10 Reasons Why Serious Academic Students Should Take Creative Writing

Take a Writing Detour

By Randee Baty at The Lukeion Project

Every fall here at Lukeion Project we focus on academic writing. It’s something every student will need eventually, so we offer an introduction to academic writing with our Skillful Scribbler class and a more advanced level of academic writing with our College Composition class. Academic writing has fairly rigid conventions that prescribe set forms and styles that don’t vary much among professors. It’s a style of writing that is necessary for students to know but is mainly used as they go through their academic life. In the spring, however, we offer the opportunity to do something much more creative and, for most students, more joyful and freeing: creative writing. 
Because creative writing is used less directly in classroom settings as students move into high school and college, not everyone will take advantage of the opportunity to spend a semester in this useful and engaging class. Along with the pleasure and fun it provides for those who are often overly stressed by their classes, creative writing provides true academic benefits and life skills that are definitely worth consideration for parents and students. 

Expand the Technical Mind

Creative writing expands the mind to think creatively in many different ways. They are creating new worlds, new situations, new characters, and innovative ideas that no one may have ever thought of before. Motorola’s engineer Martin Cooper directly cited Star Trek when inventing the first cell phone in 1973. What began as a creative idea in a writer’s head is now one of the most omnipresent devices on the planet. The founders of iRobot that created the Roomba vacuum acknowledge the robot maid, Rosie from the animated show The Jetsons, as one of their inspirations. (We had named our Roomba Rosie even before I knew this). Companies need workers who can solve problems by thinking outside the box. The next major invention could be lurking inside the head of one of our creative writers!

Expand Working Vocabulary

One of the most important benefits of creative writing is how it helps a student broaden their vocabulary. The class requires young authors to use language from a variety of settings, not just academic subjects. They will write about various places and times, diverse types of characters and different actions and activities. All of those require clear and understandable language that speaks directly to the reader, providing specific details. While many young writers struggle with specificity in academic writing, creating stories, plays, or poetry require specific language, and this skill is strengthened. 

Expand Communication Skills

Creative writing allows participants to explore several types of writing. Short stories, dialogue, poetry, and drama all require distinct types of thinking skills for putting the proper words on the page. These skills translate well into business writing later in life. Someone who has mastered the art of putting their entire meaning into a few lines of poetry has no problems later writing clear and effective business memos or copy for ads. A student who has learned how to distill a whole narrative into a few pages has the skills to write a strong college entrance exam. Creative writing skills are transferable to much of what they will need later in life.

Grow Comfortable with a Range of Expression

Creative writing allows students to play with words. Reluctant writers aren’t tied to academic language and get to experiment more without being told that they are often wrong in the way they express themselves. Eager writers can take their love of words further than would ever be proper in an academic writing setting. Vocabulary, style, and voice are all encouraged by this. 

Expand Soft Skills

Creating a strong and cohesive story that will engage readers and keep them reading requires planning, research and organization as well as good time-management skills. These are all the “soft skills” that academics and future employers are looking for. Outlines are still needed, and deadlines must be met. A class where students are planning, writing, reviewing, and revising their own imaginative work is a great blend of freedom and structure that translates into most jobs later in life. 

Encourage Reading for Pleasure

Creative writing classes improve the student’s appreciation of literature. Most students will have to take a certain number of literature classes throughout their academic careers, and understanding how poetry, novels, short stories, and plays are constructed and composed heightens their understanding and ability to interpret what they are reading. It just makes literature more fun!

Gain Confidence in Collaboration

Creative writing gives students more confidence in their writing skills. This class requires workshopping, where classmates read and critique each other’s work. By sharing their work on a consistent basis with others and receiving feedback on it, both praise and constructive criticism, writers come out of the class feeling much more comfortable and confident with others reading their work. Even good writers tend to be overly critical of their writing and shy away from sharing it. Creative Writing helps students get past that mindset and enjoy sharing what they’ve done with others. 

Prepare for Competitive Writing

Essay and writing competitions abound. Both academic and creative writing skills are useful in these types of competitions. While many of them require fact-based topics, the ability to capture an audience in the way a student talks about the topic is honed and refined in creative writing. These types of competitions look great on a college entrance essay and sometimes carry scholarship money. They are also another avenue for helping students become comfortable sharing their writing with others. 

Communicate Critical Thinking

Any writing class of any kind improves a student’s critical thinking skills. Whether it is academic or creative, writing is thinking. The ability to turn complex ideas into words that others can follow and understand, even enjoy, is one of the hallmarks of a good thinker and a necessary skill for both college and the work world.