posted
I really enjoy creative writing classes. Before I finished high school I went to my very first extended writing workshop at a summer academic program in Arkansas. At BYU, I've taken a basic creative writing class and a playwriting class. All of these classes were basically the same: your assignment was to 1) write certain things, bring it to class, listen to other in the class critique it, and improve on it in second (or third or fourth) drafts, and 2) critique the work of others to help them improve their work in later drafts. Any other assignments (readings, ect.) were used *only* to help your writing, and really, if you didn't do them, you weren't really penalized (except where your writing was concerned).
The ultimate goal of these classes was to get people to write things. Sometimes we were given complete freedom, and other times we were given limits of what we could write. I like both ways of doing this equally. On one hand, I can dig into my own brain for an idea completely on my own, or I can write something I never would have thought up on my own and possibly transcend what the instructor might have had in mind when he placed the limits on what I was to write in the first place.
There were never really any wrong choices in these workshop classes. People liked what you wrote or didn't like what you wrote, and would even tell you so, but there wasn't ever a rubric of what a good work was. There weren't any final exams, and you weren't graded on how "good" your work was, rather on whether or not you actually put effort into something and tried to make it better in subsequent drafts. The only wrong choice would be to slack off and not write anything.
These classes tended to be pretty laid back, filled with a lot of chatter (even with the instructor) and discussions over anything and everything (often brought on by what you or others wrote). But you were fully expected to work and be punctual in what you were doing.
This really works well for me. I am, in essence, a pretty lazy person, and will pound an idea in my head for days or weeks before getting the motivation (usually by a looming deadline) to actually put it into a hard form that I can share with others. When I do, I stress and stress over it before bringing it to my peers, convinced that it is the worst thing ever to be put to paper and what kind of person was I to bring such reckless slop into the world, only to find nobody thought it stank too bad, they really liked that part in blah blah blah, they wish I'd bring such-and-such out more...the opinions of others strengthened my own confidence in what I was doing to try and make it better. In the end, the only opinion about my work that really mattered was my own.
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So, in this babbing, reflective manner, I'm trying to describe what I'm used to, and attempt to describe a Science Fiction writing class that my roommate is taking that seems to be a lot different than what I'm used to.
First off, they have a pretty good-sized reading list, including Frank Herbert's Dune, Orson Scott Card's book on writing Sci-Fi and Fantasy, and some others I can't remember off the top of my head.
Which is a good thing. Reading is one of the best things you can do if you want to write; the two are very much connected. But I always thought that in a class devoted to writing, the reading part of it is assumed, in addition to the fact that you'll be reading original work. Devoting time to reading and talking about well-known (or not well known) books and authors in a writing class almost seems redundant and takes time away from the original work. Plus it seems to establish the professor's subjective idea of "good" writing. Write like Herbert and Card, because they are good writers, and you'd do well to learn from them.
Which is great if your opinions on Herbert and Card reflect the professor's, but if they don't, then what?
Does this make any sense?
This isn't a huge issue with me. In my 218 Creative Writing class we read a lot of Stephens poetry as well as Gordon B. Hinckley's autobiography and some short stories (the author of which alludes me ) and talk about them in class, which was genarally enjoyable and was only used to give us more insight into what we were doing.
Actually, my only real issue in the class seems to be the final project. For this, everyone has to write a work that is graded by the professor as if the professor were the editor of a major publication. Use of cliches or any "bad" writing would get docked off of your final grade.
So, from my point of view, the goal of the class is not to write something, but to get published. Get published by writing something that will appeal to the editor's subjective idea of what "good" writing is.
I started telling my roommate what I thought of this, and she got a little on the defensive. Am I reading too much into it? Is giving a grade to writing based on how good the professor thinks it is (which, really, I've never experienced) a good way to go about leading a writing workshop? What do you think?
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posted
Every writing class I've ever taken -- as opposed to a writing workshop, which isn't the same thing at all -- has graded the product of that writing based on the professor's tastes and preferences.
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posted
I agree with TD; in a class (which implies grading) you're going to get marked, and that marking is going to be subjective.
For a class I'm taking, I have to write a story with a message in it. Without a message, to my professor (who's a psycologist, primarily), a story is nothing, only fluff (terrible sentence but I'm too lazy to fix it). More so, the message has to be really the centrepiece of the story; the main character must be the one doing the discovering of the message and it must directly change him or her in some obvious way. Try doing that without writing propaganda.
He would say of Ender's Game, for example, that the enemy is not always bad and Ender learnt this and changed, which is true, but seems very flat to me.
(I was tempted to write a story with the message that messages shouldn't be expected in stories but decided against it)
All the same, I expect that. You've got to do what the professor expects, it's the professor's class and I've got to play by his rules. I'll definately learn something in the process. Probably, your friend will too.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I think I understand. This isn't so much a workshop as a writing class, which in my mind are or should be the same thing. I guess I'm just more spoiled in that I've been lucky enough to have writing classes where the professor uses a more workshop-like format.
I'm starting to be just a little glad I decided not to take it with her. She kept on saying how important it was over the semester not to use cliches (I imagine the professor making a huge deal out of it), and all I kept thinking was "what if you're making fun of cliches?!?!?"
Yeah, playing the game is important, and I have yet to fully realize that. I'm more of a rebel than I realize sometimes, I guess.
posted
I took my first creative writing class in college for the romantic notion of being in a writing class. The rest I took so I could have some enforced deadlines and feedback. I never got much out of what any of my teachers had to say in those classes, and yes, the challenge was always to figure out how to write how your teacher wanted.
One thing I did learn is that I am not a good science fiction writer. I am just not organized enough and I have no mind for technical details. I have read tons of science fiction, but I can't get the characters and plots to resonate with me. The first story that I wrote and really thought was halfway decent was straight fiction, and I only wrote straight fiction because my current teacher didn't like science fiction. It was kind of a revelation.
I spent years working with The Leading Edge on BYU campus, reading and critiquing the slush pile, and in all that time I only ever submitted one story of my own, and it was kind of a joke story, and it received only moderate marks. I spent a couple of years critiquing stories online at Critters.org and I never submitted one of my own stories. If I didn't write professionally I would not be able to call myself a writer, and that would hurt. But I am a pretty good editor when I have the time.
It would be nice to attend another writing class or get into a workshop. I would love to have some deadlines. Does BYU offer those kinds of things for non-students?
[ January 06, 2005, 12:46 AM: Message edited by: advice for robots ]
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
You could also check out Writer's Village University. They've got a tonne of courses for all sorts of purposes. I've been a member for five or six years, and it's been so worth it.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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) and talk about them in class, which was genarally enjoyable and was only used to give us more insight into what we were doing.
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