Where Does One Begin With Creative Writing

There are probably some of you reading this who have taken a creative writing course or have in the past, and its okay for you to keep reading. My aim is that this set of basic writing reminders will help the writer of any age, style, or skill level to continue their pursuit of creating great literature. So don’t skip to other articles thinking you have nothing to receive from this one. Perhaps you have heard everything in this before, but being reminded of their significance can be very encouraging and motivating.
First, I want to issue an important disclaimer. Perhaps its not a disclaimer, but rather a factoid. Do not be discouraged if you have not been trained in writing or have never attended college. Authors like William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Agatha Christie (my personal favorite), Jane Austen, and even the renowned J. K. Rowling never went to college. They just wrote! Of course these writers are among the best of the best, and their writing didn’t achieve the great popularity they did overnight, but this should be encouraging to anyone wanting to write.
Any person out there wanting to begin a life of writing needs to simply begin. I’ve told so many people over the past few years to just write. They tell me a funny story or a personal epiphany, but when I tell them to write it down. They crunch up their nose and say, “No one will want to read that” or “I’m no writer.” All I can respond with is, “do it anyway!” A life of writing doesn’t mean you have to become the next Stephen King or Mary Higgins Clark. A life of writing means practice. For example, a personal goal of my own is to write something every day. I will either try to pump out a few pages of my novel, start a new short story, or even just edit/revise past work. You need to have words and sentences involved with as many aspects of your life as possible.
To give you a few ideas of things to write, take into consideration these tips:
Keep a note book next to your bed. I tend to have the best ideas for stories or scenes for stories when I am either on the verge of falling asleep or waking up. Sometimes I will even have great ideas in my dreams. Of course dreams can get a little weird and unrealistic, but these dreams can spawn great stories. The note book is important, at least for me, because these ideas tend to get away from me. No matter how great the idea is or how fleshed out the idea is in your head, it has the possibility of being forgotten. Write it down!
Write poems out of grocery lists. I actually just thought of this, so I have never tried it myself, but I plan on going shopping just so I can give this form of practice a shot. Even if you aren’t a poet, you can get a little fancy with descriptive words and things needed for your kitchen. Also keep in mind that poetry doesn’t need to rhyme. Also, its not like you are publishing your shopping list, so just have fun with it. I’m going to write an example now simply because it sounds intriguing.
Normal List
Eggs, Milk, Cereal, Ground Beef, Frozen Chicken, Hot Sauce, Ranch Dressing, Bread, Pop-Tarts, Gatorade, Swiss Cheese, Sliced Cheese, Drain-0, Pepto-Bismol.
Grocery Poem
Lilliputians beware, eggs be your foe
You cannot get sick, you have Pepto-Bismol.
Milk is a cure, for the burn that lingers
Hot sauce the culprit, that covers my chicken fingers.
Cereal is deceptive, we think it unhealthy
but look at the box, its oh so yummy.
Ground beef is my regal entree
Ranch on your salad, and desert a parfait.
For breakfast I feast on strawberry Pop-Tarts,
which is great for now, until all the farts.
To combat the gas, what comes to the rescue?
Sliced and swiss cheese to effectively stop you.
Wash down your sandwich, which resides between bread,
with nectar of gods, Gatorade Red.
Don’t forget the clog that plagues your poor sink
use the great help of Drain-O, the King.
Write a daily journal. Everyday normal things can turn into fantastic literature in the hands of someone skilled (David Sedaris, Terry Kirts). At the end of every day, take the time to jot down the main events from that day. After a while you will see your nonfiction becoming more and more interesting. Even the menial tasks of an accountant can become interesting, funny, and insightful. Learn to put lessons or things you learned from that day into your journaling, so every reader will have a reason to read.
Something every writer needs is a decent vocabulary. Instead of reading the dictionary, make your own. Any word you come across that you don’t know, write it down and define it. I have a small journal that I have transformed into my own personal dictionary. All the words that I don’t know, I write in my journal, look them up, then occasionally I will read through it. Its amazing to see how, without much effort or studying, most of those words in my dictionary have become a part of my everyday vocabulary.
I don’t want you to think that an expansive and complicated vocabulary is necessary to become a good writer. Its quite the contrary actually. If I see a work with too many big words it seems fake and pompous. A good vocabulary though is useful for using descriptive words, and descriptive words are absolutely pivotal to imagery, setting, and characterization.