unique facet of the literary universe.

There’s the enchanting world of fiction, where novelists weave intricate plots and multidimensional characters that become your companions on thrilling adventures.

Poetry, a mesmerizing tapestry of words, paints vivid imagery and emotion in the concise space of a few lines.

Non-fiction is a realm of truth and authenticity, where writers illuminate reality with memoirs, essays, and journalistic narratives. Screenwriting brings storytelling to life on the silver screen, capturing the hearts and minds of audiences worldwide.

These forms are but a glimpse into the labyrinth of creative writing, where the only limit is the boundaries of one’s imagination.

Elements of creative writing

The elements of creative writing are the building blocks that breathe life into words , transforming them into vibrant stories.

At the heart of any creative work lies the intricate dance of plot, where conflicts and resolutions unfurl like a well-orchestrated symphony.

Characterization paints portraits of individuals, each with their own quirks and depths, making them unforgettable to the reader.

Setting, a crucial backdrop, provides the stage upon which these tales unfold, influencing moods and actions.

Themes thread through the narrative like a hidden river, adding depth and purpose, while style is the unique fingerprint of the author, infusing the work with their voice and perspective.

These elements, in concert, give creative writing its compelling complexity , inviting readers to embark on journeys that resonate with their hearts and minds.

Cultivating a Creative Mindset

Cultivating a creative mindset is akin to tending to the most wondrous of gardens—the garden of the imagination.

It’s about donning the gloves of curiosity and nurturing the seeds of inspiration, coaxing them to bloom into vibrant ideas that dance in the sun-dappled meadow of your thoughts.

In this garden, writer’s block withers under the warmth of persistence, and the weeds of self-doubt are plucked away with unwavering belief in your creative potential.

It’s a sanctuary where meditation and mindfulness are the water and sunlight, ensuring that the fruits of your imagination grow ripe and abundant.

In this verdant oasis, you are the creator and the caretaker, shaping the tapestry of your mind into a masterpiece of creativity that never ceases to blossom with new ideas.

Overcoming writer’s block

Overcoming writer’s block is like finding a hidden passage out of a labyrinth of your own thoughts. It’s the art of breaking free from the stranglehold of a blank page and transforming it into an open canvas.

Sometimes, the most formidable adversary is not the lack of ideas but the daunting prospect of beginning. To conquer this nemesis, one must navigate a myriad of techniques, from freewriting and brainstorming to changing the physical environment, in order to unearth the buried treasure of creativity within.

It’s a mental jigsaw puzzle where pieces of inspiration are scattered, and solving it involves patience, resilience, and sometimes simply allowing your mind to wander until it stumbles upon that elusive spark that will ignite your words.

Overcoming writer’s block isn’t just a battle won; it’s a gateway to the ever-expanding universe of storytelling, waiting to be explored with fervor and imagination.

Developing a writing routine

Developing a writing routine is akin to crafting a symphony out of the everyday humdrum. It’s the art of carving out sacred moments in the day, allowing the muse to speak amid the cacophony of life’s demands.

A writing routine is the scaffold that supports the architecture of creativity, providing the structure and discipline necessary for the magic of storytelling to flourish.

Whether it’s the first light of dawn or the stillness of midnight, these designated hours become the writer’s sanctuary, the place where the mind opens up like a treasure chest of ideas, and words flow like a river.

It’s in these moments of consistency that the craft evolves, enabling writers to hone their skills, unravel narratives, and beckon inspiration at will.

Ultimately, a writing routine is a personal ritual that weaves creativity into the fabric of daily existence, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary, one word at a time.

Mastering the Craft

Mastering the craft of writing is like harnessing the mystical forces of language to conjure entire universes from the ink of your pen.

It’s a lifelong journey of delving into the labyrinth of words, where each sentence becomes a brushstroke, and every paragraph a brush dipped in the palette of emotions.

It’s an alchemical process, where you transmute raw ideas into literary gold, refining your art through an unending cycle of creation, revision, and relentless pursuit of perfection.

Every metaphor, every plot twist , and every character’s whisper becomes a note in the grand symphony of storytelling, where the crescendo is the moment you realize you’re not just a writer; you’re a sorcerer, weaving spells with every keystroke, capturing the hearts and minds of readers with the magic of your narrative.

Vocabulary and Language

Vocabulary and language are the enchanting threads that weave the tapestry of storytelling. A writer’s arsenal of words is akin to a painter’s palette, each word a unique hue that, when skillfully blended, creates vivid imagery and evokes powerful emotions.

A rich and varied vocabulary is the cornerstone of effective communication, allowing writers to express the nuances of thought and sentiment with precision and eloquence.

Language, on the other hand, is the vessel that carries these words, shaping the tone and rhythm of a narrative.

The beauty of this interplay lies in the writer’s ability to select the perfect word, the ideal phrase, and the most evocative metaphor, thereby sculpting a literary masterpiece that resonates with readers, captivating their senses, and transporting them to worlds of imagination and wonder.

In the realm of creative writing, vocabulary and language are the keys to unlocking the full spectrum of human experience and imagination.

Writing Techniques

Writing techniques are the chisels and brushes of the wordsmith, essential tools that sculpt and paint the narrative.

They encompass a spectrum of strategies that shape the flow and impact of a piece of writing. “Show, don’t tell” is the art of letting readers experience a story through sensory details and actions, fostering a deeper connection.

Crafting authentic dialogue breathes life into characters, allowing them to converse and reveal their personalities naturally.

The choice of point of view, whether first person, third person, or omniscient, defines the lens through which the reader perceives the tale.

These techniques, like a craftsman’s skills, enable writers to craft stories with finesse, immersing readers in vivid landscapes, relatable characters, and intricate narratives, making the written word a portal to realms of imagination and emotion.

Reading as a Writer

Reading as a writer is akin to peering behind the scenes of a magnificent stage production to witness the magic of storytelling in its purest form.

It’s a journey where the reader transforms into a literary detective, dissecting the prose, unraveling the plot, and examining the intricate brushstrokes of the author’s craft.

With each turn of the page, a writer learns the secret language of pacing, character development, and dialogue that is whispered through the text.

It’s an immersive masterclass that teaches the orchestration of tension, the symphony of foreshadowing, and the art of unveiling mysteries.

In this dual role of reader and writer, one discovers that every book is not just an escape but an invitation to the backstage, where the invisible threads of narrative manipulation are spun, inspiring the storyteller within to reach new heights and craft unforgettable tales.

Analyzing literature

Analyzing literature is akin to embarking on an archeological expedition into the layers of human expression and experience.

It’s a fascinating journey where each page holds the whispers of the past and the echoes of the author’s soul.

As one delves into the intricacies of a literary work, it’s like decoding a cryptic message, revealing the hidden treasures of symbolism, theme, and narrative structure.

Every word, sentence, and character becomes a clue in a grand puzzle, inviting you to explore the profound depths of the human psyche and society.

In the process of literary analysis, readers not only unearth the intellectual and emotional nuances of a text but also gain a profound appreciation for the artistry of the written word, for it is in these revelations that the alchemy of storytelling is unveiled, proving that literature is not merely ink on paper, but a mirror reflecting the intricate mosaic of human existence.

Learning from other authors

Learning from other authors is akin to a masterclass in the art of storytelling. It’s an exquisite journey of exploration, where you walk in the footsteps of literary giants, witnessing their genius unfold across the pages of their works.

These authors, like mentors from afar, offer invaluable lessons in character development, plot structure, and the delicate dance of language.

With each book you read, you glean insights into the diverse ways authors craft their narratives, be it the lyrical prose of one or the gripping dialogue of another.

Their stories serve as templates, guiding you in understanding the subtleties of storytelling, nurturing your creative instincts, and sparking that inner fire of inspiration.

In the pages of their books, you find not just tales, but the wisdom of those who have paved the way, ready to illuminate your path as you embark on your own journey of writing.

Building a personal library

Building a personal library is like assembling a treasury of knowledge, imagination, and soul. Each book, lovingly arranged on the shelves, is a passport to different worlds, eras, and minds.

It’s a sanctuary where you can escape the mundane and embark on an endless odyssey of exploration, enlightenment, and enchantment. Your personal library becomes a reflection of your intellectual curiosity and passions, a curated collection of stories and wisdom that have resonated with you.

Beyond the tangible beauty of bound pages, it’s a space where you can seek refuge, inspiration, and solace.

In this haven, books aren’t just inanimate objects; they are the keepers of dreams, mentors, and the compass that guides you on your own creative journey, whispering their stories and secrets, ready to be discovered anew each time you open their pages.

Research and Fact-Checking

Research and fact-checking are the unsung heroes of the writer’s craft, the secret agents who ensure that the tapestry of fiction and the canvas of non-fiction remain unblemished by errors.

Like intrepid explorers, writers embark on quests for knowledge, sifting through archives, traversing the corridors of history, and plumbing the depths of the digital ocean.

Fact-checking is the lighthouse that guards against the treacherous cliffs of misinformation, ensuring that the narratives we weave are anchored in truth.

It’s not just a scholarly pursuit; it’s the alchemy that transforms a story from mere entertainment into a portal to the worlds, cultures, and ideas it seeks to represent.

In the realm of research, writers become detectives, unearthing secrets, unmasking mysteries, and painting the scenery with the vivid strokes of authenticity.

Without this duo, the magic of storytelling would lose its luster, and readers would be adrift in a sea of uncertainty.

Importance of accuracy in creative writing

The importance of accuracy in creative writing cannot be overstated, for it is the cornerstone upon which the credibility and resonance of a narrative are built.

While creativity allows us to conjure imaginary realms and characters, these creations must find their roots in a foundation of truth.

Factual accuracy in the details of a story, whether it’s historical, scientific, or cultural, lends authenticity to the narrative, enriching the reader’s experience by making the fictional world feel tangible and relatable.

Inaccuracies can disrupt the suspension of disbelief, pulling readers out of the story, and eroding the trust they place in the author.

Moreover, for works that explore complex themes or socio-cultural issues, accuracy is paramount in promoting understanding and empathy.

