why is creative writing skills important

Creative Writing: What It Is and Why It Matters

By: Author Paul Jenkins

Posted on Published: January 13, 2023  - Last updated: January 15, 2023

Categories Writing

Writing can be intimidating for many people, but creative writing doesn’t have to be. Creative writing is a form of self-expression that allows writers to create stories, characters, and unique settings. But what exactly is creative writing? And why is it important in today’s society? Let’s explore this further.

How We Define Creative Writing

Creative writing is any form where writers can express their thoughts and feelings imaginatively. This type of writing allows authors to draw on their imagination when creating stories and characters and play with language and structure. While there are no boundaries in creative writing, most pieces will contain dialogue, description, and narrative elements.

The Importance of Creative Writing

Creative writing is important because:

• It helps us express ourselves in ways we may not be able to do with other forms of communication.
• It allows us to explore our creativity and think outside the box.
• It can help us better understand our emotions by exploring them through storytelling or poetry.
• Writing creatively can also provide much-needed escapism from everyday life, allowing us to escape into a world of our creation.
• Creative writing helps us connect with others by sharing our experiences through stories or poems they can relate to. This way, we can gain insight into other people’s lives while giving them insight into ours.

Creative Writing: A Path to Mental and Emotional Wellness

Writing is more than just a way to express your thoughts on paper. It’s a powerful tool that can be used as a form of therapy. Creative writing has been shown to improve emotional and mental well-being.

Through creative writing, we can gain insight into our emotions, develop self-expression and communication skills, cultivate empathy and understanding of others, and boost our imagination and creativity.

Let’s examine how creative writing can relieve stress and emotional catharsis.

Stress Relief and Emotional Catharsis

Writing has the power to reduce stress levels significantly. Writing about our experiences or about things that are causing us anxiety or distress helps us to release those complicated feelings constructively. By expressing ourselves through creative writing, we can work through the emotions associated with stressful situations without having to confront them directly.

This is especially helpful for people who struggle to share their emotions verbally or in person.

Improved Communication and Self-Expression

Creative writing is also beneficial for improving communication skills. Through creative writing, we can explore our thoughts and feelings more intensely than by speaking them aloud. This allows us to think more clearly about what we want to say before actually saying it out loud or in written form, which leads to improved self-expression overall.

Additionally, writing out our thoughts before speaking aloud allows us to articulate ourselves better when communicating with others—which is essential for healthy personal and professional relationships.

Increased Empathy and Understanding of Others

Through creative writing, we can also increase our empathy towards others by exploring different perspectives on various topics that may be unfamiliar or uncomfortable for us—such as racism, homophobia, sexism, etc.—and allowing ourselves the opportunity to see the situation from someone else’s point of view without judgment or bias. This helps us become better communicators and more understanding individuals overall.

The Professional Benefits of Creative Writing

Creative writing is a powerful tool that can help you communicate better and more effectively in the professional world. It can also help you develop various skills that prove invaluable in many industries. Whether you’re looking to build your résumé or improve your communication, creative writing can effectively achieve both.

Let’s take a closer look at how creative writing can benefit your career.

Preparing Students for Careers in Writing, Editing, and Publishing

Creative writing is the perfect foundation for anyone interested in pursuing a career in writing, editing, or publishing. It teaches students the basics of grammar and composition while allowing them to express their ideas in imaginative ways.

Creative writing classes also allow students to learn from professionals who have experience as editors, agents, and publishers. They can use this knowledge to learn creative writing, refine their craft and gain valuable experience before entering the job market.

Improving Skills in Storytelling and Marketing for Various Careers

Creative writing teaches students to think critically about stories and craft compelling narratives that draw readers in. This skill is precious for those who wish to pursue careers outside traditional writing roles—such as marketing or advertising—where storytelling is key.

People who understand the fundamentals of creative writing will be able to create persuasive copy that resonates with readers and effectively conveys a message.

Enhancing Team Collaboration and Leadership Skills

Creative writing isn’t just about expressing yourself through words; it also provides an opportunity to practice working collaboratively with others on projects. Many creative writing classes require students to work together on group projects, which helps them develop essential teamwork skills such as communication, critical thinking, problem-solving, and creativity.

As they work together on these projects, they will also gain confidence in their ability to lead teams effectively—an invaluable asset no matter what industry they pursue after graduation.

Uncovering the Power of Creative Writing

Creative writing has become an increasingly powerful force in shaping our society. Creative writing has many uses, from preserving cultural heritage to promoting social change.

Preserving Cultural Heritage with Creative Writing

Creative writing has long been used to preserve and share cultural heritage stories. This is done through fictional stories or poetry that explore a particular culture or group’s history, values, and beliefs. By weaving these stories in an engaging way, writers can bring a culture’s history and traditions to life for readers worldwide. This helps bridge cultural gaps by providing insight into what makes each culture unique.

Promoting Social Change & Activism with Creative Writing

Creative writing can also be used for activism and social change. Writers can craft stories that help promote awareness about important issues such as poverty, race relations, gender equality, climate change, and more.

With the power of words, writers can inspire readers to take action on these issues and work towards creating positive change in their communities.

Through creative writing, writers can raise awareness about important topics while fostering empathy toward individuals who may be facing difficult or challenging situations.

Fostering Creativity & Innovation with Creative Writing

Finally, creative writing can foster creativity and innovation in various fields. For example, businesses can use creative copywriting techniques to create compelling content that captures the attention of customers or potential investors.

Aspiring entrepreneurs can use storytelling techniques when pitching their ideas or products to potential partners or investors to make their cases more persuasive and memorable.

By harnessing the power of words through creative writing techniques, businesses can create content that resonates with their target audience while inspiring them to take action on whatever message they’re trying to convey. It often aids the overall creative process.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the benefits of creative writing.

Creative writing has many benefits, both for the writer and the reader. For the writer, it can be therapeutic, helping them to explore their emotions and better understand themselves. It can also be used as entertainment or communication, allowing them to share their ideas with the world. For the reader, creative writing can provide enjoyment, escapism, and insights into the human condition.

How can I improve my creative writing skills?

There are several ways you can improve your creative writing skills. Firstly, make sure you allow yourself time to write regularly. Use a writing prompt to inspire a short story. Secondly, read as much as you can; great writers are also great readers. Thirdly, experiment with different styles and genres to find one that suits you best. Fourthly, join a writers’ group, writing workshop, or creative writing program to get feedback from other writers. Finally, keep a journal to track your progress and reflect on your work as a creative writer.

What is the importance of imagery in creative writing?

Imagery is an important element of creative writing, as it helps to create a more vivid picture for the reader. By using sensory and descriptive language, writers can transport readers into their stories and help them relate to their characters or themes. Imagery can bring a scene alive with detail and evoke emotion by helping readers create strong visual images in their minds. Furthermore, imagery can help make stories more memorable by giving readers a deeper connection with the characters or setting.

What are the elements of creative writing?

The elements of creative writing include plot, character, dialogue, setting, theme, and point of view. The plot is the structure or main storyline, while the character is the personage involved in this story. Dialogue includes conversations between characters to give insight into their emotions and relationships. Setting refers to the place or time in which a story takes place, while theme explores deeper meanings behind a story’s narrative. Finally, point of view defines how readers experience a story through first-person or third-person omniscient narration.

What’s the difference between creative writing and other types of writing?

The main difference between creative writing and other types of writing is that it allows the writer to create their own story, characters, settings, and themes. Creative writing also encourages writers to be inventive with their style and use descriptive language to evoke emotion or bring stories alive in readers’ minds. Other academic or technical writing types typically involve more research-based information and are usually more objective in their presentation. Additionally, most forms of non-creative writing will have stricter rules regarding grammar, structure, and syntax.

What is the golden rule of creative writing?

The golden rule of creative writing is to show, not tell. It’s the core creative writing skill. When it comes to creative writing, it’s essential to use descriptive language that immerses readers in the story and allows them to experience the events through their emotions and imaginations. This can be done through metaphors, similes, sensory language, and vivid imagery.

How important is creativity in writing?

Creativity is essential in writing as it allows writers to craft a unique story and evoke emotion from the reader. Creativity can bring stories alive with fresh perspectives and exciting plot lines while creating an escape for readers and giving them more profound insights into the human condition. Writers who combine creativity with technical aspects such as grammar, structure, language usage, and flow will create pieces that capture their audience’s attention and provide an enjoyable reading experience.

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

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

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

What is Creative Writing?

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

Creative writing can take on various forms such as:

• short stories
• screenplays

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

5 Key Characteristics of Creative Writing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Styles of Creative Writing

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

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

Short Stories

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

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

Screenplays

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

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

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

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

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

Importance of Creative Writing

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

Developing Creativity and Imagination

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

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

Enhancing Communication Skills

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

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

Exploring Emotions and Ideas

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

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

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

4 Steps to Start Creative Writing

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

1. Finding Inspiration

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

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

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

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

2. Planning Your Piece

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

• the main points

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

3. Writing Your First Draft

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

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

4. Editing and Revising Your Work

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

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

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

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

Tips to Improve Creative Writing Skills

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

Read Widely

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

Practice Regularly

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

Attend Writing Workshops and Courses

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

Joining Writing Groups and Communities

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

Seeking Feedback on Your Work

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

Start Creative Writing Today!

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

Happy writing!

Brooks Manley

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

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

Here’s my favorite journal for 2024: 

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

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Why learn creative writing? Truthfully, creative writing is one of the most misunderstood disciplines in the 21st century. When people think of a creative writing course, they often imagine a group of lofty, out-of-touch people who wear argyle sweater vests and have unproductive conversations about abstract concepts.

In reality, nothing could be further from the truth: the best writing classes remain engaged with the real world, and the skills gained in a creative writing course apply to nearly every facet of daily life.

If you’re wondering whether it’s worth picking up a course in fiction, nonfiction, or poetry, we have five reasons to learn creative writing. But first, let’s talk about what actually happens in a creative writing course.

The Basics of a Writing Workshop

Whether you’re enrolled in a poetry, fiction, or nonfiction writing class, you can expect the following writing process – at least in a quality writing course like the ones at Writers.com.

• Weekly prompts and writing exercises to sharpen the precision and necessity of each word you use.
• Constructive critiques from a community of writers who are each growing their writing skills alongside you.
• A creative space to explore new ideas, experiment with language, and arrange words in new and exciting ways.
• Focused writing instruction from a master of the craft.

The benefits of creative writing come from engaging with the course material, the writing prompts, and the other class members. These elements help you become a better writer, both in creative realms and in everyday life. How? No matter what form of writing, a creative writing class pushes you to connect ideas and create effective narratives using the best words – and that skill translates into real world success.

Check Out Our Online Writing Courses!

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Toying with The Truth: A Generative Nonfiction Workshop

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Experiments in Poetry

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See poetry in a totally new light! Draw inspiration from the most radical, innovative, and imaginative poets in literary history, master their techniques, and write new exciting poems of your own.

