The Benefits of Creative Writing
When was the last time you wrote for fun? Consider these startling benefits to engaging your mind and inner writer.
Relieve Stress
Researchers have shown that expressive writing can reduce anxiety, relieve stress, and combat depression-related symptoms! Getting out all your emotions onto paper helps to both relax and clarify the mind. It is also a healthy way to release pent-up emotions, with no risk of harm to yourself or anyone else. Journaling has also proven to be a very effective way of managing emotions. Studies have shown that the act of recording thoughts and events in a journal encourages a positive body-image and improves self-appreciation.
Develop Imagination
Even from a young age, children learn to embrace their imagination through the act of writing. There is something about committing ideas to paper, a physical representation, that validates the imagination. The ability to think outside the box and to utilize imagination in problem-solving are also invaluable for inventors, scientists, and product designers.
Improve Discipline
Writing takes both effort and time. Writing consistently takes a lot of discipline and deliberate practice, as well as the ability to work through failure. Journaling regularly hones self-discipline.
Practice Expression
Writing practices both being thoughtful and being well-organized. Writers learn to be expressive as well as clear to the reader. It is an important skill to be able to gather thoughts and articulate ideas, whether fanciful or not, in a way that makes sense. Inventing characters and new plots require empathy, close observation, and strategic thought. Communication is a skill that is useful in all facets of life.
Exercise Persuasion
Creative writing is a great way to practice being persuasive as a writer. If a writer is not persuasive in his or her story, then the story and the characters will no longer be believable. Details have to intentional and meaningful for a created world to become believable.