Creative writing, or creative writing in French, is a method of learning to write that has existed for a very long time in the United States. There are creative writing courses in most high schools, and entire university programs are dedicated to creative writing.
In a few words, creative writing is a technique for learning the writing process to write novels, biographies, but also essays, speeches, or even poetry. For several years now, creative writing has been enjoying a certain enthusiasm in France with the development of blogs and online writing workshop offers.
But what is creative writing?
Creative writing is a beautiful phrase that shouldn’t be translated literally. In the United States, creative writing is a discipline taught in the same way as mathematics or physical sciences. It primarily involves studying narrative structure to understand the mechanisms and tensions that create the magic of literary texts. The theoretical component is accompanied by a practical part with writing exercises to learn how to draw inspiration from what has been done before in literature to find one’s own voice.
In France, creative writing has not developed because academics have chosen to prioritize the study of texts, a more scientific approach that allows us to understand what an author wanted to say, but not to learn how to tell a story like them. This big difference is seen in our approach to literature. In the United States, being a writer is above all a skill that can be learned; in France, it is more like magic. Indeed, we consider that good writers simply have a good muse or an innate talent.
Of course, the latest studies on the subject clearly show that this is completely false. Writing is based on mastering a language and the narrative mechanisms that keep the reader in suspense. Thus, while a minimum of talent, or rather passion, one should say, is required, there is no doubt that it is the work of language and the learning of narration that allows the writer to create masterpieces. All the greatest writers agree on this point.
Today, creative writing is a discipline that combines the study of narrative patterns with writing workshops to develop creativity. It mainly takes the form of workshops that can be delivered in person or remotely, depending on the configuration. Most creative writing workshops require no prerequisites other than a certain desire to write.
What are the elements of creative writing?
Creative writing is, therefore, a set of elements that allow you to master the art of writing. Broadly speaking, the workshops aim to help you understand the recipes that make a book work or not with readers. Most teachers base their work on the great classics of literature as well as on works written by the hand of great writers on the craft of writing. We can cite, among others, Confessions of a Young Novelist by Umberto Eco or Profession Romancier by Haruki Murakami. These two authors share their writing secrets, with many avenues that can be explored precisely during a creative writing workshop.
It remains to be clarified that creative writing workshops serve precisely to fuel and unleash creativity. They stand out from any teaching framework that would only lock the writer into a limiting pattern. Thus, there is a wide range of tools and techniques that can be combined as desired. We can identify 6 main aspects that we find in most creative writing processes:
Gender
There are many genres defined by the profession, but the essence of creative writing is precisely not to be confined to one particular genre. Workshops allow you to explore different literary genres to practice and see the different particularities. Indeed, you don’t write in the same way for a historical novel or a fantasy novel. However, nothing prevents you from mixing genres if it’s done with discernment. Thus, one of the greatest fantasy novels, The Lord of the Rings, uses the codes of the historical novel to make it more credible. In creative writing, we study the different genres and the springs used in them to understand how they work and make them our own.
Narrative Schemas
The study of different narrative schemes is essential in creative writing. On the one hand, to understand how stories are co-constructed and on the other hand, to learn how to deviate from them without losing the reader. Indeed, a large majority of fiction works (as well as films or series) are construcsimilarly way by following a three-act narrative scheme:
- Presentation of the initial situation
- Fight against obstacles that lead to the climax of the plot
- Conflict resolution, character development, and conclusion.
This conformity can be disconcerting, but it is in force, a nd it is very difficult to escape from it. On the one hand, because we ourselves, as writers, are formed by the stories that have constructed us, and on the other hand, because readers are just as formatted and will feel completely disoriented if we disrupt the narrative structure of a book.
So, knowing the narrative structure is very important so as not to lose the reader… while understanding which aspects can be changed or reversed to give a little more depth.
The classic narrative pattern that arises from the three-act construction unfolds as follows.s
- The initial situation
Introducing the characters, opening the plot, setting the scene, and beginning to show the beginnings of the conflicts to come.
- The first dramatic knot
This is the first conflict, something happens that will disrupt the order of the iinitial situation and which plunges the characters into the intrigue.
- Decision making
The situation evolves with new information, and tension mounts as the story progresses. The hero(es) must act to address the conflicts.
- The climax
The decision-making triggers events that lead to the climax; it’s all or nothing, and we fear for the hero(es). This is the point we’ve been waiting for throughout the story.