Writing Circle Workshop: Moving Toward Creativity & Light

with Susan Vespoli

Connect with other writers, spark your creativity, and write light-filled poems in this writing circle workshop. 

The Benefits of Creative Writing

1. why learn creative writing: improved self-expression.

Improving your writing skills leads to stronger communication. When you practice finding the right word in a story or poem, you engage the same parts of your brain that are active in everyday writing and speaking. A creative writing course subconsciously turns you into a more effective communicator.

The importance of precise language and self-advocacy translates well into both interpersonal relationships and working environments. Take it from this expert on how writing and self-advocacy results in career and leadership success.

2. Why Learn Creative Writing: Job Success

This brings us to our next point: great writing leads to job success. Of course, your boss probably isn’t expecting you to write emails in the form of a short story or a sonnet – though if they are expecting this, you have a pretty cool boss.

In reality, almost every job requires some sort of written work, whether that’s simple written communication or something more elaborate, like publishing data or marketing materials. In a creative writing class, you practice the style and grammar rules necessary for effective writing, both within the realms of literature and in career-related writing. Sharpening your writing and creativity skills might just land you your next promotion.

3. Why Learn Creative Writing: Improved Thinking Skills

Strong writing leads to strong thinking. No matter what type of writing you pursue, learning how to write is another form of learning how to think.

That might seem like a bold claim, so think about it this way. Without language, our thoughts wouldn’t have form. We might not need language to think “I’m hungry” or “I like cats,” but when it comes to more abstract concepts, language is key. How would you think about things like justice, revenge, or equality without the words to express them?

When you hone in on your ability to find choice, specific words, and when you work on the skills of effective storytelling and rhetoric , you improve your ability to think in general. Good writing yields great thinking!

4. Why Learn Creative Writing: Empathy

Reading and writing both rely on empathy, especially when it comes to being an effective workshop participant. When we read and write stories, we situate ourselves in the shoes of other people; when we read and write poetry, we let language navigate us through emotion.

The importance of creative writing relies on empathy. We practice empathy whenever we listen to another person’s life story, when someone tells us about their day, and when we sit down with a client or work partner. When we write, we practice the ability to listen as well as to speak, making us more effective communicators and more compassionate human beings.

5. Why Learn Creative Writing: It’s Fun!

In case you’re not convinced that a writing course is right for you, let’s clarify one more fact: creative writing is fun. Whether you’re in a fiction writing course, starting a memoir, crafting a poem, or writing for the silver screen, you’re creating new worlds and characters. In the sandbox of literature, you’re in control, and when you invest yourself into the craft of writing, something beautiful emerges.

The Importance of Creative Writing

Simply put, creative writing helps us preserve our humanity. What better medium to explore the human experience?

To learn creative writing, like any art form, requires compassion, contemplation, and curiosity. Writers preserve the world as they observe it in stories and poetry, and they imagine a better world by creating it in their works.

Through the decades, literature has explored society’s profound changes. Literary eons like the Naturalist movement and the Beat poets responded to the increase in Western Industrialization. Confessional poets like Virginia Woolf helped transform poetry into a medium for emotional exploration and excavation. And, genre movements like the cyberpunk writers of science fiction helped popularize the idea of an “information economy.”

Thus, the importance of creative writing lies in its ability to describe the world through an honest and unfiltered lens. Anyone who engages in creative writing, no matter the genre or style, helps us explore the human experience, share new ideas, and advocate for a better society. Whether you write your stories for yourself or share them with a wide audience, creative writing makes the world a better place.

Jobs for Creative Writers

Because creative writing isn’t a STEM discipline, many people don’t think that learning it will help their job prospects. Why learn creative writing if it doesn’t make any money?

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Creative writing skills are much sought after on resumes, since both creativity and the ability to write are soft skills in decline. Additionally, if you’re considering a career change—or ready to start one!—these are some popular jobs for creative writers.

• Average Starting Salary: $51,000
• Demand: High
• Skills needed: creativity, grammar, timeliness

Copywriters help companies put their branding into words. A copywriter might write emails, blogs, website content, or ad copy that encompasses the company’s voice and purpose. Copywriting requires you to write in a mix of styles and forms, flexing your writing muscles in new and exciting ways.

Grant Writer

• Average Starting Salary: $50,000
• Skills needed: storytelling, research, argumentation

Nonprofits and research facilities rely on local and national grants to fund their projects. Grant writers help secure that funding, writing engaging grants that tell the organization’s story in an engaging, tailored, and convincing way. Creative writers will enjoy the opportunity to tell a meaningful story and create positive community change through this career.

Communications/Public Relations Specialist

• Skills needed: creativity, communications, social media

A communications specialist helps drive a company’s image through various social channels. They may help create a positive narrative for their company through blogs, journalist outreach, social media, and other public-facing avenues. Much like copywriting, a PR specialist helps weave an effective story for a company.

• Average Starting Salary: $55,000
• Demand: Medium/High
• Skills needed: creativity, storytelling, organization, self-reliance

The dream job for many writers is to write and sell books. Being a novelist is an admirable career choice—and also requires the most work. Not only do you have to write your stories, but you also have to market yourself in the literary industry and maintain a social presence so that publishers and readers actually read your work. It’s a tough business, but also incredibly rewarding!

Reasons to Learn Creative Writing: Finding a Writing Community

Finally, creative writing communities make the writing struggle worth it. The relationships you foster with other creative writers can last a lifetime, as no other group of people has the same appreciation for the written word. Creative writing communities create transformative experiences and encourage growth in your writing; if there’s one reason to study creative writing craft, it’s the friendships you make in the process.

You don’t need a class to start writing, but it’s never a waste of time to learn the tools of the trade. Creative writing requires the skills that can help you in everyday life, and a creative writing course can help.

At Writers.com, we believe that creative writing can transform both individual lives and the world at large. See the importance of creative writing for yourself: check out what makes our creative writing courses different , then take a look at our upcoming course calendar today.

Sean Glatch

Would like to apply for a course to write a novel.

I’d be happy to help! Please email [email protected] with any questions, and we’ll find the right course for your writing.

[…] Sean. “Why Learn Creative Writing.” writers.com. June 7, 2020. https://writers.com/why-learn-creative-writing . Accessed November 7, […]

[…] And last of all it’s fun! I hope to live my life doing the things I love, with like-minded creative people who I love. I have many exciting things upcoming as I continue with the process of completing my first novel, Les Année Folles, such as publishing to my first magazine, journal, and working on the millions of short story ideas I have stored in my head. Stay tuned! References: Glatch, S. (2020, June 7). WHY LEARN CREATIVE WRITING? Retrieved from Writers.com: https://writers.com/why-learn-creative-writing […]

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Why Writing Skills Are Important for Every Job—and How to Improve Yours

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Have you ever sent an email no one seemed to understand that ended up derailing the timeline for an entire project? Or written a report that you then had to explain verbally to everyone after they read it?

Even if you’re not in a job where writing is a core component of your professional duties, you probably use your writing skills every day to communicate with others through text (whether it’s over email or Slack, in a monthly or quarterly report, in the form of a project update, or otherwise). If fact, strong written communication skills are one of the top attributes employers look for , regardless of the job they’re hiring to fill.

There are a few different types of writing skills, and with practice you can strengthen them—and show them off in your next job search.

Why Are Writing Skills Important?

If you’re in a writing-centric or writing-heavy role—for example, marketing—you might already be aware of how your writing skills help you daily. But even if you aren’t in one of these jobs, “Writing is an essential skill in the workplace, especially today with more and more people working remotely,” says Muse career coach Jennifer Smith , founder of Flourish Careers . In an increasingly online world, “There’s less face-to-face interaction and more written interaction.”

Strong writing skills help you to communicate with others without having to schedule a meeting or phone call. They ensure readers understand the key points of what you’re trying to get across, come away with the ideas and impression you want them to, and, in many cases, take action to do whatever you’re hoping they’ll do.

“Most professionals have to craft business emails,” says Muse career coach Tara Goodfellow , owner of Athena Consultants . Emails might be how you update your team on a project, request information from a colleague, or how you follow up on a meeting with clear next steps. And in some instances, an email is how you make your first impression on a new person. For example, if you’re an account executive reaching out to a prospect via email or LinkedIn, “A well-written sales pitch to a critical client will increase your credibility and help you land the new client,” Smith says.

You likely also use writing skills outside of email. Maybe you put together presentations that incorporate text or need to write a report on the results of something you did or researched. Or perhaps you’re going on vacation and you’re writing up what you need your teammates or reports to know or take care of while you’re out.

Writing is something others can refer back to at any point—as opposed to verbal communication, which might have to be repeated and requires both parties to be available at the same time. Written records can be particularly helpful when you’re trying to standardize how your team or company handles recurring tasks or training new coworkers to take these on. “Clearly writing and documenting new procedures can allow for future consistency and improved quality control,” Smith says, even if you’re not available to meet with and explain the processes to each new person taking them on.

Examples of Writing Skills

There are several types of skills that combine to make someone a strong writer, including:

Before you write a single word, you need to do your research about the topic you’re writing on. Gathering information that’s up-to-date and accurate is a key part of writing, and the process may help you figure out what content to include. Depending on what you’re writing, research may involve learning about your target customer—whether it’s an overall target market or individual company—evaluating sources for strength and credibility, talking to experts, reviewing and analyzing data, or talking to other members of your team.

Planning and/or Outlining

An outline is a pared-down sketch of what points or topics the document you’re working on will cover and how you plan to structure the information, which can give you a roadmap to follow as you write. Creating and following an outline ensures you’re incorporating all the important information in the right order and not being repetitive or straying too far from your point. It’s often easier to get outside input on an outline than to write an entire report or similar only to find out key information was missing. Outlining skills can also be used to map out a non-writing project ahead of time or plan a process, which can be especially helpful if you’re delegating to or collaborating with others.

Grammar and Clarity

Grammar is the set of rules governing language usage. It’s what guides everyone to communicate in a similar way and, as a result, understand each other more. There are many rules of English grammar, and you should definitely know the basic ones. But unless you’re a writer or editor, knowing the obscure little quirks of grammar usually isn’t necessary. What is necessary is knowing how to construct a clear, easy-to-read, and understandable sentence so you can communicate in writing.

Revising and Editing

Editing is the process of correcting and changing a piece of your own or someone else’s writing to strengthen it. You can revise or edit by making significant changes to the structure, organization, or content of a piece. Or you might proofread a piece of writing, checking for any misspellings, grammar mistakes, or typos. In other cases, you might be tweaking sentences or paragraphs to flow better or reflect a certain tone. Strong editing skills can be useful in a wide range of professional situations—from looking over a report or presentation for a teammate to spotting an error in an email you’re about to send the entire company.

Communication Skills

Even if writing isn’t a core part of your job, you’ll likely use it to communicate in the workplace. This might mean composing an email , messaging someone on Slack or Teams, giving feedback, creating a meeting agenda , or giving an update on a project. Being able to communicate clearly through writing will help your work go more smoothly, increase the chances you get what you want and need from others, prevent misunderstandings, and allow your colleagues to feel informed and included—ultimately strengthening your professional relationships.

