Creative Writing for Everyone: New research project aims to boost…

New research led by Goldsmiths and York St John University will investigate how creative writing can improve wellbeing for disadvantaged communities and how ethically designed AI can widen access to creativity without undermining creative ownership.

While there is strong evidence that creative writing helps people with serious illness, far less is known about its impact on people from low socio-economic groups, and especially in intergenerational community settings.

Reflexive functioning - the capacity to understand behaviour in terms of thoughts, feelings and intentions - is the guiding concept behind the project. Psychological research shows that strong reflective functioning is associated with secure attachment, improved relationships and greater emotional regulation. Yet creative writing has rarely been studied as a preventative way of developing reflective functioning across families and school communities.

"Creative writing gives people a powerful way to reflect on their experiences and relationships. Our hypothesis is that when people write together across generations, they develop reflective functioning, the ability to understand their own feelings and those of others. That capacity is strongly linked to wellbeing and healthy relationships."

Workshops will run in South London through Goldsmiths civic engagement networks and in York with a deliberate focus on communities facing disadvantage, using broader socio-economic indicators such as free school meals and partnership with local organizations to identify them.

Funding for the research by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) will support a mirrored programme of creative writing workshops in York and South London for intergenerational groups. The funding will also help in supporting experienced teachers to join in both the co-design and delivery of the workshops as well as a postdoctoral researcher will also be assigned for the length of the three-year programme. Laptops and other resources - so participants can use AI tools during sessions - will be provided as part of the research.

The ambition is not only to run high-quality workshops but to leave something lasting behind. "Two key outputs would be that we produce a good toolkit and embed systemic workshops within these communities so that the project can outlive itself," says Gilbert. "They can see and learn about the advantages of using creative writing to improve wellbeing."

The challenge that the research has set itself in creating new understandings on the impact of creative writing beyond medical confines cannot be underestimated. "We now have almost 40 years of research evidence, particularly from the States," Gilbert noted. Notable researcher in this area - by James Pennebaker - have shown that creative writing interventions do improve people's wellbeing. These studies showed measurable changes - such as improved immune markers and lower blood pressure - when study participants wrote about significant experiences and illnesses. Alongside these medical outcomes, participants report a deeper understanding of their identity and situation.

Gathering evidence on the benefits of creative writing in a non-clinical setting will be achieved by a mixture of approaches - developing quantitative wellbeing measures in collaboration with psychologists from the University of Leeds. Qualitative research comprising interviews, field notes, and observations will also be used.

A distinctive and timely feature of the project is its integration of AI into the pedagogy of creative writing.

Instead of relying on large, commercial language models trained on vast amounts of unconsented creative work, the team plans to work with an AI expert to develop a more ethical and bespoke system.

Helping participants who struggle to "get started" with writing, including those with literacy challenges will be how the AI will be used along with providing guided prompts and draft text that participants will read critically, adapt and rewrite. Through this approach, Gilbert and his colleagues ambition is to support participant in their development as readers as much as writers - refining AI generated material into something that is genuinely their own. "One issue that some people really struggle with is just getting anything down on paper. With a verbal prompt and using AI appropriately, you can help people over that first barrier. But it's about shaping and honing - people have to read quite carefully what the AI has generated, then hone it and rewrite it and make it their own."

Gilbert, who lectures in Educational Studies, believes that the research will have direct implications on the way that creative writing is taught in schools and beyond. For many the experience of writing in education is both alienating and exam driven. "Many people's experience of creative writing in school is very negative. They've been told what to write, how to write it, how to pass the exam. It leads to writing being taught incredibly badly, and people being really put off it."

Instead, Gilbert argues that creative writing is for everyone with the research aiming to foreground "flow, self-expression, and lived experience" while building on the pedagogical idea of "funds of knowledge" within local communities.

"People can draw on their own lived experience and feel that that's valued, and that they've got the tools to create writing that is meaningful for them," Gilbert explains. "Then they get massive benefits. That is something I'm quite passionate about."

By combining community-based practice, ethical AI, and robust research methods, the project aims not only to demonstrate the wellbeing benefits of creative writing, but to "reshape who feels entitled to write" and how creativity is supported in education and community life.

"Creative writing is in a rarefied space at the moment," Gilbert reflects. "A lot of people feel they can't write creatively. This research is about getting it out of the academy and exams and showing how it can be a powerful tool for everyone."