An English Class Dream: The Purpose and Applications of Creative Writing

Emily Tan

University of California, Santa Barbara

WRIT 2- Academic Writing

Ms. Valentina Fahler

November 21, 2021

 I dread going to English class. I walk into that 9 period class every day and hope that I don’t get
th

called on to speak. I fear that my teacher is going to ask me what ideas or questions I’ve come up with in
the last 24 hours. The truth is that I have none. I have my notes however, they are not nearly as creative or
inquisitive as the person beside me. In class, we are analyzing stories and poems to write our own creative
writing story next week. Somehow these assignments are going to “inspire” my writing. Today in class
was different. I was exhausted and drained by the first half of the day, and 10 minutes into my teacher
speaking, I dozed off into a deep sleep.

I wake up and I’m not in the classroom anymore. There’s a forest around me. Trees and plants
surround me and suddenly the scent of a campfire catches my nose. I follow the smell until I end up at a
huge campfire and sitting around it on log benches are a group of people, all dressed up as if they were
part of a storybook. It’s as if I was transported back to my childhood camping trips. I sit down on a log
and suddenly one of the characters starts talking.

“Why are you asleep during your English class?” one of them asks.

“First of all, who are you and why are you guys dressed up as storybook characters? And second,
I’m asleep because we are talking about nonsense fictional stories that have no relation to my life. My
teacher expects us to write our own stories afterward however, I don’t plan on using creative writing in
the future. It seems useless and irrelevant to my life. It seems like a childish activity, one worth sleeping
through,” I say.

“We are trying to show you that even though you associate creative writing with childish things
and fairytales, it can still help you now. Even though we appear as childish characters, we are still able to
help you further your writing capabilities. You can still learn a lot from us. Back to why we are here
though; we are going to explain to you the importance of creative writing and why your perception of it is
completely wrong. I’m Belle, and I’m going to explain to you what creative writing actually is.” responds
Belle.

She continues, “It’s a continuous experience. Creative writing is a practice that combines literary
study and practice. The practice of creative writing is intended to live through other writers, and their
intention to write more and build off their own ideas. It furthers writing and forces humans to think
deeper and write with fewer restraints, leading to more insightful inquiries, thus to a more meaningful
analysis. Creative writing isn’t a genre of writing with fairies and fictional characters, it's a way of
writing, it’s meant to create a flow of new ideas. It’s a discipline of thought and activity. Since creative
writing has become its own category, it misleads people into thinking it’s not a part of regular academic
writing.”

“It still feels as if creative writing puts pressure on me to be original and more creative than my
peers. I feel discouraged when my ideas aren’t as creative as others,” I add.

“I’m Beth, and to add to what Belle said, creative writing doesn’t necessarily equal original ideas.
Original ideas are the byproducts of the mind trying to grasp components of a subject, leading it to
develop a deeper understanding of and realize the interconnectedness between the different parts of a
subject. When we can understand their relationship to each other, it helps us create a new way of
articulating an idea. I would like to stress that creativity is not relative to other people. I define creative
writing as a mental process and a way of thinking. If we accept this definition of creativity, the word just
means to think without restraints and have total freedom with one’s thoughts or emotions.”

“That makes sense, so creativity isn’t comparable from one person to the next. I understand that
my definition of creative writing was a little off, but you guys live in your little fantasy world. I’m sure
this stuff is useful and relevant to your lives, but I live in the real world so how will this help me when I
plan on being in the math or science field?” I respond.

“Ah, this is where Ben and I come in. I’m Ella, by the way. Even though creative writing seems
like a separate world to you, the tools you learn will apply to other subjects. Beth just explained the
definition of creative writing so I can help you understand it’s applications in other fields. Creative
writing is the basis of all art forms and creative processes. It’s a way of gathering thoughts and processing
information. It’s a necessary tool that should be implemented while working in other disciplines since it
facilitates creative thinking. It allows you to develop good questions. You can learn how to articulate
different and new ideas by using skills and elements acquired from creative writing. For example, when
you’re writing a research paper or coming up with a hypothesis, it’s important to think freely. It helps you
better explain the topic and articulate ideas clearly. If you take time to practice creative writing, you can
come up with better conclusions later. Free thinking doesn’t seem like a useful tool, but it can really help
you understand material in other subjects.”

