Creative Writing Courses - Helpful? Not helpful?

[Teresa Edgerton]

Those who can, do.
Those who can't, teach.

I think there is some truth in this, in that most creative writing programs turn out people who are qualified to teach creative writing, not necessarily people who are qualified to write.

Nevertheless, I also agree with those who say that the best teachers have a talent for teaching. It would be a pity if they didn't put it to use. But these are rare enough overall that the number of them teaching creative writing courses are going to be correspondingly few as well. What you normally get is someone who has little talent as a teacher or a writer. The ideal, of course, would be to find someone who is both.

I think if I was going to take a creative writing course, if I didn't know students who had taken the course before and could tell me whether the teacher was good or not, I would want to determine for myself that the teacher could at least do it him- or herself: write creatively, that is.

I am sure that at the very least there would be something in an academic literary magazine, and it would be an odd writer who didn't want to show their published work to someone who asked.

 

[chrispenycate]

Ah, talent. Just about everybody in my family is in teaching ('cept Anna, bless her) and have the spark. All right, sister's a poet rather than a conventional creative authoress, which I suspect makes her slightly over sensitive to the words themselves rather than the sense of them (why should I suspect something like this? Well, if you ever see me, not even a poet, agonising over a particular word so that the rhythm and sound correspond to the meaning…)

Then there's me. If somebody wants to know something, I can offer the answer much of the time. I might even be convinced from time to time to explain something simply enough that someone actually understands, rather than just claiming they do to shut me up.

But I could never awake the desire to know something, even something that fascinates me; so, pedagogically speaking I'm a dead loss. I might give evening classes in something I know about, but the desire will have to come from those who choose to attend them; I'll never be able to generate it.

Still, who knows; I was considered a hopeless case in languages, and certainly, before coming here, never considered writing anything more complex than an instruction manual. Perhaps I'll rise to the challenge.

 

[Dante DiBenedetto]

Inspiring people to get motivated about something doesn't require mastery, or even a vast knowledge base. It's all about presentation. Being an educator is partially being an entertainer. This is especially relevant during our information age.

I'm not saying you should grab an acoustic guitar and teach a song to memorize the periodic table of elements, but you at least need the contagious enthusiasm to awaken that excitement. If you don't, you only rely on the pre-existing prejudices of your pupils.

 

[MstrTal]

You know when I was signing up for classes at the end of last term I thought about this very thing. I decided to instead pursue a Minor in Theatre instead to complement my History Major. Aside from forcing me to stand before others and deliver monologues, which I dread by the way, this class has opened my eyes to things that have been lacking in my writing.

Not only am I now thinking more deeply about my character motivation but my audience and the actual scenes I am writing. This I believe is leading to a richer and deeper plot. While the two may seem unrelated on the surface, theatre and writing novels, much can be learned from each. At least this is what I am coming to believe.

 

[Colbey Frost]

Same with my job; I can teach people to sell, guide them, show them... but can I be bothered to do it for myself?

 

[Dante DiBenedetto]

Not only am I now thinking more deeply about my character motivation but my audience and the actual scenes I am writing. This I believe is leading to a richer and deeper plot. While the two may seem unrelated on the surface, theatre and writing novels, much can be learned from each. At least this is what I am coming to believe.

I'm a rabid consumer of selected television shows. It used to be more movies, but damn Hollywood has really lost its touch. I can count on one hand how many times a year something comes out on the big screen that inspires me. One episode of Breaking Bad or Mad Men, and I'm set for a while.

I wish I did some theater classes back in uni or high school, but I was too busy with shenanigans. >.<

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I majored in theatre, accidentally. I fell in love with it, not the acting but the freedom of creative expression and I use it in what I write. Theatre takes a story to its most basic layers, allows you to shape and form it individually in a way no other storytelling medium does. It also teaches you nuances of language, how to use language to pull a story along. For pure storytelling finesse there is no better medium.

 

[MstrTal]

I majored in theatre, accidentally. I fell in love with it, not the acting but the freedom of creative expression and I use it in what I write. Theatre takes a story to its most basic layers, allows you to shape and form it individually in a way no other storytelling medium does. It also teaches you nuances of language, how to use language to pull a story along. For pure storytelling finesse there is no better medium.