By upholding the value of accuracy, creative writing can reach its full potential, becoming a powerful vessel for both entertainment and enlightenment.

Finding Your Voice

Finding your voice in the vast wilderness of creative expression is like discovering a hidden gem within your own soul.

It’s not just about words; it’s the symphony of your thoughts, your emotions, and the unique cadence of your experiences coming to life on the page. Your voice is the compass that guides you through the labyrinth of creativity, allowing you to navigate the realms of storytelling with authenticity.

It’s a fingerprint that distinguishes your work from the rest, making your narratives resonate with a singular, unforgettable resonance.

Finding your voice is not just a revelation; it’s a journey of self-discovery, an ongoing exploration of who you are and how you want to connect with the world through the magic of words.

It’s the moment when you realize that your voice, unlike any other, is the key to unlocking the hearts and minds of your readers, inviting them to explore the world as you see it and share in the emotions that define your unique narrative.

Personal style and uniqueness

Personal style and uniqueness in writing are the vibrant colors that distinguish an artist’s canvas from all others.

Your writing style is the echo of your personality , your perspective, and the experiences that shape you. It’s the idiosyncratic rhythm of your sentences, the selection of words that resonate with your soul, and the peculiar nuances that define your narrative fingerprint.

Embracing your uniqueness is not a departure from the norm but a celebration of individuality, an affirmation that your voice is unlike any other.

In a world filled with words, it’s your personal style that makes your work stand out, inviting readers to explore the world through your eyes and experience the emotions that pulse through your stories.

Your style is your signature, and your uniqueness is the spark that ignites the literary world, reminding us that in the realm of creativity, diversity is the catalyst for innovation and the source of endless inspiration.

Authenticity in storytelling

Authenticity in storytelling is the golden thread that weaves a powerful connection between the writer and the reader.

It’s the unwavering commitment to truth, not in the factual sense, but in the emotional and human sense. Authentic storytelling dares to venture into the raw, unvarnished corners of the human experience, revealing vulnerability, joys, struggles, and complexities with unapologetic honesty.

It acknowledges the imperfections of characters, the messiness of life, and the ambiguity of morality.

Authenticity in storytelling is the bridge that allows readers to see themselves in the characters and situations, to empathize, to confront their own truths, and to resonate with the essence of the narrative.

It’s a reminder that, in the world of storytelling, the most profound impact is often not achieved through escapism but through a mirror reflecting the truth of our shared humanity, inviting us to explore, understand, and embrace the beautifully imperfect mosaic of human existence.

Overcoming Challenges

Overcoming challenges is akin to harnessing the fiery spirit of a phoenix, rising from the ashes of adversity with newfound strength and resilience.

It’s the grand adventure of our lives, where obstacles are not roadblocks but stepping stones towards personal growth and transformation.

Challenges are the litmus test of character, the forge where determination is tempered, and where the human spirit finds its true mettle.

In the face of these trials, we discover untapped reserves of courage, creativity, and perseverance that we never knew existed.

Like intrepid explorers charting uncharted territories, we boldly face the unknown, seeking not just victory but self-discovery, for it is in the crucible of challenges that our true potential is revealed, and we emerge as the heroes of our own stories.

Publishing and Sharing Your Work

Publishing and sharing your work is like setting a fleet of paper boats adrift on the vast sea of human connection.

It’s the culmination of the creative journey, where words born in the depths of your imagination finally take flight, finding their way into the hearts and minds of readers around the world.

It’s not just about self-expression; it’s the bridge that unites creators with an audience eager to embark on the emotional and intellectual voyages they’ve crafted.

Sharing your work is an act of courage and vulnerability, inviting both praise and criticism, but it’s also an affirmation that your voice is worthy of being heard.

It’s the act of extending a hand to others, saying, “Come, join me on this journey,” and allowing your stories to become a part of the tapestry of the human experience.

In the realm of publishing and sharing, you become a storyteller not just for yourself but for the world, weaving connections, igniting conversations, and leaving an indelible mark on the shared narrative of humanity.

Traditional vs. self-publishing

The choice between traditional and self-publishing is a crossroads that writers often face, each path offering its own set of opportunities and challenges.

Traditional publishing, akin to the majestic gates of a literary castle, can provide the author with the validation and resources of an established publishing house, offering professional editing, cover design, and broad distribution networks.

It opens doors to bookstores and literary awards, but it also demands patience and perseverance in the face of stringent gatekeepers. Self-publishing, on the other hand, is the democratization of literature, an open road that allows authors to take the reins of their creative destiny.

It offers control and speed of publication but requires authors to take on multiple roles, from editing to marketing.

Ultimately, the decision hinges on individual goals and preferences, as each path holds the promise of sharing stories with the world, whether under the watchful eye of a traditional publisher or the entrepreneurial spirit of self-publishing.

Continuing Education

Continuing education is the compass that keeps the writer’s journey ever-advancing. It’s the symphony of growth in a world that constantly whispers new stories and knowledge.

Imagine it as an uncharted library, where each book holds the key to unlock a new realm of understanding, and each workshop or course is an invitation to dance with different writing techniques.

It’s not just about honing existing skills; it’s about unfurling new horizons and uncovering hidden treasures in the treasure chest of literary prowess.

Continuing education is the echo of the writer’s heartbeat, a reminder that the world of words is boundless and ever-evolving, and that within its embrace, the writer can continue to explore, learn, and craft stories that leave an indelible mark on the literary landscape.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about How To Improve Creative Writing

What is creative writing, and why is it important to improve this skill.

Creative writing is the art of crafting original and imaginative stories , poems, or prose. It’s important to improve this skill because it not only enhances your ability to express yourself but also unlocks the door to a world of creativity, enabling you to engage and captivate readers.

How can I overcome writer’s block and boost my creativity?

Overcoming writer’s block can be achieved through various techniques like free writing, mind mapping, or changing your writing environment. To boost creativity, consider practicing mindfulness, exploring new experiences, and cultivating a daily writing routine.

What are some effective strategies for improving my vocabulary and language skills?

Expanding your vocabulary can be done by reading widely, using a thesaurus, and playing word games. To enhance language skills, study grammar and syntax, experiment with different writing styles, and immerse yourself in literature.

What are some common writing techniques to improve the quality of my creative writing?

Common writing techniques include “show, don’t tell,” crafting compelling dialogue, and mastering point of view. These techniques help to make your storytelling more engaging and immersive.

How can I find my unique voice as a writer?

Finding your unique voice involves experimenting with different writing styles, embracing authenticity, and understanding that your individual perspective is your greatest asset. It’s about being true to yourself and your experiences.

What’s the importance of reading as a writer, and how can I analyze literature effectively?

Reading exposes you to different writing styles and genres, helping you learn and grow as a writer. Effective analysis of literature involves examining themes, characters, and symbolism, and considering the author’s use of language and narrative structure.

What are the differences between traditional publishing and self-publishing, and how do I decide which is right for me?

Traditional publishing involves working with established publishing houses, while self-publishing allows you to independently release your work. The choice depends on your goals, the level of control you want, and your willingness to handle aspects like marketing and distribution.

How can I ensure the accuracy of my work, especially when writing about real-world facts and details?

To ensure accuracy, research extensively using reliable sources, fact-check rigorously, and consider seeking feedback from experts in the field you’re writing about.

What’s the role of continuing education in improving creative writing, and where can I find resources for it?

Continuing education helps you stay updated with the latest writing trends and hone your skills . You can find resources through writing workshops, online courses, writing groups, and literary events.

How do I deal with writer’s rejection and criticism constructively, and stay motivated in my writing journey?

Dealing with rejection and criticism involves developing resilience, learning from feedback, and keeping your passion for writing alive. Staying motivated can be achieved by setting goals, celebrating small wins, and surrounding yourself with a supportive writing community.

In the realm of creative writing, the journey to improvement is an endless odyssey, an ever-evolving expedition into the limitless depths of imagination and language.

It’s a path that weaves through the intricacies of plot, character, and style, as well as the nuances of authenticity and self-expression. Whether you are a seasoned wordsmith or a budding writer, the pursuit of creative excellence is a lifelong commitment to self-discovery, growth, and storytelling.

As you navigate the labyrinth of writer’s block, craft your unique voice, and refine your skills, remember that creative writing is not merely a craft; it’s a journey of self-expression, a gateway to new worlds, and a conduit for shared experiences.

So, pen in hand and heart afire, continue to embark on this voyage, for it is through the continuous exploration of your own creative depths that you will not only improve your writing but leave an indelible mark on the world of literature.

Your story is waiting to be told, and the pen is your magic wand, the world your canvas.

Happy writing !

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How to Plan a Creative Writing Piece

Last Updated: May 26, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Lucy V. Hay . Lucy V. Hay is a Professional Writer based in London, England. With over 20 years of industry experience, Lucy is an author, script editor, and award-winning blogger who helps other writers through writing workshops, courses, and her blog Bang2Write. Lucy is the producer of two British thrillers, and Bang2Write has appeared in the Top 100 round-ups for Writer’s Digest & The Write Life and is a UK Blog Awards Finalist and Feedspot’s #1 Screenwriting blog in the UK. She received a B.A. in Scriptwriting for Film & Television from Bournemouth University. There are 12 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 136,505 times.

Whether you are writing for fun or to satisfy a school assignment, planning a creative writing piece can be a challenge. If you don't already have an idea in mind, you will need to do a little brainstorming to come up with something that interests you. Once you have a general idea of what you want to write about, the best way to get started is to break your project into smaller, more manageable parts. When you have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your piece, the writing itself will come more easily.

Getting Started

• You can find character sheet templates online, such as here: https://www.freelancewriting.com/copywriting/using-character-sheets-in-fiction-writing/ .

Writing Your Piece

• Kurt Vonnegut grabs the reader's attention at the start of Slaughterhouse-Five quite simply, by saying, “All this happened, more or less.”
• Tolstoy summed up the main theme of his novel Anna Karenina in its very first sentence: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”

• If you are writing a work of fiction, each of your main characters has something they want, which motivates them to make the choices that drive the plot forward.
• If you are writing a non-fiction work about an actual person or event, include specific details about the key players to make them more interesting to your reader.

