posted
I was wondering what you guys thought on taking a creative writing class in college. My degree is not English, but somehow I have to fill my English requirements, and I thought a Creative Writing class might be a good way to do that.
posted
It depends entirely upon the teacher. It really does. Going back up to the "pet peaves" topic I started, teachers can be the worst. English classes can be the worst, and they don't all have the same pet peave. I once had an English prof who gave you an A if you completely removed the words "it" and "that" from your paper. He just scanned it, looking for those words, circling them when they happened, and assigning a grade accordingly. Other times the evil word is "to be."
And then every so often you get a really good teacher who understands what creative writing is all about. I'd say it probably can't hurt, although be prepared to cater to a pet peave.
posted
I hvae to disagree. I think it would be a good experience, but keep in mind the perspecive of the teacher. At a junior college, you are more likely to have a teacher that tolerates or even likes speculative fiction. If speculative fiction is your purpose, talk with the teacher first to see how tolerant she will be with that kind of writing. You may very well have an instructor that wants the students to write in a literary style, using present tense and all the baggage that comes with it. That isn't necessarily bad, just be cognizent of what you are doing and where it lies in repect to the kind of writing you WANT to do when the class is finished.
Posts: 2 | Registered: Aug 2010
|
posted
My experience was pretty bad. I suggest talking to the teacher before signing up, asking them what their approach is, and asking to see some of their writing. Hah! If they won't or cannot provide them, then to hades with them. I speak as a former university instructor and generally demanding and obnoxious personality. Posts: 2710 | Registered: Jul 2004
|
posted
I took a creative writing class one year, as a one month course during the one month term. A disaster. It was team taught, and both teachers wanted every rule you had learned about writing broken. One girl's first sentence in an opinion paper was a quote, she got an "A". I never got anything above a "C".
Of course, in high school, I was co-editor of my yearbook and newspoaper, and everyone expected me to be a published writer by age 20. Well, I am 32 now, and just getting started. So creative writing may have been part of the set back for me.
posted
Abby--I doubt it was a set back. People think that just because someone writes, even publically and well, that this means they will be successful. Well, writing isn't easy to succeed in, not even if you're good. It takes quite a bit of luck in addition to skill. Neither one alone is good enough.
I have to admit, I can't stand these little upstarts who get published when they're teenagers. There's this whole fantasy series written by some teenage kid that my cousins (who are still in high school) love and keep telling me to read. I don't know, maybe I will someday but I can't help but woner how he got to be so special?
For mere mortals like us, it takes time, work, more time, and more work. I'm 28, have been doing this for as long as I can remember, and still have not had the real success I'm looking for. I only pray that time and work will pay off for me -- I don't want to be sixty and still trying.
posted
If nothing else, it will compel you to produce prose. You may have to placate an obsessive or destructive teacher, but as long as you keep your coordinate system aligned, you'll be just fine.
Posts: 1621 | Registered: Apr 2002
|
posted
I never took a creative writing course in college, I just never thought to.
I did take a stylistics class. It was required, but I'm glad I took it. It was one of the best classes I ever took. It involved looking at different types and styles of writing and practicing them. It wasn't about grammar and spelling and parts of speech, it was about studying writing and learning to write better. I also took an English Composition class. I didn't really learn anything in it, though. Most of it was barely above an English 30 level. Essay writing, grammar and parts of speech, debate.
If you are looking for another way to get your English reqs, consider taking lit study class. I took Early English Lit. (English writing pre-Shakespeare). It was a history class and a reading/study class with a couple of essays thrown in for good measure. After that, because I particularly enjoy Shakespeare, I took both Shakespeare classes that were offered. This was mostly just reading with three or four written assignments (of course those kinds of things will vary from teacher to teacher ).
