Creative Writing - Can it be taught?

As I am currently at university doing an English with Creative Writing course, this article that I came across in the Guardian indeed caught my attention:

The Guardian - Can you teach Creative Writing?

It was interesting to see what current authors thought about the subject and whether it is a plausible course for a degree. However, I did observe that most of the authors who offered such credible opinions had not actually been on such a course themselves. Fair enough that they went to university, but what's that got to do with the price of books?

I would like to proffer my own opinions on the matter as I have first hand experience and can express whether or not it is indeed a worthwhile course.

I agree 100% that most authors have an innate ability to write well. It just comes naturally to them. That doesn't mean that they will naturally conjure up a novel out of thin air.

Creative Writing courses offer a nudge into the right direction. Before embarking on my course I believed that I would write "Chick Lit" novels. Now, I can't imagine anything worse as I'm not very 'tuned in' to writing such stories, even if I do enjoy reading them. It's difficult to know what your forte is so I believe that CW courses assist with this.

I also believe that it's difficult to know where to start. I spent many years saying that I wanted to write, but I hardly ever did. My mind was filled with so many ideas that were bursting to get out, but every time I attempted to write anything down my pen would stop dead on the page, refusing to create any scrawl at all. Now, I'm blogging most days and am quite happy to sit and write something down, even if I'm fully aware that it's a load of rubbish. I have the confidence to try. That confidence came from my CW course.

Now, I don't want you to think that I am very Pro-CW Courses. I am, but I also want to highlight the bad aspects of such courses.

First of all, as much as I think my tutor for Creative Writing is fabulous (the very animated Ian Marchant) who has offered great support, he is indeed primarily a non-fiction writer. That's great...for my Life Writing module.

I also find that one person's style of writing is different to another's, so while one person may adore my writing, I feel slightly penalised if the tutor marking my work does not naturally appreciate my style of writing. Therefore, I'm not learning to write creatively, I'm being taught to write in a similar style to someone else. Not my own.

My brother writes fantastic poetry but I know for a fact that he could not submit them if he was taking the same CW course as me. They would be deemed too unconventional. Since when was that a bad thing??

So, in my opinion, a Creative Writing course is useful for anyone who wants more understanding about the literature world and once they have established what genre they would like to write for, all tips that have been gathered along the way will assist in helping them to become the confident writer that they aspire to be.

Word of advice: Go into the course with the notion that your tutors will have a different style to you and it is their style that you will be marked on. Unfortunately!

Good Luck to all aspiring writers out there! You have my support!

Loula love xxx


- Loulabella posting from her iPhone