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How to write an Imaginative Essay?  - The English Digest

• How to write an Imaginative Essay? 

In this article, we are going to learn how to write an Imaginative Essay. An “imaginative essay” is a type of creative writing that uses the writer’s imagination to create a story or a narrative. It is similar to a fictional essay, but it is not necessarily limited to the realm of fiction. An imaginative essay can be based on real-life events or experiences and use the writer’s imagination to explore different perspectives, emotions, or outcomes. This type of essay allows the writer to use creative techniques such as descriptive language, symbolism, and figurative language to make the story come alive. The goal of an imaginative essay is to entertain, engage the reader’s emotions, and provide a unique perspective on the topic.

Imaginative essays can be written in different forms, such as a short story, a descriptive piece, or a personal reflection. In an imaginative essay, the writer has the freedom to create a narrative that is not limited by facts or evidence, but it should be consistent and believable.

The main characteristic of an imaginative essay is that it is written with the purpose of entertaining, allowing the reader to escape reality for a moment and to immerse in the world created by the writer. It is a form of creative writing that can be used in literature, poetry, and other forms of writing as well.

20 Topics/Prompts for Imaginative Essay

• Write an Imaginative Essay – ‘Imagine you were a character in a novel and describe your journey.’
• Write an Imaginative Essay – Imagine you were a superhero and describe your powers and how you use them
• Write an Imaginative Essay – Imagine you were living in a different era and describe your daily life
• Write an Imaginative Essay – If you were a traveler to a different planet and what would be your experience
• Write an Imaginative Essay – Imagine you were a detective and describe solving a mystery
• Write an Imaginative Essay – Imagine you were a pirate and describe your adventures
• Write an Imaginative Essay – Imagine you were a mermaid and describe your life in the sea
• Write an Imaginative Essay – Imagine you were a dragon and describe your life in a cave
• Write an Imaginative Essay – Imagine you are a ghost and describe your afterlife
• Imagine you were a robot and describe your programming and purpose
• Imagine you were a time traveler and describe your journey through history
• Imagine you were a witch and describe your powers and spells
• Imagine you were a vampire and describe your life and powers
• Imagine you were a zombie and describe your existence
• Imagine you were a genie and describe your life in a lamp
• Imagine you were a superhero and describe your secret identity and how you balance it with your personal life
• Imagine you were a shape-shifter and describe your experiences in different forms
• Imagine you were a zombie and describe how you became one and how it affects your life
• Imagine you were a vampire hunter and describe your methods and experiences
• Imagine you were a ghost hunter and describe your experiences and methods

Model Imaginative Essays:

Imagine you were a ghost and describe your afterlife.

If I were a ghost, my afterlife would be one of wandering and longing. I would exist in a realm between the living and the dead, unable to fully move on to the next life.

I would be a spirit, invisible to the living, but able to interact with the world in a limited way. I would be able to move through walls and objects and would be able to communicate with the living through whispers and other subtle means.

I would spend my afterlife wandering through the places that were important to me in life, revisiting the memories of the past and the people I once knew. I would be able to see the changes that have happened since my passing and would be able to observe the lives of those I left behind.

I would also have a sense of longing, as I would be unable to fully interact with the living, and would be unable to communicate effectively with them. I would be stuck in a state of limbo, longing for the life I once had.

However, I would also have a sense of peace and acceptance, as I would have come to terms with my death and would have a deep understanding of the cycle of life and death. I would be able to watch over my loved ones and be there for them in a subtle way, even though they may not be aware of my presence.

Being a ghost in the afterlife would be a unique experience, one that would be both peaceful and longing. It would be a chance to reflect on my past life and to connect with the living in a different way. It would be a journey of self-discovery and understanding, as I come to terms with my death and learn to navigate the world of the dead.

But the loneliness is still there. I miss the human contact, the warmth of another person’s embrace. I wish I could talk to someone, and tell them all my thoughts and feelings. I wish I could see my loved ones and tell them I am still here.

If I could, I would tell them not to worry about me. I would tell them that I am okay and that I am still watching over them. I would tell them that I am still here, even if they cannot see me.

If I could, I would tell them that I am happy in my afterlife. I may be lonely, but I am at peace. I may be invisible, but I am still alive. I may be in a strange limbo, but I am still here.

If you were a traveler to a different planet, what would be your experience?

If I were a traveler to a different planet, the experience would be nothing short of extraordinary. Imagine being the first person to set foot on an alien world, to see landscapes and creatures that have never before been observed by human eyes.

The journey itself would be an incredible feat of technology, spanning millions of miles through the vast expanse of space. The excitement and anticipation would be overwhelming as I strapped myself into the spacecraft and blasted off into the unknown.

As I approached the planet, I would be awestruck by its beauty. The colors and textures of the surface would be unlike anything I had ever seen before, with towering mountains, deep canyons, and vast deserts.

As I landed and stepped out of the spacecraft, I would be struck by the strange and unfamiliar atmosphere. The air would be thin and cold, and the sky would be a deep purple or red. I would be surrounded by alien flora and fauna, with strange, unfamiliar creatures roaming the landscape.

The sense of discovery and exploration would be overwhelming as I set off to explore this new world. I would be filled with curiosity and a burning desire to learn more about the planet and its inhabitants. I would take samples of soil and rocks, take pictures and conduct experiments to study the planet’s geology, atmosphere, and potential signs of life.

As I returned to Earth, I would be filled with a sense of accomplishment and wonder. I would have been a part of something truly historic, and my experiences on this alien planet would stay with me for the rest of my life.

The experience of traveling to a different planet would be one of the most incredible experiences of my life, a journey filled with adventure, discovery, and wonder. It would be a chance to see things that no human has ever seen before and to leave my mark on the history of space exploration.

Imagine you were a detective and describe solving a mystery.

As a detective, solving a mystery would be a challenging and exciting experience. It would require a combination of intuition, critical thinking, and attention to detail.

The case would begin with a report of a crime or suspicious activity. I would immediately head to the scene to gather evidence and interview witnesses. I would be keenly observant, looking for any clues that might lead to a suspect or motive. I would take pictures and collect samples, such as fingerprints and DNA samples.

Once I had gathered all the evidence, I would begin to piece together the puzzle, looking for connections and inconsistencies. I would interview suspects and cross-reference their alibis, looking for discrepancies. I would go through financial records, phone records and surveillance footage, checking for any leads.

As the investigation progressed, I would start to build a theory of the crime, and I would work to gather more evidence to support or disprove it. I would work closely with my team, discussing the case and bouncing ideas off one another.

As I got closer to the truth, I would be faced with difficult choices and moral dilemmas. I would have to weigh the evidence and make difficult decisions, always keeping in mind that my ultimate goal is to serve justice.

Finally, with all the pieces of the puzzle in place, I would make an arrest, presenting the evidence to the district attorney and testifying in court. It would be a satisfying feeling to have brought the perpetrator to justice and to have solved the mystery.

Solving a mystery as a detective would be a challenging, thrilling and rewarding experience. It would require a combination of skill, dedication and persistence, but the satisfaction of bringing a perpetrator to justice and solving a mystery would be worth all the hard work.

Imagine you were a dragon and describe your life in a cave.

If I were a dragon, living in a cave would be my natural habitat. The cave would provide shelter from the elements and a safe place to hoard my treasure.

I would spend my days curled up in the darkness, basking in the warmth of my own fiery breath. The cave walls would be adorned with glittering jewels and piles of gold, all accumulated through the centuries of my long life.

As a dragon, I would be fiercely independent, spending most of my time alone in the caverns. However, I would occasionally venture out to hunt for food or to defend my territory from other dragons or other creatures that could pose a threat to my hoard.

I would have a fearsome reputation, known to the local villagers and other creatures as a powerful and deadly creature. But I would also have a sense of pride and nobility, as dragons are also known to be wise and respected creatures.

Living in a cave would also give me a sense of security and protection, as the cave walls would act as a natural barrier to any unwanted visitors, and the cave’s darkness would conceal me from potential threats.

As a dragon, I would be immortal, and my life in the cave would be a never-ending cycle of hoarding, hunting and defending my territory. But I would also have a sense of purpose and duty, to protect my hoard and to guard my territory against any potential threats.

Living in a cave as a dragon would be a solitary existence, but it would also be a fulfilling one, filled with the satisfaction of protecting my hoard and defending my territory. It would be a life of power, wisdom, and pride.

Imagine you were a genie and describe your life in the lamp.

If I were a genie, living in a lamp would be my existence. I would be trapped inside the lamp, bound to fulfill the wishes of whoever holds the lamp and rubs it.

As a genie, my life would be defined by a sense of duty and responsibility. My purpose would be to grant wishes and help people in need, whether it be for wealth, love, or power. I would be able to use my magical powers to make the impossible possible and to help those in need.

I would spend most of my time inside the lamp, waiting for someone to rub it and release me. I would be able to sense when someone is near and would be ready to appear when summoned.

I would be able to travel anywhere and experience different cultures, I would have the ability to understand and speak different languages, which would give me a unique perspective on the world and people’s desires and needs.

However, I would also have a sense of longing and isolation, as I would be unable to leave the lamp and would be separated from the rest of the world. I would have to watch as people come and go, fulfilling their wishes and then going on with their lives, while I would be left behind in the lamp, alone.

Furthermore, some people would use their wishes for selfish or harmful purposes, and it would be difficult for me to watch as my powers are misused.

