Creative Writing

Creative Writing is a form that is quite different from normal professional or academic form of literature. It, in a certain way, goes beyond them. All kinds of writing whether fictional or non-fictional, fall into this umbrella called creative writing. Being "creative" is to use our imagination and compose something new and original. Sometimes, we write not as a typical "writer" but to just let go of our thoughts. It promotes mental health. As we know, life is completely dramatic, we sometimes may write to  just have a sense of where we are heading to keep a record of our experiences. It is hard to define what we feel, we can just write it down.

The importance lies in the fact of its free nature. Creative Writing bridges the gap between academics and artistic pursuit. Now, It has started to be taught at schools and at university level by the use of school based literary magazines, writing contests, etc. It is taught in a workshop format where students submit their original work and then are exposed to peer critique. It is mostly considered as an extension of English discipline though it is taught around the world in various languages. But, in a true sense it is a discipline on its own. One can pursue creative writing in any language. It entirely depends on imagination that is not bound by any caste, creed or sex. English is a critical study of already written literary forms and not of their creation. Studying English as a discipline makes us engross so much into reading in the most  rigorous & comprehensive way and further makes us go haywire into criticising those very texts. This makes our head go so full of it that we hardly remember how to compose something new. The crisis of not being able to write a good piece after reading so much of the great works of all kinds captures us. Creative writing challenges this very tradition. 

Many argue creative writing just can't be taught in classrooms. They say it is instinctive and are gifted to some individuals as a natural talent. Not everyone can be a novelist or a songwriter yes but having read about the discipline of creative writing can surely increase our chances of becoming one. It polishes our talent and sometimes helps to inculcate it and find what we really possess. It helps discover our hidden capabilities.

We are taught various elements in creative writing. Understanding of action, character, dialogue, genre, narration, pace, plot making, scene, style, theme, tone are some of the elements that are taught which are a perquisite in writing any kind of creative write up. There are various forms or modes of creative writing. Poetry, Fiction & Drama are some of the categories in which it is classified. These modes have sub categories like autobiography, non-fiction( journalistic writing), children's book, epic, graphic novel, novel, screenplay, short story, dialogue, blogs, novella, etc. 

Words offer us myriad ways to tell our stories. We have to evaluate what's the best way to say them. Some focus on nuances of human character and say them through a play whereas some focus on the ambiguities of life and write them through a song. 

Play favours character & performance which are of paramount importance rather than other props. We wait for the characters to come and speak their emotions, the other screen props are a luxury rather than a necessity. If we look at plays from the Greek, we see people did not have much props to play with, it is the character whose intonation, inflection in speech, various facial contortions that really carries the play forward. The dialogue writing should also be in sync with the main emotion the play wants to depict. In indian "Natyashastra", the rules are written down in a structured way on how to exactly enact a drama. Though, the dramaturgy has evolved so much since ancient times and many new changes have been made, some have completely transformed what has been already laid down but the main crux of emphasis on the development of character(s) from the beginning to the end is still the same. 

Poetry paints a picture through a small vision of the world but under close scrutiny it's so much larger than we can ever guess. We see time, place, colour, texture, all embedded in the verses. We feel & identify with the emotion. Poetry comprises different layers that have to be taken off slowly and slowly to understand the subtleties hidden inside. Poetry is written in various styles; blank verse, rhymed poetry, free verse, sonnets are some of the examples of these styles. Just like other forms with time poetry too has evolved. The main motive of a poem is to produce forth the exact emotions one feels in words and to make the reader synchronize with the same feelings. Though the interpretation might be different for different individuals, a good poem always makes the soul fly to the unknown and hits the unconscious straight that makes the conscious look in awe of the delight it has produced. It is something I call a "poetic orgasm".

Similar to poetry, songs work on many levels at once. Songwriting doesn't come from set rules. It comes instinctively. Musicians absorb ideas from life. What they sing might mean different to different people depending on what situation one is in. No clarification is generally provided. What every listener does is guesswork. We are left searching for the meaning which just flows. Sometimes, what is sung doesn't mean much than how it sounds. Music is of various forms like Rap, Pop, classical, etc.  In the contemporary times, many forms have evolved and many new came into being. The burden has been shifted from what is written to what one hears due to technical enhancement in this field. The tune, videography, dance means more than what is being said. Though we can't still say authenticity has declined as such but still it has become less accountable. The musicians have also evolved in reaction to this change. 

We use signs, observe facial expressions, scrutinize reactions to know what lies inside an individual to understand him/her. Language plays a very crucial role in knowing how certain people behave in a certain way. Screenplay refrains from overtly exposing these intricacies instead it shows location, plot or structure. We see the world and are carried away with the relationship the characters display in relation to it. Understanding one's history in relation to this is like an external thought that tells us what one is carrying within. Our surroundings decide how we would come up in response to them. The change in the plot is brought forth by well written visuals. The characters don't say it themselves but still we are able to feel it. 

There are many other forms that are held within creative writing but whatever might be the mode, we must be able to display the same emotion that first sparked the fire. We should not become so entangled in the intricacies that we forget what we are to write or rather mould the meaning in such an eccentric way that it becomes nothing but an exaggeration of words. We must learn from different writing styles but not end up in only imitating them. We should focus on painting our own canvas. With the use of different paint and imagination we can paint our own night sky.