• Think of a familiar place you encounter every day, but set the story 100 years in the future – or 1,000.
• Set your story in the modern day world, but change one very key element – imagine that dinosaurs never went extinct, electricity was never invented, or aliens have taken over the planet.
• Whatever time period you choose, make sure the reader has a firm understanding of it early in your story so that they can properly follow the story. The reader needs to know the time period in order to imagine that characters and scenes.

• If you are writing something for the young adult market, focus on the things that matter most to teens and don't worry about whether older adults will like it.
• If you want to write a particular type of fiction, like westerns or sci-fi, read the most popular works in that genre to understand what its readers expect.
• Not everyone will appreciate your sense of humor, and that's okay – be yourself, and let your work speak to those who do.

Staying Motivated

Developing Your Concept

• Novels. The novel is one of the most popular forms of creative writing, and also one of the most challenging. A novel is a large project, with most novels containing at least 50,000 words. Any topic can be the subject of a novel. Certain types of novels are so popular that they belong to their own category, or genre. Examples of genre fiction are romance, mystery, science fiction, and fantasy.
• Short stories. A work of fiction under 7,500 words is usually considered a short story. A short story usually has all of the elements of a novel, including a structured plot. However, experimental forms of short stories like flash fiction do away with ordinary narrative conventions and can take almost any form the author chooses.
• Personal essay or memoir. A personal essay or memoir is a work of non-fiction based on your life. Drawing on your own life experiences can provide you with a wide array of story topics. Not only that, it can be an interesting way to better understand yourself and share your experiences with the world.
• Blogs. The word blog is a shortened form of the term web log, which can refer to any type of writing that is published regularly on the internet. Blogs can be stories, factual pieces, or diaries.
• Poetry. Poetry can take any number of forms, from traditional rhyming couplets to modern free-form verse. Poets typically develop their own unique writing style and write about any topic imaginable, from situations and emotions to current events or social commentary.
• Screenplays or stage plays. These are detailed scripts written for a film or a play. This form of writing has very specific rules about structure and formatting, but the subject matter can be anything you like. [10] X Research source

• Keep your eyes open for compelling stories in the news that could provide a starting point.
• Observe what is happening around you and turn it into a story.
• Adapt your thoughts into a story.
• Draw on an interesting or unusual event that happened in your own life.
• Search the web for “writing prompts” and you'll find lots of ideas to get you going, suggested by other writers. You could even use a random prompt generator website to get a unique suggestion just for you!

• The popular 1990s teen movie Clueless is a modern adaptation of Jane Austen's classic novel Emma .
• The classic Greek myth The Odyssey has been re-imagined in countless ways, including James Joyce's Ulysses and the Coen Brothers' O Brother Where Art Thou? Many authors have adapted its basic story structure of a hero's quest.
• Stories about vampires are all loosely adapted from Bram Stoker's Dracula, but many different writers have put their own unique spin on the concept.

• Salinger's Catcher in the Rye contains themes of alienation and coming of age.
• Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series addresses themes of courage, and the triumph of good over evil.
• Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy plays with themes about the absurdity of life, the interconnectedness of all things, and how seemingly minor incidents can have huge consequences.

Expert Q&A

• Try to provide something of value to the reader, who is investing their time in reading your work. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• The best writing is always simple, clear, and concise. Overly complicated sentences can be difficult to follow, and you may lose your reader's interest. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

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• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/the_writing_process/developing_an_outline/how_to_outline.html
• ↑ https://www.scad.edu/sites/default/files/PDF/Animation-design-challenge-character-sheets.pdf
• ↑ https://www.writersdigest.com/be-inspired/5-ways-to-start-writing-your-novel-today
• ↑ https://www.georgebrown.ca/sites/default/files/uploadedfiles/tlc/_documents/hooks_and_attention_grabbers.pdf
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/subject_specific_writing/creative_writing/characters_and_fiction_writing/writing_compelling_characters.html
• ↑ https://www.umgc.edu/current-students/learning-resources/writing-center/writing-resources/prewriting/writing-for-an-audience
• ↑ https://academicguides.waldenu.edu/writingcenter/writingprocess/goalsetting/how
• ↑ https://researchwriting.unl.edu/developing-effective-writing-habits
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/resources/writing_instructors/grades_7_12_instructors_and_students/what_to_do_when_you_are_stuck.html
• ↑ https://www.acs.edu.au/info/writing/creative-writing/creative-writers.aspx
• ↑ https://writingcenter.unc.edu/tips-and-tools/brainstorming/
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/common_writing_assignments/research_papers/choosing_a_topic.html

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Writing skills - creative and narrative writing

Part of English Writing skills

Imaginative or creative writing absorbs readers in an entertaining way. To succeed with this kind of writing you will need to write in a way that is individual, original and compelling to read.

Responding to Prompts

Imagine you’re in an exam and you are asked to write a creative piece called ‘The Party’. What does this title make you think of?Before you decide what you’d write, it’s useful to remember that you do whatever you want with the prompt as long as it’s somehow connected to a party.

• It doesn’t have to be something that really happened
• It doesn’t have to be based on exactly what the title says or is
• It can be as abstract or as mundane as you want it to be.

So this means that for the title ‘The Party’, you could write a lovely descriptive piece about your dream birthday party, or a personal account of a party you attended that was very good – or very bad. You could write a story about a political party, or a doll’s tea party, or a party held by fans to watch the final episode of a TV show everyone is very excited about, or a party that didn’t actually happen because no one turned up. The most important thing is that you choose a story you can write well, showing off your skill in using language effectively and keeping your reader entertained.

Original ideas

There is no formula for having a great idea – but to begin your writing, you do need, at least, some kind of idea. Then you need to find ways to turn your idea into something a reader would enjoy reading. This is the creative part, taking something ordinary and turning it into something extraordinary.

For example, think about writing a description of a coastline. You might start to think straight away about a crowded beach - children playing, deck chairs, sun shining, happy sounds; but, if you stop for a moment, you’ll recall that that's been done before. It's okay, but it's hardly original.

The 'plot hook' in this example is 'What could possibly go wrong?'.

Establish the time and place, as well as the general situation. This can also be used to help develop a suitable mood or atmosphere. It can sometimes help to use a familiar place that your reader can relate to in some way. At this stage, you need to 'set up' the story and begin to introduce the main character(s).

Fiction trigger (or inciting incident)

Use your narrator to tell of an incident or event that the reader feels will spark a chain of events. This helps make the reader feel that the story has really started. From this point, life cannot be quite the same for your main character (that is your protagonist). There is a problem that has to be faced and overcome.

The fiction trigger can be an event that really starts the story. It will develop from the 'plot hook'. If the story is about a day out at the zoo, then maybe an animal has escaped. If it is about a robbery, it might be the event that makes a character consider carrying out a robbery; and if it is about an accident, it will be the event that causes it to happen.

Keeping up the momentum (plot development or rising action)This section builds the tension – keeps the reader absorbed and guessing where it will all lead.

This is where you will move the story forward and will use lots of techniques to keep the reader guessing, 'What will happen next?!'

The problem reaches a head, with suspense creating lots of tension for the reader– showing the reader the possible result of what has come before.

This is not the end of your story – not quite. It will be the key event but your protagonist will, somehow, overcome it and all will be well.

Conclusion (the resolution)

This must leave your reader with a sense of satisfaction, or it could be a twist in the tale leaving questions that linger in the mind.

This is the ending of your story – where all loose ends are tied up to the satisfaction of the reader. A good story will cause the reader to go, 'Hmm – I liked that' or even 'Wow'

By following this story structure, and planning under each of the above headings, you should be able to come up with a tense plot for your own story, one that will engage and absorb your reader.

Writing techniques

Throughout your own story, you will also need to use writing techniques that will work to keep your reader engaged and absorbed. An important skill is to put clear images of the setting and characters in your reader’s mind, as well as to create a sense of atmosphere that suits each part of the story.

• Narration - the voice that tells the story, either first person (I/me) or third person (he/him/she/her). This needs to have the effect of interesting your reader in the story with a warm and inviting but authoritative voice.
• Description - describing words such as adjectives close adjective A word which describes a noun or pronoun. , adverbs close adverb An adverb gives more information about the verb, an adjective or another adverb. , similes close simile A literary technique where a comparison is made between two things using ‘as’ or ‘like’. and metaphors close metaphor Makes a direct comparison by presenting one thing as if it were something else with the characteristic. For example describing a brave person as a lion. that add detail. This is told by the narrator. It helps engage readers by creating vivid pictures and feelings in their 'mind’s eye'.
• Dialogue - the direct speech of characters, shown inside quotation marks. We all judge characters by what they talk about and by the way they speak. This makes dialogue a key technique for creating interest and realism.
• Alliteration - repetition of the same beginning sounds in nearby words.This can create a useful emphasis, maybe to highlight a sound or movement, or to intensify feeling or even to bind words together.
• Connotation - a word’s meaning can be literal, as in 'It looked like a cat', or it can create connotations as in 'As soon as the food reached the table, the boy pounced on it like a cat.' A connotation is a meaning created by a special use of a word in a particular way or context. It works by adding some kind of emotion or a feeling to a word’s usual meaning. All literature depends upon using language that creates connotations. They engage the reader because they evoke reactions and feelings.
• Pathetic fallacy - personification is a kind of metaphor and when nature is described in this way, it is called a use of pathetic fallacy. This can help suggest a suitable atmosphere or imply what the mood of the characters is at a certain point, eg in a ghost story, the storm clouds could be said to 'glower down angrily upon the group of youngsters'. A pathetic fallacy can add atmosphere to a scene. It can even give clues to the reader as to what is to come, acting as a kind of foreshadowing close foreshadow Hint at something that will happen later and have greater significance .
• Personification - this is a technique of presenting objects as if they have feelings, eg 'the rain seemed to be dancing merrily on the excited tin roof.' This creates a sense of emotion and mood for the reader.
• Repetition - the action of repeating a word or idea. This can add emphasis or create an interesting pattern of sound or ideas.
• Onomatopoeia - use of words which echo their meaning in sound, for example, 'whoosh' 'bang'. Using this can add emotion or feeling that helps give the reader a vivid sense of the effect being described.
• Simile - a kind of description. A simile compares two things so that the thing described is understood more vividly, eg 'The water was as smooth as glass.' (Hint - 'like' or 'as' are key words to spot as these create the simile). A simile can create a vivid image in the reader’s mind, helping to engage and absorb them.
• Symbolism - we grow up learning lots of symbols and these can be used in stories to convey a lot of meaning as well as feeling in a single idea or word, eg a red rose can symbolise romantic love; a heavy buckled belt can hint at the power held by the character; an apple can even symbolize temptation if it is used in a way that the reader links to the apple that tempted Eve in the biblical Garden of Eden.
• Impact - symbols help writers pack a lot of meaning into just a single word. They work to engage the reader, too, for the reader automatically gets involved in working out the meaning.

