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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at KU chapter.

While trying to come up with a topic for this article, I was having trouble at first. So to find an idea, I went to a random topic generator. As I was clicking through the prompts, I was really entertained by the different questions. There was anything from “What would you do if a random app showed up on your phone?” to “What’s your favorite holiday?” and “Where is the most beautiful place you’ve been?”

All these questions are asking intriguing questions that I could write about. I could go on about how I would explore a new app, or how Halloween is the best holiday. But instead, I’m going to talk about the topic of writing. 

Photo from Katie Daisy on Etsy

What I really mean is the concept of creative writing. One of my favorite things is creative writing. There is something so therapeutic about being able to write and express your thoughts and feelings with words. Writing doesn’t need to be perfect, it can be serious or fun and about any topic.

I’ve always written for fun. I can even find some of my storybooks I made as a pre-schooler in my stuff somewhere. But I recently got back into writing my junior year of high school. I needed an elective, and I decided I might as well do creative writing. It would be a nice break from all the papers I wrote in class, a balance of academic writing and fun writing. My teacher was the same as my English teacher, and the class turned out to be my favorite class ever! I even ended up taking it again my senior year!

The class was so engaging and accepting, a place where everyone was allowed to express and write what they wanted to! There were so many prompts and fun ways to get our creative brains flowing, from writing a few sentences and then passing it to the person on your right until a full story was made, to having a new prompt at the beginning of every class. Some of my favorite pieces I’ve ever written were from that class! My teacher, Mrs. Andersen, has inspired me to continue writing, as she made the experience so unique and fun!

It is what inspired me to join HER Campus! A friend told me about HER Campus, saying that there was the writing team where we got to write articles about whatever we wanted! I knew it was the perfect opportunity that allowed me to keep up my creative writing after high school. 

woman typing on laptop
Photo by Christin Hume from Unsplash

That’s my story on how I got into creative writing, and I’m so glad that I’m keeping it up. It is essential to relaxing your mind, writing about anything, especially if you feel pressured and stressed from school. You can do creative writing in many ways, including bullet journaling, writing in a diary, doing poems, blogging, and many more! Even if you aren’t a person with many words, art and music are great too! 

It’s so easy to start, all you need is either a piece of paper and a pencil or a computer! Just write about whatever comes to mind!

I get that to some it’s not that easy though. Even I struggle with finding topics or knowing how to convey my story into words. Sometimes I just don’t have the time or feel too lazy to write that day. Other times, if I have a bad day, writing down the words hurts. But I always feel better after I do it. It’s therapeutic, relaxing, and satisfying when you’re writing something that’s from your own mind. Be it journaling of your day or writing a short mystery story, creative writing offers a way to escape and get your thoughts out of your mind. 

Creative writing is also a way for people to connect and relate with others who share similar stories or thoughts. You might put something out in the world by writing it down, and not realize how many people feel the exact same way! Creative writing is something that can be for you or for others.

The purpose of writing this article was for me to be able to express my own feelings on creative writing. I wanted to share my story and hopefully encourage others to take up creative writing. I truly think taking a few minutes a day to write down thoughts or making up a fun story helps people relax!

You might find out that writing is your thing! If it’s not, that’s okay as well! If you are stuck, do what I do. Look up a random topic generator, hit shuffle, and just write the first thing that comes to your mind after seeing the prompt! All I can say is why not give it a try? 

Woman in a light pink sweater sitting beside a window writing in her journal
Photo by Alexandra Fuller from Unsplash

Hi! My name is Alex Corbin and I'm a sophomore at KU majoring in Behavioral Neuroscience in the Pre-Med track! I'm a huge movie and TV show fan, and my life has been taken over by TikTok. I hope you like reading my articles!