Lesson 1: Why and What to Write?
This lesson covers the reasons for writing and the basic types of creative writing, and how to choose the best type(s) for you.
Why do you want to write?
What do you want to write?
Non-fiction (autobiography, biography, cookbooks, history, how-to, journal, travelogue etc.)
Fiction (novels, novellas and short stories etc.)
Verse (songs, blank verse, rhyming poetry, rhyming stories etc.)
Other (novelisations, spin-offs, fan-fic, scripts etc.)
Writing Exercise.
Why Do You Want to Write?
You're taking a course on creative writing, so it seems you want to write. The question is, why?
There are lots of different reasons for wanting to write. Here are just a few of them. After considering your reasons, feel free to comment on the discussion lists.
1. Do you just love creating stories and writing them down?
2. Maybe you want to earn some extra income from your writing.
3. Would you like to be a full-time, professional writer?
4. Do you have a story (or more) you are bursting to tell?
5. Is there something important you want to say, and you think creative writing is the best way to express it?
6. Were you good at writing at school, and would like to develop that talent?
7. Have you tried selling a story or novel and been disappointed?
8. Perhaps you'd like to be famous, like J.K. Rowling or Stephen King.
9. You feel a bit powerless in real life, so you'd like to create your own world.
10. You want to teach a moral or an idea, and you think coating the pill with fiction will make it more palatable.
No matter which of these reasons may be yours, you can be certain of one thing; you share it with hundreds (if not thousands) of others.
Like other pastimes, creative writing has advantages and disadvantages, many of which come down to your expectations. If your reasons for writing have to do with fame or money, you may well be disappointed, but if they are more to do with personal satisfaction and making the most of your talents, then you should be confident that your efforts will be worthwhile.
This course is an Introduction to Creative Writing. It is intended to help you to become a better and more confident writer. It may also help you on your way to becoming a professional, and so you will find some pointers which have more to do with saleability than creativity. However, the main thrust will be towards developing skill and confidence.
Apart from the possibility of sales, what are the advantages of creative writing as a pastime?
1. There is always satisfaction in learning to do something well.
2. There is enormous pleasure in planning, producing and polishing a project.
3. Creative writing is a pastime open to a wide variety of people. You need not be especially fit, rich, goodlooking or unusual.
4. Creative writing can be practised in quiet moments with a minimum of equipment. A powerful computer and printer is very useful, but you can still be a writer if you have access to a pencil, pens and paper.
5. You can write at home, if you like, or during the lunch-hour at work.
6. You can preserve characters, memories or ideas for yourself and others.
7. Creative writing can be used to pass on knowledge.
8. Writing is power. You create your own world, or your own version of the existing one, and in that world you are God.
9. Writing is a useful outlet for all those heists you planned and were too respectable to carry out.
10. Finally, writing will teach you discipline and give you a great deal of enjoyment.
So, what are the disadvantages?
1. To take up creative writing you will probably have to give up something else, even if it's just watching the Friday movie on TV.
2. It can be difficult to concentrate on your plot if the family is rioting in the same room.
3. Like any other pastime, writing can take over your life - if you let it.
4. Some writers find it difficult to get family and friends to take their work seriously.
5. It's hard work.
6. You can end up with a variety of aches and pains and even, after years of determined keyboarding, intractible RSI.
7. Creative writing is a rather "invisible" talent. To share it with someone else, that person must have the time and inclination to spend a good deal of time listening or reading. Other talents, such as musicality, cooking, painting and dancing are easier to share!
You have been warned.
So, there it is. The reasons you want to write, the advantages and disadvantages. You still want to go ahead, of course. So, let's look at what kinds of writing you might do.
