The Crossroads of Creativity: How Writing Courses Inspire Art & Design

Creativity is a universal language. Regardless of where you live or what language you speak, once you see something creative, you’ll be able to react to it, form opinions, and have intricate thoughts about it.

Writers tell stories using words, while designers bring those stories to life by using visuals. And while writing and designing might seem like completely separate disciplines at first, they actually feed off each other.

If you’re a writer looking to expand your toolkit, or you’re a creative professional trying to broaden your expression – then this article is for you.

Storytelling That Inspires Visuals: 5 Techniques

Whether it might be words, or visuals, storytelling is usually at the heart of many creative projects. 

A good online novel writing course will help both writers and creatives learn. This is because any good course will surely delve into both sides of the same coin. Seeing the other side of the medal is an effective way of giving creatives another perspective, leading to inspiration and ingenuity,

Think about it – you’re trying to say something. 

One (the writer) will use descriptive words to help readers visualize the scene the writer is trying to portray. 

A creative, on the other hand, will use lines, color palettes and composition, and shapes to set a specific mood and tell that same story. That art will not contain any words (usually), but it will still tell a story.

Below, you’ll find five effective storytelling techniques that help inspire visual art:

1. Mind Mapping

This is a visual brainstorming tool/technique that helps in organizing ideas and concepts. Writers will use mind maps to track things like plot lines and character development, while designers will use them to find/explore connections between visual elements.

2. Rapid Prototyping

This technique is often used in design. It involves creating a preliminary version of a product (prototype) in order to test concepts in a swift manner.

Writers can apply the same idea to drafting rough versions of chapters to explore both ideas and how the story feels moving forward. This way, you do not have to commit fully without knowing pretty much exactly what you’re getting.

3. Storyboarding

Storyboarding means sketching out scenes and plot points visually. Writers can use this concept to help visualize their narrative flow. Designers usually use storyboarding for things like planing animations, ad campaigns, etc.

4. Color Theory

This is the craft of understanding how colors interact. Creatives from marketing can use color theory to evoke certain emotions and guide user behavior (e.g., ads, landing pages, etc.). 

Writers usually do not rely on colors, but they can still use descriptions of color to their advantage. Writing about certain colors can still have impactful significance in portraying certain behaviors, status, hints, or simply trying to trigger certain feelings in the readers.

5. Empathy Mapping

Empathy mapping is usually used in user-centered design to help better understand customer needs. Empathy mapping can also be beneficial for writers to better understand the characters or the audience by considering their thoughts/emotions/experiences.

4 Benefits of Cross-Disciplinary Learning for Creatives/Writers

The primary advantage of cross-disciplinary learning is viewing/understanding things from a different perspective.

For writers, this cross-learning experience can enhance their understanding of communication and can help them better visualize what they’re trying to say. 

Similarly, for designers, understanding narrative techniques can help them not only create a visually stunning piece but also create a visual that also tells a story.

Here are a few benefits of learning from the other side:

1. Enhance Problem-Solving Abilities

Writers are usually trained/taught to break down complex ideas into small, digestible parts. The ability to think outside of the box can help creatives meet client ideas much more easily.

2. Improve Communication Skills & Adaptability

Strong communication skills and adaptability will not only help writers rely on their message/thoughts better, but will also help creatives find solutions to their problems. These (life) skills will also enable more compelling client purchases and presentations for both writers and creatives while also being more adaptable to the fast-paced changes in the industries.

4. Boost Creativity & Idea Generation

Visual artists benefit by discovering new ways of approaching character design, and narratives. Writers benefit from greeted creativity when required (it also helps writers overcome writer’s block).

4. Expands Career Opportunities

A person who has more than one skill is naturally more desirable and valuable, and surely has more than one path (now) for career growth. The more versatile your skill set, the more opportunities you’ll enjoy.

Conclusion

Cross-disciplinary learning is a powerful technique for both writers and designers. 

Regardless of whether you’re a writer or a designer, combining knowledge from multiple disciplines/fields will help you approach work from multiple perspectives; it’ll improve your problem-solving skills, creativity, and (last but not least) communication.

Write creatively & create descriptively!