- The outcome
The crisis is resolved, the conflict disappears. The hero(s) have managed to get out of it and can return to a normal situation, which will, however, be different from the initial situation. This is the time for learning and closure.
Character Development
A good novel is, above all, one or more good characters with whom we can identify and whom we want to follow. While the narrative structure is important, we often want to know what will happen to our favorite character rather than follow the plot. This is also why we often want a sequel! We want to continue following the character’s adventures.
Creative writing workshops allow you to work on the character by giving them as much depth as possible. Indeed, a good character in a novel is a character who really exists. The greatest characters like Peter Pan or Madame de Bovary are so well written that they pierce the walls of fiction to enter reality. They make us laugh, cry, and sometimes feel more for them than for real people. Thus, the success of a story lies in the care we give to the characters. In creative writing, we learn to give them substance. We describe their physical appearance, but also their character. We write their story, where they were born, what they have experienced in their life? How did they get to the stage where the story begins? The more real the character seems, the better the novel will be!
The perspective
This is an important factor. From what point of view do we tell a story? Creative writing explores the different perspectives we can have. For example, we can know the point of view of the narrator or the protagonist, or even an omniscient point of view that sees everything. It is possible to juggle between these different perspectives to bring freshness to the story.
The workshops allow you to experiment and see the differences between each point of view and the emotions that this can provoke in the reader.
The dialogues
Writing dialogue is not trivial and requires practice and knowledge of certain essential points. In addition to the formal aspect with the use of hyphens, quotation marks, and mastery of punctuation, it is important to learn to express several voices at the same time so that the reader does not have the impression that it is always the same person speaking. Many creative writing exercises allow you to cultivate this effect.
Literary techniques
Finally, creative writing also encompasses all the technical aspects of literature with the exploration of different literary techniques such as allegory, alliteration, metaphor, ellipsis, etc. Dozens of them can be used during a story.
Examples of creative writing exercises
Creative writing involves offering creative writing exercises to practice writing. Some exercises may seem less relevant to you, but it’s important to try them anyway. Indeed, it’s often the exercises we’re least interested in that point to our deepest shortcomings.
Here we present ten of them to you
- Describe a photo
It is a great classic for training in the description of landscapes.
- Describe a character
You can choose an existing or fictional character. The goal is to describe them as faithfully as possible.
There are many variations in describing the person using animal vocabulary, for example, to get away from the classic “aquiline nose, thin face…”.
- Tell a story using only short sentences: subject – verb – direct object. (10 to 15 sentences)
Example story: A woman or a man is walking down a crowded street.
Describe the character, what he does or does not do, what he sees, etc.
Smooth, semi-automatic writing.
Rewrite the same story with long sentences (at least two prepositions)
- Describe a simple action.
Example: sharpen a pencil, wash a plate, brush your hair. Minimum 100 words.
- Describe a landscape as seen by an elderly woman whose old, hateful, disgusting husband has just died. Neither the husband nor the death should be mentioned.
Variation number 1: Describe a lake as seen by a young man who has just committed a murder. Do not mention the murder.
Variation number 2: Describe a landscape seen by a bird. Do not mention the bird.
- Write about a woman walking in a forest with all 5 senses.
- Describe a scene with a character going to the bathroom.
Take the same character eating a slice of cake.
Take the same character killing a chicken.
- Write a modern dialogue (without the “he said”) between two people who disagree. Topic of your choice: trimming a hedge / eating insects / running / free
No narration
Variation number 1: Write a dialogue choosing another subject and including a narration that transcribes the emotions, gestures, setting, etc.
Variation number 2: Write a dialogue without any particular subject, two characters who meet, while they are walking in a street without using the words streets, cities, avenue, etc., but making it clear that they are in a street.
Variation number 3: Write a dialogue in which each of the two characters has a secret. Don’t reveal the secret, but let the reader guess. Give both characters ways of speaking that are personal to them, and make the dialogue vibrate with feelings that are not directly expressed.
- Write the paragraph that precedes the discovery of a body. Play on the suspense, build up the tension without mentioning the body.
- Rewrite the same story differently each time, for example, by changing the narrative point of view.
For more exercises, we invite you to consult the 30 writing exercises by John Gardner, one of the pioneers of creative writing. You can also consult the exercises by Raymond Queneau or Georges Perec from the OULIPO workshop, a leading French authority on creative writing.