Creative Writing Research Articles

Polyculed: A Writer’s Tale of Surviving the Pandemic and a Polycule

Through the lens of life writing, this essay explores contemporary and historical polyamory and its relationship with identity-formation and artistic personae. In particular, the essay triangulates the lives of Virginia Woolf and members of the Bloomsbury Set with a current-day polycule of artists. Polyamorous sexual identities and politics are further explored through descriptive depictions of social class, mobility, and wealth, especially within the realm of academia, and examines how the resultant poly lifestyle bears upon the lives of creative writers, literary scholars, and artists.

Creative Expression and Writing Proficiency of Junior High School Students in Special Program in the Arts Class

This study aimed to determine the relationship between creative expression and writing proficiency. The respondents were grade 9 students enrolled in the Special Program in the Arts (SPA) class. The researcher employed a descriptive correlational design with a test questionnaire consisting. Statistical tools such as frequency count, weighted mean, and Pearson correlation were used to collect and analyze numerical data. Results indicated that respondents had a moderate awareness of their creative expression in terms of writing. Their writing proficiency was rated as good in grammar and syntax, fair in the organization of ideas, and good in content development. The statistical result showed a strong relationship between writing proficiency and creative expression, with significant associations found in grammar and syntax, organization of ideas, and content development. A positive correlation was also observed between writing skills and levels of creative expression, suggesting that enhanced creative expression in writing is linked with improved writing proficiency. The findings underscore the importance of fostering both artistic expression and writing skills. The strong relationships between various writing proficiency criteria and creative expression highlight the interaction between creativity and effective writing. Thus, it is recommended that the pedagogical integration of writing techniques and creative expressions must be implemented in arts class.

Drama as an Aid in Academic Learning and Creative Writing: The CBS Radio Mystery Theater

A comprehensive radio series of 1,399 episodes which originally ran seven nights a week from January 1974 to December 1982. The series dealt with a very large expanse of subject matter, not only in classic and modern literature and history, but also at times featured basic facts in the areas of the sciences including chemistry, medicine, astronomy and physics. As a result, the series served, and continues to serve as an effective educational tool in addition to being a source of entertainment very similar in style to the audiobook. It also serves as a virtual template for the study of the art of storytelling and creative writing.

The Power of Story Slams: A Mixed-Method Analysis of Narrative Medicine Connecting, Encouraging and Comforting Healthcare Trainees and Professionals

Background: Narratives convey information and emotion, evoke understanding, empathy, and connection. Healthcare professionals can use narratives to reduce burnout, benefiting them, patients, and colleagues. Story slams are narrative sharing events used for group reflection, providing an opportunity for participants and listeners to improve their well-being by processing complex emotions and identities. Story slams have traditionally been popular with creative writers and nonprofit organizations. Methods: Following a local event hosted by The Moth, the Temple University Lewis Katz School of Medicine (LKSOM) Narrative Medicine program hosted nine story slams over five years with 93 presenters including students and health systems staff. Through a mixed-method analysis, the authors examined the stories for thematic patterns and surveyed presenters to investigate how the experience had impacted markers such as job satisfaction, stress levels, and connection to patients. Eleven presenters were interviewed to provide additional information about the impact they experienced. Results: Patient-centered care, resilience, and the value of learning comprised over half of all themes presented. Following the event, many presenters experienced improved connections with patients, and everyone reported feeling neutral or increased satisfaction with their profession. The interviews conveyed participation, created a lasting impact, fostered a sense of community, and increased appreciation for diversity. Conclusions: Overall, story slams nourish humanity and promote diversity, enthusiasm, and encouragement. This study and others suggest that story slams are inexpensive and effective events that can help reduce burnout and provide academic medical centers with a way to restore and cultivate community among students, physicians, and staff.

Nepali English creative writing: historical trajectory and strategies adopted by Nepali English creative writers

ABSTRACT The paper sets out to trace the history of Nepali English creative writing and identify the strategies used by Nepali English creative writers in creating Nepali English literature. The first section of the paper chronicles the historical trajectory of Nepali English creative writing, illustrating Nepali English bilinguals’ increased use of English as an alternative medium of creative expression. The second section of the paper analyzes four contemporary Nepali English literary works in light of bilinguals’ creativity and notions of abrogation and appropriation processes. The analysis revealed the writers’ adoption of four nativizing strategies: leaving cultural references untranslated, cultural references accompanied by explicitation/English translation, hybrid innovations, and syntactic meshing. Through these strategies, the writers inscribed and foregrounded Nepali-specific linguistic and cultural features in their English literary works, resourcing their bi/multilingual creativity. These findings imply further recognition of emerging literatures in English and their use as resources in ESL/EFL pedagogy.

