Creative writing starts with you – your imagination, personality, and interests. This is because only you know what you want to write about and how you like to work. Only you too can choose to spend time working at your poetry or prose to help your words communicate to others what you have in mind. This article focuses on how to discover why you want to write and what sort of writing matches you.
Writing is an intentional activity. Almost everyone can string sentences together to form paragraphs, but unlike having the skill of painting in oils, playing the guitar or violin, and other artistic skills, writing to communicate to a specific audience appears to be a tall order for many because it requires a lot of study, hard work, and practice. We all spend our lives telling stories, and in that sense, everyone does have a book or a story in them, but that does not translate to everyone being prepared to work at it in such a way that, as a piece of art, it communicates itself to other people. You need to take yourself seriously as a writer and develop your craft in the best way possible. Do not be too worried about how well taken your writing will be; just write as well as you can – write about the things that give you pleasure and at the same time challenge you. Those are the kind of things that are most likely to interest others.
On how to discover why you want to write, take a moment to ask yourself why you want to do so. If the reason is that you think this is the fastest route to become wealthy, then you have missed the point. It takes a lot for you to become famous and your book a bestseller – your book needs to be filmed, shortlisted for a book prize, or become one of those rare runaway bestsellers that everybody dreams about but hardly ever happens. That noted, what might be some motivation for you to write? For one thing, it could be that something is nagging away at you that you need to write down – an event from your life (past or current) that has haunted or puzzled you. For another, a situation keeps coming to mind. For example, you wonder, ‘what if this were to happen, how would I feel, what would I do?’ and you want to explore it. It could also be that you keep hearing a character’s voice in your head, and you want to find out who that is. And just maybe you always loved writing stories at school and now realise you would like to feel that pleasure again!
Why is it great to write based on any of these reasons? Because the impulse emanates from you and is not dependent on anything outside yourself that you cannot control. It is solely your imagination, commitment, and willingness to learn and develop your craft that drive you – and there can be no stopping you. Although people have proposed several theories behind the reason writers write – a wish-fulfilment fantasy; a form of therapy; a way to achieve immortality; or a way to achieve fame – the fact remains that you write because you want to do so! And you have to want to. No one’s putting a gun to your head and demanding that you produce a masterpiece. There’s already a lot of published work out there, and your contribution may not add so much more; however, remember that there are no two persons like you. Your expressions remain yours, and unless you share them, they’ll never be heard or read.
How might you decide the kind of writing you want to do? Check out what form of writing you are usually drawn to. If you love children and reading aloud to them, go ahead with that. Many of the best children’s stories have started that way. Or if you love a grand canvas and big novels with sub-plots, twists, and turns, go for that. Don’t let other people talk you out of your natural way of writing. Suppose you really want to write poetry, but you feel that no market exists for it, and you go ahead to write novels. You might end up becoming frustrated as a novelist even though you may have turned out a fine poet. If you don’t know what kind of writing you want to do, just try out various forms. Then write whatever comes up. If you feel that you’d love to write but don’t have any ideas, then just open yourself up to people and situations around you. You could sit in a café and watch the customers – invent a story about who they are, and where they are from, why they’re there, who they’re thinking of, and what they want. You could also go into your garden – find a flower, tree, or view, and describe it. Then turn the writing into a poem. Again, you can find an old photograph. Think about what it reminds you of and what it makes you think of. Where does it take your imagination? There you go – write down your thoughts.
As to the form your writing takes, no rule stipulates that you cannot write both prose and poetry. Worry not about the length, nor about the audience (for example, you may start out writing for children but then discover that your writing is geared towards adult fantasy). For the fact that you’re just starting out with writing, just write, and let the material take you where it will. You can always go back later and adjust elements in the text.
So far in part one of this article (watch out for other parts), we have seen how to discover why you want to write and how to identify the kind of writing you would like to do. Remember that writing is a lot about you wanting to do it. It is never forced. And even though everyone can string sentences together, not everyone is a writer.