Creative writing: exercises to start and grow with it

Creative writing has not only led men and women to play with words, achieving the maximum expression of beauty; to create stories and imaginary worlds of great richness or to transmit and perpetuate knowledgebut, besidesis offered to us as a powerful vehicle to find ourselves naked before ourselves and discover sometimes surprising aspects of our personality.

In this sense, creative writing, or simply writing freely, letting your imagination run wild, can become an interesting therapeutic tool At the same time, it is a great way to cultivate and develop our creativity.

From our first graphs to the school essays, the poems of adolescence, the intimate diary or letters to friends to the reflections on daily reality put on paper, as a protest or as a simple exercise to raise awareness, We have all had contact with creative writing at some point..

Some of us meet her through loneliness, the need to express our feelings and thoughts from the depths of our being in search of complicity and truth. As the writer Simone de Beauvoir says “Perhaps in the beginning we only wrote our diaries when we couldn’t live and when we lived we stopped writing”.

Somehow, the writer is born when the pen and the blank paper or the computer become the path that leads to a world of dreams, mysteries, magic and fascination, where the word wants to be manifested and the writer becomes a receptive and creative channel that enjoys or suffers, but always vibrates recounting personal experiences, creating fictional characters and stories, seeking the pure expression of poetry or becoming a social militant of the word through essays.

Of course, getting to this point is not easy. There are many factors that can discourage us to take the step of giving ourselves to creative writing, of writing a story, a short story or a novel. For example, like fear to do it wrong, the thought that we will not have the imagination or ability to carry out such works and above all the multiple myths that circulate about writers, as untouchables or steppenwolves located in a recognized elite.

Inspired to write?

Most writers have come to communicate not so much based on inspiration (which also exists), how to exercise in learning writing techniques and being passionate about what they were doing.

The American poet and writer Julia Cameron, in her book The Right and Pleasure of Writing, He asks, “What would happen? if we simply dedicate ourselves to writing without aspiring to become ‘real writers’, if we didn’t have to worry about the publication and criticism of our works, if we considered how to do it rafting in crystal clear waters? Well surely we would realize that the chilling sensation of having descended the rapids of the creative process has been worth it just for the sake of trying it.”

Cameron, like so many other writers, claims that, when we think about the process of writing more than the product, the blank page loses solemnity and it allows our expression to be free and fluid, something that in itself validates what we are writing.

Writing connects us to our deep selves and offers clarity, strength, and guidance.

To break the ice with a type of creative writing, we can find it rewarding to make a journal testimonial of our days or perhaps we want to go further, trying some literary genre.

In this case, there are creative writing workshops where it is possible to learn different techniques to structure a novel, to work on the characters and dialogues that will be part of it, or in which you can have a positive approach to other genres, such as poetry and essays.

In general, in these workshops individual work is carried out, which is discussed and analyzed in groups and that become part of a unique work.

Alejandra Prietojournalist, explains that signed up for a creative writing course for a personal challenge.

“I was convinced that I had no imagination to tackle a novel, not even a short story, so I signed up for a workshop to force myself to launch myself, and the truth is that the result surprised me.

I realised that applying the techniques that they taught us, the imagination was activated and the characters were taking on a life of their own and directing the writing.

I had a lot of fun in the workshop and alsothe fact of entering into a creative process It helped me to reaffirm myself to realize that my imagination is not as flat as I thought and to learn that perseverance and enjoyment are important virtues for those who really commit to writing As a life form”.

From creative writing to therapeutic writing

An essential aspect in the act of writing and that is closely linked to the creative process is the possibility of explore inside.

Whenever we sit in front of the paper or the computer we are taking a time to be alone with ourselves and we give that time an important value. The room where we write it is filled with silence and magic.

We call the words and they emerge before our eyes offering us the possibility of contemplating ourselves in them. In those moments of fusion in which we can achieve freedom from all self-censorship and be honest with ourselves, ideas, feelings and thoughts emerge pure.

