The creative high of writing poetry and prose is tough to top. As a writer, few things can compare to the feeling of entering a flow state when the words come quickly, and your purpose seems clear.
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Getting those creative juices isn’t just good for your soul — research suggests that creative storytelling can also enhance your memory and cognitive health. Maybe that’s why Cormac McCarthy, Tony Morrison, and Maya Angelou continued to produce work later in life!
Creative storytelling may also sharpen your cognitive abilities and help you learn more about the world. Expression through writing can be transformative if you feel you’ve lost your edge or need something to help you rediscover your passion for reading, writing, and research.
Memory
Reading and writing can protect your memory and strengthen your recall. Some suggest that creative storytelling can help fight Alzheimer’s and provide other science-backed benefits, as engaging with the story keeps your brain active and facilitates imagination. Along with other mentally stimulating activities, reading and writing can help prevent memory loss in later life by:
- Helping you pay attention to small things that you wish to include in your next novel or short story;
- Challenging your memory of past events and facts that you’ve learned throughout your life;
- Practicing problem-solving and critical thinking while drafting a murder mystery or recalling key details for a memoir.
Of course, if you suspect your memory is declining quickly, you should seek out the support of a mental health professional. However, if you’re entering later life and want to pick up a hobby that engages your imagination and protects your health, storytelling may be right for you.
Cognition
Writing requires full use of your creative and imaginative faculties. Even if you’re writing a nonfiction book on naval history, you’ll still need to use your critical thinking and creative skills to organize important facts and produce prose that resonates with readers.
You don’t necessarily need to write a novel to enhance your cognitive health with storytelling, either. Simple hobbies, such as daily journaling, can help protect your cognition as you age. Creative writing exercises like journaling and writing poems engage your brain and bolster your mental acuity by giving you something fun to work on in your free time. These rituals can be combined with other cognition-boosting activities, like setting specific goals that can further benefit your writing, too.
Joining book clubs and writing groups in your area can further enhance your cognition. The social stimulus of talking about books and sharing your work can do wonders for your cognition and meaningfully boost your well-being. Regular socializing may improve your cognitive abilities and help you combat challenges like isolation and loneliness.
Prompts to Get Started
If it’s been a while since you last flexed your creative muscles, you may struggle to start storytelling. Don’t get discouraged; even history’s most acclaimed writers have to overcome writer’s block from time to time. Rather than seeing this roadblock as a permanent setback, start to build your writing skills by using creative writing exercises like:
- Freewriting: If you’re in the middle of a tricky writing project and find your creative well has run dry, turn over the page and start writing the first thing that comes to mind. Start freewriting by writing a noun like a color or an emotion at the top of your page, then begin reflecting on that noun in your own words;
- Replicate: Pull a well-loved book from your bookshelf and read the first paragraph. Then, start copying the text directly into your notebook or document. Once you’re finished, try to replicate the sentence structure and tone of the paragraph you copied but within your own fictional world;
- Outline: Sometimes, you just can’t find the energy to be creative. Rather than ignoring your creative work, outline upcoming plot points and note down pertinent details like character arcs or events that happen off the page. This will give you clearer direction in the future and may even spark a period of creative production;
- Edit: Ernest Hemingway regularly edited his work as he went. Hemingway would correct small mistakes before sitting down to write and found that this approach would “make it feel it all of one piece.” You can follow suit by starting your writing session with a few edits to help you recall where you left off.
Getting your creative juices flowing with these creative prompts can improve the quality of your poetry or prose. For example, you may discover new literary techniques when replicating the work of your favorite authors, and you’re sure to clean up syntactical slip-ups when editing your own work. This can help you get more from creative storytelling and lead to a period of sustained growth as a writer.
Conclusion
Creative storytelling can bolster mental health, improve memory, and help you make friends in a writing or reading group. You needn’t write a Pulitzer-prize-winning novel to benefit from storytelling, either. Even simple writing exercises can help you reap the rewards of writing.
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