Editing Creative writing (section)

== In the classroom ==
Creative writing is usually taught in a [[Writers workshop (activity)|workshop]] format, where students submit original work for peer critique. Students also develop a writing process through the practice of writing and re-writing. Courses also teach the means to exploit or access latent creativity, and may teach more technical issues such as [[editing]], [[narrative structure]], [[literary technique]]s, [[genre]]s, idea generation, or overcoming [[writer's block]]. Writers such as [[Michael Chabon]], [[Kazuo Ishiguro]], [[Kevin Brockmeier]], [[Ian McEwan]], [[Karl Kirchwey]],<ref name=twsOctBeqqq>{{cite news
 |author       = John Swansburg
 |title        = At Yale, Lessons in Writing and in Life
 |newspaper    = The New York Times
 |quote        = Karl Kirchwey, who graduated from Yale in 1979, recently became the director of creative writing at Bryn Mawr College, after having run the Unterberg Poetry Center at the 92nd Street Y for over a decade.
 |date         = April 29, 2001
 |url          = https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/29/nyregion/at-yale-lessons-in-writing-and-in-life.html
 |access-date   = 2010-10-15
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20110331104719/http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/29/nyregion/at-yale-lessons-in-writing-and-in-life.html
 |archive-date = 2011-03-31
 |url-status     = live
 }}</ref> [[Rose Tremain]], [[David Benioff]], [[Darren Star]] and [[Peter Farrelly]] have graduated from university creative writing programs.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}

Many educators find that using creative writing can increase students' academic performance and [[psychological resilience]]. The activity of completing small goals consistently—rather than having unfinished big goals—engenders pride, which releases [[dopamine]] and increases motivation. Students build resilience by documenting and analyzing their experiences, providing new perspectives on old situations and providing a means to sort emotions. It also increases a student's level of compassion and creates a sense of [[community]] among students in what could otherwise be deemed an isolating classroom.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/how_creative_writing_can_increase_students_resilience|title=How Creative Writing Can Increase Students' Resilience}}</ref>

===International students===

Creative writing may have an influence not only on native-speaking students but also on international students.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Anderson |first=Annesley |title=Tutors' Column: "Helping Students See Themselves as Writers: Creative Writing Exercises in the Writing Center" |date=2020 |pages=26–29}}</ref> Educators who advocate for creative writing say incorporating creative writing classes or exercises has the potential to develop students into better readers, analysts, and writers.<ref name=":2" /> These same people say creative writing can have similar effects on international students by acting as a platform for them to share their own heritage, experiences, and values.<ref name=":2" /> Scholar Youngjoo Yi conducted a case study that tested this idea over two years. Yi focused on an international student from Korea and examined how her creative writing class influenced her in-school and out-of-school writing. He concluded that taking the creative writing class made her a more confident writer—not only in English but also in other languages—and the projects done in her creative writing class encouraged her to express and connect her Korean heritage with her English writing.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Yi |first=Youngjoo |date=2010-03-01 |title=Adolescent multilingual writers' transitions across in- and out-of-school writing contexts |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1060374309000496 |journal=Journal of Second Language Writing |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=17–32 |doi=10.1016/j.jslw.2009.10.001 |issn=1060-3743|url-access=subscription }}</ref> 

===Composition studies=== 

Argument and research writing is a major focus in the field of composition studies. The focus on academic writing tends to leave little room for creative writing in writing studies.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Geok-Lin Lim |first=Shirley |date=2003 |title=The Strangeness of Creative Writing: An Institutional Query |journal=Duke University Press |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=152}}</ref> Gregory Stephens suggests that focusing heavily on academic writing prevents students from developing their own unique writing style and voice.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Stephens |first=Gregory |date=September 19, 2017 |title=Transferable skills and travelling theory in creative writing pedagogy |url= |journal=New Writing |volume=15 |pages=65–81 |doi=10.1080/14790726.2017.1369128}}</ref> When he applied creative writing pedagogy techniques to STEM students at the University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez, he found exercises such as "self-characterization" and storytelling assignments helped his STEM students develop empathy, self-awareness, and a narrative voice. He suggests these skills are transferable to real-world situations such as professional settings.<ref name=":4" /> By engaging in creative writing exercises, students are able to break free from the "constraints of formal thinking and writing" of academic writing, potentially boosting students’ confidence, creativity, and overall writing skills.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A House Divided: On the Future of Creative - ProQuest |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/236933109 |access-date=2024-12-10 |website=www.proquest.com | id={{ProQuest|236933109}} |language=en}}</ref>

===In academia===
Creative writing is considered by some academics (mostly in the US) to be an extension of [[English studies]], although it is taught around the world in many languages. Some academics see creative writing as a challenge to the tradition in English studies of dealing with the critical study of literary forms, not the creation of literary forms. In the [[United Kingdom]] and [[Australia]], as well as increasingly in the US and the rest of the world, creative writing is considered a discipline in its own right, not an offshoot of any other discipline.
{{cquote|To say that the creative has no part in education is to argue that a university is not universal.<ref>{{cite book |last=Engle |first=Paul |chapter=The Writer and the Place |title=A Community of Writers: Paul Engle and the Iowa Writers' Workshop |editor-first=Robert |editor-last=Dana |location=Iowa City |publisher=University of Iowa Press |year=1999 |isbn=0-87745-668-2 |page=3 }}</ref>}}
Those who support creative writing programs—either as part of or separate from the study of English—argue for the academic worth of the experience. They suggest creative writing hones the students' abilities to clearly express their thoughts and entails an in-depth study of literary terms and mechanisms that can improve the writers' work. The planning, development, critical analysis and creative [[problem-solving]] skills are further used in other areas beyond creative writing.{{citation needed|date=March 2025}}

Some people suggest that creative writing cannot be taught. In an article for the ''New Yorker'', essayist [[Louis Menand]] quotes [[Kay Boyle]], the director of the creative writing program at San Francisco State University for sixteen years, who said, "all creative-writing programs ought to be abolished by law".<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Show or Tell - Should Creative Writing be Taught? |first=Louis |last=Menand |magazine=The New Yorker |date=June 8, 2009 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/06/08/show-or-tell |archive-date=August 30, 2009 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090830182154/http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2009/06/08/090608crat_atlarge_menand }}</ref> The [[pedagogy]] of creative writing is also a source of debate. Critics of MFA and English graduate programs say the methods of instruction discriminate against people with disabilities, emphasizing writing practices such as daily writing requirements or location-based writing that students with chronic illnesses, physical or mental health barriers, and neurodivergency are unable to access.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2022 |title=Cripping Pedagogy in the Creative Writing Classroom: A Critical Disability Studies Perspective |encyclopedia=A Socially Just Classroom: Transdisciplinary Approaches to Teaching Writing Across the Humanities |publisher=Vernon Press |last=Milbrodt |first=Teresa |editor-last=Coffey |editor-first=Kristin |publication-place=Wilmington, DE |pages=51–66 |isbn=9781648891755}}</ref> The selection of texts used in traditional creative writing programs has also been criticized, with scholars such as Caleb González saying that the [[Western canon|Western literary canon]] and writing pedagogy are "historically rooted and linked to exclusion and structural racism in creative writing programs".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=González |first1=Caleb |date=25 March 2021 |title=On Writing in Two Languages in the Creative Writing Workshop: Exploring Diverse and Inclusive Workshop Models and Pedagogies |url=https://repository.rit.edu/jcws/vol6/iss1/37 |journal=Journal of Creative Writing Studies |volume=6 |issue=1 |issn=2474-2937 |access-date=29 February 2024}}</ref>