Practising playing: Thinking through movement and the creative writing classroom

Abstract

This article considers the role of play in the context of creative writing. Taking up Winnicott’s theory of play and Levi-Strauss’s definition of bricolage, I aim to provide a flexible framework that can benefit writers and educators across various creative fields, while avoiding rigid prescriptions of how playing might be enacted. Employing the motions swerving, rebounding and straying, and adding to this set the action of hesitating, I offer an exploded view of my writing practice which serves to demonstrate how practitioners can map the movements in their own creative process, encouraging a playful engagement with creativity that nurtures unexpected and unforeseen outcomes.