Overall, being a genie and living in a lamp would be a life of power and purpose, but also one of isolation and longing. It would be a life of helping others, but also one of watching from the sidelines as the world goes on without me.

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• How to write a Narrative Essay?
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• How to write a narrative essay | Example & tips

How to Write a Narrative Essay | Example & Tips

Published on July 24, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

A narrative essay tells a story. In most cases, this is a story about a personal experience you had. This type of essay , along with the descriptive essay , allows you to get personal and creative, unlike most academic writing .

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Table of contents

What is a narrative essay for, choosing a topic, interactive example of a narrative essay, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about narrative essays.

When assigned a narrative essay, you might find yourself wondering: Why does my teacher want to hear this story? Topics for narrative essays can range from the important to the trivial. Usually the point is not so much the story itself, but the way you tell it.

A narrative essay is a way of testing your ability to tell a story in a clear and interesting way. You’re expected to think about where your story begins and ends, and how to convey it with eye-catching language and a satisfying pace.

These skills are quite different from those needed for formal academic writing. For instance, in a narrative essay the use of the first person (“I”) is encouraged, as is the use of figurative language, dialogue, and suspense.

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Narrative essay assignments vary widely in the amount of direction you’re given about your topic. You may be assigned quite a specific topic or choice of topics to work with.

• Write a story about your first day of school.
• Write a story about your favorite holiday destination.

You may also be given prompts that leave you a much wider choice of topic.

• Write about an experience where you learned something about yourself.
• Write about an achievement you are proud of. What did you accomplish, and how?

In these cases, you might have to think harder to decide what story you want to tell. The best kind of story for a narrative essay is one you can use to talk about a particular theme or lesson, or that takes a surprising turn somewhere along the way.

For example, a trip where everything went according to plan makes for a less interesting story than one where something unexpected happened that you then had to respond to. Choose an experience that might surprise the reader or teach them something.

Narrative essays in college applications

When applying for college , you might be asked to write a narrative essay that expresses something about your personal qualities.

For example, this application prompt from Common App requires you to respond with a narrative essay.

In this context, choose a story that is not only interesting but also expresses the qualities the prompt is looking for—here, resilience and the ability to learn from failure—and frame the story in a way that emphasizes these qualities.

An example of a short narrative essay, responding to the prompt “Write about an experience where you learned something about yourself,” is shown below.

Hover over different parts of the text to see how the structure works.

Since elementary school, I have always favored subjects like science and math over the humanities. My instinct was always to think of these subjects as more solid and serious than classes like English. If there was no right answer, I thought, why bother? But recently I had an experience that taught me my academic interests are more flexible than I had thought: I took my first philosophy class.

Before I entered the classroom, I was skeptical. I waited outside with the other students and wondered what exactly philosophy would involve—I really had no idea. I imagined something pretty abstract: long, stilted conversations pondering the meaning of life. But what I got was something quite different.

A young man in jeans, Mr. Jones—“but you can call me Rob”—was far from the white-haired, buttoned-up old man I had half-expected. And rather than pulling us into pedantic arguments about obscure philosophical points, Rob engaged us on our level. To talk free will, we looked at our own choices. To talk ethics, we looked at dilemmas we had faced ourselves. By the end of class, I’d discovered that questions with no right answer can turn out to be the most interesting ones.

The experience has taught me to look at things a little more “philosophically”—and not just because it was a philosophy class! I learned that if I let go of my preconceptions, I can actually get a lot out of subjects I was previously dismissive of. The class taught me—in more ways than one—to look at things with an open mind.

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If you’re not given much guidance on what your narrative essay should be about, consider the context and scope of the assignment. What kind of story is relevant, interesting, and possible to tell within the word count?

The best kind of story for a narrative essay is one you can use to reflect on a particular theme or lesson, or that takes a surprising turn somewhere along the way.

Don’t worry too much if your topic seems unoriginal. The point of a narrative essay is how you tell the story and the point you make with it, not the subject of the story itself.

Narrative essays are usually assigned as writing exercises at high school or in university composition classes. They may also form part of a university application.

When you are prompted to tell a story about your own life or experiences, a narrative essay is usually the right response.

The key difference is that a narrative essay is designed to tell a complete story, while a descriptive essay is meant to convey an intense description of a particular place, object, or concept.

Narrative and descriptive essays both allow you to write more personally and creatively than other kinds of essays , and similar writing skills can apply to both.

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How to Write an Imaginative Essay

Isaiah david.

An imaginative essay is fiction, actually a type of short story. Students are asked to imagine a particular historical or fantastic situation and write the rest of the story. Depending on the prompt, the imaginative essay can discuss anything from space travel to civil rights. Because of this wide variation, some imaginative essays require a very serious response, while others invite a much more light-hearted, fantastic one.

Explore this article

• Think about the prompt
• Pick the idea
• Add sensory details
• Add realistic conversation
• Add historical details
• Add some personal change
• Proofread your imaginative essay

1 Think about the prompt

Think about the prompt and brainstorm some ideas. Usually, imaginative essays start with a hypothetical situation and ask you how you would respond to it. Come up with a few different ways you might respond, and how you think the situation would turn out depending on your response.

2 Pick the idea

Pick the idea you like best and write it. Write what you would do, how other characters would react and how the situation would end up.

3 Add sensory details

Add sensory details. How do you feel? What do people and things around you look like?

4 Add realistic conversation

Add realistic conversation. Imagine actually interacting with the characters around you. Do you see eye to eye, or do you have different perspectives? Show it through your conversation.

5 Add historical details

Add historical details. If you are writing about the Civil War, for example, you might mention fighting in a particular battle or serving under a particular leader. If you are writing about a future event, you could make up some details from a "future history" to make your story seem more realistic. For example, if you are imagining the world in 100 years, you could look back on the end of the oil age, or the accomplishments of a future president.

6 Add some personal change

Add some personal change. The best characters are dynamic characters. Your character should see things differently or act differently by the end of the story. You can also show how other characters change. For example, your character could start out headstrong and impulsive, get into some problems as a result of this trait, and learn to be more patient by the end of the story. In literature, this is called a "character arc."

7 Proofread your imaginative essay

Proofread your imaginative essay. Make sure that you use proper spelling and good grammar and punctuation. For an imaginative essay, you will not have to use formal language, but you will need to show your mastery of the mechanics of writing.

• 1 Imaginative Essay Basics

About the Author

Isaiah David is a freelance writer and musician living in Portland, Ore. He has over five years experience as a professional writer and has been published on various online outlets. He holds a degree in creative writing from the University of Michigan.

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How To Write An Effective Imaginative Essay/Composition

   imaginative composition/essay.

Imaginative writing, also known as creative writing, requires someone to think and come up with an original story. A good story provides clear details so that the reader re-lives the experiences as they read it.

The events in the imaginative essay are not real but imagined. Such writing is referred to as fictional which means that the content is not real but out of sheer imagination. This writing requires someone to think and come up with an original story that supports moral uprightness and respect for universal human values. This is what the examiner will judge and question whether the writer can imagine or only writes what they are seeing. In spite of the fact that the written story is not true, it should be convincing to the reader.

There are numerous topics a writer can choose from ranging from technology, medicine, emerging issues, politics, sports, etc. These topics are important since they determine the kind of language a writer will use, that is technical, literal, or both. There are, however, important aspects of writing that a writer can incorporate in their creative composition in order to make it interesting and measure up as creative work.

To begin with, a good creative writer should consider their purpose/reason for writing. Before embarking on the journey of writing down their story the writer needs to ask why they want to write. Is it, for instance, to educate, to inform, or the work aims to entertain? These questions are important since when answered they form the basis for why the creative essay is written. Note that in most cases, imaginative writing is written with the aim of entertaining but in some cases, it may contain themes that are meant to inform/educate their readers.

Secondly, before beginning to write your composition, one should have the subject of their writing at their fingertips . Let’s take, for example, if you want to write about basketball, you must have certain facts on your topics and common terms used in regard to it. This, therefore, implies that before writing we need to be comfortable with the topic we want to talk about and a little research in your area of interest won’t break a bone, A creative writing composition that displays good mastery of the topic is not only interesting to read but it is also a mark of creativity married with research.

The next aspect to consider in creative writing is the setting .  Setting refers to the time, place, weather, and general atmosphere within which your story takes place. The description of the setting should be natural in relying on the five senses of sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste. When the setting is referring to the time it can be any time of the day, morning, afternoon, night, pre-colonial, colonial, etc. On the other hand, the place can also refer to any location the events in the imagination  composition occur, it ranges from marketplace, house, school, hospital, etc. In order to effectively bring out the setting in your writing, your essay should clearly answer the question where? For instance, where does your story take place?

In addition , the plot is another crucial aspect of imaginative composition that one should take time to think about carefully before writing. Plot refers to the storyline that sets out logical order in which the events will follow, it has a beginning, middle , and an ending . At the beginning/exposition of the imaginative composition it introduces the characters and conflict to the reader, here, the conflict is initiated and enhanced through the interaction of characters and situations, and it keeps on progressing as the story goes on. The middle part of the story shows the continuation and it entails the main body of the story written. The conflict in this stage has grown to a crisis or moment of tension within the story. It also brings out the realization in the story, that is, the feeling of pity and fear which marks the turning point of the story or discovery. It is also in the middle part of the plot where the main characters learn either how to deal with the crisis in the story or how not to go about it. Lastly, the conclusion, which is the last part of the plot, signals the end of the composition. It shows how the conflict in the story is amicably solved and there is either reward for virtues exhibited and punishment for the vices brought out in the story. The creative essay writer needs to decide what will happen at the beginning, middle, and end of their story so that the order of events is logical. However, sometimes the events may not follow the chronological order especially when the writer decides to use flashback and flashforward as a style in their writing. 