Influence of Teacher Beliefs on Employing EBT (Evidence-Based Teaching) in Creative Writing Lessons

Children who do not master writing skills risk possible failure because they cannot complete written assignments on time. The complex nature of writing as a language production skill requires thorough planning and problem-solving. Research emphasises that children who struggle to write tend to remain behind in their writing skill development. Hence, it is necessary to strengthen writing instruction, such as by incorporating research-based methods. The purpose of this article was to explore teachers’ perceptions of and beliefs in teaching creative writing and employing evidence-based teaching (EBT) in their lessons. Data were generated through two focus group interviews, classroom observations, and document analysis. Purposive sampling was used to recruit Grade 3 teachers from two primary schools. The data revealed that teachers believed themselves to be inadequately trained to effectively teach creative writing. The findings suggest that teachers believe they have little time to explore the usefulness of evidence-based strategies as they already battle to complete the syllabus; there is little guidance on how to go about teaching creative writing; and how they currently teach is in line with the policy guidelines. This article recommends that the Ministry of Education and universities reinforce pre- and in-service teacher training programmes by teaching diverse evidence-based strategies, for example, self-regulated strategy development (SRSD), consolidate curriculum knowledge, and strengthen continuous professional development programmes to boost teachers as reflective practitioners.

Enhancing the Creativity of Soft Article Writing through Creative Writing

In the era of rapid development of new media, the cultural industry is flourishing as a whole. Soft article writing, as a category of creative text production, is characterized by its emphasis on creativity. The field of creative writing, which has already seen some development in China, may provide a means to enhance the creativity of soft article writing. This paper analyzes the feasibility of using creative writing to improve soft article writing and proposes practical suggestions accordingly, from clarifying teaching objectives to designing course content. Using creativity as a guiding thread, the goal is to build a bridge between creative writing and soft article writing.

The Effects of Cooperative Learning on Creative Writing and Self-Efficacy in Portuguese and Mathematics

Cooperative learning is a pedagogical practice widely endorsed in the literature to enhance students’ creative writing skills. This methodology promotes the development of originality, fosters openness to new ideas, provides opportunities for interaction and tossing ideas around, and subsequently contributes to boosting creative textual production. This study aims to assess the impact of incorporating cooperative learning strategies on developing creative writing skills and enhancing self-efficacy among 6th-grade students. Additionally, this study reflects on using cooperative learning methods in the classroom setting, namely the roundtable and the cooperative graffiti. The participants were 34 students from two classes of the 6th grade of the 2nd cycle of basic school: an experimental group, where cooperative learning applies, and a control group, conducted using a traditional lecture. The study used a quasi-experimental design, incorporating pre-test and post-test. The non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to assess within-group changes in pre-test and post-test scores for both the experimental and control groups. The findings from both classes suggest that cooperative learning is more effective than a traditional lecture in building creative writing skills and self-efficacy in Portuguese (first language) and maths.

The Role of Research in Creative Writing: A Follow-up Study

The Role of Research in Creative Writing: A Follow-up Study

The Effectiveness of a CoRT Based Program in Developing English Language Creative Writing Skills in Light of Constructivism Theory for University Students

The Effectiveness of a CoRT Based Program in Developing English Language Creative Writing Skills in Light of Constructivism Theory for University Students

Chat GPT and Creative Writing: Experiences of Master's Students in Enhancing

Improving writing skills at all levels of education is a fundamental goal of education. ChatGPT, as an artificial intelligence-based language model, is recognized as a significant tool in the development of this skill. The primary objective of this research is to describe the impact of ChatGPT on the creative writing processes, as perceived by master's students. In line with this goal, the research utilizes the semi-structured interview technique as part of qualitative data collection methods. The study group comprises master's students enrolled in a teacher training program at a state university in the Central Anatolia Region during the 2022-2023 academic year. The study group is formed through purposive sampling. Data related to the research are obtained through a semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher. The collected data are analyzed using content analysis, a method frequently employed in qualitative research. Accordingly, the research findings indicate that ChatGPT is an effective tool in enhancing creative writing skills. It accelerates the writing process for students, provides them with new ideas, and boosts their writing motivation.

