Are You Born A Creative Writer Or Can It Be Learnt?

Is creative writing something we can learn and develop?
Or are we simply stuck with a fixed amount of creative writing talent we’re born with?
Why do some people seem to find it easy to write pages and pages of wonderful flowing creative writing?
While others gaze on eternally frustrated that they will never be able to reach such heights of creativity and productivity?
For many of us, even if we DO manage to overcome our creative blocks in terms of the AMOUNT we write, we feel constantly disappointed with the quality of our creative writing output.
We feel we could write forever at this average-anyone-off-the-street-coulda-written-this kind of standard.
But really we long for that next elusive level.
We’re desperate for that creative writing breakthrough – that poem, that story, that single sentence – that blows us away and makes us feel we’re a powerful creative force to be reckoned with after all.
So how do we get there? How do we experience this creative epiphany?
Well, we can’t summon it up magically just like that. But there’s plenty we CAN do to make it easier for our creative writing talent to evolve to new levels.
Here are two simple ways:
1. Work on your beliefs about your creative writing ability.
If you don’t believe deep down you’re capable of writing creatively then you simply never will achieve the wonderful levels of creative writing you’re actually capable of.
Have a check in with your beliefs about your creativity.
Ask yourself honestly: How creative do I really believe I am?
If the answer is less than an emphatic – “there are no limits to my creativity, I’m as creative as I want to be!” – then it’s time to take a look at some of the ways you can increase your creative self-belief.
Start by simply listing all the things you think someone with strong self-belief thinks about themselves. The same things you’d need to think if you were to be highly creative.
Then read them out loud to yourself, as if you believe them yourself.
2. Gather evidence of your creative ability.
The second simple way to make it easier for your creativity to flourish is to gather together all the evidence of how very creative you are.
Get together all the creative writing you’ve done in the past. Everything: letters, notes, diaries, journals, as well as what you might consider your “proper” creative writing. There’s bound to be more than you think.
Another little exercise to do is take a random object from around where you’re sitting. Maybe it’s a pen or a book or a cushion.
Now pick an emotion. It could be sad, excited, overjoyed, frustrated, or any other emotion.
Imagine you’re someone for whom this object summons up that emotion very strongly. Write a couple of sentences why this is so, the history behind it.
Now you have further evidence of your creative writing ability. From just one object and one emotion you were able to create a story, and the background to a character.
Our creative writing ability is something we can ALL develop.
Start building up yours today by using these two simple techniques.