Coming into the Capstone course, I was well aware that I was about to graduate from college as an English major and writing minor without ever having turned in a piece of creative writing, and the Capstone project was the perfect opportunity to rectify that. However, I don’t consider myself a “creative” person. I wanted to try creative writing, but didn’t think that it was something I would be able to do, or be able to do well. My fears regarding being creative, and then being judged on being creative, led me to begin questioning the very concept of “creativity.”

 

And thus, “The Creative Impulse” was born from a strange cocktail of panic and excitement, mixing together creative, reflective, and analytical writing.

 

The project is a collection of fiction short stories and reflective nonfiction essays, which, together, document my process of attempting to learn and investigate the creative process and whether or not creativity is a learnable skill.

 

I consider this through the lens of my own personal experience and research as I attempt to write short fiction for the first time, and look into what the world has to say about creative writing, and creativity in general.

 

Can I, a “noncreative” person, learn to “be creative?”

 

Check out the table of contents below to find out!