CHALLENGES IN TEACHING AND LEARNING CREATIVE WRITING FOR MIXED-ABILITY GROUP LEARNERS OF ENGLISH

Annotation: This article emphasizes the obstacles that teachers may face while teaching creative writing also it highlights what kind of problems learners may face when they learn how to write creatively in writing lessons. Additionally, in this article there are given some suggestions and methods in order to handle some issues which are mentioned in it.


DIFFERENT GENRES/FORMS OF LITERATURE
The term "genre" refers to a variety of literary subfields or genres. According to Harmer, a genre is a style of writing that others in the same discourse group would be able to identify right away. As a result, when we read a short advertisement in a newspaper, we immediately identify it since, as members of a certain group or community, we have previously seen a lot of similar texts and are familiar with how they are put together. Teachers must encourage creative writing. In order to do this, teachers must include the children in creative writing exercises that are simple to complete and entertaining to participate in. Students might form writing habits once they have learned enough about creative writing. A teacher must be knowledgeable about how to teach various genres to enable pupils to write creatively.

INDIVIDUAL VARIATION
Different people can use wildly different processes to create outcomes that are just as wonderful. This indicates that there is probably no one "correct" method of writing that we should advocate; rather, we should list the numerous tactics that are available and encourage others to try them out in order to find the one that works best for them.

LACK OF MOTIVATION
One's inner drive, instinct, feeling, or desire that prompts one to take a certain action is generally referred to as motivation. It is one of the primary factors in creative writing instruction. The more you inspire kids, the more they will be inspired and eager to write creatively, assisting teachers in efficiently teaching creative writing. Motivation encourages students' active engagement, which aids them in providing originality in their learning, creative writing context, and creative writing process. Teachers can better develop students' abilities and encourage them to write creatively by using motivation. Therefore, we may conclude that motivation helps pupils succeed in their attempts at creative writing.

ENGLISH TEACHERS WHO LACK TRAINING
The teaching of various literary genres by unskilled instructors cannot be compared to that of trained instructors. Because of this, s/he will not be able to provide the students with creative writing prompts or utilize other methods to get them interested in writing creatively. For instance, there are many different ways to teach poetry, such as the acrostic poem (a poem where specific letters in each letter spell out a word or phrase), the opposites poem (a poem where two opposite things can coexist in a person or situation), the group poem (a poem written in a group where at least one member of a group will contribute a line), and so on.

THERE IS NOT ENOUGH TIME FOR INSTRUCTION
In the time constraints imposed by institutions, teachers and students have a limited amount of time for their teaching and learning processes. Due to time constraints, creative writing can only be taught as a means of completing lessons for both students and instructors. As a result, all writing classes are assigned as homework to the students, who also struggle since they believe that taking a long time to compose a piece indicates failure on their behalf. Unfortunately, it appears that neither students nor teachers take advantage of the chance to process writing in order to successfully complete their assignments. "Problems in teaching creative writing were caused by the insufficient utilization of time to improve students' writing abilities".

THINK ABOUT SURFACE MISTAKES
As part of their job, teachers are trained to focus on obvious faults in pupils' writing. Instead of focusing on the kids' originality, they provide criticism on spelling and grammar, which doesn't boost students' capacity to write creatively. The works of the pupils will be worthless and useless since the major emphasis is on structure rather than content or significance. Therefore, whether on purpose or not, students receive an unsatisfying message that highlights their poor use of grammar, sentence structure, and punctuation rather than the fundamental problems or the students' intended creative writing. Their goal, creativity, ideas, and effort go undetected since professors tend to concentrate on the obvious mistakes rather than the hard work that the students have put out. It makes students hesitate and frustrated in themselves in their writing because of spelling, surface errors, and punctuation markers. Certainly, there is more to composition writing than the mere issues of spelling and punctuation. Thus, it indicates that it is not easy to teach creative writing to students.

PROCESS OF WRITING
Teaching creative writing also has problems with the writing process. Some student variations can be attributed to factors like age, practice, motivation, cultural background, membership in a particular group, etc. These make it difficult to educate pupils about the writing process. According to Harmer, we should include students in the writing process when they are writing for academic purposes. In the actual world, this often entails outlining our writing, drafting it, going back and correcting it, and finally generating the final product. Teaching creative writing will need us to encourage kids to plan, create, and edit, making it a very difficult duty for the teachers.
As aforementioned challenges I would like to suggest some advice in order to prevent these issues and challenges: Assessing creative writing. Assessing creative writing helps students know their position and their creativity through writing. So, the teacher should evaluate creative writing by using the same criteria for different genres. Literary standards are used to evaluate creative writing the majority of the time, and while these standards may satisfy the critical mind, they are not always sympathetic to emotional and personal issues. More emphasis should be placed on the value of original creative writing, and students should be encouraged to feel, imagine, and participate in the writing process much like a truly creative writer would.
Effective Instruments. In order for students to reach the high expectations for creative writing, they must have access to the teaching of the highest caliber. Therefore, teachers should use a variety of strategies, including encouraging students, giving them opportunities to write creatively, teaching them to write creatively and employing those concepts, encouraging imaginative thinking and writing that connects their writing across various literary genres, and giving each student individualized guidance, support, and encouragement to fill in any gaps in their background knowledge of creative writing.
Collaborative Writing. Writing in groups encourages participation from the students, which makes it easier for teachers to teach effectively creative writing to their pupils. According to Harmer, pupils benefit greatly from writing texts collaboratively. For instance, students may easily develop or construct the entire tale by discussion and prediction if the teacher sets up a story circle, provides the hints or beginning point, and asks the class. Additionally, teaching kids about stories in a group setting through the use of strip stories encourage pupils to write creatively and with passion.
Creative writing exercise. Teachers should provide some tried-and-true classroom exercises to encourage pupils to write in English. It demonstrates the adage "practice makes perfect." The pupils' ability to write creatively can also be aided by engaging in certain creative writing projects both in class and outside of it. The instructor may encourage the pupils' creative writing and help them come up with new ideas if they are given several writing assignments. Therefore, giving pupils creative tasks is the greatest way to teach creative writing.
Clinical Teaching. Patient care is the setting in which clinical education occurs. It is meticulously ordered since the interaction between the pupils and the teacher is quite intimate. For students who do not perform at the expected level of creative writing after initial instruction, teachers first teach them the skills, subjects, concepts, and processes of creative writing. Next, they re-teach different strategies or approaches to get them involved in creative writing, such as poetry, stories, and drama. Finally, they evaluate and give the students feedback on their creative writing. The teacher should handle nervousness, and authority issues, and facilitate lively laboratories and conversations. The use of technology for clinical teaching should increase in order for teachers to be able to respond to shy, withdrawn, or disruptive children in an appropriate manner.
Teaching creative writing is a very challenging task for language teachers because of lack of time, motivation, lack of training, and building the writing habit as well as creative writing involves various genres of literature such as drama, fiction, poetry, personal narration, story, and so on. So, it is very difficult to teach creative writing to students. The main problems in teaching creative writing are different genres/forms of literature, individual difference, lack of motivation, untrained English teacher, insufficient time for instruction, focus on surface errors, and writing process prevent these issues and challenges of teaching creative writing can employ assessing creative writing, effective instruments, clinical teaching, creative writing exercise, instant writing, collaborative writing, writing in another genre, using music and pictures and so on.