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Creative Writing: Home

Creative writing includes poetry and verse, novels, short stories, novellas, and memoirs which draw on one's imaginative processes to express meaning via imagery and narrative, contrasting with nonfictional types of writing.

Welcome to the Bissell Library's creative writing guide! This research guide provides an aspiring author with the tools and resources to begin writing. With the Library's resources and online tools, one can begin their journey outside the Shire and towards the art that is storytelling.

The resources include books on technique and basic foundations for creative writing and an abundance of fiction genres for inspiration. Understanding creative writing and its process is step number one, understanding the foundation it must lay for a compelling and well-written story is number two, then a writer is truly powerful through their creation. 

“An author must learn the principles of good storytelling only in order to write better from the heart.” Uri Shulevitz

For those in need of inspiration, the Bissell and Eleftheriades Libraries have a vast collection of fiction books of every genre, it is important for an author to read as it is the inspiration for them to evolve. In the words of Stephen King, “If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.”

 

Thus, search the Library catalog, pick your next read, and request it from your Librarian. You are encouraged to suggest fiction books you think the library is missing, via the suggestion box next to the Bissell Library Hub.

You will also find a list of suggestions based on the genre in the "Inspiration" tab of this guide.