9 Tips to Improve Your Writing Skills

“Good writing can help you stand out and get ahead,” Smith says. So how do you improve your writing skills? Here are a few tips:

1. Brush Up on Grammar Basics

If you’re already feeling your eyes glaze over, don’t worry. Unless you’re a writer, editor, or similar, you don’t need to know whether it’s who or whom or when to use an em dash vs. a semicolon (and to be honest, editors don’t always know all these things). But you should know the basics: how to write in complete sentences rather than fragments or run-ons; how to use quotation marks and commas in typical scenarios; and when to use there, they’re, or their, to name a few.

There are a number of free resources online you can use to brush up on your grammar skills or answer individual questions, such as Grammar Girl and the content many dictionaries put out on their blogs. Or you might look into paid courses on platforms like LinkedIn Learning and Coursera. You can find plenty of free quizzes (like this one ) to figure out your current level of skill and discover areas for improvement. There are also a number of books you can check out: The Elements of Style by Strunk and White is a classic—but still widely used and, more importantly, short—overview of the most important grammar rules, and Woe Is I by Patricia T. O’Conner is a more modern guide written in a lighter tone.

2. Read (and Study) the Type of Writing You Want to Improve

One of the best ways to improve your own writing is to read a lot . Note what writing resonates for you and look at that writing closely to see how it’s put together. Is it using a lot of technical words? Is the tone conversational or more serious? Does the writer use a lot of short sentences, mostly longer sentences, or a mix of both?

Reading of any type can help you get a sense of the different ways all the elements of writing can combine effectively. But it can be particularly helpful to focus on the same types of writing you want to improve. Reading Shakespeare is great if you enjoy it, but it’s unlikely to improve your emails. If you want to level up your marketing copy, technical reports, or written sales pitches, those are the types of writing you should be studying most closely.

3. Pick the Right Format for the Situation

You have to quickly update your boss on what you’ve done in the last week. What’s the best way to do it? Are you going to open up a new Google doc and write a five-page report covering every detail? Probably not. You’re likely going to type up an email with a few short paragraphs or bullet points that hit the key points in a way your boss can read quickly. 

On the other hand, if you’re detailing the findings of weeks of research, that five-page report might be necessary for your immediate supervisor or a teammate who needs to know about your process. But if you’re sharing those results with another department, it might make more sense to convey only the key takeaways or action items in a PowerPoint presentation with a few bullet points or short summary on each slide.

Knowing and choosing the correct format for a given piece of writing—based on your goals and intended audience—will give you the appropriate amount and type of space to share what you need to, and it’ll set your reader expectations correctly as well. Going back to the earlier example, if your manager sees a Slack message, they’ll expect that to take at most a few minutes to read, but if you send them a long document, they’ll be prepared to receive a lot of information (and might hold off on reading until they have the time they need to digest it).

4. Outline Before You Write

Especially when you’re writing something longer or particularly important, outlining beforehand can lead to a stronger finished project and make the process smoother. The best way to outline will depend on your personal preferences and what you’re writing. 

In most cases, you’ll want to divide your outline into sections (whether those sections indicate chapters, paragraphs, slides, or anything else) and note what the purpose of each section is. Why is it being included and what question is this section answering for your reader? Once you know that, you can quickly note what information needs to go in this section of your piece. As you’re outlining, check that the order of your sections makes sense. Would someone need a bit of info or context currently slated for a later section to understand what you’re saying here? Move that info or section up in your outline.

If you have a number of points you’d like to hit but don’t know in what order or how they go together, an outline can be even more helpful. Write out each key point in a way that’s easy to move around—for example, a bulleted list in a Word or Google doc or even individual index cards—and start by grouping similar and related points together. Then, organize these groupings in a way that flows logically. If you’re not yet sure what your key points are , you can do the same exercise with all of the smaller pieces of info you want to include and form your key points once you see how all your information goes together.

5. Be Aware of Your Audience and the Appropriate Tone for Your Writing

To communicate well through writing, it’s important to understand who will be reading and what sort of language is appropriate.

Consider how formal your language is—if you’re Slacking a teammate, you might be able to be more relaxed in your tone and word choice than when you’re emailing a client or preparing a presentation for stakeholders. In most professional situations you should skip the emojis and avoid using multiple punctuation marks unless the situation really calls for it. “Rarely is ‘!!!!!!’ needed,” Goodfellow says. And don’t write in all caps unless you actually mean to yell.

Before you write, note the knowledge level of your audience as it relates to the topic. “If they are aware of the situation, they [may] not need a great deal of detail,” Goodfellow says. For example, if you’re updating other members of the engineering team on a feature you coded, you can use tech jargon and skip the background, but if you’re writing about the new feature in a blog post for customers, you might need to explain things a bit more thoroughly, choose more common words, and explicitly state why it matters to them.

Before finishing any piece of writing, take the time to reread it while accounting for the audience’s point of view. “Keep in mind that how you intend the email may not be how it’s perceived,” Goodfellow says. Tone is difficult to convey over text, especially humor—and you don’t want to imply an attitude you don’t mean. If you’re responding to an email chain, writing a comment on an ongoing thread, or in any way continuing a conversation, try to mirror the tone of the messages before yours, Goodfellow says.

6. Pay Attention to the Mechanics of Your Writing

Here are a few basic guidelines to keep in mind that will help make almost anything you write easier to read and understand:

• Don’t use complex words when simple words will do. If it looks like you used the thesaurus function every few words, it’s likely to distract your reader or make them lose focus. You’ll also end up with a disjointed tone, and you run the risk of someone not understanding the point you want to get across.
• Vary your sentences. If all your sentences are a similar length or follow the same structure, your writing can become a slog to read. “One common issue I see is every sentence starting with ‘I,’” Goodfellow says. Think: “I want [x]. I need [y]. I’d like [z].” It gets repetitive, and it’s easier for the reader to lose their place if everything looks the same.
• Use specific words and phrasing. Whenever possible, state exactly what you mean rather than using vague words like “things” or phrases like “and so on.” This practice will make your writing stronger and easier to follow.
• Don’t repeat yourself. When writing and speaking, it’s common to say the same thing multiple times in a slightly different way. Repetition can unnecessarily pad your writing and cause people’s attention to waiver.
• Eliminate filler words and filtering language. Words like “just” and “that” are often unneeded to get your point across and weigh down your writing. You should also take a look at any adverbs and adjectives you use to see if a stronger, more specific noun or verb will do the trick. Similarly, filtering language like “I think” or “it seems like” can weaken your message and make you sound less confident. The use of filtering language is especially common for women , who have been socialized to soften their opinions so as not to offend.
• Guide your reader through each of your points. As you move from one topic to the next, transition smoothly. If you spent the last paragraph talking about a project you completed last week and then you jump right to describing an upcoming project without a transition, your reader is likely to get confused. And for every new point, make sure it’s clear to your reader why you’re bringing it up and how it connects to the overall topic.

7. Get Feedback on Your Writing

If you’re looking to improve your writing skills, getting opinions from others about how you’re currently doing can be extremely helpful. You might not realize you tend to use the wrong form of “your” or that your sentences are way too long. But someone else might. It’s also common for individuals to use the same words and phrases over and over without realizing it. Similarly, you might think your writing is clear and to the point, but a reader might feel like there’s key context missing. As you get feedback from multiple people or on multiple pieces of writing, pay attention to any comments or critiques you’ve gotten more than once and focus on that area first.

Ask a teammate, manager, or someone else whose opinion you trust to look at something you’ve written and ask what would make your writing stronger. (If it’s someone you work with, it might be easiest to ask them for writing feedback on something they have to read anyway). 

Depending on what kind of writing you’re looking to work on, you might also be able join a writing group or community where people trade writing and critique one another, Smith says. You can find writing workshops (both online and in-person) through universities and other community programs—they often cost money but come with an experienced instructor or facilitator—or you can find (usually free) writing groups online. Meetup.com and professional organizations are great places to start your search.

8. Proofread

No matter what you’re writing, taking a last look to check for any typos or mistakes can save you a lot of headaches in the long run. Did you contradict yourself somewhere or leave the verb out of a sentence? Read anything you’ve written out loud if possible. Sometimes things look OK on a screen, but when you try to say them, you realize something’s not right. In a similar vein, you might also print out your writing and correct it on paper, Smith says. Often this is enough to see your writing in a different way, making it easier to spot errors. If the writing has higher stakes or the impression it makes on the reader matters a lot, try to get someone else to read it as well, Goodfellow says.

9. Use Tech Tools as Aids—Not Substitutes

There are plenty of programs and plug-ins that claim to “fix” your writing, such as WritingProAid, Sapling, Grammarly, and even the spelling and grammar checkers built into word processors. These tools can make it easier to write well, Smith says. But they shouldn’t be your one source of truth. Computer programs tend to miss key context that human readers would understand. “Spell-check can help but there are many words that are ‘correct’ but may not be what you intended,” Goodfellow says.

None of these tools should stand in for a thorough proofread. As a professional editor, I use tools like this to call attention to possible errors, but I always look at their suggestions before accepting them and consider whether they’re actually correct or clear. I also look carefully for errors the tools didn’t catch at all. Computer programs can easily miss homophone mix-ups, tense switches between sentences, incorrect word choice, and other issues. And sometimes you may need to write in a style these tools aren’t programmed to support. For instance, if you’re writing about investing, they might mark stock tickers and common financial abbreviations as errors.

Showing Off Your Writing Skills in a Job Search

If you’re applying for a writing-heavy job, you may be asked to submit a writing sample along with your application or complete a skills test at some point during the interview process. But you can showcase your writing skills at other stages as well, no matter what kind of job you’re applying to.

On Your Resume

Unless a specific type of writing skill, such as experience with social media copy or familiarity with a certain style guide, is listed in a job description or is clearly a big value add for a specific role, your writing skills don’t usually belong in your skills section —or at least, that’s not where recruiters and hiring managers will look for them. Instead, they’ll look at the way your resume is written to see these skills in action. Here are some guidelines to follow:

• Use correct and consistent grammar—no randomly switching verb tenses .
• Write clear, concise bullet points , taking care to choose specific words and strong, active verbs .
• Avoid vague or overused words. That means steering clear of contextless buzzwords, such as “passionate” and “synergized,” which might sound flashy but don’t mean anything on their own. And instead of words such as “managed” and “led,” Smith says, aim for interesting and creative—but still clear and specific—words the recruiter hasn’t seen a thousand times that day.

If you’re in a field where writing is a core component of your job, you can also link to writing samples directly from your resume even if you’re not asked for them to further show off your qualifications.

