What is Creative Writing? Definition, Types, and How to Get Started

Discover all that creative writing has to offer and begin your journey as a creative writer. 

By Julie Tyler

Creative writing definition 

Creative writing refers to a broad range of texts that draw upon writers' creativity (as the term suggests), facility with words, emotional depth, and intellectual rigor to convey meaning. Creative writing is also an area of study and college major at many colleges and universities. 

Creative writing is, by nature, an artistic expression, characterized by originality, invention, imagination, and inspiration. Creative writers use language as their primary medium, putting words together in new ways and using literary devices like symbolism or foreshadowing, to create original works. As we'll explore further down, creative writing encompasses fiction, poetry, nonfiction, drama, and even hybrid forms.  

Exceptional pieces of creative writing are considered literature and often appear on reading lists for students of all ages, from elementary to graduate school. While opinions vary on what makes something a work of literature, there are some qualities that many people associate with literary value, including the innovative use of language, universal themes, cultural and historical significance, and a timeless take on the human condition. 

What is the purpose of creative writing?

Creative writing serves several purposes, depending on a writer's intentions. As a writer, you could set out to:

• Entertain and enlighten readers
• Evoke emotions in the reader and challenge them intellectually
• It can explore history, culture, or politics
• Draw attention to the power and beauty of language
• Offer fresh perspectives on life
• Express a range of ideas
• Connect with readers and foster a shared love of reading

To achieve these goals, you would need to learn how to write skillfully in your genre, gather feedback from experienced writers and writing teachers, and find a publishing route that gets your work into readers' hands. 

Types of creative writing

Many types, forms, and styles of writing can be considered creative, from novels that tell fictional stories across 300 pages, to poems that consist of a few words. There are five main categories of creative writing: fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, drama, and hybrid forms. 

Creative writing typically excludes professional, academic, and technical writing, factual reporting, as well as documents you might generate at work to communicate with colleagues. 

Genres like investigative journalism, marketing or sales content, social media content may often exhibit the writers' creativity, even though these genres are not traditionally included in creative writing. 

Let's explore the four main categories of creative writing in more depth: 

Fiction 

Fiction refers to imaginative storytelling. In any story, there is at least one main character (protagonist) who undergoes a transformative experience or journey. In the first few pages, the reader invests in the character's predicament and keeps turning pages to find out what the character does and how the story will turn out in the end. 

Fiction can be realistic, in that the characters and situations resemble real life, or contain fantastical, supernatural, or futuristic elements that ask readers to explore the idea of a world that doesn't exist. What distinguishes fiction from nonfiction is the fact that it's not strictly based on fact. 

Popular genres of fiction include:

• Mystery and suspense
• Sci-Fi and fantasy
• Romance
• Thrillers and horror
• Adventure
• Women's fiction
• Literary fiction
• Young adult (YA) and middle grade (MG)

Works of fiction vary in length. Here are some typical word counts, according to data compiled from a 2024 WorldMetrics report [1]: 

• Novels fall between 70,000 and 90,000 words.
• Novelas range from 20,000 and 50,000 words. 
• Short stories typically range from 1,000 to 8,000 words.
• Flash fiction is less than 1,000 words.
• Micro-fiction is 100 words or less. 

Famous examples of fiction: F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis."

Poetry 

Poetry is a highly distinct form of creative writing that comes in many forms and often defies strict rules. This freedom and versatility allow poets to experiment with different approaches to express their ideas in original and even usual ways. In free verse, for example, poems don't have to follow a rhythm or rhyme scheme and can resemble the cadence and flow of natural speech. 

Some of the features that set poetry apart from prose include:

• Unique forms and structures. Line lengths, rhyme schemes, and visual layouts can convey meaning, in addition to the actual words in a poem. 
• Brevity and efficiency of language. Poetry uses fewer words than prose, requiring poets to choose words carefully and pack a lot of meaning into less volume.  
• Figurative language.  Images, metaphors, and symbols can enliven language and evoke emotions.

NOTE: Epic poems, such as Beowulf, The Iliad and Odessey, and Paradise Lost, can be roughly the size of a novel and tell stories, but are written in verse rather than prose.

Even with poetry's freedom and versatility, there are several specific poetic forms that do adhere to certain parameters. For example, a haiku consists of three lines, with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five in the third, while a sonnet consists of 14 lines and follows a specific rhyme scheme. 

Famous examples of poetry: Ezra Pound's "In a Station of the Metro" and Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven.

Drama

Drama is a form of creative writing that is meant for stage, screen, or radio performances. A dramatic work is called a play, screenplay, or script. Like fiction, dramatic works tell stories about characters in various predicaments. It's important to note that the script is not the "end product." Although scripts for movies, plays, or radio performances are fun to read on their own, they serve mainly as reference documents that directors, actors, designers, and filmmakers use to bring stories to life on set. 