“Ella’s right. Thinking freely is crucial in the process of any type of writing. That’s why
practicing creative writing can help us organize our thoughts and can lead us to ask insightful questions.
It’s important to let the mind roam and be free; creative writing can help us get more comfortable doing
that. This is helpful because we will be able to better communicate our ideas to others, especially in
various academic settings.” Ben says.

“I guess I see its uses, but this means I’ll only have to use it in an academic setting, so it only
applies to my schoolwork,” I say.

Ella responds, “Well, not necessarily. People use creative writing to help them on a personal
level. It serves as an outlet for them. It can be used to reveal someone’s feelings, inclinations, and why
they do or believe the things they do. It helps us communicate with others and improve our self-
expression. Even in this dream your having, you are asking us questions without restraints. These are
skills that practicing creative writing can help you improve.”

Ben continues, “Creative writing is reflected and closely related to each person’s unique life
experiences. Expression is a part of creativity, no matter the form. It promotes growth and development.
Students need to write creatively more to be more comfortable later. It contributes to their future writing.
Students express themselves in any genre of writing they are engaging in. Right now, in this dream you
are using your creativity to create this dreamworld. This stems from your personal experiences and
emotions associated with creative writing. We are here to help you become comfortable and open with
creative writing.”

“I can’t believe I never learned the importance of creative writing! It’s incredible that creative
writing can help me in my writing processes or in just daily communication with others. Creative writing
can help me communicate ideas eloquently, whether it’s in an academic paper or when I’m expressing my
thoughts to my friends. I didn’t even think about the personal growth that stems from creative writing. I
never thought of creative writing as more than an activity. It’s crazy to me that I’m even having personal
and academic growth in this dream,” I respond.

“Well, this definition of creative writing isn’t some new concept. I would even put this
conversation under the category of ‘skills learned from creative writing.’ This has always been what
creative writing is about,” Ben counters.

“I've always been taught in school that creative writing is making up fairy tales or poems,” I say.
 “Don’t get me started on that. The reason you have your false preconception of creative writing is
because you were never taught what creative writing actually is. The way schools teach creative writing
degrades it to a superficial art and ultimately hurts the perception of writing in general. It prevents
students from understanding the creative and intellectual nature of writing.”

“This is Jeff, him and Amelia always get heated about the way creative writing is taught in
schools,” Ben adds.

Jeff continues, “Yes I do because storybook characters, such as us, are given a bad reputation.
Storybooks are said to be for children, that people should stop reading fictional tales when they reach a
certain age. But in reality, continuously practicing creative writing can teach students important skills,
like the one’s Ella and Beth mentioned before. Nowadays, students don’t thoroughly read and analyze
stories. Students’ understanding of reading comes from being forced to read specific books for class or
school which hurts the reputation of reading and writing. When students read, they don’t read with the
intent of learning something new or gaining a new skill. In college, I struggled to have meaningful
conversations about writing. My learning lacked critical discussions and deep conversations about
writing, even in my advanced classes. Creative writing lost its true purpose when it was declared
independent from literary studies. This causes it to be an afterthought, considered an unnecessary part of
writing. Therefore, students lack a true understanding of creative writing, schools don’t facilitate this
learning and consider it a box that needs to be checked off for the curriculum.”

“In school, I was never taught that creative writing was important. Teachers always brushed it off
as a useless skill. I didn’t question what I was taught, so I always assumed that content that teachers
glassed over were not important. If you think about it, it’s funny that I’ve learned more from you guys in
the past ten minutes than I have in the past four years of English class.” I respond.