This was me as well. For my core curriculum I needed an "Arts" class and i took "Theatre and Society" and by the end of the term I decided to add the minor to my major. I fell in love with the behind the scenes aspect first and this term I am learning so much about about, as I said before, about characters and visualization. Since they have been forcing us to speak monologues I have been learning to better step into my characters shoes and consider who they are speaking to, the scene and what they are trying to achieve.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

To be honest, creative writing courses...at least as far as a community college goes, they're no more helpful than the Critiques section here on Chrons. In fact, I'd hazard to say that they're constraining, as in my experience, they always have some form of restrictions on what you can turn in, by way of topic or theme.

 

[Dante DiBenedetto]

To be honest, creative writing courses...at least as far as a community college goes, they're no more helpful than the Critiques section here on Chrons. In fact, I'd hazard to say that they're constraining, as in my experience, they always have some form of restrictions on what you can turn in, by way of topic or theme.

The last one I took was six years ago. It didn't help at all. Our first assignment was writing our own version of Cinderella. I went absurdist. I'll give you the synopsis so you can gauge my 80 year old professor's reaction.

Cinderella was tasked with cleaning the privies of a castle during the beginnings of a Spanish invasion. She ended up having an "accident", and tried to get outside to get cleaned up. She was chased by dogs as she slowly began to solidify, becoming stuck in place just feet from the river. They eventually stopped barking at her and marked their new territory. The director of the arts committee applauded the mysterious artist's avante garde statue, attracting a crowd. After they dispersed, small children began to kick the statue until she plopped into the river. A raiding party of Scandinavians were downstream. They fished her out of the water, and their war leader, Ulrich, claimed her as wife while she was still unconscious. Not knowing any better, she mistook them for the Spaniards and attempted combat with a small tree branch, for king and country, all the while belittling those pesky Spanish dogs. After some confusion due to their language barrier, Ulrich decided to sucker punch his new bride, and they lived happily ever after, whether she wanted to or not.

Needless to say, my classmates and professor never looked at me the same. I decided to test out of the class and claim easy credits.

Sigh.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

It's better than some stuff I've come across in the last writing course I took. Just three words-eating an abcess. Ugh. Nasty.

 

[Dante DiBenedetto]

I assure you, the actual story was laugh inducing compared to the synopsis. However, the weird off the wall absurd humor was completely missed on most of my classmates. Some of them probably never even heard anything like it before, and weren't sure if I was nuts, or going for effect. I was reading The Guide at the time, so I blame Douglas Adams.

It was incredibly painful to sit through about six readings of borderline plagiary. I'd like to think I spiced things up.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Yeah. Not to say that I was really any better. One of the pieces I turned in from home had a main character of mine slaughter her entire family, and not only that, but really butcher them, but that fact wasn't shown until the end. The entire story took place in her grandfather's main dungeon, and she was being tortured and interrogated by supernatural forces, security hired from Hell to use for the most extreme living mortals.

She had blocked out the memory of the entire incident. Unfortunately, I never did explain what events had led up to her killing them all. Let's just say I had mentioned there being mountains of brains, piles of kidneys and other guts, still steaming from their fresh separation, blood flowing like rivers from a broken dam...yeah. Not my best work, but hey, what can you do in a couple hours?

 

[Dante DiBenedetto]

It's good to get those stories out of your system once in a while

I remember being censored once in High School for a particularly violent and kinda gory short story crime thriller for a simple homework assignment. I was given a C- because the teacher said "I couldn't finish reading it." I didn't see any mark-ups, so I'm guessing she didn't get past the first page. After giving a completely unnecessary tirade about free speech and a lack of guidelines, I managed an A- after she skimmed it and threw in a few missing commas.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Amen to that one, brother. What we write about, under terms of basic mature content, IS protected by free speech in the United States.


Of course, that doesn't cover everything, but you know, being able to write in that someone had their head severed and used as a hacky-sack shouldn't be censored in a book if the author wants it in there.


Of course, there are often rules in certain areas, especially online, that is the right of the administrative policy to implement, but a private book is different.