Creative Writing Class, Part 1

 

Once upon a time, there was a kitty named Rainy. She was wandering outside looking for food, when a kind person called the local shelter...

On Wednesday morning, I attended the first of three creative writing classes at our local independent book store.

The class had twenty students, and I was probably the youngest there, other than the group leader. Some students write for their day jobs, but not the fun kind of writing. Others had always wanted to write, but did not know where to begin, or write occasionally for themselves but want to be more disciplined. One or two mentioned wanting to write a memoir.

As an introductory exercise, we had to write three facts about ourselves. Two are true, and one is a lie. The other students had to guess which was the lie. Here are mine, but I know you can guess the lie!*

• I volunteer at my Local Cat Shelter
• My favorite color is green
• I love to read mysteries

Our class is using The Playful Way to Serious Writing by Roberta Allen as our textbook. It focuses on jumpstarting your creativity, with exercises to help you generate ideas. Its primary goal is to remove the "fear factor" in writing, to just start writing without worrying about correcting grammar, revising, etc. The leader's motto is "Don't think; just write."

I'm not sure that works for me, because I don't have any trouble coming up with ideas. It's the mechanics of writing I was hoping to learn -- how to improve plot, dialogue, setting, structure/pacing. In other words, once you have a story in your head, how to you begin to put it down on paper?

Our first writing exercise was to look at this Jackson Pollock-like image of lines and spatters in the book, and write the first six words that come to mind, in under two minutes. I only could think of five, and the first one was "spirograph." Then we had five minutes to write a little story using that word. My story came out OK, but I really wasn't interested in pursuing it. Our leader said that it is helpful to know what exercises don't work, as it is to know which do work for you.

The second and last exercise was fun. We were given a sentence and had to write the beginning of a story. Then after five minutes we passed our papers to the left and the next person had to pick up where we left off. We did this two more times. The sentence was something like, "I was stuck under the mattress and the dead body above me was beginning to smell..." (Doesn't that remind you of junior high?) The teacher picked this from a list because it would be the most challenging. I chose to write from the perspective of an amateur actress who had to take whatever part she could to get her start in the theater, no matter how unglamorous it was! The few stories I was passed to work on were more literal, with a person trapped in a thriller-like situation.

The group seems very enthusiastic and supportive, and there's something about attending a class like this that makes your intentions to write very real. I had taken creative writing classes in high school and college and loved them, and once had an essay published in the NY Times. But as life happens, sometimes you lose touch with your interests and make a creative U-turn, as the author of the Artist's Way calls them. This class is one of the ways I can get back on my path. Now if only I had a map!

Have you ever made a creative U-turn? What interests would you like to go back to and pursue again?

*The fact that I wore a pink top and shoes to class, and had a pink purse (but with green trim!) might have given this away.

Comments

[Sara]

Oh, love the sound of your class - and I think you'll enjoy it a lot. And, I do think it will really jump start you!

Sometimes I wish I could find a basic grammar class...

[Chris]

Sounds like an interesting class!

If I'm trying to write anything more substantive than, say, a blog post, I generally have to sit down with a pad of paper and a pen, far away from the computer. While I can type much faster than I can write by hand (which would seem to facilitate idea transfer), writing on the computer is inhibiting. How so? Mostly because I start to edit moments after I start to write, which interferes with the flow of ideas. I'm much better off writing several pages (or more) by hand so that I don't edit myself into a standstill.

[Sydney]

It sounds like a fun class!

I'm kind of like Chris. Even though I do a lot of writing on the computer, I prefer laying out my ideas by hand. It just seems like I think better that way.

[Sarah]

I love the exercise where you start writing and then pass your paper. I do something similar with a couple of the kids I tutor who "hate" writing; it's a great way to practice writing and have a little fun!

haha your two lies and a truth-- not so bad :) I'm guessssssing your favorite color is pink after seeing the *; plus, check out the blog! Pink!

Glad you're enjoying your class!

[Sheepish Annie]

The trick to writing, I've found, it to do it and do it lots. As much as I hate situations that force me to write outside my comfort zone, they really do help me to come at it from a different angle.

Have you ever read "Elements Of Style?" I haven't in years, but I remember it as a good guide to writing.

It sounds like a fun class. Enjoy!

[Danielle]

I find writing very, very difficult--and not even the creative stuff (which I stay far away from anyway), so I admire you that you are doing this! I used to do a little photography, and I would love to take that back up again. Life takes all sorts of turns and it can be hard to get back to them. Are you writing anything now? Working on any special project?

[Kara]

I need to find something like this in my town. I think this is awesome.

[Dorothy W.]

I'm very glad the class is going well, even if it isn't precisely what you were hoping for. But I can see that the energy of a class would be motivating and inspiring, and that's a really valuable thing. I'm not sure about a creative U-turn of my own. The closest would be that I enjoyed writing personal essays in college, and now while I don't write personal essays on the blog, blogging is close to the genre, I think, so it's sort of a return. Blogging has returned me to a less formal kind of writing, which is good.

[Robin]

It sounds like an interesting approach, even though it might be a bit different than what you were expecting (at least so far.) I'm trying to think of things I'd like to rediscover but can't come up with any - I'm doing everything I want to right now!