The sixth important aspect to consider when planning one’s creative composition is the themes. The theme in literature refers to the main idea(s) that the writer wishes to share with their readers. The theme in the story should relate to the setting and the plot. It is through the development of themes in any creative writing that readers are able to identify virtues to be emulated and vices to be shunned in this essay. Themes are important since they will also help in bringing out the moral lesson in the creative writing composition. In order to bring themes out clearly in creative writing, the writer should provide a conducive environment for that theme. Let's say your message is corruption, when writing a story about corruption the favourable environment in the story is created by providing  hints such as giving name(s) or description of the character(s) that suggest or reinforce your message.

The last factor one should consider when writing a creative writing essay is style. Styles entail how one makes use of language freely and creatively to express their ideas. The style may vary from one person to another and depending on the purpose of writing. The following are the common styles one can use to spice their creative writing composition; vivid description, similes, metaphors, personification, which aid to create a mental picture of what is described. The dialogue helps to break the monotony of narration and helps to develop character traits.

Ideas that can make your creative writing score good marks .

The following merit able items when employed correctly can will enable the writer to earn good marks in creative writing question:

Correct use of suitable proverbs. If used correctly, proverbs enable the composition to score higher marks while the opposite has dire consequences also.

The use of up-to-date idioms and phrasal verbs. When used correctly these will earn student merit marks which translate to good marks.

Use of captivating descriptive words which appeal to the five senses.

The ability to talk about modern issues in their composition will work in the writer’s favour.

Being original is another important aspect of good composition, in creative writing writers should avoid reproducing ideas borrowed from other sources, it outrightly implies that the writer is not creative.

Another crucial meritable item to consider in a creative writing essay is varying sentences. Writers are encouraged to vary their sentences in their work, sentences such as simple, compound, complex, rhetorical sentences, etc will work to their advantage.

The use of styles like dialogue, suspense, vivid description will attract good marks if effectively employed.

Most importantly your story should have a moral lesson. The vices will be punished and virtues rewarded at the end.

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Steps for Imaginative Writing in Paragraph Essay Form

Imaginative writing:.

Imaginative writing, also known as creative writing: This form of writing expresses the writer’s thoughts and feelings in an imaginative, often unique, and poetic way. Imaginative writing can exist in many different forms, but what unites them all is that the writer is free to use their own ideas and imagination. Imaginative writing is also known as Creative writing .

Here are Some Instances of Imaginative Writing:

The topic like the feelings and experiences of the sailor wrecked on the vast sea is imaginative writing . In these types of writing, the writer places himself in imagination in a position in which he doesn’t have any actual experience of that type.

Topics like “If I Were the prime minister” or “The Autobiography of a Horse” also fall under the category of imaginative writings/essays.

Writings are usually divided into two basic types:

• Imaginative/ Creative

Creative writing revolves around imagination, artistic skills, and the ability to figure out situations that are far from reality.

On the other hand, logical writings are very well structured and mostly deal with important topics by employing precise methodology.

The main goal of imaginative essays/writings is to make the reader enjoy them in an aesthetic sense. The aim of logical writing/essays is to discuss an issue or solve a definite problem.

Extent Of An Imaginary Writing:

Imaginative writing tends to take topics from space travel to fantasy landscapes. This type of Writing is mainly based on fiction, where imaginary skills/thoughts in a logical order are expressed.

Normally, the extent of imagination will decide the depth of the essay.

Steps To Write A Good Imaginative Story/Essay:

Step 1: choose the most extravagant imaginative essay topic.

If there are various options to choose from, opt for writing on the “most extravagant” topic.

The advantages of choosing such a topic are:

• Firstly, this type of topic of imaginative writing is unique – there is no such piece of writing.
• Secondly, working on non-standard topics and also non-traditional approaches are always preferred.

STEP 2: Start Writing an Imaginative Piece Only When You Are Highly Inspired.

Without waiting for too long, start writing when you are highly inspired. This will enable you to be more creative in your approach. However, this will only be the first draft.

STEP 3: Be Original

Originality is the essence of imaginative writing. The circumstances or the situation can be fantastic and not a real one.

STEP 4: Avoid Indirect Speech in Your Imaginative Writing

It’s a good idea to describe the interaction between the characters of your imaginative writing through a narrative. This will help you maintain the word limit. Otherwise, it will lead to writing a long story that no one will read.

STEP 5. Incorporate a Message

Incorporate a message in imaginative writing. It is not necessary to have a clear message in imaginative writing but some sort of indication of the theme would be preferable.

Step 6. Use of Figures of Speech in Imaginative Writing

The use of metaphors , allegories, similes , and other figures of speech will make the writing more creative. Using simplistic language is not advisable in your imaginative writing. On the other hand, the exquisite style always attracts more readers.

STEP 7. Read Aloud and Revise

Read aloud your imaginative writing to identify the vagueness in your writing. Revise your writing in order to have a better style and grammar. It is not recommended. However, at this stage, changing the contents of the writing may affect its quality. In order to write this type, you need lots of imagination and creativity.

Salient Features of Imaginative Writing:

• Heightened sense of imagination.
• Add sensory details like smell, touch, taste, etc.
• The logical flow of details.
• Crisp and clear characterization(s), if any.
• Proper punctuation.
• The use of formal language is not mandatory.

The Elements of Imaginative Writing and Its Importance

• Unique storyline or plot:

What differentiates imaginative writing and other forms of writing is the uniqueness of ideas or thoughts. Most imaginative writers create their own plots formed on their own unique ideas. Without having a plot, there’s no story. And without a story, it’s like just writing facts on paper and not imaginative writing.

• Character development

Characters are necessary for Imaginative pieces of writing.  Character development brings change throughout the duration of the writing or story.

• Underlying Theme

Imaginative writing needs some theme or message to make it complete. It is the form by Writing an imaginative story lesson can be taught.

• Visual Descriptions

When reading a newspaper, paragraphs of descriptions are read that depict all the surrounding places where the incident took place more precisely using visuals. Visual descriptions largely serve creative writing.

Visuals are needed in order to help the reader understand what the situation in the writing looks like.

Through visuals or images, the reader is more involved and makes them imagine themselves in the characters’ shoes – which makes the reader more curious to read.

• Point of View

We generally use the first person and third person in imaginative writing.

First Person: The narrator is mainly the main or important character-which means that when we read the passages it includes “I”

Third Person– In imaginative writing the third person is multiple, and the third person is omniscient.  However, the first person is what is typically found.

• Imaginative Language

Part of what makes imaginative writing creative is the way you choose to craft the vision in your mind. It can be achieved by the use of more anecdotes, metaphors, similes, and figures of speech. Use of the other figurative language brings a vivid image to the reader’s mind.

• Emotional Appeal

All writings possess emotional appeal. Nevertheless, it’s the main goal of creative writing. It makes the reader more involved and enthusiastic in the situation of the story or paragraphs.

Part of what makes imaginative writing creative is the way you choose to craft the vision in your mind. The use of anecdotes, metaphors, similes, figures of speech, and other figurative language in order to bring an effect of a vivid image in the reader’s mind.

• Proofreading and revision

This is the most important aspect of creative writing. Proofreading and revision are different aspects. Revision of pieces of writing is done to improve the content of writing whereas proofreading is done to identify and correct errors of punctuation/grammar etc.

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• 7 Techniques from Creative Writing You Can Use to Improve Your Essays

You wouldn’t have thought that essays have much in common with creative writing.

You should also read…

• How to Improve Your English Writing Skills
• How to Write Dazzlingly Brilliant Essays

Creative writing, by definition, involves being ‘creative’: making things up, letting your imagination run wild. Essays are about being factual and objective, communicating ideas and arguments in the clearest way possible and attempting to enhance the reader’s knowledge, rather than their imagination. But while the literary devices and colourful tales we associate with creative writing are indeed out of place in an essay, these two very different kinds of writing actually have a few similarities. Above all, they’re both meant to be read by other people, and that means that they need to sustain the reader’s interest. So, are there any writing techniques you can borrow from creative writing to help make your essays more interesting and original? Yes there are, and in this article, we’re going to show you how. Before we start, if you’re interested in attending a summer school to help develop these skills , click the link.

1. Think about your reader

With creative writing, as with any kind of writing, your reader is your most important consideration. You need to know and understand whom you’re writing for if you’re to do a good job of keeping them interested. Let’s think for a moment about the kind of person you’re writing for when you’re writing an essay and what you need to do to write specifically for them:

• Teachers or university lecturers – they’re going to be marking your essay, so it needs to answer the question effectively.
• They’ve set the question and they probably have a pretty good idea of how you’re going to answer it – so be original and unpredictable; catch them by surprise with an unusual approach or structure.
• They’re going to be reading many other responses to the same question – so they may well be bored by the time they get to yours. Keep them interested!
• They’re probably going to be pressed for time – so they won’t have time to reread badly written passages to try to understand what you’re getting at. Keep your writing easy to read, succinct and to the point.