Examples of narration

First person narrator.

I held on to the tuft of grass and slowly looked down - I was too shocked to speak. One moment I had been strolling along the cliff with Vicki, the next I was hanging over the edge. And where was Vicki?

The only thing you shouldn't do is swap the narrative point of view during the story - don’t start with 'I' and then switch to 'he', as it is likely to confuse your reader.

Third person narrator

Steve held on to the tuft of grass and slowly looked down - he was too shocked to speak. One moment he had been strolling along the cliff with Vicki, the next he was hanging over the edge. And where was Vicki?

Ending a short story

The ending of a story doesn't necessarily have to be happy but it has to make sense in a way that ties up what has happened.

There are different types of story endings, for example:

• The cliff-hanger - this isn’t an ending as such, it’s a way of tempting the reader to read the next chapter or instalment. Charles Dickens wrote his chapters like this as they were originally published in magazines in serial form. For example, does the spy manage to stop the bomb in time?
• The twist-in-the-tale - the reader will feel fairly sure about the ending, but in the final part everything changes and we are surprised. For example, we learn that it isn’t a bomb after all, it’s a birthday present!
• The enigma ending - the story stops, but the reader is left a little unsure what will come to happen, yet is intrigued by the possibilities - and still feels satisfied. For example, the bomb is defused and everyone is safe, but then an army commander reports the theft of another bomb… only this time twice as powerful.

There are many possibilities; but there are two endings you should try to avoid:

• The trick ending - a bomb will inevitably explode and as it does, the narrator wakes up - it was all a dream. This is too clichéd and unsatisfying for modern readers.
• The disconnected ending - the secret agent suddenly stops worrying about the bomb, retires, and goes off to play golf. Readers don't like this because the ending has nothing to do with the story – very unsatisfying.

Whatever kind of story you write, work out a satisfying ending and include it in your plan.

Writing that is creative and imaginative needs to be entertaining. You need to experiment a little and not be frightened to try something new.

What might you write about if the following tasks came up in an exam? Take a few minutes to think about different ways you could interpret the task, and maybe sketch a quick plan for your best idea.

• The Best Day of My Life
• The Mysterious Door
• Never Again
• Stormy Weather
• How to be a Hero
• Sunday at the Beach
• My Life as an Expert
• Greetings from the Future
• What I REALLY Learned at School

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5 Science-Backed Ways to Write Clearly

If you want to become a better writer, ignore the lore and follow the science..

Posted June 24, 2024 | Reviewed by Devon Frye

• We read sentences written with active voice faster and comprehend content better than passive sentences.
• Studies document that we read and recall sentences with less effort when they turn content into micro-stories.
• Pronouns as subjects send readers backward, but readers comprehend sentences through prediction.
• Action verbs activate the brain's motor systems, creating semantic richness and enabling rapid comprehension.

Most writers assume they write well. Yet most writers grapple with the reality of writing as a black box.

That is, we know that writing works, but we’re a bit fuzzy on what makes readers grasp the meaning of some sentences instantly and without noticeable effort, while we find others difficult to understand after repeat re-readings. And contrary to popular belief, clear writing has virtually nothing to do with content, sentence length, or writing style.

Instead, we perceive sentences as clear when they map onto the methods our reading brains use to make sense of writing. Knowing the most important ones, including the below, could help make you a better writer.

1. Active voice makes sentences easier to read.

In dozens of studies, researchers have found that readers comprehend sentences more rapidly when sentences reflect the causal order of events. Two factors determine these outcomes.

First, human brains naturally perceive cause and effect, a likely survival mechanism. In fact, infants as young as six months can identify cause and effect, registered as spikes in heart rate and blood pressure.

Second, English sentence structure reflects causes and effects in its ordering of words: subject-verb-object order. In key studies, participants read sentences with active voice at speeds one-third faster than they read sentences in passive voice. More significantly, these same participants misunderstood even simple sentences in passive voice about 25 percent of the time.

As readers, we also perceive active sentences as both shorter and easier to read because active voice typically makes sentences more efficient. Consider the difference between the first sentence below, which relies on passive voice, and the second, which uses active voice.

• Passive: Among board members, there was an instant agreement to call for a pause in negotiations.
• Active: Board members instantly agreed to call for a pause in negotiations.

2. Actors or concrete objects turn sentences into micro-stories.

We read sentences with less effort—or cognitive load—when we can clearly see cause and effect, or, “who did what to whom,” as Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky puts it.

Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, a professor of cognitive neuroscience at the University of South Australia, used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), to spot brains reacting to meaning and word order in sentences. Unsurprisingly, when the subjects of sentences are nouns clearly capable of performing actions, readers process sentences with greater speed and less effort. For actors, writers can choose people, organizations, publications—any individual, group, or item, intentionally created, that generates impact.

In addition to our unconsciously perceiving these sentences as easy to read and recall, we can also more readily identify actors in sentences. Furthermore, these nouns enhance the efficiency of any sentence by paring down its words. Take the examples below:

• Abstract noun as subject: Virginia Woolf’s examination of the social and economic obstacles female writers faced due to the presumption that women had no place in literary professions and so were instead relegated to the household, particularly resonated with her audience of young women who had struggled to fight for their right to study at their colleges, even after the political successes of the suffragettes.
• Actor as subject: In A Room of One’s Own , Virginia Woolf examined social and economic obstacles female writers faced. Despite the political success of the suffragettes, writers like Woolf battled the perception that women had no place in the literary professions. Thus Woolf’s book resonated with her audience, young women who had to fight for the right to study at their colleges.

3. Pronouns send readers backward, but readers make sense of sentences by anticipating what comes next.

Writers typically love to use pronouns as the subjects of sentences, especially the demonstrative pronouns this, that, these, those, and it , believing that these pronouns help link their sentences. Instead, pronouns save writers time and effort—but significantly cost readers for two likely reasons.

First, readers assume that pronouns refer to a singular noun, rather than a cluster of nouns, a phrase, or even an entire sentence. Second and more importantly, when writers use these pronouns without anchoring nouns, readers slow down and frequently misidentify the pronoun referents. In fact, readers rated writing samples with high numbers of sentences using demonstrative pronouns as being less well-written than sentences that used actors as subjects or pronouns anchored by nouns.

Pronoun as subjects: [Katie Ledecky] estimated that she swims more than 65,000 yards—or about 37 miles—a week. That adds up to 1,900 miles a year, and it means eons of staring at the black line that runs along the bottom of a pool. Actor as subject: [Katie] Ledecky swims up to 1,900 miles a year, mileage that entails seeming aeons of staring at the black line that runs along the bottom of a pool.

4. Action verbs make sentences more concrete, memorable, and efficient.

For years, old-school newspaper and magazine editors urged writers to use action verbs to enliven sentences.

However, action verbs also offer readers and writers significant benefits in terms of their memorability, as revealed in one study of readers’ recall of verbs. Of the 200 verbs in the study, readers recalled concrete verbs and nouns more accurately than non-action verbs.

In fact, when we read concrete verbs, our brains recruit the sensory-motor system, generating faster reaction times than abstract or non-action verbs, processed outside that system . Even in patients with dementia , action verbs remain among the words patients can identify with advanced disease, due to the richness of semantic associations that action verbs recruit in the brain.

• Non-action verbs: That the electric trolleys being abandoned in Philadelphia were greener and more efficient was not an insight available at that time.
• Action Verbs: Philadelphia scrapped its electric trolleys, decades before urban planners turned to greener, more efficient forms of transport.

5. Place subjects and verbs close together.

Over the past 20 years, researchers have focused on models of reading that rely on our understanding of sentence structure, a focus validated by recent studies.

As we read, we predict how sentence structure or syntax unfolds, based on our encounters with thousands of sentences. We also use the specific words we encounter in sentences to verify our predictions, beginning with grammatical subjects, followed by verbs.

As a result, readers struggle to identify subjects and verbs when writers separate them—the more distance between subjects and verbs, the slower the process of identifying them correctly. Moreover, readers make more errors in identifying correct subjects and verbs—crucial to understanding sentences—with increases in the number of words between subjects and verbs, even with relatively simple sentence structure.

Ironically, as writers tackle increasingly complex topics, they typically modify their subjects with phrases and adjective clauses that can place subjects at one end of the sentence and verbs at the opposite end. This separation strains working memory , as readers rely on subject-verb-object order in English to understand the sentence’s meaning. Consider, for example, this sentence from an online news organization:

In Florida, for instance, a bill to eliminate a requirement that students pass an Algebra I end-of-course and 10th-grade English/language arts exams in order to graduate recently cleared the Senate’s education committee.

On the other hand, when we place the subject and verb close together and use modifiers after the verb, we ease readers’ predictions and demands on working memory:

In Florida, the Senate’s education committee recently cleared a bill to eliminate two graduation requirements: an Algebra I end-of-course and 10th-grade English language arts.

Yellowlees Douglas, Ph.D. , is a consultant on writing and organizations. She is also the author, with Maria B. Grant, MD, of The Biomedical Writer: What You Need to Succeed in Academic Medicine .

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Huge List of Paid Writing Gigs and Online Jobs for Writers

Author: Holly Reisem Hanna

May 25, 2024 156 Comments

If you’re looking for online writing jobs, keep reading! This massive list of paid writing gigs has you covered no matter what your writing niche or specialty is!

