Kuhl, Nancy. Personal Therapeutic Writing vs. Literary Writing. Leahy, Anna, Ed. Power and Identity in the Creative Writing Classroom.

Kuhl links the (perhaps erroneous) notion that creative writing is also therapeutic for the writer -- or that the writing should be considered successful simply if the writer achieves some sort of therapy from it. Kuhn states, "I do not disagree or take issue with the idea that writing can help one work through difficult personal problems, or even with the idea that good literary writing can rise out of exploratory personal writing ... private journal and diary writing, however, differs dramatically from literary writing. While I am glad that many find comfort and insight through the writing process, solace and self-discovery cannot be the goals of a productive literary creative writing workshop" (4).

The difference is guiding students to pay attention to the craft of the work, rather than merely the emotion it might evoke. "The workshop method emphasizes the role of revision in good writing largely by assuming that participants are still actively working on the pieces they present to the group. A workshop assumes that writers will consider, and perhaps incorporate, criticism and comments from their peers as they write, rewrite, work, and rework a piece; otherwise, what would be the point of hearing the feedback?" (5). In other words, the writer should be more concerned with the impact the work has on the audience, or readers, rather than the writer's personal experience in creating it.