creative writing journey example

creative writing journey example

The Power of Writing

1. The Beginning of My Writing Journey

It was in year 6 when my teacher told my parents that I had talent in writing. My parents were surprised as I had never showed any interest in writing at home. My teacher told me to enter a writing competition and although I felt it was a chore at the time, I am grateful my mom stepped in to push me to participate, as it is one of the biggest factors that have shaped me to who I am today. My journey actually begins during the December holidays of 2004, when I had moved house. I found an old model kit which I had forgotten I had, and decided to pass time by assembling it. However, I soon discovered that I was missing the instruction manual. Although I was upset, in retrospect it was a fortuitous event as it was the first time in my life where I began to write a fictional story. Writing was the only way I could ‘assemble’ the model kit with my imagination. As a child who never enjoyed writing, I was surprised myself as I excitedly wrote one chapter, then another and another. I finally completed it in the wee hours before school reopened in 2005. The story was entitled “The Kingdom Destroyed Eras War Chronicles” and it was the longest story I had ever written at that point in time. Although it was filled with childish language and grammar mistakes, it held significance to me because it was the beginning of my love for writing. From there, I continued to write on an episodic and humorous story featuring my friends and I. This was the turning point where my parents and friends noticed the increased creativity in my works.

2. Overcoming Challenges and Finding Inspiration

Darren suggests that using challenging life experiences as a topic for writing can be a therapeutic way to work through the associated emotions and can be used in some form of creative non-fiction with different characterizations and endings to the reality. Challenging experiences can also lend passion and authenticity to our writing and can be used as a foundation for a change of fortunes for our characters, be it in fiction or in real-life anecdotes like Darren’s on improving the speech and script of a childhood scene. He proposes that during challenging times, it is beneficial to express thoughts and feelings in a private journal or blog and that through doing so, a writer may often find inspiration for topics.

In this section, Darren discusses how we can find inspiration from challenging life experiences to help overcome writer’s block. In doing so, he highlights the fact that it is often these challenges in life which have the most profound impact on our writing. To illustrate his point, he tells of his childhood experience with a speech impediment and how he was bullied by schoolyard friends. As a result, Darren turned to writing as a form of communication as it was much easier for him to express himself on paper than vocally. Likewise, when he lost his father at age 20, Darren found writing to be a form of therapy which helped him to work through his grief. These experiences, according to Darren, were some of the most inspired writing that he had produced.

3. Developing my Writing Skills

I tried to improve my writing. How it enables me to cure a complex of speech impairment. This is the question. At school or at the college I have to write so many assignments, work dealing with writing, from simple essay, summary, report, or even scientific writing. This is my starting point. At first my write looks unorganized and too much task block on the sentence. Then my school teacher gave me some feedback that my writing looks quite difficult to understand. From that, I try to make a little improvement on my writing. Then I start to read and understand structure of essay or paragraph. I try to imitate it, but it’s quite hard for me. So I found an easier solution, by use mapping method. I also get an idea to take a part-time job on a typing document service. This is where I try to improve my typing. At first it took so long just to type a half page of A4 paper, it’s bit difficult to use 10 fingers. But after this side job, right now I can type near the average of professional typist. This is also a small part of my writing skills development.

4. Sharing my Writing with the World

When I was starting to introduce others to my writing, I would often preface it by saying that it wasn’t very good. Truthfully, I was embarrassed and I didn’t have faith in my abilities. As time went on, I learned to be less critical of my work and became more open to feedback. Contrary to what many believe, taking criticism is very beneficial to a writer. It can sometimes be tough to hear, but it should be used as a process of learning. After all, no one is perfect and it is through our mistakes that we improve. I also found that anything I produced for an audience was of higher quality than what I would do for myself. Knowing that others will be reading what I have written pushes me to do the best that I can do. It is an excellent motivator and very rewarding when others acknowledge your hard work. This ties in with setting goals for yourself. Without an audience, your goals are very broad and it can be difficult to stay motivated. By sharing your writing be it with a teacher, a friend, or posting it online, you are giving yourself a specific goal i.e. positive feedback on a certain passage, or writing something that will move your audience emotionally. Without setting specific goals, one cannot progress forward.

5. The Future of My Writing Journey

The remainder of my writing career is crucial to how I will develop as a writer. During the next few years, I can see myself experimenting with different styles of writing, depending on the audience or purpose of my work. I feel this skill is crucial to becoming a versatile writer as it is important to be able to adapt your writing to suit different readers or purposes. For example, last year I spent lots of time on the programme for Band 1 basketball. This was a very informal piece intended for the players and their parents. I conveyed all information in a light-hearted manner, using slang and inside jokes. This style of writing was a significant change from my usual formal tone and it was difficult to adjust to at first. I brainstorm ideas in my head and plan to write more often, allowing myself more time to proofread and edit my work. I have found knowing family members to be my biggest critics, providing insight and advice on how I can improve my work. This has been invaluable to me as an aspiring writer and has played a large part in my improvement over the past year. In terms of future studies and work, I believe there will be occasions where I will need to present reports or information and I am sure my writing abilities will be an asset. I also hope to tutor English students and use my skill to assist them with their work. I am interested in different types of creative writing such as scripts or short stories and feel I will benefit from these greatly. With my improvement in writing thus far, I hope to plan for a career in journalism and this is an area in which I believe my word will have an impact. Hopefully by then I will be writing on behalf of others and working to prove the things in which I believe.