Follow me on my creative writing journey- Week Two- 7 Creative Writing Myths

'I am an immature student sharing what I learn'  Sarah E Waring- The Immature Student

Whatever you do in the world, there will always be someone who claims to be the most experienced in their field. These people can either be a godsend or someone that can knock your confidence right back to square one.

In the writing field, these people can be very much in the public eye, as most writers will take to writing online and publicly, in some form. What I want to highlight today, first and for most, before we go into my new 'list', is that there are no RULES in creative writing. If you are watching someone online ranting about how good they are, without any merit, avoid like the plague. Ranting, writing forums will not help you gain credibility.

In creative writing, there are only guidelines to help you, as a writer, to offer the best literature for your readers. Take guidance from a few, and from people with similar writing goals and credibility. That would be my humble advice.

7 Creative Writing Myths

1. You have to be good at editing to be a creative writer - Not true. You can hire a professional for editing if need be. Creative writing is about the imagination. No editor can produce what you have in YOUR imagination, but they can help you to look more professional with any published literature. To have a job as a published writer eg; editor, journalist etc, then use you would need to have grammatical skills too.
2. I don't need an editor as I passed my GCSE in English 10 years ago - You don't necessarily need an editor, but you may need to brush up on your skills. Grammar is always changing, grammar 'rules' are a lot different now than what they were, 10, 20... 30 years ago! However the beauty of creative writing is that rules are there to be broken and, as above, if you are not comfortable with doing it, bring in the professionals ! Just make sure your grammar is suitable for your audience! 
3. You have to have qualifications to be a creative writer -Not necessarily. If you are applying for a job as a journalist, it may be a requirement. However if you are aiming to produce your own works, then experiment. There is lots of stuff online, where you can learn guidelines for free! Practice, practice and more practice will create an abundance of creativity.
4. Creative writing qualifications will not get you a career -In continuation of the point above, it is a myth that creative writing is a flimsy qualification, but creative writing qualifications are hugely popular in different careers, such as journalism, marketing and blogging. It also looks good when submitting books to publishers as they want to know your experience/qualifications.
5. Creative writing is academic-Creative writing is not seen as academic as it is set to trigger the imagination, not to educate. You can educate in a creative writing style. 
6. You should read a lot to be a good creative writer -Yes... No...maybe. This statement is a little too misguided and should have a grey area. In fact it should say 'You should absorb a lot of literature to be a good writer.' Remember, there are some great authors out there who are blind, dyslexic or may suffer from offer learning difficulties. Literature in this day an age can be absorbed through audio books very successfully. 
7. It doesn't matter how good you are, to be a successful writer, you need luck -Yes, you need luck and you need opportunity because a book/article is not going to publicise itself BUT you also need good content when it strikes. No point in having good luck if people are not going to like your content. Many best sellers are ridiculed for there poor writing quality, but they will have a niche and a 'hook' that is attractive. That has a huge part to play in creative writing.

That's all folks...until next time.

10 tips on creative writing- week 1