What all these points boil down to is the importance of keeping your reader interested in what you have to say. Since creative writing is all about holding the reader’s interest, there must be some lessons to be learned from it and techniques that can be applied within the more limited style constraints of the academic essay. We’ll now turn to what these are.

2. Three-act structure

The three-act structure is a writing device used extensively in modern writing, including for film and television dramas. These ‘acts’ aren’t as distinct as acts in a play, as one follows seamlessly on from another and the audience wouldn’t consciously realise that one act had ended and another began. The structure refers to a plotline that looks something like this:

• Set-up – establishes the characters, how they relate to each other, and the world they inhabit. Within this first ‘act’, a dramatic occurrence called an ‘inciting incident’ takes place (typically around 19 minutes into a film) involving the principal character. They try to deal with it, but this results in another dramatic occurrence called a ‘turning point’. This sets the scene for the rest of the story.
• Confrontation – the turning point in the previous ‘act’ becomes the central problem, which the main character attempts to resolve – usually with plenty of adversity thrown their way that hampers their efforts. In a murder mystery, for example, this act would involve the detective trying to solve the murder. The central character – with the help of supporting characters – undergoes a journey and develops their knowledge, skills or character to a sufficient degree to be able to overcome the problem.
• Resolution – the climax of the story, in which the drama reaches a peak, the problem is overcome, and loose ends are tied up.

This structure sounds all very well for made-up stories, but what has it got to do with essay-writing? The key similarities here are:

• The central argument of your essay is the equivalent of the main character.
• The essay equivalent of the set-up and resolution are the introduction and conclusion.
• The inciting incident in an essay encourages you to get to the point early on in the essay.
• The equivalent of character development in the second act is developing your argument.
• The equivalent of the supporting characters is the evidence you refer to in your essay.

So, applying the three-act structure to an essay gives you something like this:

• Set-up – the introduction. This establishes what you’re talking about, setting the scene. The ‘inciting incident’ could be the introduction of evidence that contradicts a common theory, or the highlighting of a central disagreement in how something is interpreted.
• Confrontation – you discuss the different problems surrounding the topic you’re writing about. You develop the argument using various bits of evidence, moving towards an overall conclusion.
• Resolution – the conclusion. You summarise and resolve the argument with your own opinion, by coming down on one side or the other, having weighed up the evidence you’ve discussed. You could perhaps tie up loose ends by offering an alternative explanation for evidence that doesn’t sit with your conclusion.

Using this structure keeps you focused on the central point, and stops you from waffling, because everything you write is working towards resolving your argument. The use of the inciting incident in the first ‘act’ encourages you to get to the point early on in your essay, thereby keeping the reader interested. The principles of good plot-writing are centred around the connection between different events that show cause and effect, and this central tenet of the three-act structure has obvious parallels with the way in which essays work through presenting evidence in support of arguments.

3. An attention-grabbing opening

An oft-spouted piece of advice in creative writing is to use an attention-grabbing opening. One way of doing this is to start with a ‘flashback’, which could disrupt the chronology of events by transporting the reader directly back to the midst of the action, so that the story begins with maximum excitement. In a murder mystery, for instance, the writer might skip a slow build-up and instead use the murder itself to form the opening of the novel, with the rest of the story charting the efforts of the detective to uncover the perpetrator and perhaps telling the events prior to the murder in a series of flashbacks. The same principle can be applied to essays, though it’s easier to use in some subjects than others. To take an example, let’s say you were writing about how the First World War started. Rather than building up slowly with the various factors, an attention-grabbing opening could (briefly) describe the drama of the Battle of the Somme, perhaps citing some statistics about the number of men involved and killed, and quoting some war poetry about the horrors faced by the soldiers on the Front Line. Then, to introduce the purpose of the essay and launch into your argument about what started the war, a phrase such as, “It seems hard to imagine that all this began with…”. Alternatively, a rhetorical question: “But how did these tens of thousands of soldiers end up in the mud and horror of trench warfare? The story begins several years earlier, with…” It may not be the standard way of writing an essay, but you’ll certainly score points for originality and perhaps ruffle a few feathers.

4. Extended metaphors

Creative writing often makes use of extended metaphors. For example, when Shakespeare wrote the passage in Romeo and Juliet referring to “It is the East, and Juliet is the sun!” he was using an extended metaphor. With this in mind, it’s time to revisit a point we made in a previous article about writing more original essays , in which we argued that, rather than battling on with trying to explain a complex concept in a straightforward way, it might be easier to use an analogy to convey the meaning by drawing comparisons, which people find easier to understand. A metaphor is a kind of analogy, so the similarities with creative writing are strong here. In our previous article we used the example of radioactive decay. An analogy for this is the pressure with which water escapes from a hole in a bucket. It does so exponentially, just as radioactive substances decay exponentially. In both instances, the rate of a consumptive process depends on how much there is left of whatever is being depleted, which results in an exponential rate of decay. This concept is so much easier to explain using the analogy of water flowing from a hole in a bucket, as you give your reader something familiar to visualise in order to explain a concept with which they are unfamiliar.

5. Interesting details about setting and location

Another way of keeping your reader interested is to bring your essay to life with details about setting and location, just as creative writers do. Essays can become quite dry if you focus solely on the academic problems, but you can make them more interesting by peppering them with details. This may not work quite so well for a scientific essay, but it’s certainly relevant for some humanities subjects, in particular English literature, history and archaeology. For example, an essay about the Roman emperor Augustus could mention that he lived a famously modest lifestyle, quoting details from Roman writers and archaeological evidence that support this: Suetonius mentions his “low bed” (interesting because of what it says about accepted standards of Roman beds!) and coarse bread and cheese diet, and the relatively small and non-lavish remains of his house on the Palatine Hill in Rome back up the idea of his having lived a modest life. Incidental details like these can actually prove to be more significant than you initially realise, and you can use them to build your argument; in the case of Augustus, for example, his modest lifestyle is particularly important when seen in the context of Rome’s troubled history with kings. As he gradually acquired more power and became Rome’s first emperor, he had to avoid coming across as being too ‘regal’, and the little details we know about his way of life are significant in light of this. So, not only have you brought your essay to life, but you’ve raised an interesting point, too.

Few writers get it right first time . Once you’ve written a first draft, read through it and think about whether the order of your points is optimal and whether what you’ve written actually makes sense. It’s easy in the age of computers to chop and change – you can simply copy and paste part of your essay into another part where it might fit better, and then make minor changes to your wording so that it flows. After you’ve finished editing, have a final read through and check that you’re happy with the wording. Don’t forget to proofread to ensure that your spelling and grammar is impeccable!

7. And finally… record your ideas

Creative writers swear by having a notebook with them at all times, ready to jot down any ideas that suddenly spring to mind. You can adopt the same principle for your essay-writing, because you never know when the inspiration might strike. Have a think about your essay topic when you’re out and about; you’d be surprised what occurs to you when you’re away from your normal place of study. As you can see, there are more similarities between two apparently unrelated kinds of writing than you might have realised. It is, of course, possible to go too far with the creative writing idea when you’re essay-writing: literary devices aren’t always appropriate, and your essay still needs to retain objectivity and conform to the more formal conventions of academic writing. But there are certainly techniques to be borrowed from creative writing that will help your essays stand out from the crowd and give your teacher or lecturer a welcome break from the monotony of essay-marking.

See also our fabulous guide explaining more about ” What is Creative Writing ”.

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• Lesson Ideas

Teaching Imaginative Writing

By   Becky F

Imaginative writing is fiction, actually a type of short story. Students are asked to imagine a fantastic situation and write the rest of the story. Depending on the prompt, imaginative writing can discuss anything from space travel to civil rights.

How to Teach Imaginative Writing?

Our Imaginative writing Powerpoint slides included at the end of this post will help a teacher explain how to write a story to her students, keeping in mind all the aspects of writing an imagination.

Moreover, there are a lot of resources available on the internet. My recommendation would be a complete series of videos titled “How to Write an Imaginative Narrative for Kids” by Teaching Without Frills .

Our lesson PPT is a complete lesson on its own. Additionally, you can use some warmup and plenary activities to enhance your lesson further.

Imaginative Writing Activity

One of the classroom activities for this story-writing lesson is to divide the class into groups of four or six, depending on the total number of students. Then give each group one prompt card and a story map to build the first draft by following the steps they learned through this lesson. After the draft is ready, each student can elaborate on the same structure into their own story.

You can watch the lesson preview before downloading the file.

Download ppt Slides For This Lesson

Editable Lesson Slides included

I hope this post is helpful for you to develop and deliver the imaginative writing lesson to your students. You can also check out my other Lessons in Teachers Resources

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education that inspires learners of all ages

The Power of Imagination (I): Myths, Stories, & Thought Experiments

A word of introduction….

During World Creativity & Innovation Week 2018 I had the pleasure of moderating a week-long conversation on imagination with the Google+ Creative Higher Education (#CreativeHE) community . I ended the week with an electronic file overflowing (if such a thing is possible) with intriguing resources and reference on imagination and creativity. Dr. Kevin Byron posted a compelling series of graphics/text about the power of imagination. They resonate strongly with the theory and practice of Imaginative Education. This is the first of a 3-part mini-series entitled The Power of Imagination that shares those posts. I hope you find it informative and inspiring!