In Your Cover Letter

When writing a cover letter (and you should write a cover letter ), you’ll want to follow all the same advice as when you’re writing a resume. But cover letters give you more room to really show off your writing skills. Rather than rattling off lists of qualifications you have, use your cover letter to write succinct but persuasive anecdotes that come together to tell a coherent story about why you’re the right person for the job. Choose past experiences that are relevant to the job you want and support your overall narrative. And make sure your sentences and paragraphs flow in a logical way and it’s always clear why information is being included. You can also inject more voice and personality into a cover letter than you can in a resume to give the reader the sense of who you are as a person.

Throughout the Interview Process

Of course, interviews aren’t often conducted through writing. In fact, unless there’s a good reason for it (such as a disability accomodation for yourself or the interviewer), an all-text interview process may be a red flag for a job scam .

But you’ll still be communicating with your prospective employer via email throughout the process. “Taking the time to craft well-written email responses is a fabulous way to make a solid first impression,” Smith says. “Recruiters and hiring managers will notice a difference between well-thought-out responses vs. rushed comments.”

Remember you’re being evaluated not just for your ability to do a specific job, but for your potential as a teammate. A coworker or direct report who communicates via email in a clear and professional way will make everyone’s work easier in the long run, whereas someone who’s hard to understand in writing might seem like a future headache they’ll have to address—especially if you’ll be communicating with people outside the company through email.

The Benefits of Creative Writing

Nanowrimo , blog.

To some, creative writing is a fun hobby that has little benefit, and can in fact serve as a time sink wherein nothing is accomplished other than words being spewed onto a page. To others, creative writing is a vital way of expressing oneself. It can be difficult to say which group is correct, but there are some definitive benefits to engaging in creative writing.

One of the first benefits is that it helps to develop creative problem solving skills. Creative writing is an exercise in solving problems, either for the characters within the story or for the author themselves. Characters within stories need to be navigated through a series of difficulties, and if the problems take place in the real world, then the solutions must also be real-world solutions. If the problem is a literal dragon that needs slaying, there’s somewhat less need for it to mimic a real-world solution, since that’s not typically a problem that we have. By navigating fictional characters through difficult times in their lives, either emotionally or financially, writers can learn how to handle those problems in the real world as well, without the stress of trying to figure it out when they’re already in the middle of the situation.

Another benefit of creative writing, particularly if the writer is involved in a formal class or writing group, is that it gives the writer experience in both taking and giving constructive criticism. The first time someone hears that there’s something wrong with their writing can be difficult, but over time, it does get easier. Trust me. I’ve had my fair share of critical remarks, and I’d like to think I’ve gotten better about responding to them. I no longer cry and throw things, so that’s a definite bonus. Taking criticism well is a vital skill, especially in the workplace, because employers often have feedback for their employees that might not necessarily be what the employee wants to hear. Giving criticism that is also constructive is another incredibly valuable skill. If someone believes they are just being torn down, they will not listen to a piece of criticism that might genuinely be designed to help. For this reason, it is important to understand that there are ways to provide tips for improvement without ripping someone’s work apart. Working in a workshop or a creative writing class will help improve these skills.

Creative writing helps to build vocabulary. Do you know how many types of swords there are? I don’t either, actually, but I know many of them. Do you know how many ways there are to say mean? Well, there’s mean, of course, but there are also words like malevolent and malicious and cruel, which all help to paint a more accurate picture of whatever it is that the writer is trying to portray. Once the writer knows these words, they aren’t likely to ever be forgotten. At the very least, the next time the writer is trying to describe someone as mean, they might remember that there are two other, more impressive sounding words that start with ‘m’ that might be used to describe said person.

Creative writing helps to improve outlining skills, which are vital for any kind of large project. Without an outline, creative writers might find themselves bogged down in details they didn’t intend to get lost in, or might lose track of vital plot threads that they’ll need to remember for later in this story. This is also true for any kind of large project, whether it be academic or professional. Presentations made without an outline in place can meander and get lost in themselves, making them difficult to understand or follow. For this reason, outlining is a good skill to pursue, and can be learned or improved upon through the use of creative writing.

One of the most subjective benefits to pursuing creative writing is the way that it can benefit the writer’s emotional well-being. I was skeptical about this one for a long time, because I love writing, but found it to be more stressful than anything else when I did indulge in writing. However, I have found that as I’ve adopted a regular writing schedule and have stuck to it, my mood has begun to improve greatly. I have had friends tell me that I’m happier now, and I do genuinely feel it. But I’m definitely willing to acknowledge that the same might not be true for other people

Creative writing is incredibly beneficial to burgeoning writers, and to students of all kinds. It requires effort, yes, but the more effort someone puts into it, the more likely they are to reap the benefits of it.

27 March, 2017 by McDaniel College Writing Center

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How creative writing can increase students’ resilience, students can find strength and community in sharing their stories through writing..

Many of my seventh-grade students do not arrive at school ready to learn. Their families often face financial hardship and live in cramped quarters, which makes it difficult to focus on homework. The responsibility for cooking and taking care of younger siblings while parents work often falls on these twelve year olds’ small shoulders. Domestic violence and abuse are also not uncommon.

To help traumatized students overcome their personal and academic challenges, one of our first jobs as teachers is to build a sense of community. We need to communicate that we care and that we welcome them into the classroom just as they are. One of the best ways I’ve found to connect with my students, while also nurturing their reading and writing skills, is through creative writing.

For the past three years, I’ve invited students in my English Language Development (ELD) classes to observe their thoughts, sit with their emotions, and offer themselves and each other compassion through writing and sharing about their struggles. Creating a safe, respectful environment in which students’ stories matter invites the disengaged, the hopeless, and the numb to open up. Students realize that nobody is perfect and nobody’s life is perfect. In this kind of classroom community, they can take the necessary risks in order to learn, and they become more resilient when they stumble.

Fostering a growth mindset

One of the ways students can boost their academic performance and develop resilience is by building a growth mindset. Carol Dweck, Stanford University professor of psychology and author of the book Mindset , explains that people with a growth mindset focus on learning from mistakes and welcoming challenges rather than thinking they’re doomed to be dumb or unskillful. A growth mindset goes hand in hand with self-compassion: recognizing that everyone struggles and treating ourselves with kindness when we trip up.

One exercise I find very useful is to have students write a story about a time when they persevered when faced with a challenge—in class, sports, or a relationship. Some of the themes students explore include finally solving math problems, learning how to defend themselves, or having difficult conversations with parents.

I primed the pump by telling my students about something I struggled with—feeling left behind in staff meetings as my colleagues clicked their way through various computer applications. I confided that PowerPoint and Google Slides—tools (one might assume) that any teacher worth a paperweight has mastered—still eluded me. By admitting my deficiency to my students, asking for their help, and choosing to see the opportunity to remedy it every day in the classroom, I aimed to level the playing field with them. They may have been reading three or four grade levels behind, but they could slap a PowerPoint presentation together in their sleep.

For students, sharing their own stories of bravery, resilience, and determination brings these qualities to the forefront of their minds and helps solidify the belief that underlies a growth mindset: I can improve and grow . We know from research in neuroplasticity that when students take baby steps to achieve a goal and take pride in their accomplishments, they change their brains, growing new neural networks and fortifying existing ones. Neurons in the brain release the feel-good chemical dopamine, which plays a major role in motivating behavior toward rewards.

After writing about a few different personal topics, students choose one they want to publish on the bulletin boards at the back of the classroom. They learn to include the juicy details of their stories (who, what, when, where, why, and how), and they get help from their peers, who ask follow-up questions to prompt them to include more information. This peer editing builds their resilience in more ways than one—they make connections with each other by learning about each other’s lives, and they feel empowered by lending a hand.

In my experience, students are motivated to do this assignment because it helps them feel that their personal stories and emotions truly matter, despite how their other academics are going. One student named Alejandro chose to reflect on basketball and the persistence and time it took him to learn:

Hoops By Alejandro Gonzalez Being good takes time. One time my sister took me to a park and I saw people playing basketball. I noticed how good they were and decided I wanted to be like them. Still I told my sister that basketball looked hard and that I thought I couldn’t do it. She said,“You could do it if you tried. You’ll get the hang of it.” My dad bought me a backboard and hoop to play with. I was really happy, but the ball wasn’t making it in. Every time I got home from school, I would go straight to the backyard to play. I did that almost every day until little by little I was getting the hang of it. I also played with my friends. Every day after lunch we would meet at the basketball court to have a game. … I learned that you need to be patient and to practice a lot to get the hang of things. With a little bit of practice, patience, and hard work, anything is possible.

Originally, Alejandro wasn’t sure why he was in school and often lacked the motivation to learn. But writing about something he was passionate about and recalling the steps that led to his success reminded him of the determination and perseverance he had demonstrated in the past, nurturing a positive view of himself. It gave him a renewed sense of investment in learning English and eventually helped him succeed in his ELD class, as well.

Maintaining a hopeful outlook

Another way to build resilience in the face of external challenges is to shore up our inner reserves of hope —and I’ve found that poetry can serve as inspiration for this.

For the writing portion of the lesson, I invite students to “get inside” poems by replicating the underlying structure and trying their hand at writing their own verses. I create poem templates, where students fill in relevant blanks with their own ideas. 

One poem I like to share is “So Much Happiness” by Naomi Shihab Nye. Its lines “Even the fact that you once lived in a peaceful tree house / and now live over a quarry of noise and dust / cannot make you unhappy” remind us that, despite the unpleasant events that occur in our lives, it’s our choice whether to allow them to interfere with our happiness. The speaker, who “love[s] even the floor which needs to be swept, the soiled linens, and scratched records,” has a persistently sunny outlook.

It’s unrealistic for students who hear gunshots at night to be bubbling over with happiness the next morning. Still, the routine of the school day and the sense of community—jokes with friends, a shared bag of hot chips for breakfast, and a creative outlet—do bolster these kids. They have an unmistakable drive to keep going, a life force that may even burn brighter because they take nothing for granted—not even the breath in their bodies, life itself. 

Itzayana was one of those students who, due to the adversity in her life, seemed too old for her years. She rarely smiled and started the school year with a defiant approach to me and school in general, cursing frequently in the classroom. Itzayana’s version of “So Much Happiness” hinted at some of the challenges I had suspected she had in her home life:

It is difficult to know what to do with so much happiness. Even the fact that you once heard your family laughing and now hear them yelling at each other cannot make you unhappy. Everything has a life of its own, it too could wake up filled with possibilities of tamales and horchata and love even scrubbing the floor, washing dishes, and cleaning your room. Since there is no place large enough to contain so much happiness, help people in need, help your family, and take care of yourself.   —Itzayana C.

Her ending lines, “Since there is no place large enough to contain so much happiness, / help people in need, help your family, and take care of yourself,” showed her growing awareness of the need for self-care as she continued to support her family and others around her. This is a clear sign of her developing resilience.

Poetry is packed with emotion, and writing their own poems allows students to grapple with their own often-turbulent inner lives. One student commented on the process, saying, “By writing poems, I’ve learned to be calm and patient, especially when I get mad about something dumb.” Another student showed pride in having her writing published; she reflected, “I feel good because other kids can use it for calming down when they’re angry.”