Freelance writing is one of the best ways to make money from home, and it’s perfect for beginners. You don’t need experience or a degree; the opportunities are plentiful, and you don’t even need a website to get started. As long as you can provide well-written, engaging content and you can meet deadlines, you can make good money as a writer.

Not convinced?

New York Times Best Selling Author Nora Roberts  only has a high school education. She started writing her first novel back in 1979 after being trapped at home due to blizzard conditions. To date, Nora has written over 200 romance novels – incredible!

Still don’t believe me?

A few years ago, Danny Margulies decided to quit his full-time job to pursue an online copywriting career using the freelance platform Upwork. Without any special education or training, he quickly honed his skills and earned six figures during his second year as a copywriter.

If you’d like to work at home as a freelance writer, here is a huge list of paid writing jobs, where to find them, and, in some cases, pay rates.

Freelance Blog Writing Gigs

Writing blog posts is a quick and easy way to earn money and showcase your expertise, as numerous sites will allow a byline with a link back to your website. Many of these sites have established guidelines in place, so make sure you carefully read through the details and follow all of the guidelines. Crafting a thoughtful pitch will greatly improve your chances of getting accepted.

• 99 Designs – Contact for rates
• A Fine Parent – $75
• AutoStraddle – $80-$200
• BDG – Contact for rates
• Bored Teachers – Contact for rates
• Budget101 – $0.02-$0.05 per word
• Cambrick Yard LLC – Contact for rates
• Christian Courier – $30-$70
• Clever Girl Finance – Contact for rates
• Copyhackers – $300-$1,000
• DIS – $25
• DollarSprout – Check listings for rates
• First Quarter Finance – Contact for rates
• Food Tank – Contact for rates
• Girls Guide to Cars – Contact for rates
• GreenPrints – $100-$150
• Grown and Flown – Contact for rates
• Hip2Save – Contact for rates
• Horse Network – $100
• How-To Geek – Contact for rates
• Income Diary – $100-$300
• Insteading – $50
• Introvert, Dear – $75
• Listverse – $100
• Loaded Landscapes – $20-$150
• Make a Living Writing – $150-$230
• Mold Busters $200-$400
• Mommy Poppins – Competitive rates
• Nutri Inspector – $60-$180
• Pregnant Chicken – $100
• Screen Rant – Contact for rates
• SitePoint – Contact for rates
• Small Biz Trends – Negotiable
• Smashing Magazine – Contact for rates
• Technology Networks – Contact for rates
• The Barefoot Writer – $100-$300
• The Krazy Coupon Lady – Full-time, pay DOE
• The Right Hairstyles – Contact for rates
• The Sportster – Contact for rates
• The Write Life – $75-$250
• Theme Park Tourist – $10-$50
• Wise Bread – Contact for rates
• Writer’s Digest – $50-$100
• Writers Weekly – $30-$60

Full-Time Writing and Editing Jobs

If you prefer not to freelance, there are plenty of options for you to work from home on writing projects full-time. These positions tend to be with marketing and advertising agencies and online content creators and publishers. To find these full-time remote work opportunities, explore the hiring companies below. 

• ​Brafton
• Dotdash Meredith
• GoBankingRates

Paid Freelance Writing Platforms

No matter what type of freelance writing jobs you’re looking for (article writing,  copywriting , creative writing,  grant writing , ebooks, technical, case studies, press releases, content writing, or white papers), you’ll be able to find them on these freelance marketplaces. Each job site works in its own manner. For some, you’ll search for projects and submit bids; for others, you’ll apply to become a freelance writer; and for others, you’ll set up your own profile and list your services.

• Capital Typing
• ContentWriters
• Express Writers
• Journalism Jobs
• Media Bistro
• People Per Hour

Writing Greeting Cards

Have a knack for writing short and sweet sentiments? Turn your ideas into cash by submitting your words to greeting card companies . According to Carol Eannarino , payment for a greeting card idea ranges from $10-$50 or more, depending on the studio.

• Blue Mountain
• Comstock – $50 per idea
• Greeting Card Universe
• Oatmeal Studios – $100

Of course, you can create your own cards and sell them on a platform like Etsy. Melanie from Simple Made Pretty chronicles her success in selling greeting cards on Etsy . 

Write Helpful Tips, Short Stories, and Magazine Articles

Print and online magazines are always looking for new content, which is why many publications are willing to pay for short stories , helpful tips, poems, and even jokes.

Here are just a few publications that pay for submissions. Payment is made only if your tip or story is published.

• Apex Magazine – $0.08-$0.09 per word
• Broadview Magazine – Negotiable
• Chicken Soup for the Soul – $250
• Cricket – Up to $0.25 per word
• Discover Magazine – Print $1 per word, $300 for web
• Grain Magazine – $50-$500
• Guide – $0.07-$0.10 per word
• Ms. Magazine – Rates vary per assignment
• Narrative Magazine $50-$1,000
• The Story People – Contact for rates
• Writers Digest – $0.30-$0.50 per word
• YES! Magazine – $0.40-$0.50 per word

Do you want to write for magazines? Check out this post , where Linda Formichelli tells you how to break into this lucrative writing niche!

Job Boards for Writers

Smaller, niche-focused job board websites are a great place to search for freelance, part-time, and full-time writing jobs. Search the sites using these key phrases that meet your criteria.

• BloggingPro
• FlexJobs – A paid job board
• Freelance Writing Jobs
• ProBlogger Job Board
• Writers Wanted – A paid job board

Mixed Writing Jobs

One of my favorite places to search for writing jobs, both full-time positions and freelance roles, is staffing agencies . With staffing agencies, you can find contract, permanent, temporary, and remote job openings. They have openings for technical writers, content strategists, copywriters, public relations writers, SEO content writers, and more! Working with a staffing agency is an excellent way to test the waters in different writing careers, as well as a good way to get your foot in the door with companies. 

Here are some staffing agencies to explore for paid writing jobs: 

• Flex Professionals
• Kelly Services
• Robert Half

Medical Writers

If you have a degree in nursing, pharmacology, social work, or another medical specialization and you enjoy writing, there are many remote writing jobs for healthcare writers. With some of these writing job opportunities, you’ll write curriculum and test prep questions; other times, you’ll write policies, continuing education materials, grants, and articles. 

See each website for submission guidelines and assignments. 

• ClearVoice  
• CrowdPharm  

Get Paid to Write Poetry

Are you a creative writer who enjoys evoking emotions in people? Then, perhaps selling your poetry can earn you some extra cash. Here are a few places you can sell your poems.

• Arc Poetry Magazine – $50 per page
• Boulevard – $50-$300
• December – $40-$200
• Palette Poetry – $50-$150
• Poem Analysis – Contact for pay rates
• Poetry Foundation – $10 per line and $150 per page of prose
• Room – $50-$200 CAD
• Three Penny Review – $200-$400
• VQR – $200-$1,000

You’ll also want to check out this list of ways to earn money with your poetry here .

Recipe Writers and Developers

If you’re talented in the kitchen and create your own recipes, there are food bloggers who will pay you for your original written recipes. Most will also want you to include photos or videos as well.

• Recipe Yum – CPM payment model

For more recipe writing gigs, check out our post on how to make money selling your recipes . 

Earn Money as a Resume Writer

Are you good at proofreading, interviewing, and persuasive writing? Then, becoming a professional resume writer may be the perfect freelance writing job for you. As a resume writer, you’ll write cover letters, resumes, and sometimes LinkedIn profiles. You may also help job seekers practice answering common interview questions.

• Career5 – Freelance
• ERW – Freelance
• Talent Inc. – Freelance
• The Job Sauce – Part-time, independent contractors
• TopStack Resume – Full- and part-time writers

Paid Revenue-Sharing Sites

With revenue-sharing sites, you contribute content to the site, and in return, you make a percentage of the advertising revenue generated from your content. Each site does it a little differently; some offer base pay, while others are strictly based on how much traffic or how many clicks your content receives. I’ve never tried to make money this way, but here are some success tips from Carol Tice .

• The Richest

Write Romance Novels

Do you want to write the next Fifty Shades of Grey? Then, submit your manuscript to one of the many romance publishers.

• Carina Press
• Extasy Books
• Harper Collins Publisher
• Sourcebooks

Of course, you don’t have to go through a traditional publisher to get your book published. With Amazon, you can self-publish your book on a shoestring budget. The nice thing about going this route is you maintain the ownership of your book, which you don’t with a traditional publisher. If you’re curious about self-publishing, check out Rachel Blaufeld’s success story with self-publishing romance novels. 

Social Media and Content Marketing

With platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and more, there is a huge demand for writers who know the ins and outs of these online marketing platforms. Sometimes, these positions are called social media managers or virtual assistants, and other times, digital content specialists. Besides writing social media updates, you may also create content for blogs, ads, newsletter campaigns, video scripts, and other forms of content creation.

General knowledge of search engine optimization (SEO) is generally needed for these roles. Some companies may require applicants to have a bachelor’s degree in marketing, advertising, or a related field. However, depending on your experience level, some companies may substitute a degree for experience.

• MarketerHire
• VaVa Virtual Assistants

Travel Writing

Who doesn’t dream of traveling the world and getting paid to write about their adventures ? While most travel gigs pay for free travel, food, lodging, and activities, there are a few outlets that will pay a small amount for your writing.

• Backcountry Magazine – $0.35 or less per word
• Down East – $0.60-$0.75 per word
• Go Nomad – $25
• International Living – $100 per $1,000 words
• Nomadic Matt – $250
• Outpost Magazine – Pay negotiable
• Young Adventuress – $50-$150

Probably one of the best ways to make money as a travel writer is to start your own blog. With travel blogging, you’ll write your own content, publish it, and then make money through activities like affiliate marketing, advertising networks, selling products, and paid sponsorships. If starting a travel blog sounds appealing, be sure to sign up for our free 10-day start your blog course .

Final Words About Paid Writing Gigs

As you can see, there are tons of paid writing jobs for writers!

However, if you don’t see the type or topic of writing assignments you’d like to work on, you can always pitch your freelance writing services to a potential client. If you don’t have a website with writing samples, you can create an online portfolio on LinkedIn or Contently to showcase your work.

