INTRODUCTION Definitions ~ Social research ~ Creativity and creative ~ Writing and creative writing Synergies between creative writing and social research What follows DOING CREATIVE WRITING Introduction Doing it yourself: getting started ~ Reading for writing ~ Small steps and time frames ~ Warm-up exercises Putting yourself in the picture ~ Writing in the first person ~ Diaries and journals Observation and description ~ Autoethnography ~ Observational writing and the implied observer ~ Stories and storying ~ Collecting and transcribing stories Writing about ideas: essays and lists ~ Essays ~ Lists and listing Doing it yourself: following through ~ Drafting and editing ~ Seeking and receiving feedback ~ Writing together DOING RSEARCH, GENERATING DATA, WORKING WITH PARTICIPANTS Introduction ~ Rationale ~ Ethics Getting started: participatory creative writing for social research ~ What is a participant? ~ How to invite or recruit participants Workshops and groups ~ How to draw participants together into a cohesive group ~ Playful workshops ~ Getting started, warming up ~ How to write, review and revise together: workshopping ~ Scope Working with individuals ~ Varying roles for participants and facilitators Data and findings: process and product ~ Observing and documenting the creative writing process ~ Product: outputs and impacts EXPLORING AND ARTICULATING FINDINGS Introduction Data analysis ~ Fiction in data analysis ~ Poetry in data analysis ~ Play and screenplay writing in data analysis Dissemination ~ Visual methods of writing for dissemination ~ Performance for dissemination ~ Comedy in dissemination Finding and telling stories; storying SEARCHING AND QUEER(ING) WRITING Introduction Searching Queer(ing) writing.