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Rutland High School

The Benefits of Creative Writing and Why People Should Do It

Kastle Anderson
Comp III
Ms. Mills.
December 8, 2021

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Abstract

This article covers good characteristics that people can obtain from creative writing. First, it

defines what the benefit is and how it is a good thing. Then, it defines the important scenarios

where it can be useful and examples of how they were used. The six major benefits mentioned

are self-expression, empathy, confidence, mental development, organization, and literacy. Each

one is mentioned specifically on what it is, how it is a good thing, and how it is attainable

through creative writing. The benefits each have their own sections that span almost a page.

Research from experiments with writing show the bettering of people and how they were

affected through writing.



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Research Paper Outline

I. Introduction paragraph/thesis: Creative writing is beneficial to people because

A. Self-expression

1. Representing self

B. Empathy

1. Understanding people’s thoughts

2. Consideration of others

C. Mind-development

1. Writing practice at young ages

a) Handwriting (if written)

b) Mental development with storyline

2. Understanding opinions

D. Confidence

1. Self-confidence (referring to aforementioned self-expression)

2. Better speaking tone

3. Certainty in word usage

E. Organization

1. Formatting

2. Keeping story lines

3. Consistent writing

F. Increased writing skills

1. Diversity in word choices

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2. Better understanding of punctuation and grammar

II. Self-expression section, introduction to body

A. People must better understand others in order to properly develop a character.

B. Characters feel emotions that must be reciprocated logically in the writing.

C. The characters that a person will write about are likely to reflect emotional, mental, and

psychological traits that the writer has.

D. Creating storylines leads to plot ideas and opinions that the person agrees with.

E. People tend to write how they think or feel, leaving a gateway to figuring out how they

feel and think.

III. Empathy section

A. Empathetic traits are very important soft skills that a person can use in day to day life.

B. Similar to self-expression; helps person understand how to create characters.

C. When creating characters, a person must understand how to write an entire person’s

thoughts, feelings, and emotions.

D. Writing these traits develops a better concept of other people’s emotions, in turn making

them more empathetic.

E. Seeing how people interact and benefit from understanding on another in a novel can

lead to real-life social skills.

IV. Mind-development section

A. Mind-development is a very important aspect of life at all ages.

1. At young ages

a) Reinforces basic writing skills into the mind.

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b) If written, can allow for practice in handwriting.

c) Helps in developing all of the previously mentioned benefits sooner.

2. During midlife

a) Aides in building a professional style of writing.

b) Adds a hobby to everyday life.

c) Gives a person better speaking tone.

3. During elderly years

a) Keeps an old mind active and thinking.

b) Gives the person time to show their feelings and opinions on paper.

c) Can be entertaining if the person enjoys it.

V. Confidence section

A. Creative writing can help a person easily build confidence.

B. Writing can help someone be more certain in their beliefs, allowing them to better know

who they are.

1. Relates to self-expression section.

C. A person who writes frequently can be more certain in their word choices and diversify

their language.

D. When a person is certain about the way that they write and think, they present themselves

with a better speaking tone.

E. Confidence in general can be beneficial, and creative writing can help build it.

VI. Organization section

A. Creative writing builds organizational skills in multiple ways.

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1. Characters

a) Keeping track of all the characters in a novel or story can be very challenging.

b) Ensuring a character stays within how they would act takes very precise

organization.

2. Writing

a) It can be very difficult to organize an entire story in proper format and spelling.

b) Consistency in grammar and punctuation that keeps the flow of the book takes

specific writing techniques.

3. Genuine story itself

a) Storing the stories, whether they be digital or a hard copy, take diligence and

organization.

b) Saving multiple copies proves to take a lot of organization and patience, along

with effort.

B. Organization is another important skill that can be used in everyday life.

VII. Writing skills section

A. Creative writing builds virtually countless writing skills that people will use in their life.

B. Writing an entire story involves grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, consistency, and

versatility.

1. Character’s speaking tones, actions, and thoughts all require specific writing that has

limited room for error.

2. Dealing with constant quotation marks, questions, and exclamatory statements pose

new ways to format work.

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C. Developing writing skills are useful for much more than that.

1. Speaking fluently

2. Making general conversation

3. Creating outlines and research papers

4. Writing in general

5. Reading comprehension

D. Writing skills can be both a soft and a hard skill.

1. (i.e. soft skills: proper speaking and empathy in the work place)

2. (i.e. hard skills: teaching literature or being a writer)

VIII. Conclusion section (end body paragraph)

A. Creative writing is beneficial because…

B. Restate self-expression

C. Restate empathy

D. Restate mind-development

E. Restate confidence

F. Restate organization

G. Restate writing skills

H. Conclude paper.



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Creative writing can be a very beneficial thing to anyone that participates in it. Although

it has many important benefits that may not be mentioned, it has six major benefits. These

benefits are; self-expression, empathy, confidence, mind-development, organizational skills, and

increased writing abilities and literacy. Not to mention that it can be fun. Here is why people

should be putting in the effort to write creatively.