Since most of these job opportunities are freelance positions, you’ll want to be sure to track your income and expenses and set aside money for quarterly self-employment taxes. You’ll also need a system for keeping track of clients and deadlines, and our Ultimate Online Business Planning Toolkit is perfect for running your freelance writing business like a pro!

As your freelance writing career grows, you should invest in your writing skills by taking courses, joining professional organizations, and other tools and resources you’ll need to be successful.

What type of paid writing gigs are you searching for? Do you know of another site that pays writers? Let us know in the comment section below.

Originally published on February 25, 2015. Content updated on May 2024.

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About the Author

Holly Reisem Hanna

Holly Reisem Hanna is a former nurse who decided to start a blog to make money from home while caring for her daughter. Since its inception in 2009, The Work at Home Woman has helped millions of readers find legitimate work at home jobs and business ideas. Under Holly's guidance, The Work at Home Woman was named one of the best websites for your career by Forbes two years in a row. Holly graduated from the University of Texas and has been featured in Yahoo Finance, Woman’s World Magazine, CNN, and many others.

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Reader Interactions

156 comments.

June 1, 2024 at 6:39 am

I’m interested in pursuing a remote writing job from home. What steps should I take to get started in this field?

June 2, 2024 at 8:34 am

Write a few samples for your portfolio, and start applying for gigs.

February 17, 2024 at 12:00 pm

I began pursuing a career in Copy and SEO Optimization Writing about a year ago. I had at this point been studying the art of Copywriting for about a year. I paid for a course thru the AWAI Institute and even though there was great information, not a lot of support on finding real work. I began working construction last May to make ends meet and because of the long days and hard work, my career in Copy and SEO writing came to a complete stop. I have in the last few weeks began to restart the machine and even took this week off work to start applying for writing jobs and try to keep the dream alive. I go back to work in 2 days and I am concerned the momentum I have built will fall off once again. Even worse, the situation me and my kids have been in will not get any better if I remain doing the same thing. I thank you for this post, as I have been maniacally sitting with my laptop for days on end trying to find work so I can leave my other job. I am about to go one by one thru all your links because I know what I am looking for is there. Thank you

February 19, 2024 at 9:11 am

Check out this article by Danny; he chronicles his success using Upwork as a new copywriter: https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/make-money-freelancing/

Wishing you all the best!

January 28, 2023 at 4:25 am

Hi, for the poetry, do they accept international submissions?

January 30, 2023 at 7:40 am

I believe they are available globally.

January 30, 2022 at 5:12 pm

Is there anywhere to submit writing samples for songs? Thank you!

January 31, 2022 at 12:00 pm

Let me know do some research — stay tuned.

July 9, 2021 at 7:16 am

Hello, I am Robert from Nakuru, Kenya. Is there an opportunity for men? I am interested, I am willing to contribute in areas of fine arts and writing theological materials. Thank you in advance, Pastor Robert.

July 10, 2021 at 9:18 am

Yes, the information is applicable to men as well.

Just click on the company and it will take you to the opportunity.

September 24, 2019 at 2:52 pm

I have to say I never thought I would get paid to write for a living but blogging is something I never knew would exist when I was growing up either! Such much changes but writing is always a great way to get out your feelings and thoughts and if you can get paid to do so, even better!

September 25, 2019 at 9:13 am

Me either, Scarlet. I’m so glad that you found a career that you love!

Thanks for stopping by!

September 9, 2019 at 1:15 am

I would like to get a job in writing online from home where do I start? and what to do next? many thanks in advance.

September 9, 2019 at 6:44 am

Just click on the links above and follow each sites’ instructions for applying.

February 28, 2019 at 7:18 am

Wow this looks quite informative! Thanks for sharing.

June 22, 2021 at 3:54 pm

Glad you enjoyed the list, Janelle!

February 4, 2019 at 7:47 pm

Thank you for the encouraging responses that you have given your audience. I started my search to find writing gigs that would pay me @ least $75 per day for my work… Unfortunately, several of the blogs/ YouTubers had negative reviews and I was discouraged. I decided to just do a search and I found your blog. The information you listed is mind blowing!!! That is… That someone would put this amount of work into compiling this list and not ask for a dime!! But, what meant the most to me is that you took the time to advise others and encourage people. Thank you for that!

February 5, 2019 at 2:38 pm

You’re welcome!

I’m glad you found the list helpful. Let me know if you decide to apply for any of these positions, I’d love to know how they work out for you!

December 4, 2018 at 3:06 pm

Incredible work Holly! There’s so much good info here, thanks, I know we all appreciate it.

June 22, 2021 at 3:55 pm

Thanks, AJ — I’m glad you found the list helpful.

October 8, 2018 at 8:16 am

hello am a writer which website will I get a client

June 23, 2021 at 8:16 am

Shes not toting her psychic skills. Click a link.

June 6, 2018 at 4:21 am

You can even count this website https://www.gmrtranscription.com/careers.aspx in the list as well for freelance transcription jobs. They’ve plenty of work most of the time and always looking for the candidates.

June 6, 2018 at 11:17 am

Thanks for sharing!

December 2, 2018 at 12:38 pm

I really want a job

May 14, 2018 at 3:15 pm

Hiring? Need job.. Ready to work..

April 19, 2018 at 6:09 pm

I’m looking forward to perusing these sites. I love finding new niches to freelance for. Ultius has treated me well and I think they are almost always hiring ( https://ults.co/writerapply ).

April 20, 2018 at 7:48 am

Thanks for sharing, Alice!

October 20, 2021 at 9:58 pm

I want a at home job typing on the computer I’m a hard worker but people jobs want cookie cutter people yes people people that can work a lot of hours with no sleep I can work but not to much

October 21, 2021 at 6:36 am

Have you looked at temp agencies like Kelly Services?

April 16, 2018 at 12:13 pm

Wow what a great list. I’ve really enjoyed writing for https://www.constant-content.com/ but will have to check out some of the others in the list. Thanks!

February 28, 2018 at 10:42 am

I’ve noticed these gigs are all in dollars.

Can you use these sites if you live in the United Kingdom?

February 28, 2018 at 3:09 pm

You’ll have to follow up with each site to see if they allow writers from the UK.

July 2, 2018 at 6:16 pm

Hi, can i use this site if i live is SA

July 4, 2018 at 7:25 am

Hi Stanley,

Nice to meet you!

With these writing gigs, it shouldn’t matter where you live as long as you provide high-quality work and can be paid via PayPal.

Please check out this post for international listings: https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/worldwide-work-from-home-jobs/

Good luck on your job hunt!

December 31, 2017 at 7:58 am

Thank you so much for this list! I drive almost an hour one way to go to work and I am looking for something I can do from home. This information will be a great start for me!

January 2, 2018 at 12:44 pm

Glad you enjoyed the list, Pam.

If you’re looking for more ideas, these articles will give you a great place to start your WAH job search:

https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/best-work-from-home-jobs/

https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/right-job/

https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/work-home-jobs-location/

December 1, 2017 at 9:29 am

Great list!! I recently started a free writing leads site as a labor of love from one writer to another. It’s a daily list of Canadian writing jobs and remote and freelance opportunities, too. Feel free to share or check it out. WritingJobsCanada.ca

November 25, 2017 at 11:45 pm

Dear holly any recommendations for offline data entry website as I have time I want to earn some money please advice ASAP FOR some critical issues thanks

November 26, 2017 at 12:31 pm

Try looking on Indeed and FlexJobs, or this post may give you some ideas: https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/typing-jobs/

September 28, 2017 at 11:49 am

Holy smokes this is one heck of a list, Holly! Thanks for putting it together for us. You know I’m sharing this one!

Hope all is well. :)

Happy small Friday!

September 28, 2017 at 1:56 pm

Glad you enjoyed the list, Cori. Love that, happy small Friday! Same to you!

June 19, 2017 at 7:38 pm

As retirement approaches, a lifelong desire to simply create, write, and explore avenues that have always proven themselves a true interest and passion is rapidly pulling me in to my most deepest desires of these areas. Admittedly, there are so many areas that are catching my attention, so the question now is, “Where to begin?” Thank you so very much.

June 22, 2017 at 7:58 am

Check out this post, Patty: https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/start-working-from-home-now/

June 15, 2017 at 6:35 pm

This is a great website thank you! I have just graduated with a first but want a writing job from home part time to go alongside another full time job. I like beauty/fashion/baking but having done psychology degree I like to write about current issues, including personal ones such as copying with anxiety etc Do you recommend where I could start writing? Thanks

June 13, 2017 at 5:32 am

Story writing is my hobby and want to share it more to you. Though I need my real chance to start for you.

June 7, 2017 at 12:52 am

I just wanted to let you know that you are my muse for extensive thoroughness with my writing. I’m just getting started, and you’re my go-to gal for inspiration and encouragement. As of right now I’m trying to learn the technical ropes and migrate my site to a new host. I’d love to have you in my network! Any tips you could share would be immensely appreciated!

June 12, 2017 at 7:15 am

Hi Ashley, Thanks for your kind words — they made my day!

I’m not a tech person. I use a web programmer for all of my tech issues. Her name is Susan from http://octoberskies.com . I’ve also heard great things about Grayson Bell at https://www.imarkinteractive.com/author/imark/ .

I’m on all the major social channels if you’d like to connect. Thanks for stopping by and leaving such a nice comment!

May 23, 2017 at 4:33 am

I’m sadia and please suggest me any job .

May 24, 2017 at 9:46 am

Hi Sadia, These articles will give you a great place to start your WAH job search:

May 21, 2017 at 10:43 am

Hey i would love to write. Im pretty good with short stories (usually fiction), what would you suggest?

May 18, 2017 at 11:05 am

I’m used to write in french. I tried upwork but i’m paid 5 dollars per 1000 words or 7 dollars… Can you suggest me a website where i can write in french but having good salary like those websites you posts on your blog ? And can you suggest me VA in french website please ?

