The first principle of a creative writing – write as you talk

The First Principle of Creative Writing – Write as You Talk

• The most persistent issue my students face with writing is their lack of creative agility. They’ve clearly been taught how to structure a “good” essay—they know all the formal components and literary devices required to produce one—but they don’t genuinely know how to create with them.
  • During a recent class, just before we delved into the topic of creative writing, they told me they used to copy someone else’s work from the board and churn out clichéd essays (or at least that’s how I understood it).
• Hence their constant grumbling and resistance whenever I introduce this part of the course. They’re intimidated by the act of writing. They haven’t cultivated the habit of writing regularly. One would assume that after so much copying and constructing formulaic essays, they would’ve developed some writing discipline—but alas, that’s not the case.
  • Writing is very much like a muscle—the more you exercise it, the stronger it becomes. The enjoyment comes later, when the mental strain of producing something worthwhile begins to feel proportionate to the effort. That feeling of a “sore brain” is not unlike the soreness you experience after an hour-long workout at the gym.
• This time, I decided to adopt a different approach to teaching the discipline of consistent writing. The method is simple: daily journaling. I’ve already described one exercise, but this is a distinct track inspired by a master scriptwriter’s routine.
• The purpose of the journal operates on several levels:
  First, it serves as a tangible tool for consistent practice—visible, easily reviewed, accessible, and capable of motivating (or discouraging, if misunderstood).
  Second, the journal nurtures the development of an authentic and believable voice—your own voice.
  • In a daily journal, the content is secondary to the process. Writing a few pages a day is a solid strategy—one that Hemingway reportedly followed. A few pages constitute a meaningful amount of daily practice that helps establish rhythm.
    Journaling in this manner is no longer about inspiration; it’s about staying in shape—or building it—and honing your creative cognitive abilities. Just as an athlete lifts weights to build strength, a writer writes to grow sharper and more fluent.
    Writing a journal is not about how talented you are, but how committed you are to practicing every day.
• Journaling is also an excellent way to introduce the unexpected into one’s life. Waiting for a bolt of inspiration—a brilliant idea or captivating concept—is not a reliable strategy for developing a unique literary voice.
  • q In fact, striving to write something good too often prevents you from writing something great.
• Let me emphasize this again: daily journaling is not about generating interesting content. It’s about discovering your voice. That voice is the bedrock found in countless great pieces of writing.
  A journal fosters the development of a distinctive tone—a recognizable “style”—that sets one writer apart from another and renders their work uniquely identifiable.
  • Journaling isn’t about storytelling, but about establishing a strategy for finding your voice—one sentence at a time.
• And the kind of sentences I’m referring to here are the ones that sound like natural speech.

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ID: 202511020724 Source:: Friend:: Child:: Next:: Be natural in your writing. Write like you talk, natural speech is interesting to read

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