Creative Writing 101?

 (This was created around March of 2013. But some things still remain the same.)

Sorry for the lag between updates. Schoolwork at the end of the semester is murder, no matter how interesting Chaucer's work can get...

"The Miller's Tale" incorporated butt and fart jokes before it was cool.

So while I sort out a schedule on these blog posts, here's a fun editorial on creative writing:

Illustration by Dave Donald.

You probably know that my English major has a focus on creative writing. I know what some people might think about creative writing classes, and no, it doesn't involve my being in classes where I get to just write whatever and get an instant A.

Quite the opposite. What I've learned about creative writing classes is that you initially learn that your work sucks, so that you'll have to give your work some thought and get out of your ivory tower. You have to think about whether or not you're properly showing the details in your novel. You have to think about how realistic your characters are, and examine each character's quirks and how a unique character will react to any given situation.

What I'm saying is you can't redo your kinky fanfiction with substituted or flat characters and expect it to get high reception from peers (I'm looking at you, E.L James). Because the truth is, the first few works we create are not perfect. We will make mistakes which can muddle whatever message we tried to "convey," which peers will use to dump on your work during seminars. And that's why I think we have creative writing courses: to adapt to criticism and to smooth out the rough patches of our writing process. But I'm just someone with an opinion.