When does creative writing go from freedom of expression to "smoking gun of future killer"? There have been many cases in the post 9/11 and Columbine USA coming down on people for things they've written - fictional or not. Is this fair? Where is the line? Should we reign in every twisted writer because they might snap? Is this a smoking gun or do we just need to find an answer in hopes of changing a hazy future? Should we lynch Stephen King?
The thing with writers is this is supposed to be a free world thus giving people the option to buy the books written or not to buy them. its their choice. Humanities nature is to lynch. Sadley
This is the reason why 90% of my poetry is not posted online. I have written poetry that is pretty dark and some parts of my poetry about death and murder pretty gruesome, so I have been told. So I just keep that kind of stuff in the draw. But as Raven has said . ~Torana
The difference is in the name 'creative writing'; one is a limitless sphere where all worlds are possible and the writings that one shouls perhaps fear are those that are documented plans of destruction - I would hope the distinction is clear enough even to the least assiduous of investigator. It is no surprise that a disturbed individual has previously written disturbed prose or whatever - it acts as catharsis and could well prevent an atrocity of the like you speak - I would be more concerned if a shooter had not lain down their thoughts before such an attack.
The thing is, writing is an expressive art. Violent people are violent by nature, whether they express what they feel through writing or not. The dangerous part is, they can influence other people to follow their lead through what they write, and therefor create something more powerful.
yes, but does that mean that the violent person souldn't write like that, in fear of its consequences? i tihnk that you should write how you want,a bout what you want. let your imagination run wild!! lol. Heather
No, not at all. We all have the right to write words to express ourselves, no matter what. And those sorts of people know how powerful their words are. What's that saying? "Words have the power to create or kill" and it's so true.
i wish i could write that good, for people to think of me as having power. although i would use it for good only lol. Heather
i made my own decision on this subject over a dozen years ago... after a long and enjoyable career of writing fiction that included very 'creative' violence, i took a solemn vow to never again aid or abet the use of violence for entertainment and left all my old life's work behind, when i divested myself all i owned, along with my old identity... some of my reasons, if you need to know them, can be found in the writings on my website... specifically in the essays: why your money's no good alms for the rich triage what am i?
"I've thought about it, of course. Certainly in this sensitized day and age, my own college writing — including a short story called ''Cain Rose Up'' and the novel RAGE — would have raised red flags, and I'm certain someone would have tabbed me as mentally ill because of them, even though I interacted in class, never took pictures of girls' legs with my cell phone (in 1970, WHAT cell phones?), and never signed my work with a ?. As a teacher, I had one student — I will call him George — who raised red flags galore in my own mind: stories about flaying women alive, dismemberment, and, the capper, ''getting back at THEM.'' George was very quiet, and verbally inarticulate. It was only in his written work that he spewed these relentless scenes of gore and torture. His job was in the University Bookstore, and when I inquired about him once, I was told he was a good worker, but ''quiet.'' I thought, ''Whoa, if some kid is ever gonna blow, it'll be this one.'' He never did. But that was in the days before a gun-totin' serial killer could get top billing on the Nightly News and possibly the covers of national magazines. For most creative people, the imagination serves as an excretory channel for violence: We visualize what we will never actually do (James Patterson, for instance, a nice man who has all too often worked the street that my old friend George used to work). Cho doesn't strike me as in the least creative, however. Dude was crazy. Dude was, in the memorable phrasing of Nikki Giovanni, ''just mean.'' Essentially there's no story here, except for a paranoid a--hole who went DEFCON-1. He may have been inspired by Columbine, but only because he was too dim to think up such a scenario on his own. On the whole, I don't think you can pick these guys out based on their work, unless you look for violence unenlivened by any real talent." --Stephen King
Well, I am relatively new to creative writing and I was thinking about signing up for a class. Has anyone been to one? If so, what was it like? Basically, I want to know if its worth it before I sign up.