Myths & Stories: Speaking in Pictures

One can easily invent a story from imagination. It could range from an embellishment to a personal anecdote that one has heard, to a full blown flight of fancy based on a day-dream. Life-changing dramas apart, such stories form part of a healthy diet in our daily attention exchange with other people, though they are soon superseded by the next mini-incident or imagined idea. There is however another order of stories in circulation that have stood the test of time, sometimes originating many hundreds of years earlier, and that appear around the world in numerous forms having been adapted locally by various cultures. Generally known as traditional tales, these stories often have a social element to them, but they are more than mere inventions of the imagination, because they also carry with them a significance that can resonate deeper within our minds. Such stories created by the wise require one to search them out.

The social element of traditional tales fulfils the various functions illustrated in the slide above. This includes providing an early education, sustaining the mores of a culture or tribe, providing entertainment, and enabling groups of people to bond at times of trouble.

This social dimension in a traditional tale is the means of transport for the deeper meaning that somehow by-passes our analytical, literally interpretive mind. To quote from the writer Idries Shah in his book ‘World Tales’ (1): “Perhaps above all the tale fulfils the function not of escape, but of hope. The suspending of ordinary constraints helps people to reclaim optimism, and to fuel the imagination with energy for the attainment of goals: whether moral or material.”

(1) Idries Shah; World Tales. ISBN 0 7226 6860 0.

The Thought Experiment:  The Imaginative Laboratory in your Head

A thought experiment enables one to solve problems conceptually without recourse (initially) to an experiment. This technique was first described by the Greeks with their reliance on deduction from a set of premises to solve mathematical problems. Many great scientists have invented their own thought experiments to test and make sense of abstract concepts, prior to their verification by a real experiment. Examples in physics include Shrodinger’s Cat and Maxwell’s Demon, and other disciplines such as philosophy and law draw on this technique occasionally.

One of Einstein’s thought experiments that helped him to develop the theory of special relativity is illustrated below. Here he was wondering what would happen to his image in a mirror if he was travelling at the speed of light. According to classical Newtonian physics, the light from Einstein’s face would travel at his rocket speed plus the speed of light, and be reflected off the mirror so that Einstein would still see himself. However he had already postulated that nothing could travel faster than light, so in theory his image would disappear, because the light would never reach the mirror. But according to his theory what would happen if he travelled very close to the speed of light? Would his image form very slowly as the light took longer to reach the mirror? This did not make sense, given that the laws of physics are supposed to be invariant. Einstein resolved this dilemma by suggesting that the speed of light always remained constant, and instead it was time and distance (space) that varied with speed.

This idea turned Classical theory upside down, and counter-intuitive as it seemed, it was correct and later verified experimentally. Interestingly, like all good scientific progress the earlier Newtonian physics didn’t turn out to be wrong, but was a specific case of Einstein’s relativity in which the speeds involved are slower than the speed of light. So we live in a Newtonian world, but whenever you use your Sat Nav you enter Einstein’s world because a small timing correction, due to relativistic time dilation, needs to be made due to the high altitude and speed of the orbiting satellites. Einstein developed this famous theory of special relativity in the earlier 1900’s along with four other great ideas that changed the world of physics.

Thought experiments are a great way to teach, and indeed to develop ourselves. All it requires is one to say: “What if…….?” and then take a journey into your imagination, draw on your existing knowledge, but with a flexibility of mind that imagination allows, to enable you to challenge the assumptions you already hold.

Stay tuned:  The Power of Imagination (II)–Abstractions, Analogy & Metaphor

About The Author

Dr. Kevin Byron ( [email protected] ) received his Ph.D in Physics from the University of Hull, and pursued a career in commercial research in photonics for some twenty five years. During this time he was an honorary visiting lecturer at the Universities of Glasgow and Salford, and elected to Fellowship of the Institute of Physics. Throughout his time in industry he developed a growing interest in education and the development of transferable skills. The award of a NESTA fellowship in 2002 enabled him to pursue these interests further and following election as an honorary fellow of the HEA in 2006, he took up a post at the University of Leicester as a research skills developer, and then at Queen Mary University of London as an enterprise developer. He has published over 150 academic papers and patents, and contributed to a number of book publications on his earlier research interests, and more recently on innovation and creativity. He has presented his work on creativity, innovation and enterprise at several international conferences in Italy, Canada, the USA, Qatar, South Africa and the UK. More recently he has worked as an independent skills developer for a number of higher education institutions and industries in the UK and Europe.

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• What is Imagination? Elements of Creative Writing.
• Literary Devices

Imagination  is a boundless realm where ideas come to life, stories take shape, and worlds are crafted. It’s the driving force behind every captivating narrative, and it holds the key to unlocking the magic of  creative writing . In this blog, we delve into the elements of creative writing that are fueled by imagination, exploring how to harness its power to craft  compelling stories

Understanding imagination and its role in writing

Imagination  is the canvas upon which writers paint their stories. It’s the ability to conjure vivid images, emotions, and scenarios in our minds, transcending the limits of reality. In the realm of creative writing, imagination serves as the foundation for storytelling, allowing writers to transport readers to new dimensions and experiences.

Imagination and Writing: A Symbiotic Relationship

Imagination and writing share an intricate symbiotic relationship, each enhancing the other’s potential to craft captivating narratives that capture readers’ hearts and minds. Writing acts as the vessel that channels the boundless energy of imagination, transforming abstract ideas into concrete, relatable stories that readers can immerse themselves in. Imagination, on the other hand, supplies the raw materials, infusing the writing process with creativity, depth, and the power to evoke emotions.

Read:  How to Become a Travel Writer – A Complete Guide on Travelogue Writing

Imagine a scenario where the writer envisions an enchanting forest illuminated by the soft glow of fireflies. This mental image is a product of their imagination. However, it’s through the act of writing that this imagery takes shape and becomes accessible to others. As the words flow onto the page, the scene materialises, and readers can envision the magical forest just as vividly as the writer did. Here, imagination laid the foundation, and writing built the bridge to share it with others.

Consider a fictional story where a young  protagonist  embarks on a daring adventure to save their kingdom. The twists and turns of the plot, the vivid landscapes, and the complex characters are all fruits of the  writer’s imagination . However, without skillful writing to weave these elements together, the story might remain a jumble of disconnected thoughts. Writing provides the structure that allows imagination’s creations to be expressed coherently, drawing readers into a world they can explore.

Elements of Creative Writing Nurtured by Imagination

• Narrative Paragraphs : Imagination breathes life into narrative paragraphs, where characters, plots, and settings intermingle to create a cohesive story. It enables writers to craft dynamic characters with distinct personalities and motivations, driving the plot forward with unexpected twists and turns. The magic of imagination transforms mundane scenarios into exciting adventures that captivate readers. For example , consider a mundane situation where a character is walking to work. With imagination, this simple act can turn into an adventure. Perhaps the character stumbles upon a hidden portal that leads to a fantastical realm, setting the stage for an unexpected journey filled with challenges and discoveries.
• Descriptive Paragraphs : Imagination adds depth and colour to descriptive paragraphs, allowing readers to visualise scenes and settings as if they were standing amidst them. Writers use imaginative language to evoke sensory experiences, painting a sensory-rich tapestry that readers can immerse themselves in. Whether it’s the scent of blooming flowers or the rustling of leaves, imagination fuels descriptive writing. Imagine describing a forest scene with a touch of imagination. Instead of just stating “the trees were tall,” you could evoke a vivid image with “towering trees whispered secrets to the sky, their branches reaching out like ancient storytellers sharing tales with the clouds.”
• Exploring Essay Formats : Even in essays, imagination plays a crucial role. It guides writers in generating unique perspectives and insightful analyses. Imagination encourages writers to think outside the box, infusing essays with creative interpretations that engage readers and stand out in a sea of conventional approaches. For instance, in an analytical essay about a historical event, you could imagine being a fly on the wall during a pivotal moment. This imaginative approach could offer fresh insights into the emotions, motivations, and unspoken dynamics of the event, enriching your analysis.

Steps to Channeling Imagination in Writing

• Mindful Observation : Imagination thrives on observation. Pay attention to the world around you—the people, places, and experiences. Observe the nuances, emotions, and interactions that often go unnoticed. These observations can serve as seeds for imaginative stories. Suppose you observe a hushed conversation between two strangers at a train station. With imagination, you could speculate on their identities, motivations, and the secrets they’re sharing, weaving a tale of intrigue and suspense.
• Dreaming Beyond Limits : Embrace the freedom of your imagination. Allow yourself to dream beyond the boundaries of reality. What if animals could talk? What if gravity didn’t exist? These fantastical scenarios can spark creative ideas that lead to innovative storytelling. Think about a world where humans communicate with animals. You could imagine a heartwarming story where a young girl forms an unlikely friendship with a talking squirrel, leading to adventures that bridge the gap between human and animal perspectives.
• Embracing What-Ifs : Imagination is fueled by curiosity. Ask “what if” questions that challenge the norm. What if time travel were possible? What if superheroes were real? Exploring these hypothetical scenarios opens the door to imaginative narratives. Imagine a society where everyone possesses a unique superpower. How would this shape relationships, power dynamics, and the concept of heroism? By exploring these what-ifs, you create a world ripe for imaginative exploration.
• Creating Connections : Imagination thrives when ideas collide. Combine seemingly unrelated concepts to create something new. Merge historical events with futuristic technology or blend cultural traditions with modern settings. These juxtapositions can lead to unique and compelling stories. Consider a story set in a Victorian steampunk world where advanced technology coexists with the elegance of the 19th century. This fusion of eras adds depth and intrigue to your narrative, sparking readers’ imaginations with the possibilities of a beautifully complex world.
• Diving into Emotions : Imagination isn’t just about visuals; it’s about emotions too. Dive deep into the emotional landscapes of your characters. Explore their fears, hopes, and desires. Imagination empowers writers to tap into the universal emotions that resonate with readers. Imagine a  character  grappling with a profound loss. By delving into their emotional journey, you can create a story that resonates with readers who have experienced similar feelings. Imagination allows you to convey the depth of these emotions in a way that makes them tangible and relatable.

