Creativity Catalyst

What is the Creativity Catalyst?

Across six action-packed weeks, Helen will introduce you to 6 core elements of creative practice — story, poetry, drama, moving, making, and metaphor — and guide you through strategies for integrating each of them into your writing processes and products.

Weeks 1-6: Weekly Workshops

Every Saturday morning, you’ll receive an email with a link to the Creativity Catalyst theme and module materials for the upcoming week. We recommend that you budget at least 1-2 hours per week (or more if you wish!) to complete your tasks for each module:

• Week 1: Story

• Week 2: Poetry

• Week 3: Drama

• Week 4: Moving

• Week 5: Making

• Week 6: Metaphor

On Wednesday mornings, you’ll receive an email prompting you to upload your comments to the Creativity Catalyst portal for feedback from Helen and your fellow participants.

Every week: Enrolled participants can join Helen and other writers from around the globe for Live Writing Studio sessions themed to coordinate with each module. Check our guest Calendar for the dates and times of the weekly sessions.

Meet your facilitator

Greetings! I’m Helen Sword — a scholar, poet, retired professor, and the author of four research-based books on writing and writers, including Stylish Academic Writing (Harvard 2012) and Writing with Pleasure (Princeton 2023).

I’ve spent the past two decades studying when, how, and why academic and professional writers find joy and satisfaction in their writing practice — and when, how, and why they don’t.

My mission is to help you break free from the constraints of conventional academic prose to find your own authorial voice and a more creative way of being. Your words and ideas will come alive . . . and your readers will thank you!

live more creatively

Make room in your life for creative pleasures that you may have lost touch with in your busy day-to-day routine: reading stories, listening to poetry, attending to human conversations, moving your body, celebrating color, savoring metaphors.

Think more creatively

Experiment with arts-based strategies for thinking and writing more creatively about your research: inventing stories, playing with poetry, role-playing and scriptwriting, writing on the move, thinking visually, mixing metaphors.

Write more creatively

Enliven your next article or report by incorporating techniques inspired by creative writers and artists into your formal writing: storytelling, poetry, dialogue, action, visual elements, figurative language.

ongoing benefit

I really valued seeing other participants' work, it was very inspiring. I also valued being pushed to think about my research in a different way! Overall a really excellent experience, I am still using the prompts regularly in my work! The Creativity Catalyst felt like a cocoon, it refashioned my thinking and writing.

(Stephanie Swanson, PhD candidate, University of Sydney, Australia)

inspirational experimentation

The Creative Catalyst Course was one of my highlights this summer [2022]. I got so much inspiration through experimenting with new techniques. Constructive feedback from the moderators and the supportive writing community helped me leave my comfort zone, integrate new elements in my writing, and get my writing out. 

(Eva Bulgrin, PhD. Honorary Research Fellow, University of Sussex, UK)

renewed energy

The Creative Catalyst brought me was a sense of joy, playfulness, humanity and a warm connection to other writers around the world…. now I have a renewed sense of purpose in my writing that is helping me distribute my energy in better proportions amongst my projects.

(Anita Campbell, Senior Lecturer, University of Cape Town, SA)

1. Tell your story

Identify the characters, setting, and plot of your research narrative — and learn how to write a powerful story that people will want to read.

2. Play with poetry

Explore how poetic language can help you think more creatively, write more vividly, and connect with your readers more effectively.

3. Be dramatic

Use dramatic techniques such as dialogue, scriptwriting, and role-playing to discover the human heart of your story.

4. Move around

Animate your words by animating your body. Transport your writing — and your readers — to new places and spaces.

5. Make stuff

Turn off your digital devices and get out paper and scissors, colored pencils and glue. Let your hands tell you what and how to write.

6. Mix in metaphor

Learn how a compelling metaphor can help you re-story your own emotions about writing and get your readers thinking.