I'd say it's down to the individual really. Some people (myself included) learn better with the trial and error of just writing, whereas others learn better in a class environment. EDIT: Oh, and I've never tried a creative writing class.
I tried two in high school. The first one wasn't bad. Nothing special. We mostly read some books and wrote a handful of short stories. Easy mark, nothing learned. The second was a complete and total debacle. Horrible teacher who wanted to read one type of writing only, and for the Independent Study Project, asked for book reviews, newspaper articles, and the like, no actual stories. But I've heard some good things about them as well. It basically comes down to the teacher, and your learning style. If you like having someone give you a push or help guide you in your learning, a writing class could be good for you. But try to ask former students if they'd recommend it, what type of projects you get and similar questions.
I took one creative writing class in the first college I attended. This was a freshman course at a technology-oriented university, so the expectations were really not very high, and most of the leadership from the instructors consisted of encouragement to "just ge out there and try it", and strategies for overcoming writer's block. The students had to read their entries before the(rather small) class, and reviews were pretty much limited to "Cool, I like it." or "Interesting..." Negative remarks were not encouraged, and the most we could expect from the instructors was red-marking the SPAG errors, and maybe a paragraph commenting on the overall piece. Not the most valuable experience, but that was only one such class among many. A less techie school might have put more rigor into the class. Also, this was long before personal computers, so most of the offerings were typewritten, some were even handwritten.
I took one sophomore year in high school, and it wasn't bad. Our teacher told us to write pieces that focused on a certain writing technique (plot, character development, imagery, etc), and then we would peer-review them, read them out loud, and turn them into him. It was generally a fairly good process, but he did absolutely nothing to teach us about these writing processes that we were practicing, and then he misread about half of my pieces that everyone else managed to understand, so that portion of it was highly dissappointing. I also discovered the same problem as Cogito - none of my peers were willing (or capable) of giving a susbtantial review. I would suggest that if you do take a class, you investigate it first, to find out if it will be taught in a manner that best suits your style.
Also, if a class doesn't do for you what you were hoping for, by all means raise the issue with the instructor. I'm sure that more often than not the instructor is as disappointed with the curriculum handed to him or her as the students are. As long as the requirements of the curriculum are met, the instructor is generally free to add some extras to the class.
I was considering about taking a class, but after thinking about it, wasn't sure if it would even help. I figured most of it would be critical analasies(?) of other peoples stuff, and writing of eperimental short stories, which I already do. Plus, you have to pay for it, and I learned from highschool that I severely dislike being told what to do. anything I'm not sure of, or advice and encouragment can be found on the net. (thanks WF!) So I'm not going to. Anyway, Lots of great writers started without attending writing classes at all. I'd like to be one of them.
I have a degree in creative non-fiction (for lack of a better term) and have taken several lower level creative writing classes, and a graduate level creative writing class, also a summer writing workshop (creative non-fiction). The grad class was really a more intense freshman class. More and better work was expected of you. I believe that the more constructive classes combining both reading and writing were better than the crit classes. As far as paying? Nothing is free. I always expect to pay for knowledge. The difference between someone who has been through the education and someone who has learned on their own using books is actually rather broad in my opinion. People who have had formal education do not make the same mistakes, nor as many mistakes as people who have not been to school. The whole idea is to be given tools to use and to be able to make reasonable choices based on the tools. Many book taught writers seem to have much more confusion regarding things that should not be that confusing. As irritable as it might seems, it is better to have your book judged by someone who has proven abilities as a writer. My seniors and masters teacher was a famous older writer who had work in a compilation with people like Tom Wolf. Most Masters students (the highest CW degree) have quite a lot of background. Many have written and published. In my masters class I was critiquing work that was soon to be published. The guy to my right had a 3 book contract. These were not novices playing around, they were tough, hardened writers (who could make you cry at crits because they were so cut-throat). I would rather have a critique from someone like that than "your friends" who wont tell you it is bad, or they don't understand it. Or random strangers on the internet, many who cannot even spell, or call themselves Authors and have never tried to write. Another way to learn is to join a writing group locally. Often library's have crit groups meeting in their meeting rooms. Often many of the members are real writers who actually have published or self-published. If you cant afford classes, the best thing to do would be to join one of these writing groups. I tend to disagree with the statement "many great writers have not taken classes" because you are talking about the past. The school system today does not put out great writers. I actually cannot think of any other writers who have not been through language classes, Literature classes, Journalism classes, Rhetoric classes, often things like "critical thinking, philosophy, art and other classes that leads a person to be able to think and see on a higher level.