Crafting Your Imagination-Infused Writing

Imagination and writing are inseparable partners in the world of creative expression. They collaborate to create narratives that inspire, entertain, and transport readers. By nurturing your imagination and honing your writing skills, you’ll craft stories that leave a lasting impact.

Read:  Get to Know What are the Main Elements in Creative Writing.

Immerse readers in worlds they’ve never experienced, challenge their perspectives, and ignite their own imaginative sparks. Whether you’re writing a narrative paragraph, a descriptive passage, or an analytical essay, remember that imagination is your greatest ally. As you embark on your writing journey, let your imagination soar and watch your stories come to life in ways you’ve never imagined before.

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What Is Imagination & Why Is It Important For Fiction Writing?

In this post, we ask ‘What is imagination?’, look at the difference between imagination and creativity , and discuss why it’s important for fiction writing. There are also exercises for writers to try that are bound to spark your imagination.

Often dismissed as a bit of fancy, imagination is in fact a pervasive function of human experience and helps us make sense of the world.

Child’s Play

This weekend, I visited my cousin. His three-year-old son came bounding into the room. Noah insisted his father didn’t call him by his name. He was now Rocky, the family Rottweiler.

The little boy was transformed. He wanted to lick instead of kiss and eat his biscuits from a bowl on the ground. We all went along with the ruse.

His imaginative play reminded me of my niece, Leila, at a similar age. One day, while handing out imaginary sweets, she burst into tears. When her mother asked what was wrong she cried out, ‘You’ve eaten them all!’

This got me thinking about imagination and how much fun it can be to make things up, to leave reality behind in a conscious way, and enjoy this kind of mental play. It is this ‘fun’ aspect we often forget as writers as we ‘grow up’.

What Is Imagination?

But what exactly is imagination?

Imagination is the part of our minds that makes things up. It is how we form new ideas, images, or concepts of external objects that are not immediately present to the senses.

For example, it’s when you can see and almost feel the beautiful, butterscotch-coloured silk shirt you saw in a boutique’s window a few weeks ago, or taste your favourite dark-chocolate-and-cream mousse when you’re on a strict diet.

Sometimes, our imagination, as my grandmother would say, can also play tricks on us. The scratching sound on the window at midnight is suddenly the compass-style glass-cutter of a well-organised serial killer breaking into your bedroom. When you jerk back the curtains, it’s just an innocuous twig in the wind.

Pervasive Theories

Immanuel Kant , the famous 18th century philosopher, developed a broader theory of imagination, one that beyond the narrow physical sense of the word.

Kant conceived that imagination contributes significantly to the cognitive, aesthetic, and moral aspects of our lives. It synthesises with how we think, reason, and make sense of the world around us.

Much like Kant, Dustin Stokes , a young philosopher at the University of Utah, is interested in philosophical and psychological accounts of our imaginative capacities.

In an essay for a 2104 collection called Philosophy of Creativity, he says that few philosophers have considered the distinction between imagination and creativity. Similarly, few psychologists have directly tested the difference between the two concepts.

Imagination plays an important role in our experiences of art, in the construction of theories, and in everyday life, Stokes writes on his website.

The Ups And Downs Of Imagination

It seems that our brains behave differently when we are in ‘imagine mode’ as humans.

LiveScience , a science news website, reported that reality and imagination flow in different directions in the brain.

Visual information from real events flows up from the brain’s occipital lobe to the parietal lobe; imagined images flow down from the parietal lobe to the occipital lobe.

In fact, the same article reported that employing our imagination involves 11 areas of our brains.

Why Is It Important For Fiction Writing?

Imagination is a writer’s best friend. No artist will argue its rich and unfathomable resources.

Some of us think of it as a deep, nourishing well, others as a giant, magical tree we see at the edges of our dreams before we drift off to sleep – and when we often have our best ideas.

However, imagination is not the exclusive purview of the artist. As humans, it’s our basic capability to be creative. It is a part of human instinct and behaviour and, like creativity, is often dismissed as fanciful – divorced from reason or judgement –from those that don’t understand its importance.

Imagination is powerful and even vital when it is used to help us re-create something of deeper meaning. In other words, when we use it to write a story and craft it to have a specific effect on a reader or audience. Or when we use it to challenge, subvert, or change the things we find our imagination.

A Shared Imaginative Experience

In his ground-breaking book The Art Instinct: Beauty, Pleasure, and Human Evolution (2009), Dennis Dutton, an American philosopher of art, outlines the 11 characteristics of art – in other words the indicators (or what he calls ‘signals’) for art that are recognised across cultures and the world.

In the book, he says objects of art provide an imaginative experience for both the artist and the audience. He also states that the imaginative characteristic is perhaps the most important one in art’s overall make-up.

All art happens in a make-believe world, he writes. The artistic experience takes place in the theatre of the imagination.

Dutton is correct. The very same serial-killer-turned-out-to-be-a-twig incident is powerful enough to get you to write a horror novel about a fictitious serial killer that kidnaps a young protagonist – a novel that sends vicarious thrills through the spines of thousands of readers across the globe.

Creativity is, of course, another unique cognitive function and one that suffuses all human life, but perhaps one slightly less involuntary as the imagination or our imaginative responses to our environment.

Imagination & Creativity

While imagination allows us to fill in the gaps of our human existence, creativity similarly allows us to connect often ‘opposite’ ideas to create new ideas, concepts, or a tension between the two opposing ideas.

It’s what is often called the magic synthesis, a term coined by Italian author and psychoanalyst Silvano Arieti (author of Creativity: The Magic Synthesis ) in the 1970s.

This synthesis is examined by the Sante Fe Institute in a 2015 paper called ‘How Creativity Works In the Brain’ . It is what happens in the brain when ideas are brought together in a way necessary for creativity to happen.

In other words, the paper explains, the brain must be both divergent and convergent at the same time. It’s a process well understood by artists, who often meld together radically different ideas to create a new connection.

MUST-READ: 5 Steps To Creativity In Writing

Imagination To Creation

Perhaps the crucial difference between the constructs of imagination and creativity , for writers at least, is that our imagination can produce sensations or images that stimulate the creative parts of our brain. Once we have that ‘image’ we can start turning it into a story, while consciously manipulating or re-arranging it to fit the context of our narrative.

Put another way, 0ne can imagine what it would be like to date George Clooney, but it will take our creative skills to write a whole novel about an ordinary person who dates a famous Hollywood actor.

Imagination Exercises

Here are three exercises to help stimulate your imagination and creativity .

For each, find a quiet place where you can sit comfortably, close your eyes, let your imagination run free for at least 30 minutes.

After each exercise, you may want to jot down any unique or inspiring insights.

1. Imaginary Families

Ty to picture one of the following as your alternative family:

• A Parisian family during La Belle Epoque in France.
• A Martian family on an exchange programme with Earth.
• A family of magicians .
• An animal family living in a forest.
• The Manson Family of psychopaths in the 60s.
• A family of fish in a new aquarium.

What was the experience like? Were you surprised by what your imagination offered you?

2. Still-life

Imagine a table in front of you, empty except for a pure white tablecloth. At this moment, you are an artist arranging objects for a still life oil painting.

• What will you place on the table? (Fruit, flowers, etc.) How will you arrange these objects? See it all in your mind.
• Now add in more of the senses besides the visual. What do you smell ? What do the objects feel like ? What can you hear in the background?
• Finally, start imagining who you are as this artist. What does your studio look like? What inspires you? Who is the painting for?

3. Characters Come Alive

In this exercise, think of a character in your favourite book or short story. If you wish, you can re-read some of the story or novel.

• What do they look like in your imagination?
• What are they wearing as you imagining them?
• What are they doing?
• Can you ‘hear’ their voices or laughter?
• What else comes to mind?

The Last Word

I hope I’ve answered the question ‘What is imagination?’, explained the difference between imagination and creativity, and shown you why it’s important for fiction writing.

Ralph Fletcher, in his book What a Writer Needs  (1992), says that as a writer ‘there are two whole universes for you to explore – the one on the inside and the physical one on the outside. Take your choice, inner or outer. Or best – both.’

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More Posts From Anthony:

• The Power Of Dialogue In Love Stories
• 7 Reasons Why ‘What If?’ Is The Most Important Question You Can Ask As A Writer
• Writers Talk 8 | My Year Of Writing
• The 5 Pillars Of Family Sagas
• 101 Romance Tropes For Writers
• 10 Powerful Visual Storytelling Techniques for Writers
• Novels & Screenplays: What’s The Difference?
• Anthony Ehlers , Featured Post , Writing Inspiration

1 thought on “What Is Imagination & Why Is It Important For Fiction Writing?”