To ease students into the creative process, sometimes we also write poems together as a class. We brainstorm lines to include, inviting the silly as well as the poignant and creating something that represents our community.

Practicing kindness

Besides offering my students new ways of thinking about themselves, I also invite them to take kind actions toward themselves and others.

In the music video for “Give a Little Love” by Noah and the Whale, one young African American boy—who witnesses bullying at school and neglect in his neighborhood —decides to take positive action and whitewash a wall of graffiti. Throughout the video, people witness others’ random acts of kindness, and then go on to do their own bit.

“My love is my whole being / And I’ve shared what I could,” the lyrics say—a reminder that our actions speak louder than our words and do have an incredible impact. The final refrain in the song—“Well if you are (what you love) / And you do (what you love) /...What you share with the world is what it keeps of you”—urges the students to contribute in a positive way to the classroom, the school campus, and their larger community.

After watching the video, I ask students to reflect upon what kind of community they would like to be part of and what makes them feel safe at school. They write their answers—for example, not being laughed at by their peers and being listened to—on Post-it notes. These notes are used to create classroom rules. This activity sends a message early on that we are co-creating our communal experience together. Students also write their own versions of the lyrics, reflecting on different things you can give and receive—like kindness, peace, love, and ice cream.

Reaping the benefits

To see how creative writing impacts students, I invite them to rate their resilience through a self-compassion survey at the start of the school year and again in the spring. Last year, two-thirds of students surveyed increased in self-compassion; Alejandro grew his self-compassion by 20 percent. The program seems to work at developing their reading and writing skills, as well: At the middle of the school year, 40 percent of my students moved up to the next level of ELD, compared to 20 percent the previous year. 

As a teacher, my goal is to meet students where they’re at and learn about their whole lives. Through creative writing activities, we create a community of compassionate and expressive learners who bear witness to the impact of trauma in each others’ experiences and together build resilience.

As a symbol of community and strength, I had a poster in my classroom of a boat at sea with hundreds of refugees standing shoulder to shoulder looking skyward. It’s a hauntingly beautiful image of our ability to risk it all for a better life, as many of my ELD students do. Recognizing our common humanity and being able to share about our struggles not only leads to some beautiful writing, but also some brave hearts.

About the Author

Laura Bean, M.F.A. , executive director of Mindful Literacy, consults with school communities to implement mindfulness and creative writing programs. She has an M.F.A. in Creative Writing and presented a mindful writing workshop at Bridging the Hearts and Minds of Youth Conference in San Diego in 2016.

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The Importance of Creative Writing

10 Creative Writing Skills and How To Improve Them

Discover 10 Creative Writing skills along with some of the best tips to help you improve these abilities.

Creative writing is a skill that can be used in many different ways. Whether you’re writing a novel, a short story, a poem or even just a grocery list, creative writing can be a helpful and rewarding skill to have. In this guide, we’ll discuss what creative writing is, how it can be used and how you can improve your own creative writing skills.

Imagination

Originality, flexibility, storytelling.

Imagination is an important creative writing skill because it allows you to create new worlds and characters. It also allows you to think outside the box and come up with original ideas. When you practice your imagination, you can improve your ability to think creatively and come up with new ideas.

To improve your imagination, try brainstorming new ideas, daydreaming, or writing short stories or poems. You can also practice visualizing a scene before you write it down. If you can see the scene in your head, it will be easier to write it down.

Creativity is an important skill for writers because it allows them to come up with new ideas and develop new stories. A creative writer can come up with unique characters, settings and plotlines that other writers might not think of. Additionally, creativity can help writers come up with different ways to say things and make their writing stand out.

To be a creative writer, you need to be able to think outside the box and come up with new ideas that haven’t been done before. You also need to be able to develop these ideas into full stories and write them in a way that is unique and interesting.

Originality is important in creative writing because it allows you to stand out from the crowd. When you’re writing a story, poem, essay or any other type of creative work, you want to make sure that it’s original so that it can be appreciated for its own merits.

To be original, you don’t have to come up with something completely new. You can take inspiration from other sources and then add your own twist to it. For example, you can take a plot from a movie you saw and then change the characters or setting. Or you can take a line of poetry and change the words or the order that they’re in.

Being original is a great way to impress your readers and win them over.

Fluency is the ability to read a text quickly, accurately and with proper expression. When we read fluently, we are able to focus on the meaning of the text rather than on decoding the words. Fluent readers are also able to understand multiple meanings of words and can use context to determine the correct meaning.

Fluency is an important skill for writers because it allows them to focus on the content of their writing rather than on the mechanics of writing. When writers are able to focus on the content, they are able to produce better writing.

Flexibility is important in creative writing because it allows you to be open to new ideas and to change your mind as you write. It also allows you to experiment with different styles and genres. When you’re flexible, you can try new things without feeling like you have to stick with one style or genre forever.

Flexibility also allows you to be open to feedback. If you’re flexible, you can listen to feedback and consider whether it would be helpful to change something about your writing. If you’re rigid, you might be less likely to take feedback seriously.

Eloquence is the ability to speak or write in a clear and effective way. It’s a skill that all writers need to have, whether they’re writing fiction or non-fiction. When you’re able to eloquently express your ideas, you’re more likely to engage your readers and keep them interested in what you have to say.

Eloquence comes from practice and experience. The more you write, the more comfortable you’ll feel with the written word. You’ll also start to develop your own style and voice. As you become more eloquent, you’ll be able to better communicate your ideas and tell your story.

Persuasion is an important skill for writers because it allows them to convince their readers to see things their way. When you’re able to persuade your readers, you’re able to influence their thinking and behavior. This is a powerful tool and should be used carefully.

To persuade your readers, you need to understand their perspective and then craft a compelling argument that will convince them to see things your way. You also need to understand the different types of persuasion, including ethical and unethical persuasion.

Storytelling is an important skill for writers because it allows them to connect with their readers and tell a compelling story. A good storyteller can capture their audience’s attention and keep them interested in the story. A writer who is skilled at storytelling can use language to create vivid images in the reader’s mind and build suspense.

Storytelling is also an important skill for public speakers. A good speaker can use storytelling to engage their audience and keep their attention. A skilled storyteller can use language to create vivid images in the mind of their audience and build suspense.

Vocabulary is an important skill for creative writers because it allows them to use language in new and interesting ways. A strong vocabulary can help writers to describe things in detail, create interesting characters and settings, and develop complex plots. Additionally, a good vocabulary can help writers to avoid using clichés and to write in a more original way.

Grammar is important in creative writing because it helps you to communicate your ideas clearly and concisely. Good grammar can also help you to build suspense and create a mood in your writing. Additionally, good grammar can help you to avoid common writing mistakes such as run-on sentences, comma splices and comma errors.

How to Improve Your Creative Writing Skills

1. Read, read, read One of the best ways to improve your writing is to read as much as you can. By reading widely, you expose yourself to different styles of writing and different ways of structuring stories and arguments. The more you read, the more you’ll develop an understanding of what makes good writing and what doesn’t.

2. Write, write, write The only way to get better at writing is to do it. The more you write, the more you’ll develop your own style and voice. It’s also important to experiment with different genres and styles of writing to find the one that suits you best.

3. Get feedback One of the best ways to improve your writing is to get feedback from others. Ask a friend or family member to read your work and give you their honest opinion. If you’re a student, ask your teacher for feedback. If you’re a professional writer, consider hiring a developmental editor.

4. Join a writers’ group Joining a writers’ group is a great way to get feedback on your work, as well as to meet other writers and learn from them. Many writers’ groups meet regularly to discuss their work and offer feedback.

5. Take a class Taking a creative writing class is a great way to improve your writing skills. You’ll get feedback from your instructor and your classmates, and you’ll be able to practice your writing in a structured setting.

6. Use prompts Writing prompts are a great way to get your creative juices flowing. By starting with a prompt, you’ll have something to focus your writing on, and you’ll be less likely to get stuck.

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Why the teaching of creative writing matters

Lecturer in Creative Writing, University of Bolton

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For the last 30 years or so the rise of creative writing programmes in universities has been met with seemingly unending howls of derision from all quarters. Hanif Kureishi, novelist, screenwriter – and professor of creative writing at Kingston University – described them as a “waste of time”. But universities around the world beg to differ, as the increasing number of courses and students testify.

The recent Sunday Times league tables for universities ranked the quality of teaching in creative writing at The University of Bolton as the best in the country. The programme there also boasts the highest ranking in terms of student experience.

Given that I am the only full-time lecturer in creative writing at Bolton – and also led the programme for two of the three years the recent figures cover – I should be able easily to explain our success, and why our students rate our teaching so highly. I say “should”, because I’m not sure of the answer.

There are easy ways to get students to rate teaching highly. We can tailor the classes to their personal needs and wants, and give them all high marks. Or we can teach them at a lower level than we should so that they feel a greater sense of achievement. But at Bolton we do none of these. So what’s the secret?

The measure of a mark

How you actually go about judging the quality of teaching – particularly with a subject like creative writing – is tricky. There are the normal ways that universities use: peer-assessment, student feedback, the evaluation of staff by professionals who specialise in methods of teaching and learning and staff development programmes. And as Bolton is a teaching intensive, research informed university we do a lot of these things, and I think we do them very well.

But I wonder whether what is being measured or evaluated in these assessments is more the style of the teacher, rather than the content. Most assessors are experts in teaching methods and practices – and it’s unreasonable to expect them to have detailed knowledge of every subject.

As non-specialists they are able to measure the levels of student engagement, of academic challenge, of whether the “learning outcomes” which plague university teaching in creative writing are being met. And if you measure it this way, then it’s quite possible that detractors such as Kureishi are right.

A place for play

Except that the teaching of creative writing, when done well, is about more than the skills and craft and technique, important as these things are. And as the writer and lecturer Liam Murray Bell describes, writers must find and use a consistency of tone, style and voice.

It’s also about encouraging students to play, to move beyond their normal styles and subjects of writing, beyond their use of traditional structural, narrative and poetic forms – and to ask them to see what happens. In this sense university is a place for play . Teacher and game designer Eric Zimmerman has defined play as:

The free space of movement within a more rigid structure. Play exists both because of and also despite the more rigid structures of a system.

If students are not actively encouraged to play then we are simply encouraging them to remain as static as they were when they entered higher education – even if they are more adept at using “writerly” skills and techniques.

The secret of success

To me it seems there is no “secret” to good teaching. You do the basics, and you do them as well as you possibly can. You limit class numbers. You give student-writers the individual attention they crave. You make sure that your teachers are good writers and that your writers are good teachers, so that expertise can be shared effectively.

And you make students read widely. They should read the classics, I suppose, but they should also read the “non-classics” – what many academics see as trash fiction. And they should read their peers and contemporaries too.

Importantly, they should read things such as advertising billboards and street signs, the shapes of buildings, the colour of the pavement, the weather, the look in people’s faces. Writers need to breathe in so that they can breathe out their own individual reactions and responses. At Bolton we spend time reading and breathing, and that helps students find voices and interactions which can blend with the craft of writing to produce work which means something to them.

