Formulaic is not uncreative

It’s okay to be a bit formulaic when we write. Once we leave school behind and abandon the standard essay format, it feels like creative writing should roam free. To tie writing down with structure is to return to that school essay.

As a reader, I like to recognize someone’s writing. I don’t think, “Oh no, not this again.” Because the form is familiar, I start to expect a particular voice or focus. I anticipate the experience. Of course, a structure can become too rigid and bore the reader after repeated exposure. Sometimes we do need to write off the top of our head and see what comes of it.

A cookbook is full of recipes, and each one teaches us something about making ingredients edible. Writing with a structure in mind prepares us to write better when we do write extemporaneously. We learn to organize thought beyond the next word.