First, is self-expression. Self-expression is the ability that a person has/can have when

they understand their thoughts, values, and emotions. According to A Complete Guide on Self

Expression written by an online journalist named Rebecca, someone who shows strong self-

expression will tend to be open-minded, genuine, confident, and content. According to Rebecca,

it is important for a person to be their best self. The journal goes on to state that “Without self-

expression, you can never reveal the very essence of your soul.” With people making these types

of quotes, it shows the importance of self-expression to some people.

Courtney E. Ackerman wrote for positivepsychology.com in the article What is Self-

Expression and How to Foster It? (20 Activities + Examples), defining ways that people can

become more self-expressive. In Ackerman’s article, various ways are mentioned to better the

way that someone expresses themselves. Along with other subjects such as “speaking” or “body

language,” Ackerman mentions and stresses the importance of writing frequently, almost daily.

Ackerman dives further into the ways that people can write, like how often, where they could get

inspiration, and how to strike passion in it.

Both Rebecca and Ackerman repeatedly mention the vitality that self-expression has to a

person’s character. Knowing one’s self can be very important in the future for building their

entire personality, mentioned by drawchange in The Power of Self-Expression. Drawchange

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references Georgetown’s Behavioral Health Institute saying “…that self-expression in the arts

positively affects mood, function, cognition, and behavior.” An anonymous contributor to

drawchange’s article describes self-expression as “empowering” and “therapeutic.”

Self-expression is very obtainable through creative writing. Cleveland Rape Crisis’s

article Self-Expression Through Creative Writing cover how a person can discover themselves

through writing. More specifically, creative writing. They quote Andrea Gibson, a poet, saying

“[Writing is] the one place where the world makes more sense to me. It’s where I feel the most

turmoil, but also the most peace. It’s the one place I look my life straight in the eye.” This quote

brings forth the power that writing has to show one’s true self.

A few ways that a person can express themselves through writing are also mentioned by

the Cleveland Rape Crisis’s Self-Expression Through Creative Writing. They mentioned setting a

time limit to write down anything that the person can think of. A few other ways a person can

express themselves in creative writing are; sitting and imagining a story that they want to create,

think of characters that would make a nice novel for them, or doing the “word web” strategy

where a person writes down a word and then adds a theme to it.

The second benefit is empathy. According to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary, empathy is

defined as “the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously

experiencing the feelings, thoughts and experience of another of either the past or present

without having the feelings, thoughts and experience fully communicated in an objectively

explicit manner.” This means that someone can understand the feelings of someone else due to a

specifically strong correlation to something that they can relate to. It is more commonly used in

the term “empathetic.”

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Empathy is a skill that someone can learn in many ways. How to be more empathetic, an

article produced by headspace.com discusses key ways a person can learn empathy. Along with

examples they mention, such as being more open or being more giving, they mention noticing

the feelings of other people and how they react to their environment. Headspace states that it is a

“there or not” trait, meaning some people may naturally have it and some may not. It is just

different for everyone to learn.

Headspace has another article in the same section called The benefits of practicing

empathy. In the article, the importance of empathy is expressed repeatedly. Benefits of empathy

include; better person-to-person connection (in a romantic or professional), maturity to feelings,

more confident public appearance, and a genuinely positive change in attitude. There are more

benefits of empathy that a person who obtains it could discover in the future.

Victoria A. Shaffer’s article Encouraging perspective taking: Using narrative writing to

induce empathy for others engaging in negative health behaviors, a more serious note is taken in

reference to the benefits of empathy. People who deal with substance abusers commonly help

them express their pain through short periods where they freely write. They were instructed to

formulate a main character and build a premise for that character to follow. The rules were light,

mainly relating to length and boundaries to their character. The people who guided them through

it measured how much the character related to their author, how their character developed, and

how much they enjoyed creating their characters. All these statistics varied, but one stayed the

same. Almost every person showed a more human connection after they created their characters.

They also showed less traits that weren’t sought after (nonspecific). This test showed that

empathy can be beneficial to people with even the most severe struggles.

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Empathy is gainable through creative writing. When creating an entire character, story, or

even world, an author is challenged to logically form emotions that make sense with the

storyline. Juggling multiple characters throughout the span of the story requires precision on how

a human (or non-human character) thinks, acts, feels, and reacts. In order for a story to make

sense, a character must be well written and keep to their values. This can be redirected back to

the self-expression portion, where characters commonly reflect the values of the author.