May 19, 2017 at 3:32 pm

Rev.com hires French translators: https://www.rev.com/translation

Also, Anna has a great list of translation jobs on her website: https://realwaystoearnmoneyonline.com/money-earning-directory/translation/

Good luck and keep me posted!

May 15, 2017 at 3:12 pm

Hi Holly, My passions include being a life long runner and outdoor enthusiast, having owned a fairly large business in that niche. In addition, healthy pro-active nutrition, and politics are included. Do you have any recommendations as to what writing industries or companies to pursue? I’m interested in doing reviews, blogs, copywriting but open to suggestions. Thank you very much! Kathy

May 18, 2017 at 7:28 am

Hi Kathy, What about Live Strong? They are always hiring writers in a variety of categories. Also, check out your favorite brands and companies and research their blog posts. Maybe they haven’t added any new content in a long time, and you can send them a proposal, or you can pitch them a few ideas that they haven’t covered. Good luck!

May 9, 2017 at 6:20 pm

Wow! Thank you so much for this blog post! I have never seen so much accurate and helpful information in one post! I have bookmarked this page and will be checking all of them out! Thank you so very much!

May 10, 2017 at 1:30 pm

Glad you enjoyed the list, Courtney!

April 7, 2017 at 10:57 pm

I am interested in a stay at home career in writing. I am a mother of two and I have been writing for many years. Nothing has been published. I write short stories, children’s stories and some poetry. can you please let me know in which direction I should be looking to get started.

April 8, 2017 at 7:29 am

It depends. Do you want to set up a business? Or are you just looking for a little extra side cash?

Here are some hand-picked articles that can help guide your way:

https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/4k-writer/

https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/start-working-from-home-now/

https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/make-money-freelancing/

Good luck and keep us posted!

February 27, 2017 at 8:45 pm

I m interest in writing. Can u plss give me the instruction??

February 26, 2017 at 4:05 pm

This may seem a rather daft question, and it is, but: I’m a man. Now, can men, even incredibly heterosexual ones such as me (lol), utilize and take advantage of these services as a means to market their writerly talents? Also, I have found that, for me personally, nonfiction writing is easier than fiction. However, I must strongly emphasize that this opinion is tempered by and only true of those times when one finds that they can be just as creative and imaginative and fluid and free and freewheeling in their nonfiction as they are in their fiction. To that end, I have furthermore discovered that, for me personally, in addition to the writing of certain essays and ersatz/satirical articles and the prosy like, poetry is also relatively easy to write. Indeed, it is EASIER to write. At least, it is for me, anyway. Now, don’t get me wrong, I also like to fiction, but I can’t write it as speedily and with as much insouciant ease as I can various forms of essay and poetry. Again, that’s just me, though. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity of using this forum as a means of getting a few things off my chest. However, I have one last query to advance: As I have recently written a great, semiautobiographical (or perhaps pseudoautobiographical) seriocomical/jocoserious short story that has a great deal of erotic imagery, action and description in it, I wonder where I might publish this story? It is not, I must stress, despite it’s sexual nature and the intrinsic, crucial importance of the eroticism therein, a bona fide erotic story. It is not erotica, as they call it. It is far above and beyond the trashy simplicity of erotica. Yet, as I said, the middle section of it is a sex scene, but one that I twist and manipulate every sort of human emotion out of, and that sex scene is not gratuitous, it is essential to the story and the plot. I am not one to, even in the writing of the very few forays into erotica and eroticism that I have attempted over the past seven years, write of sexuality overmuch, or at all, or gratuitously, but as this was integral, I saw no reason to withhold the sexual from the bounds of my prose.

Regardless, and for comedic effect a few very dirty vulgarities and smutty colloquialisms are used within the context of my tale, but still I wonder: Who would publish such an esoteric, unidentifiable, eclectic work?

I am rightly proud of the story, it being one of the best and funniest yet most strangely sad stories I’ve ever written, and long to see it in all the unbounded glory of print.

(I did not mean this thing to turn out to be some abridged story of my life, but as the next revelation that I am about to parenthetically reveal is somewhat imperative, I feel I must, if only as a means to create an understanding of me, my works and, most especially, my STYLE and TECHNIQUE as a writer, share the following bit of semi-personal data with you: Namely, that I am an avid reader in general and in particular of the greatest Anglo-American/European/Russian/Near-Eastern/Mediterranean writers of all manner of prose of the past several millennia, but with an especial focus on the greatest writers of the 1700’s-1960’s: and before and beyond: and it is them and their monumental and intellectually-stimulating, descriptive, sublime works that inform all my writing….therefore, that’s why I’ve elected to write in the way in which I’ve done here….not to impress, except by diffusion and osmosis, but rather because it is just the general, natural way I always have of speaking and, most especially, writing. Thank you bearing with me through this difficult digression….which, if I was going to submit and publish this essay-length comment, I think that would make an excellent title for it! lol)

February 27, 2017 at 12:06 pm

Yes, these opportunities are applicable to both women and men.

February 24, 2017 at 6:47 am

Hi Holly, I’d appreciate knowing about your favorite freelance writing opportunities for elementary educators. Thanks!

February 24, 2017 at 7:26 am

Hi Lesley, Have you thought about curriculum writing or instructional design? Really, the sky’s the limit, you can write for education blogs, magazines, newsletters. It just depends on your area of expertise within the education field and what type of writing interests you.

February 22, 2017 at 1:47 am

I’m interested in writing in several categories: my worldwide travel experiences; the 23+ years of meeting, taking pictures and talking to hundreds of celebrities in NYC.

I’m also interested in writing book, TV and movie reviews. I’ve done quite a few travel reviews on TripAdvisor. I’ve written a couple of book reviews and received thank you notes from the author.

Can you give me some advice where I can do this and get paid for it? Thank you.

February 22, 2017 at 8:48 am

Hi Diane, Have you thought about starting a review blog?

February 17, 2017 at 3:40 am

Hi, I am Rashid from India.Just recently I had started blogging and I had published two based on my personal experience.Now I am willing to write a short fictional story.Can you suggest me any site where I could begin with?

January 26, 2017 at 8:41 am

I also have had a lot of luck scoring paid contracts on freelancing websites like Upwork. I t’s tough to build up a profile initially, but after about a year I was able to make solid money – between $500-$1000 per week. It’s all about building up a profile and reputation, just like any business.

Thanks for these tips!

January 26, 2017 at 12:15 pm

That’s great — congrats on your writing success!

January 16, 2017 at 2:35 pm

I am interested in writing about women’s life experiences. Its been suggested to me because of my sense of humor and the way I look at life, especially mine!! Blogging has been suggested but boy I feel lost and not so sure. Main ideas?

January 16, 2017 at 4:37 pm

Hi Paula, This post will give you a great place to start: https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/setup-blog/ Let me know if you have further questions — happy to get you going in the right direction.

January 15, 2017 at 6:12 am

Hi I’m also interested in writing ….I’m from India….how can I be helped…..

January 16, 2017 at 6:25 am

Hi Rosy, Most of these sites pay via PayPal, so if you’re able to accept payment via PayPal — just start pitching and applying. Good luck!

December 2, 2016 at 4:07 pm

I just stumbled on this informative gift from your stable by luck today. I like to earn from writing and online typing. I’m in Nigeria. Guide me.

December 4, 2016 at 7:52 am

As long as you’re able to accept payments via PayPal, you should be able to write for the majority of these sites. Good luck!

November 29, 2016 at 12:49 pm

All this being said if you’re a fast writer, and you don’t spend a lot of time on each article, maybe you could make minimum wage working on Demand Studio stuff. Which would be cool if you’re working from home and that’s all the money you were looking for. But long-term, other “freelance” writing jobs would be likely to net you a lot more. Blogging is my favorite.

I’ve done quite a bit of freelance writing, myself–not the website, but jobs you hunt down for yourself in corporate America–and the income can be excellent, but often requires a lot more personal marketing or a good list of personal contacts. And you’ll need to be able to prove you can do the work with a combination of references, education, and samples. You also need to have the good aptitude for customer service, so you can keep your clients happy.

November 5, 2016 at 12:47 am

Thanks for the informative post. I’ve been trying to assess the validity of the site writingjobz.com for a potential scam without much luck. I notice that it isn’t on your list. Have you ever heard anything about them? If not, could you please look into this? I’ve given my info (basic application stuff, but still) and am, sadly, backward fact-checking. Thanks!

November 7, 2016 at 6:53 am

The one thing that stands out to me is they’re hiring writers, but nowhere on the website are they selling the articles to clients. Most legit sites have a page for customers and another for writers. They are based in India, not the US — I’d steer clear of this one.

September 26, 2016 at 2:28 pm

Hi Holly! There are a ton of awesome ideas here that I am eager to explore! I recently started a blog that I’m going to use as a portfolio for my pieces and hopefully will submit them somewhere for pay and future writing gigs. I am currently working in a full time office job and would like to move from this lifestyle that allows me to write remotely on a more flexible schedule. I have just submitted an essay to a contest about my experiences as a person with a disability. I’m wondering if you have any additional suggestions on where to send my essay, or else any information you can provide as I try to embark upon this difficult career change. Thanks so much!

September 27, 2016 at 7:18 am

Hi Brittany, Glad you enjoyed the list! It sounds like you have a good plan in place.

Here are some pieces that I think will help you on your journey:

Gina Horkey has had tremendous success as a freelance writer and virtual assistant and she gives some great advice in this interview: https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/4k-writer/

This article by Katie McDonald has some excellent information on identifying strong freelance leads: https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/promising-leads/

Oh, and this article has some advice from four successful freelancers (Carol Tice, Kristi Hines, Mary Jaksch, and Heather Robson) on how to make more money with your writing: https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/make-more-money-writing/

September 27, 2016 at 8:49 pm

This is great, thanks so much!

September 28, 2016 at 8:54 am

You’re welcome, Brittany!

August 18, 2016 at 6:46 am

I have around 7 years of experience in IT currently a stay at home mom with two naughty boys.. I love to write and earn a living.. what would be the best site for me to start with

August 18, 2016 at 11:35 am

Have you written articles before? Or is this your first stab at freelance writing? If you’re new to the game, I’d suggest looking at the ProBlogger job board or Upwork. Get some articles under your belt, then go after higher paying gigs.