Analysing the Intersection between Law and Creative Writing: An Analysis of Petina Gappah’s Literary Writing Prose

This study is an analytical transposition of law and creative writing. The article starts by exposing how the intersection is experienced and positioned. The two fields are based on rhetoric. Rhetoric serves as the foundation for both forensic argument and creative writing, and the dynamic relationships between the two fields also leave many other traces, as we can see in the dramatic performances that connect judges and attorneys to actors, the performative effects of literary language, jurists’ and literary critics’ shared concerns with interpretation, demonstration, and proof, and the function of narrative schemas as templates. There are more similarities between legal scripts and creative writing than there are conflicts. Petina Gappah is someone who has managed well in the two fields, making her writings a marvel to both lay readers and those with a law background. The short stories and novels discussed in the article are embedded in the African culture and legal frameworks of reality. The short story “In the Matter between Goto and Goto” is a thought-provoking depiction of divorce in the Zimbabwean context. The story illustrates the conflicts between the customary and the legal face of marriage. The article picks and analyses three major themes emerging from this story, which are, culture and the law, the issue of gender and justice, and lastly, the limits of law in a legal system.

Creative writing as critical fieldwork methodology

This article examines creative writing (CW) as a place-based methodology for doing and analysing fieldwork. Drawing insights from CW scholarship and workshops as part of a collaborative project, we contribute new empirically-informed insights from peer researchers about the significance of leveraging emotional connections, detailed attention to lived experiences, and the researcher's experiences in executing and reporting fieldwork. While attending to tensions between ‘academic’ and ‘creative’ writing, we examine how adopting different and alternative writing approaches can express diverse complexities of the field research process. We contribute to an understanding of CW as a dialectical catalyst, serving as a mode for reflecting on the relationships between the researcher and the researched within the field as well as a mode for analysing and disseminating fieldwork findings. By doing so, our study presents opportunities and limitations of CW as a critical methodology for generating situated knowledges about the field and for reimagining fieldwork.

Away from Feminist Radicalism

Calixthe Beyala’s creative works and public comments on her artistic productions and her life in general have enjoyed a remarkable attention without any doubt. However, there is a particular aspect of her literary creativity begging for attention. This study, therefore, is set to investigate Beyala’s religious disposition with a view to establishing the fact that African women do not only reject being restricted to the kitchen but also demonstrate that they should be considered when it comes to the matter of exercising their faith. The two novels selected for this study are Calixthe Beyala’s Mama a un amant and La petite fille du réverbère. They can be translated as Mama has a Lover and The little girl under the street lamp. Adopting sociological conceptual framework, data are analyzed using the French explication de texte which can be interpreted as the close reading technique or content analysis of a text, verbal or non-verbal. Findings from the study suggest that the new generation of African female writers focuses on an attempt to establish and reconnect womenfolk with their most fundamental human rights through artistic designs and their creative writings. Besides being a means of socialization, religion is a ritualistic act of worship, and it reflects a significant part of a people’s way of life. The study, however, concludes that there is a need for check and balance between the idea of masculinity and the concept of feminism to curtail the excesses there-in for the progress of human societies.

New Chaotic Reality: Creative Writing Workshops for Long COVID Patients.

In a widely cited 2017 study, Robinson et al. (2017) found that 'emotionally expressive' writing makes physical wounds heal faster when compared to writing that did not engage the emotions. The Writing Long COVID project at Aberystwyth University engaged similar territory in a recent pilot study. Participants' writing activities explored how literary production can affect a person's experience of this new chronic condition, as well as contribute to our understanding of its symptoms. In this short essay, I show how we designed a course of short-duration online workshops that increased accessibility for people with Long COVID-related fatigue. I also argue that future Long COVID creative activities should let their timing, venue, content, and structure be influenced by the preferences of the Long COVID patient. The preliminary study suggests that the traditional parameters of the writing workshop, including its duration, could deter participation in potentially beneficial creative activities.

The Importance of Experience: Supporting Pupils’ Creative Writing About the Natural World

ABSTRACT The first part of this article considers the challenge of supporting pupils to write creatively about the natural world. It examines a text by a gifted young writer: Diary of a Young Naturalist by Dara McAnulty. It asks what the challenges might be for pupils who may be motivated to model their writing on McAnulty’s, but have limited experience of the natural world. Drawing on the scholarly work of John Dixon, Robert Eaglestone and others, the article highlights the importance of pupil experience in the formation of their writerly voice, thereby emphasising the need for writing pedagogies that deepen and enrich pupils’ experiences. In the second part, the authors present a series of interdisciplinary activities that are intended to enrich pupil experiences, and ultimately encourage creativity. The plan is aimed at pupils in Manchester in the north-west of England, but the activities can be adapted to work in other locations.