Very few students will earn a living as a writer. But writing is about more than that, and the ability to communicate effectively is a rare and precious thing. Good teaching should not be measured in the texts which students produce, then, but in the knowledge gained through the actions of writing – knowledge which lasts forever.

In the end, if students enjoy their studies, and believe that they’re gaining skills which are transferable in the workplace and will last them well beyond university, then perhaps that is what they see as ‘good teaching’. And perhaps too they’re the best ones to judge.

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• Good Writting Skills

Lessons From the Trenches, Part I: Why Good Writing Skills Are So Important

Debra Davenport, PhD

In today’s world of texting, emailing, emoticons, and “cyber slang,” the topic of good writing practices can be quite unpopular. This is particularly true in classes where students are often “dinged” for misspells, malapropisms, poor syntax, and grammatical errors.  

Obviously, anyone working towards a master’s degree in communication knows that this is a writing-intensive profession and that polished writing skills are not only important, but critical for success. Consider that an organization’s image, reputation, credibility, and viability are dependent on its messaging, which is sometimes the sole responsibility of the strategic communicator.

To drive home this point, I thought it would be helpful to share some real-life examples – what I call “lessons from the trenches” — of writing gaffes that, in one instance, cost the communicator his job.

Lesson #1:  Master the art of spelling.   

Earlier in my career when I was working for a large national company, I supervised a woman (a new hire) who had recently obtained her master’s degree in communication and, according to her résumé, had also worked as both a writer and editor.  

One of her first tasks was to proofread the company magazine and prepare the final draft for publication. Much to my surprise, she had changed the spelling of “superseded” to “superceded,” “a lot to “alot,” and “persevere” to “perservere.” In addition, she was rather vocal about her peers’ lack of spelling skills. Needless to say, her blunders sparked the ire of her coworkers and created additional work for the team. As her manager, it was challenging for me to have to bring the errors to her attention. Unfortunately, her writing did not improve and she was soon transferred by our VP to a non-communications role. How sad for someone who had spent so much time and money earning a graduate degree in communication.

Lesson #2:    Proofread, proofread, and proofread again .

At this same company, another junior executive was tasked with finalizing a major national print ad that featured special incentives and specific opt-in dates. He promised to ensure the accuracy of the ad, which was going to print that night. When I arrived at the office the next morning, the VP was clearly in panic mode; the junior executive hadn’t spotted that the dates in the ad were wrong – they had already passed. His lack of attention to detail resulted in the campaign being a complete waste.  And worse, it cost the company over $250,000. It’s probably no surprise that the junior executive lost his job that day.

Lesson #3:    Take ownership of your writing.  

Several years ago, my firm retained the services of an outside graphic designer to help create a client brochure. The designer was given error-free copy which he was to insert into the piece for printing. The client received a “proof” copy which they reviewed and approved. However, when the finished brochure was delivered, it contained a number of typos and other errors that were not in the original copy. When I presented these issues to the graphic designer, his response was, “It’s not my responsibility. The client signed off on it. Not my problem if they didn’t catch the errors.” Unfortunately, the only person who could have made the errors was the designer, and he refused to be accountable. So I decided to reprint the brochures for the client – at our expense – to ensure their satisfaction. A costly lesson for me as an agency director, and certainly a costly lesson for the graphic designer whose services we have not utilized since.

So the next time one of your professors corrects your writing, take a moment to thank them for being concerned about you and your success. Better to learn these “lessons from the trenches” in the classroom than out in the real world.

Dr. Debra Davenport is an online faculty member for Purdue’s online Master of Science in Communication degree program. The program can be completed in just 20 months and covers numerous topics critical for advancement in the communication industry, including crisis communication, social media engagement, focus group planning and implementation, survey design and survey analysis, public relations theory, professional writing, and communication ethics.

Find out more about what you can do with a MS in Communication from Purdue University. Call us today at 877-497-5851 to speak to an admissions advisor, or request more information .

*The views and opinions expressed are of the author and do not represent the Brian Lamb School of Communication.

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The Importance of Creative Writing in Your Professional Career

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While it may seem that creative writing is something that only liberal arts majors and people in writing careers need, the ability to write well and to communicate effectively is important in many different places within the business world.

Creative writing is a business skill that few people choose to cultivate and that helps boost those who do above their competition.

Many of the best CEOs in the world have extremely advanced creative writing skills that they use on a regular basis and that helps them win over contracts and support on a regular basis.

Advantages of Creative Writing

Many shareholders appreciate when information is given to them in a concise manner. However, they also appreciate when communication from a company that they are investing in takes the time to write them a creative and well-worded newsletter. Having the ability to communicate effectively while exciting investors and keeping them up to date on the inner workings of your company is an important skill for any manager. This can also translate over to thanking individual investors and keeping them up to date with the impact that their financial backing has made within your institution.

Within the company itself , memos, emails and other communication with employees will generally be better received if they are funny, interesting, and relevant to the situation at hand.

Softening bad news or explaining an issue to your employees in a way that they are able to understand will have a much bigger impact than a tersely worded memo that creates confusion and a hostile atmosphere. This can help you be a much more effective manager and show that you are ready to take on higher levels of responsibility while still having the support of your employees and those that you interact with on a day-to-day basis.

Investment Plans will generally go over smoother if they have interesting projections, well thought out predictions, and information that shows everyone involved that they have been under consideration for a long time. Deploying your creative writing skills to expand upon presentations, facts, and quick information, will make it easier to woo over individuals who are not quite on board with your plans.

This also makes it easier for the media and other outlets to tell the public about your plans and can be used to gain viral support from groups that would otherwise ignore your plans or brush them off before they come to fruition.

See also: How to Write a Press Release .

Further Reading from Skills You Need

The Skills You Need Guide to Getting a Job

Develop the skills you need to get that job.

This eBook is essential reading for potential job-seekers. Not only does it cover identifying your skills but also the mechanics of applying for a job, writing a CV or resume and attending interviews.

Professional Image

Your professional image can also be bolstered or tarnished depending upon your writing and your ability to communicate in a creative way.

This is because people in this business world are perceived as being well educated, and this assumption has colored what the world sees as professionalism. If you come across as unable to effectively communicate and seem like you are lacking in creativity, people are going to view you as less professional and react to you in a less than favorable manner. Being able to introduce yourself, reply to official correspondence, and contribute to documents with a high level of skill will show you to be a true professional and will impress many people.

Personal documentation such as an online profile, notes on contracts, and information for your future use will also come across better when it is well written.

If you are excited about a future opportunity, buy into the idea of writing yourself notes, or want to keep a personal record for your successors, writing in a creative manner will keep it interesting and help explain your needs and desires better. This is also a great way to ensure that you are not bored when you look back at your previous notes, and may help you find information that is important without much difficulty.

Improved Leadership Skills

Leadership skills are also helped when you are able to work on your creative writing and go out of your way to apply this skill.

We already talked about using creative writing for your office memos, but it can also be used to demonstrate your ability to lead.

Depending on your position, your boss may expect detailed reports and will often use them when considering who to promote and who they want to delegate more information to over time.

Writing your reports to be engaging, well thought out, and interesting will increase the chances that they will see you as a good candidate.

Memorability is another reason that you should seek to improve your creative writing skills over time. As everyone in business knows, you are your own personal brand and everything you do should be done with that in mind. To that end, you are always seeking to make yourself memorable (for the right reasons) and to increase your personal brand recognition.

Well written information and plans are one way to ensure that you remain memorable to people when they first come into contact with you in a formal business sense. If you struggle with creative writing, you may find it helpful to use creative writing services .

Now more than ever, written communication is necessary for business and for personal communication. The age of meeting every week is over, and the age of Skype messages, Google collaborations, mass emails, and text messages has taken over. In this world, it is extremely important to get your point across without seeming like you are struggling for words. In addition, people who use these skills find that they remember more in meetings and are more comfortable communicating with people face to face.

Improved Communication

The communication process as a whole is improved when you are better at creative writing and take the time to apply concepts from courses you have taken to your work.

While terse communication can get information across, creative communication invites collaboration and marks you as an individual with a high level of professional commitment.

You may find that you are able to maintain better business relationships when you open yourself to new ways of communicating, and that your older relationships improve over time as well. No matter how big or small your company is, you will find that effective communication is the best way to move up in life.

About the Author

Jonathan Leger is a freelance writer and small business owner. He runs a popular question and answer website.

Continue to: The Importance of Plain English How to Write a Business Case

See also: Using LinkedIn Effectively Writing an Executive Summary How Creative Writing Will Make You Better in Business

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The Science of Strong Business Writing

• Bill Birchard

Lessons from neurobiology

Brain scans are showing us in new detail exactly what entices readers. Scientists can see a group of midbrain neurons—the “reward circuit”—light up as people respond to everything from a simple metaphor to an unexpected story twist. The big takeaway? Whether you’re crafting an email to a colleague or an important report for the board, you can write in a way that delights readers on a primal level, releasing pleasure chemicals in their brains.

Bill Birchard is an author and writing coach who’s worked with many successful businesspeople. He’s drawn on that experience and his review of the scientific literature to identify eight features of satisfying writing: simplicity, specificity, surprise, stirring language, seductiveness, smart ideas, social content, and storytelling. In this article, he shares tips for using those eight S’s to captivate readers and help your message stick.

Strong writing skills are essential for anyone in business. You need them to effectively communicate with colleagues, employees, and bosses and to sell any ideas, products, or services you’re offering.

• Bill Birchard is a business author and book-writing coach. His Writing for Impact: 8 Secrets from Science That Will Fire Up Your Reader’s Brain will be published by HarperCollins Leadership in April 2023. His previous books include Merchants of Virtue, Stairway to Earth, Nature’s Keepers, Counting What Counts, and others. For more writing tactics, see his website .  

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Why is Creative Writing important?

Read our evidence review citing new and relevant research supporting the importance of creative writing in school

Why is creative writing important? And what is the research behind it? These are key questions when thinking about establishing creative writing in your class or school. Scottish Book Trust has pulled together this evidence review for you, citing all the relevant research to support creative writing in schools. This review will help you ensure your practice is research-informed and grounded in evidence.

The review explores evidence into the benefits of creative writing by splitting the research into four key areas:

• Raising attainment through creativity.
• Boosting confidence and imagination.
• Nurturing and supporting wellbeing.
• Improving skills.

All sources are listed at the end of the review, so you can go and read the original resources for yourself too.

Download the evidence review

• Creative writing evidence review (DOC) (this link will open in a new window) 714.2 kb
• Creative writing evidence review (PDF) (this link will open in a new window) 459.8 kb

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• Why Is Writing Important?

Why Is Writing Important? It’s a Critical Skill Employers Want.

When planning their education and future careers, many students think only of the hard skills needed to get the job, such as:

• How to create and manage a budget
• How to insert an IV
• How to file a court motion

Although these necessary skills show how someone can function within a specific job, employers increasingly seek soft skills among job applicants to bump them from job interview to job offer. Soft skills are often defined as those that humanize us, and one of the top soft skills employers look for is writing.