A lot of colleges and universities offer studies of particular types of writing (i.e. Early American, women's lit., fantasy and science fiction, modern lit., poetry). While these kinds of classes can be fun (if you like to study and read literature) they don't always help your writing because the focus is on essays and reviews.
posted
I had a fantastic experience, even though my prof had "no genre fiction" as a big bullet point in his syllabus. I found out by talking to him that he was just trying to avoid campy science fiction and fantasy, in the attempt to strive for a more "literary" attitude toward writing. He also wanted to make sure that the kids who weren't familiar with genre fiction were able to give meaningful critiques in the workshop-based class, without taking class time to explain the assumptions that go into speculative fiction (avoiding the "This could never happen!" critiques, etc.). I didn't have a problem with that, and wrote all kinds of scifi and slipstream pieces. I was the first non-English major in years to get an A out of this prof. (He was very much down on the "English is an easy subject; take the courses to bring up your GPA and pad your transcript" attitude, and was thus very unenthusiastic about non-English majors in his class. But it worked out, apparently. And it was worth the risk.)
If you're going to take a CW class, you just have to be really flexible. It could be that they only want "literary" fiction, in which case it's a fun exercise in description and character development. I think any experience in which you write under deadline is a valuable one. So I say GO FOR IT, as long as you can keep your socks on when crazy (read: frustrating or restrictive) things happen.
[This message has been edited by Jeraliey (edited July 14, 2005).]
posted
I took Creative Writing back in high school, and liked it enough to sign up for the sequel, CW2. In fact, a few acquaintances and I started a Creative Writing Club, but it never really got off the ground, and I had to resign my presidency after it started interfering with tuba lessons. Thank God I'm out of that environment!
But it was an enjoyable experience solely because of the teacher: a modern art fanatic in her early twenties. Ms. W accepted absolutely any kind of writing, because she focused more on the "creative" aspect, so while there were many things produced that make me shudder to remember them, there were also some great creations in that class that would have been ripped to shreds anywhere else. Add this to the fact that the majority of the class was of the "misfit" category, and we had some really great times.
Just echoing the fact that it's all in what teacher you get.
posted
My experience with CW class was good. The teacher didn't have any restrictions. It was one of my favorite classes. We had a lot of camaraderie.
Posts: 579 | Registered: Mar 2004
|
posted
I took a CW class from a visiting prof. He was a published poet, so we did mostly poetry, but I learned quite a lot from him. Maybe it's best to take a CW class from someone who's actually in the industry, instead of someone who just wants to be? Maybe.
Posts: 1672 | Registered: Apr 2004
|
posted
I forgot to add that it was Norman Mailer who taught part of that class on a 'swoop in and fire a broadside' kind of way, the jerk.
Posts: 2710 | Registered: Jul 2004
|
posted
While it may be good to take a CW class from a successful author, I would recommend that you make sure the author is also a successful teacher. Not everyone who can do can teach.
I get a little irritated when I hear people use the "those who can, do; those who can't, teach" saying as an excuse for refusing to learn from someone who, in their opinion hasn't "done" enough.
There are a lot of successful people out there who really don't know how they do it. Or if they know how they do it, they don't know how to teach others how to do it, too.
Teaching is a skill that has to be learned, just like every other skill, and just because you know how to do something doesn't mean you know how to teach it.
I hope I don't sound like I'm pouncing on what you posted, Dakota. It just pushed one of my buttons a little.
posted
The other thing to consider is that a great many academic writers (college professors, I mean) are literary fiction writers. Their fiction differs a great deal from what the mainstream reader wants to read. They may be unknown in to the general public, but be a huge figure in their circle. Their definition of success can be little different than yours. The literary fiction definition of success is not necessarily selling as many copies as possible, it' may be reaching an epiphany of their artform. Some of them consider any mainstream author (one who can live off their writing, perhaps) to be a hack. I'm not judging whether that's right or wrong, good or bad, it is just the reality.
Posts: 2 | Registered: Aug 2010
|
posted
Jaina (anyone remember her?) would tell you that it's been a bad experience to take creative writing in college. She used to complain to me every so once in a while about how all her profs wanted was artsy-type writing. They wanted nothing to do with fantasy or sci-fi. Her profs were very picky about the genres you could or could not write in. Well actually, genre writing was pretty much forbidden, according to Jaina. At the same time, though, profs like hers can teach you valuable writing skills. So I guess it depends on whether or not you can deal with profs like Jaina's if you do indeed end up with some of them.