Amelia begins to speak and says, “That proves our point exactly. Usually, students don’t think to
dive deeper into creative writing because teachers don’t typically mention the long-term benefits of it.
Creative writing is taught to be separate from composition or academic writing, which it shouldn’t be.
Schools make students analyze a poem or fictional story to satisfy the creative writing requirement. To
effectively teach creative writing, students need to write their own pieces. Students are forced to read
specific books when they should be discussing their personal experiences and having meaningful
discussions. It’s better to produce a writing piece than interpret one. People treat creative writing as its
own category. This causes students to believe creative writing is separate from regular writing and that
they are completely different styles. Creative writing needs to be incorporated in an organic way to
composition, or else it will be a lost art,”

“Wow, that’s helpful to know. So, I’m hearing that practicing creative writing is kind of like an
investment? One that will pay off in strengthening my thinking and writing skills? This is an amazing
discovery! In school, I’ve been led to believe that creative writing is only useful for writing books. Me
and so many other students have fallen victim to this mindset. My definition of creative writing has
completely changed. I thought creative writing was making up fictional storylines, but now I know that
it’s a practice that encourages free thinking and building on different ideas. It’s a relief to know that
original ideas aren’t necessarily new or groundbreaking thoughts. Like Beth said, the process of creative
writing includes developing a deeper understanding of a concept or thought, so this is a valuable skill that
could help me improve my writing process for any subject. Free thinking can help me thoroughly
understand new material by helping me realize the relationship between different parts of a bigger
concept. These skills from creative writing can help me make insightful connections in science class or
any class for that matter. Even in my day-to-day life I’ll be able to articulate ideas better. In the future, I
plan on learning more about the skills that come from creative writing and will try to be more proactive in
researching topics myself instead of sticking to the curriculum. Especially since Jeff said that school may
stray us away from important topics, it’s crucial that I do my own research before deeming any practice
useless. Hopefully, if I start to practice creative writing, I can learn how to better organize my thoughts,
think more freely, and even use it as an outlet for my emotions. Maybe the skills I learn from creative
writing will help me come up with insightful questions in other classes, such as biology. I only wish that
other students could hear this because I’m sure they still think creative writing is useless. I want to
encourage others to learn more about the overlap between skills learned from different subjects. All this
information has made me realize that writing isn’t a childish thing, it continues to help me as I grow
older,” I exclaim.

“Exactly, now you can put more thought into your writing and use creative writing as a tool. Even
when you’re studying math or science you can use this to your advantage,” Belle says.

“Now it’s time you go back to your English class and remember that what they’re teaching you is
useful. Try to stay awake next time,” adds Jeff.

Suddenly I’m jolted awake. I look up and see my English teacher still talking passionately about
the story we’re reading. I reflected on what I just learned, and I decided that I will try to listen. The next
step for me is to give creative writing a shot. I will write down my thoughts with no restraints. I’ll even
try to educate my peers on what I just learned. Next class, maybe I’ll finally raise my hand, of course
depending on whether I fall asleep.
 Citations

Rhodes, M. (1961). An Analysis of Creativity. The Phi Delta Kappan, 42(7), 305–310.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/20342603

Wright, R. L. (1957). Creative Writing in Communication Skills. College Composition and

Communication, 8(4), 204–207. https://doi.org/10.2307/354902

Myers, D. G. (1993). The Rise of Creative Writing. Journal of the History of Ideas, 54(2), 277–297.

https://doi.org/10.2307/2709983

McCue, Frances. (1997). The poet in the warehouse: Creative writing as inquiry: Using imaginative

writing to explore other disciplines. ERIC Document Reproduction Service, ED 403 577.

Andrews, K. (2009). A House Divided: On the Future of Creative Writing. College English, 71(3), 242

255. https://doi.org/10.2307/25472322

Drew, C., & Yost, D. (2009). Composing Creativity: Further Crossing Composition/Creative Writing

Boundaries. The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, 42(1), 25–42.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/25674354