Communication Is Changing

With the rapid advancement of technology, organizations are communicating increasingly via electronic methods, such as:

• Meeting chat pods/virtual discussions
• Instant messaging
• Shared documents in the cloud

Employees’ writing skills need to keep pace with such innovations and digital options. Employers’ written communication needs and the relationships established with internal and external stakeholders are critical to organizations’ success locally and perhaps even with locations or business partners around the world.

The rapid advance of technology has also made organizations more aware of the benefits of domestic and international diversity. For an organization to foster an inclusive culture that welcomes such diverse perspectives within a mindset of open idea sharing, written communication skills are needed even more now than ever. An employee cannot assume that everyone collaborating on a project shares the same experiences, perspectives, or points of view. Therefore, employers value those who can communicate in such a way that all views are welcomed and combined in new ways. Often this integration of ideas is done in writing.

Why Writing Is Still Important

Some of the staples of writing remain even more important in today’s world if the organization is going to thrive. Employees need to demonstrate in their writing an understanding of their audience. Things to consider are:

• For whom is an email being sent or a report being written? What expectations does that CFO have for a budget explanation or a judge have for a court motion that has been filed?
• Are the documents written with clear context and purpose? Can an employee explain the needs reflected in the budget to a potential funder, for example? Can an employee write the court motion in such a way that the judge is inspired to act in favor of the client?
• Is the format what the audience will expect within that context?
• Has the document been carefully edited with accurate word choices to avoid potential misunderstandings?

One final point that must be understood is that technology and other forces continually and rapidly change the employment landscape. As pointed out by recruiters and hiring managers,  some of the soft skills that employers currently seek in potential candidates include:

• The ability to work in a team
• Communication skills
• Time management
• Problem solving

This list is typical of many surveys and reports on what employers are seeking in applicants and even in those they promote. 

Learn to Improve Your Writing

As a prospective or current Purdue Global student, you might feel a bit overwhelmed by the need to build writing proficiency into your education; however, the planning has been done for you in the following ways:

• A series of required/elective writing courses:
• CM107: College Composition I
• CM220: College Composition II
• CM240: Technical Communication
• CM241: Foundations of Technical Communication
• CM250: Fundamentals of Grammar and Editing
• General Education literacies including undergraduate communication
• Professional competencies including graduate communication
• A New Media Writing micro-credential that can be earned within your program’s electives
• A bachelor’s degree in communication to help you interact meaningfully with diverse audiences—interpersonally and through different forms of media

During your time at Purdue Global, you will be assessed in the soft skills, and you can download a Skills Report that indicates the skill level you have attained in each, including communication.

Although the hard skills are important, be sure to take advantage of these opportunities to develop the soft skills, such as writing, and to share your level of development with employers to increase your chances of employment after graduation. To learn more about how Purdue Global prepares you to write for your future employers, request more information .

About the Author

Michael Keathley, PhD

Dr. Michael Keathley is the chair of composition and writing at Purdue Global. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not represent the views of Purdue Global.

• Legal Studies & Public Policy
• Online Learning

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Learn more about online programs at Purdue Global and download our program guide.

Connect with an Advisor to explore program requirements, curriculum, credit for prior learning process, and financial aid options.

Top 12 Creative Writer Skills to Put on Your Resume

In today's competitive job market, standing out as a creative writer involves showcasing a unique blend of skills on your resume that highlight your storytelling abilities and adaptability across various writing styles. This article delves into the top 12 skills you need to feature on your resume to capture the attention of potential employers and demonstrate your prowess in the art of creative writing.

Creative Writer Skills

• Storytelling
• Character Development
• Worldbuilding
• Microsoft Word
• Google Docs
• Adobe InDesign

1. Storytelling

Storytelling, in the context of a creative writer, is the art of conveying a narrative through the imaginative construction of events, characters, and settings, aimed at engaging the audience's emotions, intellect, and imagination.

Why It's Important

Storytelling is crucial for a Creative Writer as it enables the effective conveyance of ideas, emotions, and experiences, engaging the audience's imagination and fostering a deep connection between the writer and the reader.

How to Improve Storytelling Skills

Improving storytelling, especially for a creative writer, involves honing various skills and techniques. Here are concise tips with relevant resources for deep dives:

Read Widely : Exposure to different styles, genres, and authors can inspire and teach you new methods. Goodreads offers extensive book lists and recommendations.

Practice Writing Regularly : Like any skill, storytelling improves with practice. Websites like 750 Words encourage daily writing habits.

Learn Story Structure : Understanding classic story structures can help in crafting compelling narratives. This guide on The Write Practice offers insights into structuring stories effectively.

Develop Characters : Characters are the heart of any story. Learn to create multidimensional characters with this resource from Writers Digest.

Show, Don't Tell : This principle helps readers experience the story through actions, senses, and feelings rather than through the author's exposition. This article from AutoCrit explains it further.

Seek Feedback : Getting critiques from other writers or readers can highlight areas for improvement. Consider joining a community like Scribophile for feedback.

Edit Ruthlessly : Great stories often emerge in the editing phase. Learn editing tips from The Creative Penn .

Study Storytelling Techniques : Dive into storytelling techniques and how to apply them with courses from platforms like MasterClass or Coursera .

By incorporating these tips and utilizing the linked resources, you can significantly improve your storytelling skills as a creative writer.

How to Display Storytelling Skills on Your Resume

Editing, for a creative writer, involves revising and refining a manuscript to enhance clarity, coherence, structure, and style, while correcting errors in grammar, punctuation, and spelling to improve overall quality and readability.

Editing is crucial for a creative writer as it refines and polishes their work, ensuring clarity, coherence, and engagement, while also enhancing the narrative's impact and reader's experience.

How to Improve Editing Skills

To enhance your editing skills as a creative writer:

Read Widely : Exposure to various writing styles and genres can inspire and refine your editing skills. Goodreads offers a wide selection of books to explore.

Practice Self-Editing : Start by taking breaks between writing and editing to gain a fresh perspective. Tools like Grammarly can help catch basic errors before deeper edits.

Join Writing Groups : Feedback from peers can offer new insights. Websites like Scribophile facilitate critique-sharing with fellow writers.

Study Editing Guides : Books such as "The Elements of Style" by Strunk and White provide invaluable editing advice. Visit Project Gutenberg for free access to classic literature and references.

Attend Workshops and Courses : Platforms like Coursera and MasterClass offer courses taught by professionals to hone your editing skills.

Use Editing Software : Advanced software like ProWritingAid offers in-depth analysis that can improve your writing and editing over time.

Practice, Practice, Practice : Regular writing and editing are key to improvement. Set aside dedicated time for both activities each day.

By incorporating these strategies, you'll enhance your editing skills, contributing to your growth as a creative writer.

How to Display Editing Skills on Your Resume

3. Scrivener

Scrivener is a versatile writing software designed for creative writers, offering tools for drafting, organizing, revising, and compiling long texts like novels, scripts, and research projects.

Scrivener is important for creative writers because it provides an all-in-one platform for organizing research, structuring ideas, and composing long texts in a flexible and user-friendly environment, thereby enhancing productivity and creativity.

How to Improve Scrivener Skills

To enhance Scrivener for Creative Writers, consider these concise tips:

• Master the Basics : Start with Scrivener's interactive tutorial to grasp the fundamentals tailored to writing projects.
• Customize Your Workspace : Tailor the interface to suit your writing style. Focus on Composition Mode for distraction-free writing and adjust the Editor to your liking. Learn more through this customization guide .
• Utilize the Corkboard and Outliner : Plan and structure your narrative effectively using the Corkboard and Outliner tools for an overview of your project.
• Leverage Project Targets : Set word counts and deadlines using Project Targets to keep on track. This guide on setting targets can help.
• Compile Like a Pro : Master the Compile function for exporting your manuscript into various formats. This compilation guide offers insights.
• Sync with External Editors : Use Scrivener in conjunction with external editors like ProWritingAid for advanced editing. Explore syncing options here .
• Explore Scrivener’s Research Capabilities : Organize your research within the project for easy access. Tips on harnessing these features are found in this research management guide.

By following these steps and exploring the provided resources, Creative Writers can maximize their Scrivener experience, making the writing process more efficient and enjoyable.

How to Display Scrivener Skills on Your Resume

4. Grammarly

Grammarly is a digital writing assistant that provides grammar checking, spell checking, and plagiarism detection services, helping creative writers enhance the clarity, coherence, and correctness of their work.

Grammarly is important for a creative writer as it enhances clarity, corrects grammar and spelling errors, and refines the overall readability of their work, ensuring their ideas are communicated effectively and professionally.

How to Improve Grammarly Skills

To improve Grammarly for a Creative Writer:

Customize Style Goals : Use Grammarly's goal-setting feature to tailor feedback to your genre or writing style, enhancing creativity and coherence (Grammarly Support).

Expand Vocabulary : Leverage the vocabulary enhancement feature to diversify language and avoid repetition, enriching narratives (Grammarly Blog).

Integrate with Writing Tools : Utilize Grammarly's integration with popular writing platforms like Google Docs and Scrivener for seamless editing and feedback (Grammarly Apps).

Learn from Insights : Analyze performance statistics provided by Grammarly to identify common errors and areas for improvement, refining your craft over time (Grammarly Insights).

Engage with the Grammarly Community : Share tips and seek advice from other writers in the Grammarly community, fostering creativity and learning new writing strategies (Grammarly Community).

How to Display Grammarly Skills on Your Resume

5. Plotting

Plotting in creative writing refers to the process of planning and structuring the sequence of events that make up a story, including the setup, conflict, and resolution, to create a coherent and engaging narrative.

Plotting is crucial for a creative writer as it provides a roadmap for the story, ensuring coherent structure, pacing, and character development, which engages readers and delivers a satisfying narrative experience.

How to Improve Plotting Skills

Improving plotting as a creative writer involves developing a structured yet flexible approach to crafting your story's roadmap. Focus on these key strategies:

Outline Your Story : Start with a basic outline to organize your thoughts and plot structure. This can range from a simple bullet-point list of events to a detailed chapter-by-chapter breakdown. Well-Storied offers a comprehensive guide on different outlining techniques.

Understand Story Structure : Familiarize yourself with classic story structures like the Three-Act Structure, the Hero's Journey, or the Save the Cat! Beat Sheet. These frameworks provide a blueprint for pacing your narrative effectively. Reedsy breaks down these and other structures.

Develop Your Characters : Characters drive the plot. Ensure your characters have clear motivations, obstacles, and arcs. This depth makes the plot more engaging and believable. Writers Digest offers tips on character development.

Incorporate Conflict and Tension : Conflict is the heart of any plot. It can be internal (character vs. self), external (character vs. character, society, nature), or both. Tension keeps readers engaged. Now Novel discusses how to effectively write conflict and tension.

