Why Your Homeschooler Needs Creative Writing EVEN If They Already Take Language Arts

Welcome to the Creative Writing League! We’re a proud new asset to the southern Utah Valley area serving homeschool students from Provo to Nephi and all the little towns in between as we come together to explore the world of creative writing once a week in Payson.

Perhaps you’re wondering, WHY we would create a creative writing league when writing is one of the core subjects in nearly every homeschool curriculum.

Well, I’m glad you asked. 

I would like to present four reasons why your homeschooler, and mine, need to be a part of our creative writing community.

1. Academic Writing and Creative Writing Are Not The Same

2. Learned isolation is a problem

3. Community creates confidence

4. Creative Writing Feeds the Creative Soul!

1. Academic Writing and Creative Writing Are Not The Same

Let’s be real for a minute about the type of writing most students are trained in to complete classwork. When it comes to writing reports, a style of writing known as informational writing, most students are asked to craft essays that in essence regurgitate the information they have learned. 

Informational essays are not often considered for their creativity, but instead for their clarity and efficiency in delivering the message. 

While the brightest minds and most creative students will begin to explore their own voice even when writing reports it does not provide the same opportunity for self-expression as creative writing does.

2. Learned Isolation is a Problem

One of the great mistakes that we have made as an academic society is putting creative people in a box of solitude. 

All too often we assume that crafts like creative writing or painting or ceramics are hobbies that don’t really require groupwork. The problem with this is that we accidentally teach young artists bad habits and false beliefs like:

• Writers shouldn’t need anyone else to create

• You should be able to generate new ideas on your own

• Sharing un-finished ideas is embarrassing

• Collaboration is hard

It goes without saying; that these false beliefs can block young creators from flourishing as writers. When the reality is the complete opposite…

3. Community and Collaboration Create Confidence

Unlike academic writing, collaboration is an essential part of any healthy creative writing process. Whether that collaboration is sprinkled here and there throughout the project or is the heart of the entire undertaking.

The reality is that young writers are served SO MUCH BETTER when they are surrounded by others and are practicing creative thinking together. After all, we ALL can benefit from being open to different ideas and perspectives that can expand our own understanding of life for ourselves and others. 

The Creative Writing League isn’t just about studying the different genres of writing or being taught about successful writers of the past. Here at the League, our most important goal is creating a community of support for our young creators!

Students of creativity, in any medium, need to know where they can turn to explore their ideas, to try their hand at new styles of writing without any fear of grades or getting things wrong. And perhaps most importantly where to get HELP as they develop their skills or even simply develop a project.

We hope to teach our League members how to collaborate together in creating AND critiquing. How to be supportive and how to work together is an essential function of a great creative writing class/community.

4. Creative Writing Feeds the Creative Soul

  Finally, creative writing is a craft that feeds the soul! 

Whether or not your student wants to pursue creative writing further as they go forward with their lives and educations this is a class that will help them discover their own voice and their own beliefs. A class exploring creative writing is really a class exploring creative thinking, new perspectives, and fresh ideas. 

Every student deserves to take at least one creative writing class so they can discover just how capable they are of thinking for themselves, collaborating with others, and of course, celebrating their unique voice!

Enroll your homeschooler in the Creative Writing League at the HeART Collective this semester and watch them flourish!