If you’re thinking of doing some creative writing this year — or getting back on track with your writing — this post should get you going. Not only will you find five essential tips to rekindle your passion, you’ll also find a collection of links to help you connect with your creative muse. Enjoy!
Five Quick Tips for Creative Writing
- Write for yourself. If you’re busy thinking of what everyone else wants, your inner critic is going to be on your case from the get-go. When this happens your creative writing is stomped on by that inner critic and nothing feels right. So make your first draft all about “you.” There will be plenty of opportunity to shape your writing for others in later drafts, when many characters, plot points, descriptions, and relationships are already happily on the page. For your first draft, forget everyone else. What do you enjoy? Pick something fun and go with it. Write for yourself first.
- Move your chair. This is a simple but effective tip. Take a look at where you are writing — or dare I say avoiding writing — right now. Simply move that chair. Putting it in another room, facing it in a different direction, or setting it on the other side of the table can make a HUGE mental difference. Your perspective changes when your butt-cheeks relocate. You can move to an entirely different location as well. Write in a coffee shop or plant yourself on a bench in a park. Take a little road trip to a neighbouring town and find a completely new spot to write.
- A decent idea now is better than a great idea eventually. This tip comes straight out of improvisational theatre. Skilled improvisers jump into action and story development quickly, discovering all kinds of possibilities as the scene unfolds. As a writer, this same principle applies. Move quickly on simple ideas rather than waiting for the elusive “best” idea that often never comes. Face it, you could be waiting, unfulfilled, for a very long time getting frustrated. If you go with a quick idea that’s good enough, you will be writing and it is more likely to turn into good stuff than the blank page is.
- Jump around. Of course, jumping around physically is good for you, and exercise would probably help your mental state for writing. But that’s not what we’re really talking about here. Jump around in your creative writing. Write your ending first, or fill out a cool scene in the middle. When shooting movies, scenes are often filmed out of order and then stitched together in the correct order after the fact. This is efficient for movie-making, but it’s also a lesson for writers: you don’t have to write your story in the same order it will end up in the final draft. Jump around.
- Write more than you actually need. This might sound ironic if you’re having trouble getting a single word out and we’re telling you to write twenty. It’s counter-intuitive, though: if you write with the intention of cutting lots of it later anyway, you’re less concerned about everything being perfect. This approach allows for the creative in “creative writing.” Sometimes we get caught thinking all our words have to be gold and then we spend too much time being disappointed. Expect most of your writing to be “on the chopping block”, in need of editing, or for your own amusement. How do you do it? Have your characters ponder meaningless things or notice something off in the distance in a scene. Pause the real story and write a scene where your character goes to the bathroom or washes dishes. Write some small talk into your story when a character is on a bus ride or in an elevator — meaningless, pointless banter with bystanders. Later on, you can chop it, but you may come up with some funny bits, discover an angle on a character, or add depth to an environment; at the very least, you’ll have fun along the way.
Frequently Asked Questions about Creative Writing
An effective way to start a story is through character. Place your character in their normal routine. By this, we mean something that is their usual activity or situation. For example, if they’re a mechanic, have them fixing a car. Or if they’re a student, have them hanging out at their locker. While they perform that activity, they can think about life and notice things going on around them in a way that invites the reader in. This acts as a great foundation to connect with readers because it gets everyone comfortable before the real story begins. Once you’ve set it up, you can introduce some change or challenge to the character’s life: some bad news, a sudden accident, a discovery, or another unexpected element.
The good news is you’re surrounded by ideas. Brainstorming is a skill that you can develop over time. In the meantime, use cre8opedia as a source. Because we spend our time constantly brainstorming, gathering ideas, and creating posts we’re here to help out writers, roleplaying gamers, and creative artists just like you. Type a topic you’re interested in into our search bar and see what we have that can help you. You can also comment on a post or send us an email if you have a topic you’d like us to post about.
Start with a few words every day. Forming a new habit — or routine — is about training your mind and body to naturally lean towards an activity or a mental state. So start with a few expectations like: writing everyday; a small word count of 250 words per day; a combination such as “make a coffee and get on my laptop” or “walk the dog, then write for 20 minutes.” Essentially, set yourself some achievable goals and don’t expect to write a novel in a couple days. Generally, writing a little each day and feeling good about yourself is better than getting frustrated trying to do too much… then actually doing nothing. And when you do the math, 250 words times 365 days equals 91,250 words in a year. That’s a lot of creative writing, my friend.
Dial back your expectations. I’ve seen way too many people focus on “spelling” in their first draft writing and it just blocks their ideas. Creative writing should be fun, wild, and filled with somewhat chaotic imagination. You should be making all kinds of mistakes and generating extraneous bits and pieces in addition to the story you’re trying to tell. It is exploratory and experimental. Don’t expect it to be perfect. Allow yourself the freedom to create all kinds of things that you aren’t going to publish or share. Forget about the spell check and just focus on content. When you discover a few pieces that you really like, then you get to redraft your work with a more critical eye intent on shaping your work for a particular audience.
Story Prompt Posts to Help With Your Creative Writing
Here are some of our latest posts that contain writing prompts and story ideas. Remember you can type a topic in our search bar or check out the post tag clouds for content related to your needs.
The Fantasy Bard for Creative Writing and Roleplay
The bard is a fantasy character who loves to entertain folks and charm foes. This post generates ideas for your writing and roleplaying games.
Chase Scene – building one into your story
Nothing ups the stakes for your characters like an exciting chase scene. Check out this post for creative writing or roleplaying game ideas.
The Outsider as a character for Creative Writing and Roleplay
When everything is going well, stir up some trouble by introducing an “outsider” to your story scene. Check out this post for lots of great ideas for creative writing and roleplaying games.
Potions – Creative Writing Prompts and Story Ideas
Nothing gets your character out of a pinch better than a vial of Invisibility Juice or a mixture of dragon vomit and unicorn sweat. Check out this post for ideas to use in your creative writing and roleplaying games.
More ideas to riff on
Here are a few links to other cre8opedia pages and posts that may be helpful. Check some of them out or type a topic into out search bar and see if we have something related that is helpful. Or email us with a topic you’d like us to post about.
- Check out this page which has some general story catalysts — things that we think usually start cool stories.
- Not sure where to start your story? Check out this page of Starting Places that often generate great characters, plots, and mysteries.
- One of my personal favourite posts that could start a thousand different stories: Find Something Strange.
- Figure out what your character really wants or needs out of life on this page of Character Motivations.
- Not sure what to tell a story about? Here’s a page of ideas for Plot Concepts to help you get started.
- Every story needs a Conflict, so check out this page for a bunch of ideas. Hopefully one of them works for you.
- Want to write a Horror? Check out this page for some twists and turns… and zombies.
- Need some magic in your life? This page is loaded with thoughts about how Magic might work in a story. Check it out and stay for a spell.
- This is a great site for a fun exercise in just writing quickly without over thinking. Check it out and see how long you can stay alive! The Most Dangerous Writing App.