Sometimes I read a post, and it thrills me, gives me shivers, or sends heat to my core. It feels like good writing. Sometimes 1o sentences can feel like a novel, saying so much with so little. Other times, the concrete details can make me taste a thing. Sometimes an old story is told in such a new way, without cliche, that I lose myself in character, plot, and detailed scene.
Today we want to hear from you and know what you think constitutes good creative writing.
It stands to reason that the more we read and evaluate what makes the good writing good and the bad writing bad, the more we'll learn from what we're reading and writing.
Leave a comment here and link to your own or someone else's creatively written post and tell us what makes it good to you. It can be about anything and be only good to you because you used an interesting word. Go ahead! We would love to see this community, for the purpose of encouragement, enter a conversation here about what makes the good writing good.
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I love this post from Molly of The Foothill Home Companion. Her posts are always so creative and honest but this one in particular seems to say what so many of us nowadays are feeling.
http://foothillhomecompanion.blogspot.com/2009/10/abundance.html
What a great idea! I am curious to see what people like also! I will look and post something (other than my own of course:) )
I'm so glad you visited here! Come back, Jen, and let us know what stands out to you the most about these posts.
What a good day to post this on! I posted this piece just this morning: http://trainstutusandtwizzlers.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/the-walk/ and it's one of my favorites – already. I started the first few lines as a prose piece, and had it in my "drafts" for quite a while. Then I was starting a poem about my daughter feeling soft after naptime, and the two just came together perfectly. I think you can when things like that happen in other's writing, and you appreciate it so much more after you have on of those "ahha!" moments. Hope this makes a little bit of sense
Corinne, I love this one, too! It's the line breaks. Especially in poetry, everything within the line is important. It makes the word at the beginning and at the end of the line important. Things stand out more, and having to do with this small and so short phase of babyhood, you want all the details to stand out. You want to note every single one.
Thank you so much for linking to this.
This post by Ann @ A Holy Experience
http://www.aholyexperience.com/2009/10/slow-down-to-deeply-seek.html
Is the kind of writing that most resonates with me…the kind that takes you down a windy path, makes you feel before you know what to think. Takes you to another place but then you realize that place is inside your heart.
I don't know how to explain this in a way that explains the "craft", my own words fail me on technical matters like this. But being creative with the most tiniest of things, shining light on their beauty, seems to be the key.
Arianne, I think you nailed Ann Voskamp with this description. I can't seem to get enough of her writing. One thing that she does well is detail.
She is able to note the concrete in such a way that the abstract (the invisible) almost becomes a thing we can pick up. Oh, and Ann is also just so unafraid to use her imagination. I think it's her greatest tool, because she helps her readers to use their imaginations, too.
Yes, exactly — she makes the most "mundane" (yet soooo not) thing suddenly come alive. It makes you thirst for more and more of her work.
I read this and immediately thought of a post I'd read awhile back. I couldn't remember who had written it, but I went searching for it and, lo and behold, here it is! This one touches my heart.
http://therunamuck.com/2009/06/20/on-security-and-a-kiss-a-story-in-my-pocket/
Deidra, thank you for this encouragement. I think I wrote this during a hard time for my parents, and I cried so hard when I wrote it. I guess a lesson to here is that often what moves the writer is what's going to move the reader.
Amber, I just went and read the post and this is one of my favorites of yours now. Please tell me you're compiling a book of your own essays and stories and poetry. A real book that other people can buy.
Sylvia, the thing that stands out the most to me about the post "Abundance" is the repetition of the word "abundance."
Sometimes a theme is expressed by way of repetition, and within this post, it's interesting that "Abundance" is abundant. That is creative.
Humor appeals to me so I try to use it in my writing. It can also be my defense mechanism so I have to be careful to be serious when the post calls for it. Here's a link to a post I did about trying to lose weight post-partum. How can you NOT joke about that?
http://lilkidthings.blogspot.com/2009/08/love-handle-911.html
Andrea, you are so right. Humor invites me in every time. Great post.
My writing has taken a serious hit since the baby invasion. I'm just so sleep deprived and am certain that the first zone to be affected is where words live. I've made my blog about 'one thing' each day…just noticing one small thing of beauty or wonder each day so that I don't have to prove to all my friends that I am illiterate.
That said…this is my favorite post-baby… post.
Ironic that it is actually about sleep deprivation.
Huh.
http://web.me.com/melissafed/MelissaAndCo/Melissa_And_Co./Entries/2009/9/23_A_soft_Place.html
Melissa, this one is great, too, because the language slows as you two settle into one another. It's starts with swift sounding words, huffy, and it ends hushed, slowed, and at peace.
Word sounds play a big role to me. The language mimics the action.
In the past I've had a very hard time connecting to and allowing myself to express emotion and really "feel" things. Now that I've had some freedom from that, I find that I'm really drawn to writing that can evoke a strong emotion in me, especially those emotions that I'm uncomfortable feeling. Words that let me know it's ok to feel a certain way, that help me understand the human condition better make me feel alive. To me, that is good writing. I suppose that's why I love your blog Amber! To read it, makes me feel alive to the mystery. Does that make sense?
As for an example, I'd offer up your entire blog:), but to keep it short, I'll simply add this post I wrote on mothering.
http://www.findtimefortea.com/2009/07/remembering.html
Kimberly, you always encourage me so much. Thank you.
Your post is such a good reminder of the best writing exercise ever. You titled it "Remembering," and anytime we're stuck, we should go back and remember a time that changed us, especially in regard to touch, sight, taste, and smell.
What a great memory you've recorded. I love it.
Amber, I have to say that most of your posts serve as examples of high quality creative writing. I love imagery. I love when feelings take on their own form and shape and smell from words that paint images. I agree with a previous commenter that feeling before thinking or understanding is a good sign. With really great writing, I often find that I'm holding my breath, wanting to rush to the end, only to go back and re-read again, leaning forward, soaking in each syllable.
I find myself holding back from being as creative as I'd like to be on my blog – at this point I know too many of my readers in real life to let go of my inhibitions. But a recent post I wrote I tried to shrug off my perceptions with judgment. And while the post isn't my most creatively written piece ever, I felt good about the imagery I found to convey my feelings. (The post is a bit heavy on the pictures, so you have to keep scrolling down to get through it.)
http://clarity-chaos.blogspot.com/2009/10/falling.html
For me, it's always taking something simple, something we take for granted, and covering it with new word pictures … writings that help me see the mundane as beautiful, the ordinary as precious … I am always striving to accomplish that in my own writing.
I have few examples where I feel I have achieved that … but here is one where I was close.
http://pleasingtoyou.blogspot.com/2009/08/its-quiet-in-my-house.html