Creative Writing Workshop

MSc. Vanessa A. Márquez Vargas

University of Los Andes, Mérida, Venezuela 

HGGS-Heidelberg University Baden-Württemberg Scholar

Creative writing is a tool that encourages personal exploration for those who dare to put their ideas, thoughts, and emotions into words, whether or not with aesthetic-literary purposes. The premise is that any speaker can write creatively. Likewise, creative writing stimulates cognition for learning and serves to enhance emotional well-being when the goal of writing is therapeutic. As a creative activity, writing fosters skills development such as imagination, critical thinking, and empathy. When working in groups, it also allows participants to express emotions, sensations, experiences, and perspectives through the organization of fictional worlds via storytelling, the construction of short narratives, poems, letters, or any written manifestation that provides an intimate glimpse of the person's imagination. Writing creatively offers a space for freedom and play, where participants can experience the blank page without fear of judgment. In this sense, creative writing—done by hand and following practical and group strategies—incites the development of potentialities in participants. For this reason, this workshop invites participants to discover their unique writer's voice and use writing as a tool for personal growth and expression.