Creative Writing
Notes for Week One
Beginning a Creative Writing class often makes writers a tad apprehensive. And for good reason, because as your text notes, Creative Writing takes the writer "on a journey," and a rather daunting trip for many, especially those of us who either take our writing seriously or who feel uncertain about abilities--or, as in many cases, both.
Journeys include, to be sure, wonderful excitement and uncertain moments. You will experience both this term, and you will do just fine.
As you read Chapter I, "Writing as a Journey," take the time to study carefully the material, for the authors provide some excellent common-sense discussions about the writing process with which you will experiment throughout this fun and challenging term.
All of you will this term challenge yourselves to beak down often irksome barriers between you and the work you want to accomplish. Know that I will do all that I can to help, and all of you will help one another, for you will share pretty much all your work on the appointed Discussion Thread.
RELAX.
This term, you write to be read. And friendly folks will share with you their work and their thoughts, an experience few other courses duplicate. So take advantage of the opportunity.
As noted, the chapters contain a good deal of information. While in class, you will write, of course, to fulfill requirements for a class; on the other hand, this semester you will also hone and learn skills that will help with all your writing, no matter the context or the class.
And the skills you begin to master will stay with you. So as your book says, "Don't be discouraged. Keep experimenting" (6).
Over the course of the semester, you will write (honestly and with vim) about your personal experience, always the foundation for vivid and effective creative writing. You will, of course, transform this experience into well organized and focused material, whether poetry or prose. And as the following quotation underscores, "your personal experience" covers a very broad territory:
"As you acquire and use the writing tools in this book, you will focus on expressing your experience, real or imagined, in ways that communicate that experience in concrete terms, to your readers."
To begin, look over the choices to complete the first assignment--dive in, just like the folks in the Lipton Tea commercial who fall backwards on a very hot day into a cool pool.
Think of the assignment as refreshing.
You want to jot down ideas as they come to your mind.
Think of these areas of conflict the text identifies, for they represent the stuff of fine writing. Then begin to think of specifics, and you will find the concrete details that make the writing vivid.
Send me via the appropriate Assignment Link this assignment--you will find the appropriate links just after the assignment description (each week). And share your work on Discussion Thread Three--share as you move through the process, first your draft and then the more developed essay you will turn in at the week's conclusion.
Writing, difficult though the process may be at times, fulfills an important need for everyone: the need to express yourself. To do so, of course, requires considerable practice and a good deal of patience.
To write about yourself, you must think about yourself: You must learn what Robert Bly claims, to tell the truth! And while you might toy with the facts, if you write based on what you know, you will tell the truth and become a card-carrying member of, as Bly argues, professional liars--well, after that first check for your work.
Many of the blocks that hinder our writing progress come from within--so, in a sense, we write from within to without; first we must come to terms with "The Inner Censor that says you aren't allowed to express your feelings or our ideas--you'll be ridiculed and misunderstood, you'll be hurt" (11).
This fear is real.
But as the text reinforces, you can negotiate with the fear by coming to understand the motivations and the sources of what stops us from expressing ourselves in a medium others will investigate. And remember in this class in particular that you write to be read by others and not just your wife, cousin, or close friends. And my comments will, in part, push you further in this direction.
As your text emphasizes, "The writer's journey is a journey of discovery which requires an openness to things within, a willingness to try to see into the unknown which others don't yet see" (13).
This statement comes at the conclusion of a section in your text that talks about the poet as a rebel--well, others often label the poet as a rebel only because to write well means to see well, to appreciate the small details that others miss in our rush-around, complex and therefore often daunting society.
The good writer looks within to see all the better the world around her.
The "Not Knowing" and "Being Open" sections of your text also contain some excellent information.
Do not let the uncertainty of the enterprise bother you--for one thing, you will get a great deal of reinforcement from other writers in the class.
Indeed, this semester presents a tremendous opportunity to share your ideas with other and concerned people. You might not experience this companionship again.
So be open, both to possibilities and to suggestions. You must remain open, as well, to the ideas that spring to mind as you write. And over the course of the semester, you will begin to trust the connections that at times will seem to come pretty much out of the blue.
"The writer is discovering her own feelings, her own ideas, her own experience, her own fears, her own dreams. Sometimes it's an easy process, sometimes it's difficult. But it's always a process of finding out something, and that something can be anything" (15).
Note as you read the text the wide assortment of quotations, from movie actors to poets, from novelists to children's writers. All share certain concerns, and all must contend with the inner censor.
Indeed, as the authors argue, to be an effective writer, you must remain open-minded and open hearted.
So do not fear what others will say, especially as in this class everyone aims to help.
Our text lists many, many authors and others. Take the time to look some of them up and share your information on the discussion threads.
Make sure to provide the link and a paragraph or more about the significance of the links you discover and share.
Looking at what others have to say or to share about writing helps you. Check out the following links:
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