We cry, we laugh, we empty ourselves and, in that void, what is written covers our life with its beauty; with this type of writing, which is also a type of creative writing, we remove emotional blocks and we open ourselves to the possibility of recognizing ourselves and learn from experience.

This form of creative writing can then become a powerful way of connecting with our self. deep and offer us clarity, strength and guidance.

This is precisely what some are after. writing workshops, such as the “Intensive Journal” devised by Ira ProgoffAmerican psychologist who fought in Europe during World War II.

Progoff claims that if the great books of wisdom that allow you to connect with yourself and with the rest of humanity they would disappear forever nothing would happenbecause these books were written from a space not only typical of the authors who created them, but from a common and constitutive center of the human being: introspection and the ability to contemplate and reflect on oneself and about the reality that surrounds us.

Made known in our country by the Jesuit and director of seminars on psychology José Vicente Bonet, the Progoff method focuses further in personal exploration from the written word than in the purely creative aspect.

Francesc Codinacoordinator of this workshop at the Institut Gestalt in Barcelona, ​​explains that during an intensive weekend teaches participants to write in a peculiar way, so that they can put into words what makes up their own life: important things that have happened to them, significant people, vital projects, satisfactions…

“The work is divided into three stages: in the first, the person describes relevant events and experiences that are latent. In the second, she becomes aware of what these evoked facts awaken in her. as feelingwhich is also expressed in writing, and in a third stage the person distances himself and allows himself to be impacted by what these facts tell him symbolically“says Codina, who adds that the work dynamic consists of write using short sentencesin order to make it easier for the person to focus on the pure description of the facts, without having to draw conclusions or theories that can stop their spontaneous expressive fluidity.

“In the workshop we put aside any pretense of analyzing, interpreting or writing correctly. One writes for himself and does not show or read his work to anyone to be judged. This makes expression much freer.”

The interesting thing about the experience is that offers the opportunity for an apparently banal subject to reveal itself to one with all its richness, its complexity, its nuances… allowing let the inner world express itself, without trying to fix anything or achieve anything.

“The workshop does not have a purpose, neither therapeutic nor of any other type, although through it we can reconnect with the deep impulse to observe how we are living our life, how we can live it and what we are guests in it. It is more a work of discovery than of realization“, concludes Francesc Codina.

How to write to release emotions

One of the virtues of the written word is its power and its transcendence. We write what we think is important and we sign on paper everything transcendental in our lives: contracts, mortgages, weddings, wills…

In the same way, the act of writing can become during illness in a healing ritual to which to turn thanks to its ability to act as a powerful visualization.

Can put on paper how the pain we feel is, why do we think we are sick and see the way in which written discourse can help us.

There are various options for this: an imaginary landscape can be created in which our body emerges victorious from a tough battle; or do a review of our life so far, trying to improve those aspects that can be transformed; or simply make a deep description of our person, being completely honest, observing defects and virtues and making peace with ourselvesso that words, expressed from the heart, become poetry capable of enlightening us.

Somehowthrough creative writing we can reconcile with ourselvesaccept ourselves as we are, and fly to an imaginary time and place where anything is possible, even reinvent your own life.

Creative writing exercises and other ideas

Curiosity towards oneself and towards the environment is basic to write, so if we are attentive it will not be difficult to find juicy topics. Here are some recommendations first:

Write daily. It doesn’t matter where or when or how much time we dedicate to it. The interesting thing is to have a daily appointment to pour there what we most want: things that worry us, people who interest us, write about the beauty of the landscape… You don’t have to wait for a sabbatical year to write or wait for the retirement, but do it now 10 minutes a day is enough.A space of your own. Although any place is useful for putting impressions on paper, it is important to have a meeting place with the muses. The desk with or without a computer, with a dim light, with very soft music and surrounded by photos and motifs that stimulate us can be the best door to creativity.A receptive channel. Brahms said: “Instantly, ideas flow into me, directly from God”, and the painter Piet Mondrian expressed that “the artist’s posture is humble, since it is essentially a channel”. At the time of writing, appeal to…