Writing is an essential core of communication alongside reading, speaking and listening. In this ever-changing world, writing has evolved itself into the world of technology. While spoken words are valuable, beautifully written words had touched the hearts of many and lasted longer in the records that they can even be used as a reference. One of the branches of writing that particularly positioned itself to meddle with the hearts of its readers is creative writing.

Creative writing, as defined by Nettle (2009), is “the production of fictional narratives (non-documentary, non-academic) or written representations” (as cited in Barbot et al., 2012, p. 209). In other words, creative writing can be associated with writings that are distant from the standard format for education, but rather can be seen as a writing that is meant for the purpose of relaxing. While the readers are meant to take a breath while reading novels and other fictional works, the creative writers are being in the spot to find their best ways to ensure the purpose of fascinating readers can be met. This is because “the creative writer is a kind of creator who has earned a certain fascination among people, especially readers, and especially avid readers” (Piirto, 2018, p. 3).

 

In this article, we will be summarizing the five core attitudes of a writer and the seven I’s for the creative process written by Jane Piirto, 2018 as well as where and when to work on your written works by Dr Lisa Rull, Lynette Outram and Barbara Taylor in 2014.

 

 

1. Take Risk

As a creative writer, one must be able to take risk. Taking risk in this sense is not about jumping off a parachute or go to war, but more of having courage to be creative. Having the guts to try new things, to write new things, to know more about someone else’s culture. Sure, the experiences in what the writer is writing on is valuable, but it is the guts to actually write it matters in this field. How many of us had imagined such a brilliant scenario in their heads but backed down on writing because we are afraid of what people would say about it? Exactly that is the battle creative writers need to fight. To battle such a dark war within ourselves, having your very own greatest support system is very much needed.

 

2. Trust Your Team

Trusting the members in your writing team is essential to ensure your work made it out of your laptop and to the eyes of the readers. But you may be wondering, “I am writing alone, what team are you talking about?” I thought of that too at first. That was until I read the article “The Creative Process in Writers” by Piirto (2018). Writing it may be a one-man journey, but the steps to publishing it requires many hands. The proofreaders and beta readers (if any), the editors, the publishers, the team that prepared the platforms. These people are all part of your trusted team members, consciously and subconsciously. The people that you needed to trust in order for them to trust that your artwork will be ‘the artwork’.

 

3. Tolerate to Any Sorts of Ambiguity

As there are now more people involved in getting your ‘baby’ out there, you need to tolerate to any sorts of ambiguity. The ability to withstand the lack of structure, the lack of future, control, predictions, going without plans, everything is needed (Maslow, 1998, as cited in Piirto, 2018). This ability will result to either going exactly as you wanted, or totally difference from what you imagined, and that is totally okay.

 

4. Openness to Experience

Be open to new experiences, as Piirto (2018) resolved the openness to experience as one of the core attitudes creative writers need to have in them. This is especially important when you are writing a theme that is way out of your comfort zone. Sure, you may be writing a healing themed novel, but with the hospital as the main setting. You cannot simply write “the nurse injected the patient with a fluid to cure a disease”. You can, but be ready for some shots by the nurses that read your work. You want to consider actually going to the hospital to observe their routines or open up articles regarding medicinal works to understand better of their actions. Only then, you will be able to write a more realistic movements by the health operators yet not losing your charm as the dramatic writer.

 

5. Self-discipline

The fifth core attitude that a writer must have yet struggle the most; self-discipline. Another battle that a writer has to fight not once, not twice, but almost every day. “Should I write today?”, “I am so lazy right now, can I skip a day?” or “Why am I not getting any new ideas?”. Have these kinds of thoughts ever occurred in your head? How did you handle them? Or how did you handle the situation where you write for 10 minutes but scrolled Instagram for the next two hours? No, I am not saying you cannot rest, or you must force yourself to get new ideas and I am definitely not saying Instagram is forbidden for a writer. I am simply implying that while all of those are normal in our daily life, but it is how we make the best of our time to work on ourselves to become a better writer. We are all on our way to become that writer that someone adore and wanted to become our number one fan. Hopefully you can make time to reach that goal.

 

 

For Part 2, Seven I's, click here: https://store.pelangibooks.com/en/creative-writing-part-2-seven-is

 

Article written by:

HCB (Ha ChanByeol)

Reading Spirit Publication