Use Subplots Wisely : Subplots can enrich your main plot, offering depth and complexity. Ensure they tie into the main storyline and contribute to character development or theme. MasterClass provides insights into creating effective subplots.

Revise and Refine : Plotting doesn’t end with the first draft. Revising allows you to spot plot holes, pacing issues, and areas where the conflict or tension may sag. Be open to restructuring your plot during this phase. The Creative Penn has tips on revising your plot.

Remember, plotting is a skill that improves with practice and study. Don't be afraid to experiment with different plotting techniques to find what works best for your storytelling style.

How to Display Plotting Skills on Your Resume

6. Character Development

Character development is the process by which a writer creates and evolves characters' personalities, backgrounds, and motivations throughout a story, making them more complex and relatable to the audience.

Character development is crucial for creative writers because it deepens the audience's emotional connection, drives the plot through characters' decisions and growth, and creates a more immersive and believable story world, enhancing overall engagement and investment in the narrative.

How to Improve Character Development Skills

Improving character development involves deepening your understanding of your characters' backgrounds, motivations, and changes throughout your story. Here's a concise guide to enhance your character development skills:

Create Detailed Backstories : Understand each character's history. What events shaped their beliefs and behaviors? This depth adds realism and relatability.

Define Clear Motivations : Know what drives your characters. Their goals and fears should influence their actions throughout the story.

Show Growth and Change : Allow your characters to evolve. Their experiences should impact their decisions and viewpoints, reflecting real human growth.

Use Dialogue Wisely : Dialogue can reveal a lot about a character. How they speak, what they say, and what they don't say can all add layers to their personality.

Explore Relationships : Characters don't exist in a vacuum. Their interactions with others can highlight different facets of their personality and trigger change.

For further reading and more detailed guides, consider the following resources:

Creating Characters on Writer's Digest offers tips on making memorable characters.

Character Development: How to Write Great Characters from Reedsy Blog provides a comprehensive overview of character development techniques.

The Art of Character Development on MasterClass features professional advice from established authors on crafting compelling characters.

These resources will give you a deeper insight into the nuances of character development, helping you to create more engaging and believable characters in your writing.

How to Display Character Development Skills on Your Resume

7. Worldbuilding

Worldbuilding is the process of constructing an imaginary universe with coherent qualities such as history, geography, ecology, and culture, providing the setting and context for stories within that universe.

Worldbuilding is crucial for a creative writer because it establishes a coherent and immersive universe, enriching storytelling by providing a believable and engaging backdrop for characters and plots, enhancing reader experience and emotional investment.

How to Improve Worldbuilding Skills

Improving worldbuilding, especially for a creative writer, involves enriching the details and consistency of the universe your story inhabits. Here's a concise guide:

Start Broad, Then Narrow Down : Begin with the large-scale aspects of your world (geography, history, politics) before focusing on the smaller, everyday details that affect your characters' lives. This approach ensures coherence and depth. World Anvil offers tools for organizing these aspects.

Culture and Society : Dive into the cultures, religions, social norms, and languages of your world. These elements should influence your characters' behaviors and the plot. The Seventh Sanctum provides generators for inspiration.

Economy and Technology : Determine the level of technology and the state of the economy. How do these factors impact the daily lives of your characters and the plot? Springhole has resources for generating ideas.

Consistency is Key : Ensure the rules of your world (magic system, technology, culture) are consistent. Inconsistencies can break immersion. Evernote is a great tool for keeping track of all these details.

Engage the Senses : Make your world feel real by describing not just what is seen, but also what is smelled, heard, tasted, and touched.

Feedback Loop : Share your world with others and be open to feedback. Insights from readers can highlight areas that need more depth or clarity. Online forums like Reddit’s r/worldbuilding are great for this.

Remember, worldbuilding is a marathon, not a sprint. Taking time to layer in details will make your universe more immersive and believable.

How to Display Worldbuilding Skills on Your Resume

8. Microsoft Word

Microsoft Word is a word processing software used for creating, editing, and formatting written documents, offering tools and features tailored to enhance creative writing and storytelling.

For a creative writer, Microsoft Word is crucial as it offers versatile tools for editing, formatting, and organizing text, enabling efficient drafting, revising, and finalizing of creative works.

How to Improve Microsoft Word Skills

To enhance Microsoft Word for a Creative Writer, consider the following concise recommendations:

Utilize Add-ins : Leverage ProWritingAid or Grammarly for advanced grammar, style, and vocabulary suggestions directly within Word.

Explore Templates : Explore and customize Word's range of creative writing templates for different genres to streamline your writing process.

Master Shortcuts and Features : Familiarize yourself with Word's keyboard shortcuts and utilize features like "Focus Mode" to enhance productivity and minimize distractions.

Use the Navigation Pane for Structure : Utilize the Navigation Pane to easily organize and navigate through your document, making it easier to structure your story.

Integrate Cloud Services : Save and access your documents from anywhere by integrating with OneDrive or Dropbox . This facilitates easy backups and sharing with editors or beta readers.

By employing these strategies, you can significantly enhance your creative writing process within Microsoft Word.

How to Display Microsoft Word Skills on Your Resume

9. Google Docs

Google Docs is a cloud-based word processing application that enables creative writers to create, edit, and share documents online in real-time, facilitating collaboration and accessibility from anywhere.

Google Docs is important for a Creative Writer because it offers real-time collaboration, easy access from any device, and automatic saving, enhancing efficiency and flexibility in the writing process.

How to Improve Google Docs Skills

Improving Google Docs for a creative writer involves enhancing its functionality for drafting, revising, and sharing written work. Here are concise tips with relevant resources:

Use Add-ons : Enhance your writing with tools for mind mapping, grammar checking, and more. Explore add-ons like ProWritingAid for in-depth editing assistance.

Voice Typing : Boost productivity by dictating your story. Activate this feature under Tools > Voice typing. Learn more about voice typing.

Version History : Track changes and revert to previous versions easily. Access this via File > Version history. Understand version history.

Use Outline Tool : Organize your document with headings for easy navigation. Find this under View > Show document outline. Outline tool details.

Research Tool : Quickly look up references without leaving Docs. Access through Tools > Explore. Explore feature.

Collaborate in Real-Time : Share your document with editors or co-authors for live feedback. Click Share on the top right. Sharing and collaboration guide.

Keyboard Shortcuts : Speed up your writing and editing process. View shortcuts.

Customize Styles : Tailor heading and text styles for consistent formatting. Learn about custom styles.

By incorporating these features, creative writers can streamline their process, from research to writing to revision, directly within Google Docs.

How to Display Google Docs Skills on Your Resume

SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is the practice of optimizing web content to increase visibility and ranking in search engine results, helping a creative writer's work reach a wider audience online.

SEO is crucial for a Creative Writer as it enhances visibility online, attracting more readers to their work, and increasing opportunities for engagement and monetization.

How to Improve SEO Skills

To improve SEO for a Creative Writer, focus on these key strategies:

• Keyword Research : Identify relevant, high-search-volume keywords related to your content ( Google Keyword Planner ).
• Quality Content : Write engaging, original content that provides value to your readers, incorporating your keywords naturally.
• On-Page SEO : Optimize your content's title, meta descriptions, and headers with target keywords ( Moz On-Page SEO ).
• User Experience (UX) : Ensure your website is mobile-friendly, fast-loading, and easy to navigate ( Google PageSpeed Insights ).
• Backlinks : Gain backlinks from reputable sites within your niche to enhance your site's authority ( Ahrefs Guide ).
• Social Media : Share your content on social media platforms to drive traffic and engagement (Buffer Social Media Guide).
• Analytics : Use tools like Google Analytics to monitor traffic, refine your SEO strategies, and understand your audience better.

By consistently applying these strategies, you can improve your website's SEO, attract more readers, and increase your visibility online as a Creative Writer.

How to Display SEO Skills on Your Resume

11. WordPress

WordPress is a versatile content management system (CMS) that enables creative writers to easily publish, manage, and organize a wide variety of content on a website, without needing advanced technical knowledge.

WordPress is important for a Creative Writer because it offers an easy-to-use platform to publish, manage, and share their work globally, facilitating a direct connection with their audience and enabling them to establish their personal brand online.

How to Improve WordPress Skills

To enhance WordPress for a Creative Writer, focus on these key areas:

Choose a Responsive Theme : Select a theme that adapts to different devices and screen sizes, ensuring your content looks great everywhere. WordPress Themes Directory is a good place to start.

Install Essential Plugins :

• Yoast SEO : Improves your site's SEO, helping your content reach a wider audience. Yoast SEO .
• Akismet : Protects your blog from spam. Akismet .
• Jetpack : Offers design, marketing, and security features in one. Jetpack .

Optimize for Speed : Use a caching plugin like WP Super Cache and optimize images with Smush to improve site loading times.

Regularly Update Content : Keep your site fresh and engaging by regularly updating your blog with new, relevant content.

Use External Links : Enhance the credibility of your content by linking to reputable sources. Ensure all external links open in a new tab to keep readers on your site.

Engage with Your Readers : Encourage comments and feedback. Use plugins like Disqus to manage comments more effectively.

Backup Regularly : Protect your content with regular backups using a plugin like UpdraftPlus.

Secure Your Website : Implement security measures with plugins like Wordfence to protect against threats.

By focusing on these areas, Creative Writers can significantly improve their WordPress site, making it more user-friendly, secure, and optimized for search engines and readers.

How to Display WordPress Skills on Your Resume

12. Adobe InDesign

Adobe InDesign is a professional desktop publishing software used primarily for creating and designing layouts for print and digital media. For a Creative Writer, it's a powerful tool to design and format books, magazines, brochures, and eBooks, allowing for precise control over typography, image placement, and page layout.

Adobe InDesign is important for a Creative Writer because it provides advanced tools for creating professional layouts for books, magazines, and digital publications, enabling effective storytelling through visually engaging content.

How to Improve Adobe InDesign Skills

To enhance Adobe InDesign for a Creative Writer, consider the following concise steps:

Learn the Basics : Start with Adobe's official tutorials to understand the core functionality and tools available in InDesign.

Use Templates : Leverage InDesign templates to save time on formatting and focus more on content.

Master Text Formatting : Dive deep into text formatting options to improve readability and visual appeal. Adobe’s guide on formatting text is crucial.

Incorporate Graphics : Learn to import and adjust graphics within your documents for more engaging content.

Utilize GREP for Advanced Search : Use GREP expressions to find and replace text patterns efficiently. This GREP resource is invaluable.

Explore Scripts : Automate repetitive tasks with scripts. The InDesignSecrets’ scripting resources can be a great starting point.

Stay Updated : Keep your software updated and explore new features with each release, as outlined in Adobe’s What’s New page.

By focusing on these areas, a Creative Writer can significantly improve their efficiency and creativity within Adobe InDesign.

How to Display Adobe InDesign Skills on Your Resume

Related Career Skills

• Creative Project Manager
• Creative Director
• Creative Consultant
• Creative Designer
• Creative Strategist
• Creative Producer