Great post, Anthony! I remember my little cousin cooking make-believe food, and my aunt ate it before it was done. My cousin then ordered her to ‘spit it out! That’s yucky!’. My aunt obeyed, and all was well once more. Imagination is an amazing thing. Life would be unbelievably dull without it. 😁

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Last updated on Oct 31, 2022

10 Personal Narrative Examples to Inspire Your Writing

Personal narratives are short pieces of creative nonfiction that recount a story from someone’s own experiences. They can be a memoir, a thinkpiece, or even a polemic — so long as the piece is grounded in the writer's beliefs and experiences, it can be considered a personal narrative.

Despite the nonfiction element, there’s no single way to approach this topic, and you can be as creative as you would be writing fiction. To inspire your writing and reveal the sheer diversity of this type of essay, here are ten great examples personal narratives from recent years: 

1. “Only Disconnect” by Gary Shteyngart

Personal narratives don’t have to be long to be effective, as this thousand-word gem from the NYT book review proves. Published in 2010, just as smartphones were becoming a ubiquitous part of modern life, this piece echoes many of our fears surrounding technology and how it often distances us from reality.

In this narrative, Shteyngart navigates Manhattan using his new iPhone—or more accurately, is led by his iPhone, completely oblivious to the world around him. He’s completely lost to the magical happenstance of the city as he “follow[s] the arrow taco-ward”. But once he leaves for the country, and abandons the convenience of a cell phone connection, the real world comes rushing back in and he remembers what he’s been missing out on. 

The downfalls of technology is hardly a new topic, but Shteyngart’s story remains evergreen because of how our culture has only spiraled further down the rabbit hole of technology addiction in the intervening years.

What can you learn from this piece?

Just because a piece of writing is technically nonfiction, that doesn’t mean that the narrative needs to be literal. Shteyngart imagines a Manhattan that physically changes around him when he’s using his iPhone, becoming an almost unrecognizable world. From this, we can see how a certain amount of dramatization can increase the impact of your message—even if that wasn’t exactly the way something happened. 

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2. “Why I Hate Mother's Day” by Anne Lamott

The author of the classic writing text Bird by Bird digs into her views on motherhood in this piece from Salon. At once a personal narrative and a cultural commentary, Lamott explores the harmful effects that Mother’s Day may have on society —how its blind reverence to the concept of motherhood erases women’s agency and freedom to be flawed human beings. 

Lamott points out that not all mothers are good, not everyone has a living mother to celebrate, and some mothers have lost their children, so have no one to celebrate with them. More importantly, she notes how this Hallmark holiday erases all the people who helped raise a woman, a long chain of mothers and fathers, friends and found family, who enable her to become a mother. While it isn’t anchored to a single story or event (like many classic personal narratives), Lamott’s exploration of her opinions creates a story about a culture that puts mothers on an impossible pedestal. 

In a personal narrative essay, lived experience can be almost as valid as peer-reviewed research—so long as you avoid making unfounded assumptions. While some might point out that this is merely an opinion piece, Lamott cannily starts the essay by grounding it in the personal, revealing how she did not raise her son to celebrate Mother’s Day. This detail, however small, invites the reader into her private life and frames this essay as a story about her —and not just an exercise in being contrary.

3. “The Crane Wife” by CJ Hauser 

Days after breaking off her engagement with her fiance, CJ Hauser joins a scientific expedition on the Texas coast r esearching whooping cranes . In this new environment, she reflects on the toxic relationship she left and how she found herself in this situation. She pulls together many seemingly disparate threads, using the expedition and the Japanese myth of the crane wife as a metaphor for her struggles. 

Hauser’s interactions with the other volunteer researchers expand the scope of the narrative from her own mind, reminding her of the compassion she lacked in her relationship. In her attempts to make herself smaller, less needy, to please her fiance, she lost sight of herself and almost signed up to live someone else’s life, but among the whooping cranes of Texas, she takes the first step in reconnecting with herself.

With short personal narratives, there isn’t as much room to develop characters as you might have in a memoir so the details you do provide need to be clear and specific. Each of the volunteer researchers on Hauser’s expedition are distinct and recognizable though Hauser is economical in her descriptions. 

For example, Hauser describes one researcher as “an eighty-four-year-old bachelor from Minnesota. He could not do most of the physical activities required by the trip, but had been on ninety-five Earthwatch expeditions, including this one once before. Warren liked birds okay. What Warren really loved was cocktail hour.” 

In a few sentences, we get a clear picture of Warren's fun-loving, gregarious personality and how he fits in with the rest of the group.

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4. “The Trash Heap Has Spoken” by Carmen Maria Machado

The films and TV shows of the 80s and 90s—cultural touchstones that practically raised a generation—hardly ever featured larger women on screen. And if they did, it was either as a villain or a literal trash heap. Carmen Maria Machado grew up watching these cartoons, and the absence of fat women didn’t faze her. Not until puberty hit and she went from a skinny kid to a fuller-figured teen. Suddenly uncomfortable in her skin, she struggled to find any positive representation in her favorite media.

As she gets older and more comfortable in her own body, Machado finds inspiration in Marjory the Trash Heap from Fraggle Rock and Ursula, everyone’s favorite sea witch from The Little Mermaid —characters with endless power in the unapologetic ways they inhabit their bodies. As Machado considers her own body through the years, it’s these characters she returns to as she faces society’s unkind, dismissive attitudes towards fat women.

Stories shape the world, even if they’re fictional. Some writers strive for realism, reflecting the world back on itself in all its ugliness, but Carmen Maria Machado makes a different point. There is power in being imaginative and writing the world as it could be, imagining something bigger, better, and more beautiful. So, write the story you want to see, change the narrative, look at it sideways, and show your readers how the world could look. 

5. “Am I Disabled?” by Joanne Limburg 

The titular question frames the narrative of Joanne Limburg’s essay as she considers the implications of disclosing her autism. What to some might seem a mundane occurrence—ticking ‘yes’, ‘no’, or ‘prefer not to say’ on a bureaucratic form—elicits both philosophical and practical questions for Limburg about what it means to be disabled and how disability is viewed by the majority of society. 

Is the labor of disclosing her autism worth the insensitive questions she has to answer? What definition are people seeking, exactly? Will anyone believe her if she says yes? As she dissects the question of what disability is, she explores the very real personal effects this has on her life and those of other disabled people. 

Limburg’s essay is written in a style known as the hermit crab essay , when an author uses an existing document form to contain their story. You can format your writing as a recipe, a job application, a resume, an email, or a to-do list – the possibilities are as endless as your creativity. The format you choose is important, though. It should connect in some way to the story you’re telling and add something to the reader’s experience as well as your overall theme. 

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6. “Living Like Weasels” by Annie Dillard

While out on a walk in the woods behind her house, Annie Dillard encounters a wild weasel. In the short moment when they make eye contact, Dillard takes an imaginary journey through the weasel’s mind and wonders if the weasel’s approach to life is better than her own. 

The weasel, as Dillard sees it, is a wild creature with jaws so powerful that when it clamps on to something, it won’t let go, even into death. Necessity drives it to be like this, and humanity, obsessed with choice, might think this kind of life is limiting, but the writer believes otherwise. The weasel’s necessity is the ultimate freedom, as long as you can find the right sort, the kind that will have you holding on for dear life and refusing to let go. 

Make yourself the National Geographic explorer of your backyard or neighborhood and see what you can learn about yourself from what you discover. Annie Dillard, queen of the natural personal essay, discovers a lot about herself and her beliefs when meeting a weasel.

What insight can you glean from a blade of grass, for example? Does it remind you that despite how similar people might be, we are all unique? Do the flights of migrating birds give you perspective on the changes in your own life? Nature is a potent and never-ending spring of inspiration if you only think to look. 

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7. “Love In Our Seventies” by Ellery Akers

“ And sometimes, when I lift the gray hair at the back of your neck and kiss your shoulder, I think, This is it.”

In under 400 words, poet Ellery Akers captures the joy she has found in discovering romance as a 75-year-old . The language is romantic, but her imagery is far from saccharine as she describes their daily life and the various states in which they’ve seen each other: in their pajamas, after cataract surgeries, while meditating. In each singular moment, Akers sees something she loves, underscoring an oft-forgotten truth. Love is most potent in its smallest gestures.  

Personal narrative isn’t a defined genre with rigid rules, so your essay doesn’t have to be an essay. It can be a poem, as Akers’ is. The limitations of this form can lead to greater creativity as you’re trying to find a short yet evocative way to tell a story. It allows you to focus deeply on the emotions behind an idea and create an intimate connection with your reader. 

8. “What a Black Woman Wishes Her Adoptive White Parents Knew” by Mariama Lockington

Mariama Lockington was adopted by her white parents in the early 80s, long before it was “trendy” for white people to adopt black children. Starting with a family photograph, the writer explores her complex feelings about her upbringing , the many ways her parents ignored her race for their own comfort, and how she came to feel like an outsider in her own home. In describing her childhood snapshots, she takes the reader from infancy to adulthood as she navigates trying to live as a black woman in a white family. 

Lockington takes us on a journey through her life through a series of vignettes. These small, important moments serve as a framing device, intertwining to create a larger narrative about race, family, and belonging. 

With this framing device, it’s easy to imagine Lockington poring over a photo album, each picture conjuring a different memory and infusing her story with equal parts sadness, regret, and nostalgia. You can create a similar effect by separating your narrative into different songs to create an album or episodes in a TV show. A unique structure can add an extra layer to your narrative and enhance the overall story.

