I am having trouble deciding on whether i should sign up for a writers craft course in my last year of high school. Although i want to write well, I also think it would be harder to get into University with this course. also thinking it will not be as useful since im applying to a business program. I think I need help with the theory part of my writing since i mostly run with imagination but just curious if other people have any experience and advice on progams and if their are other course available after highschool?
There are definitely courses available after high school. If you don't want to take the class in high school because you're concerned about it making it more difficult for you to get into the college you want, you could always wait and take a writing class as an elective in college.
Take it while it's free in highschool! I liked my class; I'm lazy as hell so it forced me to get some of my ideas down on paper in an orderly fashion, which helped me in the long run.
If you like writing - take it. It is generally easier than English, I speak of course by experience. I took it and did very well in it, and it also really does help your writing, specifically in my case, my teacher really gave me a boost of confidence after reading some of my writing. I think of it as a good way to see whether your writing is generally accepted, if you do well in the course, you know you are doing a general OKAY job at writing.
I was just about to make a similar post so I've decided not to since this is here. I see most people are recommending writing classes. I was wondering if anyone would recommend online classes? With my busy schedule, they would fit me best. I was thinking of taking a variety of classes to build my ability to use the English language and to make sure I have clear communication. Also, English wasn't my strong point in High School. Do you guys think this is a good route to go?
I haven't taken any online courses myself, but a friend had a really good experience with one. She registered for the course simply to work with a specific writer/instructor. The "course" was essentially a one-on-one workshop through correspondence. Normally I am skeptical with online courses but if you do some research & find exactly what you want I can imagine it could be useful.
This is a really interesting topic, as my local college dropped a booklet through my letter box advertising various courses, one of which is a creative writers course. Its £60 for 10 weeks (i'm guessing 1 evening class every week). I'm unsure whether it would be my thing, as I'm half way through my 1st draft and think I would only really benefit from one on one discussions rather than a class about the basics, but my thirst for knowledge and dead cats means I'm still considering it! Any advice?
All I know is that the second I can fit it in one of my semester, I will be taking a creative fiction writing class.
For me, it's not about 'learning' but about 'allowing' myself to be open to the wonders of existence, as in everything I experience and witness and come in contact with in my daily life. By being open, and curtailing our natural cynicism, we enhance our capacity to accept that which could and might be. You might say this 'allowing' or 'accepting' is about 'training' (other than learning) ourselves to be able to handle the challenges creativity puts in our path. By being more open, and even 'childlike', to what surrounds us, we naturally become less resistant to the often burdensome imaginative process, and so the journey begins. Take actors who, when beginning their career, have to initially train their brains to memorise small tracts of script, until one day, down the road of experience, they find it relatively easy to memorise whole scenes or even acts in a couple of days. So, be open and active, and allow your inner child out there to meet the public (so to speak).
I think "creativity" is innate, and that you "learn" to how to suppress it (usually in the name of following rules or being polite, or whatever). So, with respect to writing stories, in particular, I think some of us have to undo a bit of that in order to reveal our ideas and sometimes even to know what ideas we actually have.
Creativity is learned. The first thing I became good at was drawing at about eight years old. And people always call it talent when they see one of my drawings. They have know idea how much work I put into it. It was just an hour a day, but that adds up. I did that for about six years, which means thousands of hours of work. Then someone would ask me to teach them, and after a few days, when their work had hardly progressed, they came to the conclusion that art is innate, and gave up. To get away from anecdotes, history shows this too. When small groups of people are motivated to reach high goals, there's no limit to what can be accomplished. The Renaissance was just a group of people that aspired. The great Greek plays and philosophies could have been produced anywhere in the world. There are plenty of talented people sprinkled across the globe. I could give many examples of small countries gaining advantages over large countries, which are bound to have more "talented" people.
I think it is important to be concious that everything around us, affects us; very often our every day life, people we meet and places we visit. The thing is to be a good observer of it and to know whatever you are participating you can get some creative ideas.