Posts: 202 | Registered: Mar 2005
|
posted
Well, since we're not at college anymore, she's forced to use dial-up and is only allowed limited time to be online. The most she can do is check email. She'll most likely be back once school starts up again.
Posts: 202 | Registered: Mar 2005
|
posted
I'm currently in a CW class, and it is a rather painfull experience. My teacher is a Literary and often makes fun of SF. I just turned a fantasy story into him. I don't know how it will be recived but oh well. The upside is that it forced me to finish a story.
Posts: 1895 | Registered: Mar 2004
|
posted
I'm still here! I'm home for the summer and between working and taking a math class at Aims, and having dial-up like Shendi said... I just don't have a lot of time for Hatrack. I lurk when I can, but I don't post much because I'm never sure that my posts will make it before my computer explodes.
Yes, my creative writing class was a disaster. I am happy to say that I managed to finish with an A- despite my prof's prejudice against sci-fi and fantasy, and my lack of skills in the poetry range.
But I took what skills I could from it, and it turns out that the story I wrote for the final writing project--anybody remember Wendell?--is actually going places, and it's looking like it's going to be the first story I ever send out for publishing. As soon as I fix the ending... again.
So I say take the class. The pass-fail idea is great, except you said you need it for credit... but take the class. You might learn a lot of things you DON'T want to do, but you will learn if you want to. And, at the very least, like Pyre Dynasty and myself, it will force you to finish a story. That's a tremendously good feeling!
posted
At my age, I'm almost tempted to take a creative writing class from someone who hates SF and irritate the heck out of the professor by turning in SF every week.
Posts: 2 | Registered: Aug 2010
|
posted
I have never taken CW, but I have taken English courses at a community college. I was told to do so because freshman English courses at a four-year "are just weed-out courses". I heard I wouldn't learn anything, just get a bunch of nonsense from a teacher who only cared about the students who would end up taking the higher classes.
Both courses were the most fun I've ever had in a college class. The first semester was the first time I had ever finished a short story -- and the teacher loved it. He had a classroom lecture, but allowed groups to go wherever they wished on the building floor for discussions/writing time. The group I was in chose a nice little spot in the center of the building floor by a stand of trees. The professor had to hike halfway across the building to check up on us. Luckily he didn't seem to mind.
The second semester (called Persuasive Writing) was fun for entirely different reasons.
One was the professor. He only worked at the college part-time. The majority of his time was spent at a four-year. (I overheard him complain about that once saying that the kids in his freshman courses at the university just wanted to complete the course and didn't care about learning whereas the kids at the community college actually seemed interested in what he was saying... that gave me a whole new outlook on freshman English at a four-year.)
Anyway, I found out the day I went to class that a lot of people signed up just because of his sense of humor. The guy was a scream, though I don't have a single memory of him ever smiling once through the entire course, except outside of class. He was also the only professor I encountered who used a piece of his own writing as an example of what not to do.
He had his quirks. We were never allowed to use the author's name in a critique, refer to him/her in any way, or refer to ourselves as "the reader" and a whole host of other things that made absolutely no sense at the time (I also vaguely remember some crazy rule that concerned articles... I think the majority were forbidden in many instances). However, those rules certainly forced us to get creative. :P Interestingly enough, it also forced me to look only at the argument whether in my own writing or someone else's.
As for publishing, I found out that particular professor had been published, but only by a university press.
What I ultimately got out of the experience was a greater appreciation for the basics of writing, a greater appreciation for those who try passing on their knowledge to a younger generation, and an eccentric card indexing system I never thought I'd actually consider using until recently (he said it would come in handy if we ever wrote a book *rolls eyes*).
It's more complex than my original post supposed, but not much more. And it still doesn't seem quite as eccentric as it did when I was a student, though I would use keywords myself as opposed to every noun and adjective.
In his email to me, he said the effect was to create a "personal, miniature library catalog for all your research and work". Just so you know the method to his madness.
[This message has been edited by Keeley (edited July 20, 2005).]
Printer-friendly view of this topic