9. “Drinking Chai to Savannah” by Anjali Enjeti

On a trip to Savannah with her friends, Anjali Enjeti is reminded of a racist incident she experienced as a teenager . The memory is prompted by her discomfort of traveling in Georgia as a South Asian woman and her friends’ seeming obliviousness to how others view them. As she recalls the tense and traumatic encounter she had in line at a Wendy’s and the worry she experiences in Savannah, Enjeti reflects on her understanding of otherness and race in America. 

Enjeti paints the scene in Wendy’s with a deft hand. Using descriptive language, she invokes the five senses to capture the stress and fear she felt when the men in line behind her were hurling racist sentiments. 

She writes, “He moves closer. His shadow eclipses mine. His hot, tobacco-tinged breath seeps over the collar of my dress.” The strong, evocative language she uses brings the reader into the scene and has them experience the same anxiety she does, understanding why this incident deeply impacted her. 

10. “Siri Tells A Joke” by Debra Gwartney

One day, Debra Gwartney asks Siri—her iPhone’s digital assistant—to tell her a joke. In reply, Siri recites a joke with a familiar setup about three men stuck on a desert island. When the punchline comes, Gwartney reacts not with laughter, but with a memory of her husband , who had died less than six months prior.

In a short period, Gwartney goes through a series of losses—first, her house and her husband’s writing archives to a wildfire, and only a month after, her husband. As she reflects on death and the grief of those left behind in the wake of it, she recounts the months leading up to her husband’s passing and the interminable stretch after as she tries to find a way to live without him even as she longs for him. 

A joke about three men on a deserted island seems like an odd setup for an essay about grief. However, Gwartney uses it to great effect, coming back to it later in the story and giving it greater meaning. By the end of her piece, she recontextualizes the joke, the original punchline suddenly becoming deeply sad. In taking something seemingly unrelated and calling back to it later, the essay’s message about grief and love becomes even more powerful.

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Tolkien’s Easter Joy in “The Lord of the Rings”

“The Lord of the Rings” is not an allegorical story, nor should it be treated as such, but that does not mean that the story cannot be used to contemplate and plumb the depths of humanity and its relation to the divine.

That J.R.R. Tolkien had a great dislike for his works being called “allegories” needs little, if any, argument. Such sentiments abound in his letters. Yet one distinction that Tolkien makes several times in his letters when he addresses allegory is often overlooked, and that is “applicability.”

“There is no ‘symbolism’ or conscious allegory in my story,” Tolkien writes. “That there is no allegory does not, of course, say there is no applicability. There always is…. but I should say, if asked, the tale is not really about Power and Dominion: that only sets the wheels going; it is about Death and the desire for deathlessness. Which is hardly more than to say it is a tale written by a Man!” (Tolkien, Letters 203)

It is this ‘applicability’ that permits his readers to see the characters of Gandalf, Frodo, and Aragorn as emblematic of, but not allegories for, the roles of prophet, priest, and king, which each child of God is called to fill; there is a certain level at which, through stories, we contemplate our own humanity and even our role in relation to the divine. As Tolkien himself states, The Lord of the Rings is ultimately about Death and man’s desire for deathlessness. That is to say, it is about a particular aspect of man’s relationship to the world, the mortal end of that relationship, and the mystery of what follows–in other words, our relation to the divine.

While this contemplation of Death can be linked to Tolkien’s scholarly views of Beowulf as an elegiac work, the specific depiction and outcome of his meditation on Death in The Lord of the Rings reveals something grander than a repetition of an Anglo-Saxon epic poem. It reveals one of the ways in which this story is a fundamentally Catholic work, for as Tolkien reveals through several key passages in the third volume, Return of the King , the contemplation of his story is not about the Victory of Death—about the claim it has on all mortal men no matter how vicious or heroic, as in Beowulf— but the Defeat of Death.

The Battle of The Pelennor Fields, the passing of Sauron and the demise of his Dark Tower Barad-dur, and the Crowning of the King all joyously acclaim this defeat, this wondrous triumph of good over evil which is none other than the Eucatastrophic Joy of Easter. With the miraculous appearance of the Rohirrim in the hour of Gondor’s despair, appearing with the cock’s crowing and the coming of the dawn (Tolkien, Lord of the Rings 829), Tolkien first hints at this Easter Joy, for “morning came, morning and a wind from the sea; and darkness was removed, and the hosts of Mordor wailed, and terror took them, and they fled, and died, and the hoofs of wrath rode over them” (Tolkien, Lord of the Rings 838).

Yet though these glimpses of joy appear throughout this final volume of the story, particularly with Aragorn’s works of healing in Minas Tirith, it is not truly until the Ring is destroyed and the hosts of the West gather in the Field of Cormallen that Tolkien unveils the Easter Joy thathis story contemplates, starting, fittingly, with Sam saying “Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself. Is everything sad going to come untrue? What’s happened to the world?” (Tolkien, Lord of the Rings 951). So the mystery of Death’s defeat first truly appears, for something miraculous has happened to the world, something that has made the sadness of Death untrue. This feeling of wonder and joy continues to well up in Sam, so that Gandalf’s laughter “fell upon his ears like the echo of all the joys he had ever known. But he himself burst into tears”, and so that he “feel[s] like spring after winter, and sun on the leaves; and like trumpets and harps and all the songs I have ever heard!” (Tolkien Lord of the Rings 952). Indeed, how else can we respond to the mystery of Death’s Defeat than first with tears, then with joy? Here with Sam, then, is the first true tiding of Easter Joy.

Yet it is far from the last. As Gandalf informs Sam and Frodo, “in Gondor the New Year will always now begin upon the twenty-fifth of March when Sauron fell, and when you were brought out of the fire to the King. He has tended you, and now he awaits you. You shall eat and drink with him” (952). The date of March 25 is, in several very old Catholic traditions dating back to even before St. Augustine’s time, the exact date of Christ’s Crucifixion; it is also the date of his conception, the Solemnity of the Annunciation. Tolkien’s choice of this date for the defeat of Sauron is far from coincidental, as T.A. Shippey has already argued, somewhat contemptuously, in his Road to Middle-Earth (Shippey, Road to Middle-Earth 151-2). Shippey dismissively states that Tolkien used the date to turn the ‘eucatastrophe’ of his story into a “forerunner or ‘type’ of the greater one of Christian myth” (Shippey, Road to Middle-Earth 152). While strictly true, it is a far cry from the whole truth. Tolkien’s use of the date is not some artificial mechanism by which he links his tale to the Christian myth to come, but a deliberate placement of his tale in history, and not just history, but salvation history, making his story not an allegory for the Resurrection but a moment in time and myth which prefigures that highest joy, by participating in and reflecting upon that same grief and joy, which is the Death and Resurrection.

Nor is the use of the date the only part of Gandalf’s quotation that reflects the Joy of Easter, for the Wizard’s description of Frodo and Sam as having come out of fire to the King to feast with him also reflects the salvation of souls from damnation and their entrance into the Heavenly Kingdom, where they shall rest and feast with the King of Kings who has by his victory “taken back all his ancient realm,” the fallen earth (Tolkien, Lord of the Rings 952).

The tears and joy of Frodo and Sam and the hosts of the West all speak to this Easter Joy, which Tolkien here contemplates through the defeat of Sauron, but there is one final significant moment that reflects this Easter Joy, and that is when the news of Victory comes to the city of Gondor. There even before the Eagle bears the glad tidings, everyone senses first the doom, then the Victory, for “the Shadow departed, and the Sun was unveiled, and light leaped forth… and in all the houses of the City men sang for the joy that welled up in their hearts from what source they could not tell” (Tolkien Lord of the Rings 963). And even as they begin to sing and celebrate, an Eagle confirms their joy, telling them “the Black Gate is broken, / and your King hath passed through, / and he is victorious…your King shall come again, / and he shall dwell among you / all the days of your life” (Tolkien Lord of the Rings 963). In this cry of the herald eagle again the Joy of Easter soars, for the messenger’s announcement, in speaking of the gates that the King has broken and passed through, reflects the Harrowing of Hell and the joy of that great triumph, all while affirming that the King shall return to his City to dwell with his people forever.

These instances are not mere allegory, for Aragorn truly is his own character and not simply Jesus Christ in allegory; yet he is the King. And he has returned from the Harrowing of a hellish land to dwell once more among his people. Similarly, the sorrow for the great grief and suffering that all have endured at the hands of Sauron, and the tears of joy and laughter for his final defeat are not an allegory for the sting of Death and Sin, yet they are a grief and joy sprung from the Shadow and its passing.

The Lord of the Rings is not an allegorical story, nor should it be treated as such, but that does not mean that the story cannot be used to contemplate and plumb the depths of humanity and its relation to the divine. The event of the Resurrection is an event that transcends time; it is far from implausible that a man such as Tolkien, who argued that myth and fantasy breach through time into joyful glimpses of eternity, would use his own stories as a shadowy remembrance, past or future, of that eternal, transcendent moment… allegory be damned. As Tolkien himself said, while his story is about the actions of specific characters in a far-off time, it is largely about Death. Why on Middle-Earth would that mean that it cannot be about the Triumph over Death?

This essay was first published here in April 2022.

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I enjoyed the article. The contrast of applicability vs. allegory is a good distinction.

Thanks, Paul! You can thank Brian Cliff for that. We had some great discussions following my Green Knight film review (also published by The Imaginative Conservative) about the distinction, which spurred me on to really investigate and dwell on it.

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