August 15, 2016 at 11:09 am

Its one of the best posts full of good resources on writing content. I have not visited all of the sites yet but I am going to check them all one by one. Thank you so much.

August 16, 2016 at 3:02 pm

Glad you enjoyed the list!

July 31, 2016 at 1:28 pm

Scary Mommy is no longer offering payment for submissions.

August 1, 2016 at 10:24 am

Thanks for letting me know, Jessica. I’ll take it off the list.

August 3, 2016 at 1:42 pm

Such a bummer! Still a good opportunity to build up a portfolio though :)

August 3, 2016 at 4:39 pm

Definitely!

July 6, 2016 at 1:11 am

Hi holly I love to write on life and experience and many more but could not find website

July 6, 2016 at 7:07 am

Have you checked Carol Tice’s website? She too has a great list of paid opportunities: http://www.makealivingwriting.com/earn-money-online-websites-that-pay-writers-spring-2016/

June 7, 2016 at 6:59 am

Looking to get hired. How do I start?

June 11, 2016 at 10:05 am

Hi Angel, Just click on the links and it will take you to each gig. Good luck!

June 5, 2016 at 10:46 pm

Hi I live in India n love to write so please let me know how I can do that . Thanks

June 11, 2016 at 10:15 am

Hi Damanpreet, Click on the links above and each site will tell you how to apply. Good luck!

April 28, 2016 at 6:54 pm

I don’t have website but looking and love writing. I had been writing on agony aunts column I enjoy helping other people. Love to follow my dream and do this for a job.

April 29, 2016 at 10:32 am

With these sort of gigs you don’t need a website. However, if you’re interested in getting a website for free – this article has some good options: https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/35-free-resources-to-help-manage-your-business-life/

Good luck on your writing journey!

April 9, 2016 at 8:32 pm

We pay $100 per post if you want to add our site. All details are here: http://www.blessthislist.com/write-get-paid/

April 9, 2016 at 9:01 pm

Thanks for sharing your writing gig!

July 27, 2016 at 5:40 pm

Hi holly I enjoyed reading your post on writing I love writing and would like to start blogging How can I find a how to guide to begin blogging? And with no experience what best choices are there for hiring fresh writers

July 27, 2016 at 6:31 pm

Hi Meandra, Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to setup a blog: https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/setup-blog/

This post explains how to get started: https://www.theworkathomewoman.com/blogging/

April 8, 2016 at 10:17 am

Thanks for all the information. I am a homemaker and enjoy writing picture book stories, I have been looking for some freelance work and your article has been a blessing. I will be checking at the sites you recommend, thanks again and take care.

April 9, 2016 at 2:20 pm

Good luck, Denita!

April 4, 2016 at 3:15 am

I would like to recommend my site 20four7va. We currently need lots of writers and VA’s for different kind of business.

April 5, 2016 at 10:16 am

Thanks for sharing, Catherine. How much does 20four7va pay per article?

October 6, 2016 at 7:01 am

i live in india… i m a home maker… i love writing…. creative work like designing cards, dresses… plz let me know how can i work from home….

October 6, 2016 at 6:56 pm

The Work at Home Woman is geared toward U.S. residents.

March 15, 2016 at 11:44 am

So many interesting information, thanks. I also would like to recommend another source paperwritingonline.com. I often write to this site. If it’s interesting for somebody, you can visit a site or write me for more information.

March 15, 2016 at 12:03 pm

Thanks for the lead, Selena!

March 31, 2016 at 7:55 am

They do not have current openings for writers. Contacted them through their site chat..

March 2, 2016 at 7:24 am

Thanks for sharing this huge list. very nice list for writers

March 2, 2016 at 8:38 am

Glad you enjoyed it, Ranjeet!

February 26, 2016 at 12:49 pm

Once I get started writing a blog how would I get paid for it?

February 26, 2016 at 1:34 pm

Hi Amber, Most of these opportunities pay via PayPal. However, you’ll need read each companies terms to verify the exact payment method. Good luck!

February 21, 2016 at 9:33 pm

Great tips Holly! always enjoy your posts :)

February 22, 2016 at 9:12 am

So glad you enjoyed it, Mandi. Thanks for stopping by =)

February 18, 2016 at 12:45 pm

This looks interesting. I like to type and I would like to make some extra money. Please send me some info

January 29, 2016 at 4:31 am

i want a writing job

January 28, 2016 at 4:38 pm

Holly, I just wanted to thank you for this incredible post. It’s full of SO much good information and resources to find freelance writing work online. I can tell you spent a lot of time on it, so thank you, thank you, thank you! And I had NO idea about Nora Roberts only having a high-school education! That is a great cocktail party fact, too! Hope you’re well.

January 29, 2016 at 9:30 am

You’re welcome, Lisa! I love to do research — so it was a fun post to write!

January 28, 2016 at 11:07 am

I’m a Social Work student, who cares about special needs and social needs in public.IS there any sites to become a writer in this field? :)

January 29, 2016 at 9:31 am

Try looking at LiveStrong. If I come across any others — I’ll drop the links here. Good luck!

January 10, 2016 at 8:42 am

This is by far the most complete list I have come across of the highest paying writing jobs. I have been seriously considering working as a freelance writer, however many of the jobs that I have seem are not as generous in compensation as the ones listed here in your article. I look forward to checking out these opportunities! Thank you!

January 11, 2016 at 7:56 am

You’re welcome, Clara! Good luck on your freelance writing journey and keep us posted =)

January 6, 2016 at 10:53 am

I’m a yoga teacher an a Nutritionist. What do you think the best place to start would be for my knowledge? Thanks.

January 7, 2016 at 7:35 am

Have you tried LIVESTRONG? They hire writers for fitness and wellness articles. Also try looking at Upwork and Problogger.net for fitness gigs. Good luck!

December 17, 2015 at 2:06 pm

Would anyone happen to know a good place to write opinion articles? Maybe 300 to 500 words for $10 a pop? Whenever I find these lists of blogs and publications that pay, they are almost never looking for opinion. Maybe the niche is not profitable.

January 4, 2016 at 10:37 am

Try looking at magazines — many publications will pay a small stipend for short stories, jokes, recipes, and poems. Good luck and keep us posted!

December 10, 2015 at 5:28 pm

Parents, teachers and homeschoolers – Get paid to share your expertise and ideas with thousands of readers!! -Opportunities for paid blog posts on the Educents blog (blog.educents.com) -Receive a quarterly newsletter with blog topic ideas -Receive invitations to submit pitches for blog posts -Get your name out there! Every blog post published on Educents has an author bio

More info: http://blog.educents.com/join-the-educents-all-star-blogger-program/

December 2, 2015 at 1:08 pm

Greetings Holly, Top Tenz is no longer excepting submissions until further notice. They are now using their inside staff writers.

This information was on the website.

December 2, 2015 at 2:03 pm

Thanks for letting me know, Tangela. I’ll have to find a replacement =)

January 4, 2016 at 4:14 am

Accepting is the appropriate word, not excepting.

October 30, 2015 at 6:19 pm

Hi I have just written a short story about an old pit bull telling his life story. It’s approx 20,000 words. Any suggestions as to where I go next with this

November 2, 2015 at 7:25 am

Here’s a great list of places to submit your short stories: http://thewritelife.com/where-to-submit-short-stories/

October 7, 2015 at 4:36 pm

Thanks Ms. Hanna! I love doing recipes and this article will really be a blessing!

October 9, 2015 at 7:42 am

You’re welcome, Leiann! Glad you found the recipe section helpful. I’ll keep you posted if I find some more sites.

September 25, 2015 at 2:23 am

The Intense Blog link leads to the Dollar Stretcher page. (It isn’t hard to Google the write for us link, just thought you should know anyways!)

September 25, 2015 at 8:45 am

Thanks for letting me know, Kali. The link has been corrected =)

September 5, 2015 at 6:15 pm

I enjoy writing poems. I don’t see any place for me to submit a freelance poem here though.

Heading Onward makes one Lag when Learning of the Yearly traffic gag.

September 8, 2015 at 8:02 am

Try submitting to greeting card companies, magazines, and contests.

July 16, 2017 at 10:17 am

There’s an app you could download for writers and although its free to use and doesn’t necessarily pay you for each poem u post theirs perhaps some leads on paying opportunities and contests…. Mirakee

August 19, 2015 at 10:11 am

Good Morning!

I’m glad I came across this site. I am inspired to express myself through the written word again. I am new to blogging, but excited to get my feet wet learning about it.

August 19, 2015 at 9:51 am

hey there holly, always love the info you send! ps-elance & odesk are now upwork.com keep up the great work! best, jo-anna

August 26, 2015 at 12:40 pm

Thanks for letting me know, I’ll get that corrected.

July 17, 2015 at 7:56 pm

This is very helpful. Writing for a living is something I’ve always wanted to do, but finding legitimate resources is a difficult tasks. You’ve made this journey easier to bear. Thanks!

April 29, 2015 at 10:54 am

So going to check all this out.

February 26, 2015 at 7:31 am

Holly, thanks for including Write Naked on your list of blogs that compensate writers. Just wanted to let you know the rate posted is incorrect. I do not pay $100. (I ran a promotion a few years ago for that rate, so perhaps you saw an old page.) I pay $50 per guest post, but if I am particularly wowed with a pitch I pay $200. Thanks again–really appreciate the exposure and love the site you have built here.

February 26, 2015 at 11:14 am

You’re welcome, Tara. I’ll update that information =)

March 22, 2016 at 6:36 am

Are you still looking for writers?

December 4, 2016 at 4:59 am

I need aa job

January 11, 2017 at 1:35 pm

I would like to help you, first you read and then decided to how much pay.

November 17, 2017 at 4:30 am

I need job..my Gmail I’d is [email protected]

January 21, 2017 at 4:14 am

I’m an enthusiast guy and currently looking for writing jobs. I’m available at all times and would really appreciate for working with you Tara.regards

May 10, 2017 at 5:57 pm

If there is any alert me please

May 10, 2017 at 5:56 pm

Okay no problem with that

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