You Can Profit From Feedback And Feel The Benefit In Increased Income

Wikipedia defines creative writing by stating that it ‘is considered to be any writing, fiction, poetry, or non-fiction, that goes outside the bounds of normal professional, journalistic, academic, and technical forms of literature. Works which fall into this category include novels, epics, short stories, and poems. Writing for the screen and stage, screenwriting and playwriting respectively, typically have their own programs of study, but fit under the creative writing category as well.’
Forms of creative writing include:
Autobiography/Memoir
Collaborative writing
Creative non-fiction (Personal & Journalistic Essays)
Epic
Flash fiction
Novel
Novella
Playwriting/Dramatic writing
Poetry
Screenwriting
Short story
Song writing
Bibliography
Stream of consciousness (narrative mode)
Some people decide to take up this form of writing because it forms part of their academic study. They may, for example, be studying the art of creative writing and therefore are tasked with completing their own assignments to ensure that they can truly understand the art of creative composition. Others may be studying English literature and / or language and as part of this course they are required to complete their own creative writing to better understand the authors they are studying. However, other people decide to write creatively because they see it as a fulfilling pastime, and then there are some lucky individuals who get to write creatively full time, as part of their job.
Whatever the motivation for writing creatively, unless the writing is being completed for the eyes of the author only, most pieces of creative literature will be put in front of an audience for review. This review may be deliberate – requesting a tutor or friend to comment on the writing completed for example – or it may be unintentional, through a member of the public reading a creative writing piece that has been published in an anthology for example.
Obtaining a review or some form of feedback on your work is invaluable – particularly if you deliberately seek this feedback prior to finalising and publishing it. There are a number of ways that you can intentionally seek feedback on your creative writing:
– Giving your work to a friend or family member to read and comment upon
– Giving your writing to a tutor, teacher or mentor to read and comment upon
– Placing your writing on a blog or writing website and welcoming comments from others
– Sending your work into a professional editorial or manuscript review company and asking them to provide you with a full report on your work
The main reasons individuals seek feedback and a review on their creative writing are:
– So that they can be signposted to areas of weakness within their manuscript, which they can then work upon to improve the entire text
– To receive constructive criticism
– To be able to discuss their manuscript intelligently, in order to further build up their creative masterpiece
– To locate encouragement and support
– To motivate themselves to either look again at the creative piece they have completed, or to commence a new piece
– To build self esteem