So, if your ever-busy college schedule allows for you to take a class, then do it. It takes some work, but the rewards are worth it. However, putting your work and ideas out there is crucial, not just for your own success but for the success of others. Learning how to convey constructive comments and find the positives is good for social skills, and in the meantime, you learn to grow some tough skin and look at your work with a critical eye. Obviously, a creative-writing course will require some creativity, depending on how much work you put into it.
Making up worlds and characters is a different sort of difficult compared to a science class, but the rewards of imagining up something new are beautiful and exciting. The beauty of writing is that nearly anything goes. If you like dragons, then write about dragons. If you like contemporary teenage fiction, go for it. Because writing is something we do alone, in our own time, it can be difficult to commit ourselves to it unless we are answerable to someone else. A good writing class will motivate you to actually write.
One of the main reasons people take a writing workshop is for guidance. There is plenty you can learn from reading books, but a good teacher or facilitator can direct you towards areas that you might need to focus on, or address certain issues you might have.
A writing teacher should write. They may or may not have studied English or Creative Writing, but they should write. They should write work of publishable quality and have some work published or about to be published. They should also be able to teach — this is particularly important for a longer course. A writing teacher should not talk about their own work all the time.
They should be able to offer advice and guidance beyond what works for them in their own practice as writers. No one does. It might be about learning a few different ways to approach your work, to outline, to write a first draft — but you should be learning things you can use in your work. And, after all, one of my favourite writers, John Boyne, did a creative writing degree to hone his skills.
So I can see both sides! That was until I took a 5 week course last year called Elements of Fiction. The course was put together and taught by Man-Booker short listed author Alison Moore. It was a mid-day, hour long session. Along with myself 6 other people were on it four were retired and all were at different stages in there writing. One guy was completely new to writing and just fancied having a go he was actually very good and one elderly lady dropped out after week 2 and never returned.
Two members of the group had been on numerous writing courses and admitted to only writing when on a course. Before going in to the course I had never dared to write in the first person or tried writing short stories but by the end of the 5 weeks my writing style and confidence had improved so much that I now prefer to use the first person narrative and have written 10 or so short pieces. And what else did I get out of it? Well I have since been accepted onto a 2 year MA creative writing course despite not having any formal qualifications my writing sample and a reference from Alison Moore being good enough for the University so at the age of 37 I am finally doing something that I have wanted to do for a long time…writing and meeting likeminded others.
Your email address will not be published. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Discover how to write faster—while improving your writing skills—with these easy, instantly actionable tips. They're how I publish 5 books a year while dealing with client work and chronic health issues. If I can do it, so can you. By signing up to our list, you confirm you're over the age of I took a creative writing class—straight up creative writing in a variety of forms—that was terrible, followed by a fiction class whose TA turned out to be one of the biggest helps ever to getting my WIP on track.
I definitely agree that there can be a huge variation just between different professors. Research is definitely the best way to go! I got a BA in creative writing. It was…mildly useful. I learned how to critique, which is a bril, solid tool—it teaches you how to be more objective about your own work. And I learned how to fight off literary snobs—this is valuable. The fool. Stephen King, baby. Stephen King. That person must have been living in a very strange cultural bubble.
I feel like in comparison to a lot of CW programs, mine is very unpretentious. You made great points about creative writing, especially in regard to literary writing.
Vermont seems fantastic for YA. Good luck with it! I was a CW major graduated in January. I enjoyed some of my classes, and others not so much. But, it was because of the professor. The first CW class was with a free-flowing, poetry, you can do no wrong professor.
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