The third main benefit is confidence. Confidence is the strong trust in either oneself or

something else to either succeed, do what is expected of them, or exceed those expectations.

KidsHealth Medical Experts Confidence further dives into its meaning, saying that confidence is

“…a quiet inner knowledge that you’re capable.” This refers to confidence in a mature, non-

egotistical way. Confidence is a word that is viewed through an individual’s perception.

Confidence is important for more obvious reasons. In almost all aspects of life,

confidence can help a person with any goal that they may have. Some select examples of where

confidence would be helpful would be; asking for a raise, applying for a job, doing something

important, trying something new, basic conversation, attempting to enter a relationship, etc. A

person with confidence enters a whole new realm of possibilities. Confidence is arguably the

most important benefit on this list.

Confidence directly relates to both self-expression and empathy. A person can better

represent themselves when they are confident in who they are, showing self-expression through

confidence. A person with confidence and self-expression can readily engage someone else

knowing how to interact with them, showing a combination of all three traits (this paper).

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SMART Recovery wrote Self-Expression and Creativity: Managing Feelings people that are self-

expressive are confident in posture and other physical characteristics.

Like the other benefits, confidence is accessible through creative writing. Amy Gallo for

Harvard Business Review wrote How to Build Confidence, a piece discussing how a person can

dominate their inner doubts and seize an opportunity. Each topic in the article can be directly

correlated to creative writing. “Preparation” is the first topic, which is important in writing.

When writing, it is important to have an outline of what the story will entail. “Get feedback when

you need it” can be mimicked by peer review and editors. “Take risks” is possible by writing on

controversial topics and ideas.

Mind-development is the fourth and arguably most important benefit of creative writing.

Mind-development, more commonly known as mental development, is the constant fluctuation

growth of thought processes and cognition. What does this mean? It means that a person adapts

their whole mind to new information to make it make sense logically. Everyone does it; it is just

how people do it that is different. According to LearningRx’s 4 Stages of Cognitive Development,

people start learning and developing mentally as young as being born to about 24-30 months in

age.

LearningRx’s article discusses Jean Piaget’s four primary stages of mental development.

The first is the sensorimotor stage. In this time frame, mental growth takes place through sight,

smell, touch, taste, hearing, and moving items. This is the foundation of how humans learn. It is

the first time that people start to develop their minds.

Their second stage is the preoperational stage, which is “ages 2 through 7.” This is where

people start to learn creativity and remember things they come into contact with. Here is a vital

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time to introduce writing to express their creativity that they are starting to learn. Writing during

this time gives those thoughts a place to go. The preoperational stage is the first place that a

person should write.

The third is the concrete operational stage, which is the next four years after turning

seven. This is the stage where people become aware of other people being different and

acknowledge others’ thought processes. This is yet another stage where writing is important,

especially since the feelings of others that they are recognizing can lead to a sense of empathy

early. Open-mindedness is a possibility during the concrete operational stage, which should be

taken advantage of.

Finally, LearningRx mentions the formal operational stage, which is any person over the

age of eleven. It is the final stage, it entails most of life. However, because it is the final stage,

doesn’t mean that people don’t keep learning. Everyone develops differently, so it is important to

help a person develop the correct way. All the benefits of writing are accessible at this time.

Mental development is easily accessible through writing. An anonymous blog post called

The Importance of Creative Writing in the Youth refers to the benefit of creative writing for

younger audiences. It also, however, mentions the ways people develop while they write.

Empathy, the second benefit, is part of the third stage of development, where people start to

understand differing thoughts. Creating characters that aren’t the exact representation of the

author forces them to create something other than themselves, causing a development in

character.

The fifth benefit, which is commonly overlooked, is organizational skills. Organization is

something that people frequently use when writing. There are multiple areas and situations where

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a person naturally incorporates their organizational skills into their work (self). Merriam

Webster's Dictionary defines organization as “the act or process of putting the different parts of

something in a certain order so that they can be found or used easily.” In writing, it is so much

more than that.

Grammarly stresses the importance of organization in their article Why Organization Is

So Important in Writing. Most pieces of writing, creative or not, are not understood if it is out of

order. Organized and well-thought papers are easier to review and guide, as well as read in

general. According to their article, Grammarly states that “Fifty-five percent of visitors will read

an article for 15 seconds or less before moving on.” That shows that if something is written

poorly, the main point will not be received, leaving the entire piece useless. They also stress the

necessity for a paper or piece of writing to be readable at a quick pace. A person should be able

to look through a paper and quickly get all the necessary information. If the writing cannot

express the story in that time frame, it will be disregarded.

Organization is very necessary in the real world as well. Skooler, an online journal about

skills that teachers can use to lead their students to success, wrote an article, Life skills 101:

Being organized leads to success, that explains how and why a person should be organized.