Scripts vary in their structures and formats, several features are common to most, including: 

• Dialogue, indicating what characters say, to whom, and when
• Stage directions, describing characters' movements, costumes, sets, lighting, and sound
• Acts and scenes, providing a clear structure and pace for the story's action 
• Storytelling elements, like tension, conflict and character development, to draw the audience in

Famous dramatic works: Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross, both written for stage and adapted to film.

Creative nonfiction

Creative nonfiction uses literary techniques and styles to present true accounts of events or factual information about a topic. Oftentimes, creative nonfiction has strong narrative elements, as in the case of a memoir, and can read like fiction, while exhibiting journalism's commitment to the truth. 

Genres include:

• Biography, a narrative about a person's life written by someone else
• Autobiography, a comprehensive narrative about the author's life
• Memoir, a narrative about a particular aspect of the author's life
• Self-help or inspirational books, offering advice or wisdom about a topic, often with illustrative examples, that readers can apply to their own lives 
• Personal essay, a short work of autobiography that may include instructions or a takeaway beyond the narrative elements
• Blogging, online content published that reflects the author's personal style and interests and employs literary techniques to engage audiences  

Many authors of creative nonfiction conduct extensive research into their topics or draw upon personal experience in order to educate readers, while offering a compelling reading experience. 

Examples of creative nonfiction: Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and Jeannette Walls's The Glass Castle. 

Hybrid forms

Hybrid forms of creative writing combine two or more genres or writing with other media in order to push the boundaries of what's possible on the page. For example, graphic novels and comic books combine storytelling with visual artwork, while digital interactive literature allows readers to choose their own adventure through a story by clicking hypertext. 

Other possibilities include: 

• Poems printed on subway doors.
• Novels that features other forms such as postcards, photos, letters, and marginal notes. 
• Collages that piece together scraps of writing from diverse sources to create new meaning.

As a creative writer, you can combine traditional writing with new technologies, media, and art forms to engage readers in fresh, unexpected ways.

Hybrid creative writing examples: Truman Capote's In Cold Blood and Art Spiegelman's Maus.

Benefits of creative writing

Creative writing offers many rewards to writers and readers alike, as well as to society at large. As a writer, you can express your ideas in a variety of ways, create an outlet for your creativity, and even launch a writing career. 

In encountering creative works, readers can feel inspired and entertained, while gaining exposure to different viewpoints and ways of life. 

Society benefits from creative writing, particularly from works that are culturally and historically significant, call for social change, and motivate communities to take action. 

How to start creative writing

Getting your start in creative writing is an exciting endeavor, given all the options you have and the benefits you can enjoy. The beginning of the journey is often full of inspiration, as well as questions about the best place to start and how to write your best work.

This guide will walk you through five strategies for getting started with confidence and see your ideas take shape on the page:    

1. Explore the creative writing possibilities. 

Spend some time investigating your options in creative writing, including the styles and categories that most interest you, the different techniques you can practice, and what it feels like to express your ideas in writing. Understanding the full scope of what's possible gives you the freedom to choose the best creative path for you. For example, you might start out writing poetry and later discover that you are truly a storyteller with a whole book (or several!) inside you. 

A few ways to explore possibilities include reading extensively across genres, searching the internet for more information about creative writing, and using writing prompts. 

2. Invest in basic creative writing tools.

To get words on paper and unlock your creativity, you'll need tools that you enjoy using and that offer several key functions. At the most basic, you'll need a notebook and writing utensil. Writing by hand can be a fulfilling experience, in that you can feel the sensations of your hand holding a pen and hear the scribbling sounds of words appearing. You can also thumb through the pages of your notebook, unlike writing in electronic files, and see a tangible record of your ideas 

Eventually, however, you will likely find it useful to invest in a laptop or tablet or install writing software and productivity apps on devices you already have. Keeping digital files of your writing makes it easier to organize your work and revise it directly in the electronic documents.  

3. Take creative writing classes.

You can find creative writing classes that focus on a variety of topics and techniques, like storytelling, poetry, screenwriting, developing characters, writing outlines, and more. Taking classes in creative classes, whether in person or online, is a valuable early step in starting your creative writing journey. You gain experience with the latest techniques in a given genre and have access to an experienced instructor who can guide you through different exercises and answer your questions. 

There are also plenty of self-study online courses that allow you to learn in private at your own pace. 

To choose the right class or course for you, read the descriptions carefully, particularly what you'll learn and the outcomes you can anticipate, to make sure you are working toward your writing goals. 

4. Establish a writing habit.

Writing consistently is what helps you to build skills and complete projects you may have in mind. Set aside time each week, such as every evening after dinner or every Saturday morning, to create a routine you can rely on. Always have a goal for each writing session, such as:

• Practice a new technique. 
• Finish the story you're working on.
• Revise three of your best poems.  

The more consistent you practice and learn writing, the better and more sophisticated your work will become. 

Learn more about the writing process and its importance HERE.  

 

Sources

1. WorldMetrics. "WorldMetrics Report 2024: Average Novel Length Statistics," https://worldmetrics.org/average-novel-length/.