Exactly. I guess it also might have to do with what a given individual perceives as a "freeing" experience (to explain why some see "creativity" as innate and others think of it as "learned"). I don't think of creativity as coming from anywhere other than from within one's self (which is why I think of it as "innate"). And that also explains (to my thinking) how "creativity" is so unique to the individual who expresses him(her)self. But most of us do have to learn how to unshackle it a bit as we learn what it takes to conform to a given level of social comfort. Less so as children, just as you suggest, who are only beginning the process of learning how to conform.
You learn it by expanding the way you think, by tackling issues and aspects that you never considered. A fine example would be this question. Nice one Ox.
You chuck preconceptions. You take what is and flip it on it's head. You follow arguments and ideas back to their precursors and antecedents so that you can diverge as faaaaaaaaaaaar back as possible. You dip into The Dream Time and give it credence. You deny Pretty Princess and The Macho Knight a place in your mind and instead welcome The Pretty Knight and The Macho Princess. You accept that we are not all the same as the tree-hugger globalists would feed us and instead embrace that we are all different. Now, learn that different is better than good, it rocks! Put your shoes on backwards for a whole day just to soak in and learn from a bit of stupid. Get a passport. Use it. Eat something disgusting. Try and learn to like it. For one whole day, pretend to be attracted to the opposite gender that usually attracts you. A month later take a whole day and don't pretend, but actually try and be attracted to that gender. Shun being cool. Feed your inner geek. I'll be back with more later after I eat some 'sgetti.
Art is the light of infinite, unconditioned Consciousness filtered through the tinted lens of finite, conditioned consciousness. You allow Creation to express itself through you. It will turn out different from everyone else's expression because you are different from everyone else.
I relate creativity to curiosity. Being inquisitive, learning things, and being open minded to anything as a possibility is where creativity lies. The question "What if?" is where creativity stretches it's tentacles across your brain. Being a left brain person doesn't automatically shut you out from being creative. Being open to creativity means being silly, absurd, crazy, and imaginative. It doesn't mean you have to believe your creations to be logical or reality, but that you are open to it no matter how improbable it may be. Creativity isn't so much learned but allowed to expand. Everybody has the ability to be creative. However, not everyone is going to be creative in writing, but maybe woodwork, painting, gardening, sewing, cooking, and music... there are many places for creativity to manifest itself. People who are more right brained, tend to be more creative in more areas, but left brain people might be more confined to certain areas of interest, or preference, or natural ability. The way for a left brainer to release the creative power of the right side of your brain is to stop thinking logically about it. You might wonder how you can possibly stop doing it, but it is nothing more than a matter of letting it go. Left brain people tend to feel they live "more in their heads" thinking constantly about everything as a problem/solution type of way, which is useful in writing, but it stunts the creative side of your mind by putting shackles of reality on it. Reality is perception. There is no real reality. Reality is what you perceive it to be. So, to step out of the thinking reality of things is to let go of your perceptions and be open to anything being possible, not matter how probable it is. To get into fictional creative worlds, it is more about asking what could be possible -- which is everything -- and how you could put it into a story. Creating a character or a plot is easy and generally logical, but coming up with unique characters and plot scenarios is where the creativity is. It is partially a left brain activity. Observing the world around you, people and their behavior, events and possible outcomes are all logical (thinking) type activities. The right brain with it's subconscious abilities, brings all those things together and asks "what if." What if this type of person were in this type of situation. What if flying dragons were real at some point in history how would humans deal with it now? What if multiple dimensions are real and could or would other creatures come across and try to invade humanity? These things above are all possible, but not highly probable. But letting go of the probability constraints gives your right brain the freedom to flow with what could be possible. Does that make sense?
You get sent to a boarding school at a tender age, and you are forced to pit your wits against a bunch of nuns...
you can't! only the requisite skills can be learned... one must be inherently 'creative'... and not all are born with that ability/mental bent...
