Get Your License!

As a Creative Writing major, I tend to have to go through my papers for other classes to make sure I did not throw in an ungrammatical sentence. Like this.

Just thinking about the topic of Creative License, or Artistic License, gives me the warm fuzzies inside. I love the freedom I have in a Creative Writing class to write however I choose, however my brain sees fit at the time. How comforting it is to know I don't have to use correct grammar (though most of the time I do) and structure! What I place on the paper is right, no matter what. With Creative License, we have the power to do anything with our stories, poems, essays, etc.

...
Take
this, for
example. I
canwrite a poem
shaped like a Christ
mas tree about the love
of others during the season.
And I can putspaces and periods
andcommas
wherever
I choose.

That's a poetry example. For prose, we could do the same thing, but it is not very common. Usually in prose, the creativity comes from the structure and the language. Once I wrote a nonfiction essay consisting of five short paragraphs separated by white spaces. They all narrate completely different scenes, but they share a common topic.

And for the creative writer, it makes perfect sense.

If it weren't for the solid training I had in formal writing in middle school, I would not have proceeded to write creatively in high school. Similarly, if it weren't for the solid training I had in creative writing in high school, I probably would not have grown as a stronger formal writer in the rest of high school and college. The two types of writing complement each other. What good is a formal piece if there is no creative voice, nothing that stands out from the rest?

And, well, what good is a creative piece if there is no skill in writing in general?

So, will you get your license?