The Effect of Creative Writing Activities on the Story Writing Skill In University Curriculum

This study explores the effectiveness of structured guidance and visual stimuli in enhancing college students' creative writing skills. Following a phased approach grounded in scholarly recommendations, students were guided through narrative text structure, free topic writing, and visual prompt utilization. The introduction of structured narrative elements facilitated comprehension and provided a framework for students to build upon. Additionally, brainstorming sessions and group discussions helped students overcome initial uncertainties and generate ideas. Visual prompts proved invaluable in stimulating creativity and providing a scaffold for story development. By applying Tredinnick's (2006) guidance, students produced well-structured narratives with engaging plots and character development. Overall, this study underscores the importance of incorporating structured guidance and visual aids in creative writing instruction to foster students' confidence and proficiency in narrative composition.

“Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”, J. R. R. Tolkien’s 1953 W. P. Ker Memorial Lecture: An Updated Chronology and Related Findings

ABSTRACT On 15 April 1953, J. R. R. Tolkien was at the University of Glasgow to deliver the W. P. Ker Memorial Lecture on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, later published in The Monsters and the Critics, and Other Essays (1983). Based on new archival research at Glasgow and Oxford, this article offers new information on Tolkien's appointment to deliver this lecture, his journey to and stay at Glasgow, and his relationship with Norman Davis (1913–1989), further illuminating the lecture’s significance in the context of Tolkien’s life as both an academic and creative writer, Tolkien’s links to Glasgow, and his academic and literary reputation at the time. The article, therefore, provides additional biographical, intellectual, cultural, and historical details related to the lecture at the time Tolkien was ushering his masterpiece, The Lord of the Rings (1954–1955), to print.

Creative writing and storyworld possible selves

ABSTRACT The presence of creative writing in higher education poses the need to strengthen its academic foundations with novel contributions which enhance its growing practice-informed body of knowledge [Earnshaw, S. 2014. The Handbook of Creative Writing. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press; Kroll, J., and G. Harper, Eds. [2012] 2019. Research Methods in Creative Writing. London: Red Globe; Morley, D. 2007. The Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Phillips, R., and H. Kara. 2021. Creative Writing for Social Research: A Practical Guide. Policy Press]. The present study suggests that storyworld possible selves theory [Martínez, M. A. 2014. “Storyworld Possible Selves and the Phenomenon of Narrative Immersion. Testing a New Theoretical Construct.” Narrative 22 (1): 110–131. doi:10.1353/nar.2014.0004; Martínez, M. A. 2018. Storyworld Possible Selves. Berlin: De Gruyter; Martínez, M. A. (forthcoming). “Storyworld Possible Selves.” In Routledge Companion to Literature and Cognitive Studies, edited by J. Alber and R. Schneider. Abingdon: Routledge] can enrich the epistemological foundations of creative writing and of its practice-based research and teaching, both by highlighting the importance of accounting for readers’ feelings of personal relevance through the activation of their self-schemas and possible selves, and by pinpointing the role of certain linguistic expressions of cognitive activity, frequent in fictional narrative discourse, which serve to prompt perspective sharing with narrative focalisers. In my study I argue that attention to the affordances of the concept of storyworld possible selves can not only help improve amateur writers’ skills, but also afford increased opportunities for related linguistic, narratological, and empirical research into creative writing in academic settings.

Digital Entrepreneurship: Typography T-shirt Design Production in SMA Negeri 1 Percut Sei Tuan

The purpose of this community service activity is to answer the problems at SMA Negeri 1 Percut Sei Tuan: the lack of interest in digital-based entrepreneurship, the lack of knowledge and skills of students in digital entrepreneurship practices so that students do not always lead to conventional entrepreneurship, limited capital in providing equipment, renting online platforms, and marketing costs, and the lack of commitment in understanding and implementing digital entrepreneurship, both from students and schools. This activity was carried out with three methods, namely equipment procurement, training, design assistance, and assistance in selling T-shirts at the market. The results of the activity include the availability of typography t-shirts with creative writings and then the t-shirts are marketed online in marketplaces, such as Shopee and Tokopedia. Currently, 50 t-shirts with typography designs have been marketed. The typography t-shirt design production development program at SMA Negeri 1 Percut Sei Tuan aims to enhance inclusive industries and encourage innovation through digital entrepreneurship training for students. The main priorities are the procurement of digital platforms, typography t-shirt production training, and the enhancement of digital entrepreneurship interest and knowledge in school.