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How to Start a Creative Writing Essay

If you’re applying to university or college, one of the things they may ask you is to write a creative writing essay. Perhaps you’ve even considered doing so yourself—but are unsure how to go about it.

Don’t worry. We’re going to help, and we’re going to teach you how to write the perfect creative writing essay. Or, at least, how to write the perfect first draft.

The Purpose Of Your Essay

Simply put, a creative writing essay is a piece of writing that explores a creative facet of yourself or your creative process. For instance, you might examine your humour or your imagination, or you could look at how you engage with literature or art. It could be anything!

Why should you write one? Well, it’s a great idea to have a look at how you engage with the world around you, and the only way to do that is through your writing. Your creative writing essay will give you a great opportunity to explore your creative side, and what better way to explain that side to a potential employer or university admission tutor than with some compelling creative writing?

So, the purpose of your creative writing essay is to give you a platform to display your creative side. And to do that, you need to find your voice and unique style. Don’t be shy about experimenting with language or using rhetorical devices – whatever you can think of! – to make your writing stand out.

The Research

As we’ve established, your creative writing essay is going to be about you, your creative process, or your interpretations of literature, art, or other forms of culture. To back that up a little bit, you’re going to need to do some research into the topic.

Luckily, this isn’t as daunting as it sounds. If your essay is themed around humour, for example, you might want to look at the work of Steve Armand or John Cleese. If it’s about literature, you could examine the work of T.S. Eliot or Ezra Pound, for instance.

Depending on how in-depth you want to go, you can do a lot of research online via books or databases. Remember: the more you know, the better you will be able to write. And the better you write, the more likely you are to have academic success.

The First Draft

So you’ve done your research and thought of a few possibilities for your essay. Now you’re going to want to sit down and start writing. You might want to put yourself in writing mode by playing some word games or using an outline to structure your thoughts. Once you’ve got the basic idea of the essay down, take some time to flesh it out and do some drafts.

This is where your writing ability really starts to shine. Having a first draft is a great way to ensure you’ve got your thoughts organised, and it also gives you something to work with. Once you’ve gotten the hang of it, you’ll be able to write a first draft in no time at all. And once you’ve got that, it’s just a matter of polishing and getting it right. There are a few different ways to approach this final stage, but the most important thing to do is to read your essay out loud and make sure each word sounds impeccably rehearsed.

The Final Stage

When you reach this stage, your essay is pretty much done. You’ve just got a few things left to do. The most important thing is to read it aloud a few times, and make sure each word sounds just right. If you’ve got a piece of writing that you feel is perfect, why not send it off to a professional to have it edited? You could polish it up a bit more, but if you’ve followed our guide, you’re already on your way to writing an amazing essay.

And that, my friend, is how to write a creative writing essay. Sure, it can be daunting at first, but once you’ve got the hang of it, you’ll be able to churn out creative writing assignments with ease. Why? Because you’ll have found your voice and can express yourself creatively through your writing. So go ahead—write that novel you’ve always been dreaming about writing!