I've been considering it for a while now, but never really got around to it. Today at work a guy told me he enrolled for a drawing course at TAFE, and showed me the course list, and this writing course was listed at a place near me, so I booked it. It only costs $150 and goes for 2 hours every wednsday for 7 weeks. I'm sure it'll be good for me, so far all I know about writing is what I have looked up for myself.
I took a creative writing class in High School, and it was a joke. However, my room mate took one here at the University, and he said it was really worthwhile. I looked up TAFE, and read about what it was, so it sounds like taking a creative writing course from a TAFE will be really beneficial. I'm going to take a creative writing course next semester I hope. I've also found that literature courses are nice for helping with your own writing.
I started one the other week. There are some advantages I think to it, but I dislike the entire scenario where you have 5 mins to write something based on a picture. I'm going to write crap or sometimes not get anything out, which I hate doing. But what it's useful for? Getting you to examine interesting pictures or articles and trying to make scenes out of them. At least, that's the usefulness I see out of the course I'm on at the moment anyway. I think last week, we had a picture of Russel Crowe standing up in the water with a tennis racket. Plus some weird articles. It's a shame the course will probably end this week though due to lack of interest. Another benefit I can see to the course as well: You get to share your work. But I'm not sure the actual course is a benefit to helping me improve my writing in terms of grammar aspects etc. I don't think I'm bad in those respects though, it's just the content that for the most part needs touching up. Anyways, that's my experience of a one week course and I wager other courses are different. Edit: We also read a script actually. I found that to be useful in examining the dialog. Of course, we were then assigned the task of also writing a script. It was a first for me.
I don't think creative writing courses work for everybody. Asking hopeful and inexperienced writers to describe a picture or an idea at the spur of the moment is definitely not for me. Besides, I think that's the wrong approach. A writer should never be rushed or pressed to write something in the space of five minutes. Writers start panicking, not only jeopardizing their ability to be articulate and eloquent but also affecting their spelling and grammar.
Thing is with the writing class I'm on at the moment, is it's actually a nice atmosphere. No-one goes ahead and says your work is crap or anything. Everyone receives a clap at the end and the teacher tries to analyse a few points. Like on the last piece I read out, he'd say it's a story where you've got to think and come up with your own conclusions. Nothing offensive or anything. I know that won't help us in the publishing world but it's nice if you have a great, friendly group. One that you can talk to about writing as well, especially if you don't have many people at home to discuss it with. Downside: Fees. I find the pricing a bit over the top. And yeah, agreed Endeavor. It certainly isn't for everyone. But I feel I've took something out of it, learning that grammar doesn't have to be 100% correct in a piece as long as it works.
I don't thaink any one approach in writing classes will work for everyone. I do see a value in speedwriting exercises. A lot of writers have a tendency to overthink their writing. They come up with an idea, and turn it over in their head for a while, then decide it's not worth following up on because it seems weak in its incomlete state. I have done this myself. Speedwriting makes you take this germinating idea and put it on paper, where it can begin to develop before you talk yourself out of it. Sure, spelling and grammar will suffer, but that's the kind of thing you fix in revision. But every student is different. That is not only true for writing students, but in every field of study. Some pick up material best by reading, others learn better from visual presentation or by listening to a verbal discussion. They differ in confidence level and self esteem, and in attention span. Therefore speedwriting should be only one of many approaches taken. The more techniques prospective writers are exposed to, the more likely they are to find the ones that work best for them.