People who are organized tend to organize small things, like their personal spaces and work

areas. They also, however, often end up putting effort into organizing major things like their

finances and things that they want to do in their future. That is just one example of how

important organization and functionality of a person can be.

Being the most naturally attainable, organization is something people do not focus on in

their work. When writing, people, sometimes without noticing, will learn to organize their papers

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(self). Creative writing is where organized writing is prominent due to constant quotations,

questions, run-on sentences, and exclamatory statements. A variety of punctuation and odd

wording come from creative writing. People also have to organize their characters, stories, and

continuity in writing style. It can be very challenging to make a character stay consistent and to

their values. Writers often keep lists of characters and pieces of their stories to ensure that they

are organized and keep their character’s original form.

The sixth benefit, which is comparably obvious, is increased writing skills and literacy.

Merriam Webster’s Dictionary refers to literate as “versed in literature or creative writing.”

Although that definition is redundant to the word, it is important. It states that being literate is

being able to fluently speak and write at a level that is at least acceptable. “Sean Glatch wrote

Why Learn Creative Writing?, a short article that puts emphasis on why people should get into

creative writing. In it, Glatch mentions that it helps people write and think. It is important for

people to expand their vocabulary and stretch their mental boundaries past where they are to

become more literate.

When partaking in creative writing, a person is open to a world of possibilities. They

need to make characters that are consistent, diverse, independent, and well-written. That is much

more difficult when a person does not have a high literary standard. Literacy can come naturally

to some, but can also be learned. Either way, writing will help writers be able to become more

literate.

Last, but not least, creative writing is fun. Betty Sims, an online blogger, wrote 7 Reasons

Why I Love Creative Writing. In it, Betty refers to how exhilarating it is to create storylines and

thoughts. Mainly the thoughts of other people instead of their own. Along with Betty mentioning

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it being an “emotional outlet” and “therapeutic” in some subsections, creative writing offers

plenty of entertainment.

Creative writing is free to do and takes just a piece of paper and a pen. Any way that

people can write, they should take advantage of it. At almost any spare time someone can create

whatever they want in any way that they can. The accessibility of creative writing makes it not

only common, but widely accepted in multiple cultures. With how easy it is to do, it makes sense

why most of the world partakes in it.

People have written for thousands of years. It is no wonder that people do it all the time

with all the benefits that it poses. Lenton Lane wrote a brief article called Why Do we Write for

the University of Nottingham. In it, Lenton mentions that people write for both themselves and

others. When a person is writing for their own gain, it usually has to do with self-expression and

mental reinforcement. When a person writes for the purpose of others, it is typically for finding

readers that appeal to the writing (Lane).

Ewan Clayton’s Where did Writing Begin? covers the estimated timeframe of the

beginning of writing, placing it at around 5,000 years ago from a form of written language and

over 30,000 years for first form of physical language through cave paintings. It first showed up

in a genuine language in Egypt, usually being written on sandstone. The language would later be

known as Greek, or at least a primitive form of it. So it is obvious that people in all stages of

history have found the usefulness and necessity of writing, whether it be in literal use or creating

stories.

In conclusion, creative writing is beneficial for multiple reasons., —first, self-expression.

Self-expression is the capability of an individual to comprehend their deeper beliefs. It is

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attainable through writing when developing a character, story, or thoughts.. Second, people that

write creatively tend to be more empathetic. Along with self-expression, writing characters

comes with the benefits of empathetic understanding of characteristics and emotions of other

people. Empathy brings benefits to relationships, jobs, and public social interactions. Third,

people who know how they interact with others and themselves can be more confident. Someone

who knows how to express themselves will be more certain in their thoughts and beliefs. People

that understand how other people’s emotions and thought processes work will be more confident

in social interactions. Fourth is mental development, which covers when people should write. At

any age in any stage of development, writing is beneficial for different reasons. Fifth is

organizational skills. Organization is attainable through formatting the writing and keeping a

logical storyline for characters to follow. Organization is important later in life for work places,

homes, and almost anywhere that a person goes. It is attainable through writing in formatting and

consistency. Sixth is increased writing skills and literacy. Literacy is the more obvious benefit. It

is attainable through creative writing with challenge like diverse vocabulary and formatting

quotes from characters.

Creative writing is a very accessible and beneficial thing. It has been around for

thousands of years as a past time for people to learn. It comes in all lengths and sizes, from index

cards to an entire series. Along with the benefits mentioned in the paper, there are many more.

Self-expression, empathy, confidence, mental expression, organization, and literacy are the

primary benefits. Not to mention that it is fun. The more someone does it, the easier it gets, and

the more beneficial. Creative writing is something that everyone should put the time in to do. It

creates an endless amount of benefits and stories that people can enjoy.



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