The Difference Between Creative Writing and Review Writing

Introducing Creative Writing

One of the major notions attached to the Supernatural Being, who is associated with making the world, is the ability to produce something out of nothingness. Literarily, creative writing is regarded as a unique world of its own, which is created by an author out of nothing else but imagination. And this is where creative writers are likened to God, the Creator. This 'world' created by an author may only exist in three forms: drama, poetry, story (both the long and the short genres). On that note, the other name for creative writing becomes fiction. Strictly speaking, creative writing is purely that writing which is produced only from imagination. And it is created without a template, so to say. The creative creation has no referential object outside of itself. It is an autonomous entity, existing and acting all by itself. Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, for example, is a world of its own where the people of umuofia attend to their daily activities as they think best. Nobody can charge Chinua Achebe with the offence of lying for creating Umuofia that does not exist in reality. On the other hand, review writing is quite unique in its own way and this article shall be explaining that shortly.

What is Review Writing?

The word 'review' says it all. Literally, review means to view again. Going further into the meaning and essence of review shows that reviewers try to explain something; something they have already viewed. They give their own reading of a product, an object, or a material. Giving their own reading entails presenting their own opinion of the object of interest. Most important to this article is the fact that a review cannot be done without a reference to the object or product being reviewed. More appropriately, review belongs to the critical writing family, as against the creative writing genre. Review is not a creative work. It is a critical exercise where an object undergoes a critique. Review is a kind of non-fiction because it presents factual and verifiable information about the product being described. Whether the product is a fictional material such as a short story, or a manufactured product, the information contained in the review should and must be traced back to the object of review. If not, the review becomes baseless and faulty. For example, a review of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart should try to explain the people of Umuofia, the actions of Okonkwo and his attitude towards life, and any other action contained in the world of the book. And the explanations given should be authenticated by the book itself. If not, that wouldn't be a review of Things Fall Apart.

Conclusion

Writing a review creatively does not change the status of review writing from critical to creative writing, because writing creatively only has to do with the show of expertise displayed in the writing. A review is a critical work which exists solely because it contains verifiable information about and refers adequately to the product being reviewed. But creative writing involves creating an autonomous world which exists on its own without reference to anything outside of itself. On a final note, creative writing is produced out of imagination while review writing is a critical exercise, a critique of a reviewable object.