Creative Writing Topics & Ideas
Posted on March 5, 2019
Creative writing can be characterized as a style of writing that is made with creativity. It includes such types of writing as fiction writing, poetry writing, creative nonfiction writing, and many others. Creative writing is aimed at exposing different ideas, whether it will be emotions, feelings, or opinions. Hence, one may say that creative writing is anything where the goal is to express thoughts and feelings rather than merely to convey precise information. Accordingly, rather than only providing data or encouraging the reader to make a particular action, creative writing is composed to inspire or entertain someone, to spread ideas concerning something or someone, or to reveal one’s views.
There are two types of creative writing such as effective and ineffective writings. Ineffective creative writing can be defined as a type of writing that cannot make any impact on the reader. This type of creative writing will not accomplish its purpose. Therefore, all creative writers, including novelists, poets, short-story writers, essayists, and others want to improve their writing to make it effective. To increase proficiency in creative writing, one should develop sufficient writing skills and thus, practice a lot.
Topic and Ideas for Creative Writing Paper
Below you can find the examples of topics for the creative writing paper.
- Outside the Window
It may be one of the easiest themes to inspire a writer. You can write about the weather outside your window. If it is not inspiring to you, try to write about the weather in a place that you wish you could be. - If I Had a Million Dollars
This theme inspires one to use imagination. Everyone enjoyed dreaming about winning one million dollars, so use your imagination and try to develop this theme. - Food
Food is one of the most creative themes. You can write about your breakfast, dinner or lunch as well as about your favorite meal. You can write a story about a unique food experience or exotic food. Describe the most exciting meal you have ever had; it may be a good or a bad meal. Describe it in detail; for instance, say who was there with you, what meals were served, where the restaurant was located, and how you felt yourself before and after a meal. Try to answer those questions. Either you could write a poem concerning a time you met a friend at a café during lunch. - Eye Contact
You could write a creative essay about two persons seeing each other for the first time. This theme seems to be quite inspiring as you can imagine any circumstances. - Love
Many creative writings discussed the theme of love. Love is one of the most widely held subjects covered in books. Thus, it may be a universal theme for you as you can explore love in a number of different ways in your writings. For instance, you can write about first love, forbidden love or unrequited love. You also can incorporate such themes as the love between partners and love between parents and children, and so on. - Death
Death is also one of the so-called literature’s universal themes. In many different sources, the authors present the subject of death in some way or another. Thus, in your writing, you may explore a feeling of sadness after the death of a beloved person. You may examine the life-and-death cycle. Try to imagine what comes “after” death. - Individual vs. Society
Many creative writings use the conflict between the individual and society as the main theme. Such a story may revolve around the protagonist who confronts the community he or she lives in. Thus, you may write about a person who is different from other people, and either makes an effort to fit in with society’s values or rebels against society. You may use this theme in dystopian fiction. - Fear
You can write about the subject that scares you. In that case, you can reveal what you feel when you are scared. Ask your inner self why you are afraid of something; you may be afraid of something because of your personal experience or judgment of others. You also can imagine a hypothetical situation when you are scared and write on how you can react to this situation. - Good vs. Evil
The struggle between good and evil is one of the most frequent themes in fantasy. It seems that this theme does not need explicit explaining as the books that investigate this theme generally emphasize a battle between good and evil, in which good usually wins. You may get inspiration from such publications as The Lord of the Rings written by J. R. R. Tolkien and George R. R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire.” - Coming of Age
The books concerning adulthood are quite popular among readers of all ages. Exploring this theme, you can write about occurrences in a young character’s life that point to a radical shift of his or her mindset and standpoint. On the most famous works concerning this theme is “The Catcher in the Rye” written by J. D. Salinger. It reveals the story of a sixteen-year-old boy facing the problem of teenage angst. - Survival
All living creatures have the same fundamental instinct for survival so that survival is a common theme in the literary discourse. In recent decades, the so-called dystopian genre becomes entirely popular making the subject of survival even more widespread. You can confront the characters with external issues such the environmental problems, a disease or a battle with an antagonist. As this theme is entirely popular nowadays, your piece of writing definitely will be successful. - Bravery and Heroism
The stories revealing the idea of heroism and courage have been quite popular for thousands of years. Not to mention, one of the most broadly used story structures in creative writing is the so-called hero’s journey structure. However, you may explore the theme of heroism in different ways. The most popular are “mythical” hero stories concerning the characters who are destined for greatness, and, at the same time, stories about heroes who achieve success despite the odds. Robin Hood, who is a character from English legends, is one of the most popular heroes in the literary discourse. He was stealing from wealthy people and giving to the poor. Therefore, you may use this prototype in your creative writing. - Refreshed
You may write a composition about a time you actually felt refreshed and renovated. Maybe you felt this during a dip into a pool on a warm summer day or when you made a sip of fresh lemonade. You can write about any situation that encouraged you to relax. It also may explore your experience having hard times and a case or a subject that helped you to start again. - War
The theme of war has been relevant for thousands of years. Many different authors used the issue of war in a variety of works of historical stories revealing the horrors of wars, to fiction stories considering fights between fantastical figures. Hence, as war is depicted throughout the history of literature, you also may explore this theme in your writings. - Interview
You may write a creative composition in the form of a conversation. This may be a real interview with a real person, as well as a fictional interview with a historical figure. To start, you should compose a list of questions you have for someone and then, develop it into your composition. - Book Inspired
Think about your favorite book. Point out why you like this book and what is the most exciting part of it. Moreover, you also can write a poem that sums up the whole plot of the book in less than ten lines. - Prejudice
The theme of prejudice has been frequently explored throughout literature. You can write a tale about the characters overcoming their prejudice and show how they managed to change their way of thinking for the better. Accordingly, exploring this theme you may investigate the destructive outcomes of prejudice and hasty judgment on one’s personality. As an example, you can use Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice,” which describes a love story based on wrong first impressions and prejudice. - Secret Message
Writers frequently write stories with a hidden sense. Try to compose something with a secluded message hidden between the lines. For example, you can write an acrostic poem where the last letters of the words will indicate a hidden message. - Random Wikipedia Article
If you cannot pick the theme from the list mentioned above, you may go to Wikipedia and click on the button “Random Article.” Then, write a piece of creative writing concerning whatever the page you get.
Conclusion
As can be seen, there are many different types of creative writing. The exploration of any theme, whether it is comprehensively explored or just inspected superficially, adds depth to any story. For creative writing, you may choose any subject from a broad topic such as love or coming of age to more particular themes such as analysis of the favorite book. However, you should note that creative writing is a specific type of writing that should be original and self-expressive to attract readers. Creative writing is aimed to entertain the readers and share personal experience, for instance, love or loss. Thus, keep in mind that whether you are attempting to express, it is of vital importance to use your imagination and be creative.
