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Creative Writing and Advanced Creative Writing |
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Both Creative Writing and Advanced Creative Writing are offered as elective classes in the English department. If you’re interested enough to read this, then you’re probably a good candidate for these classes. Do you love to write? Do you have trouble ending stories rather than starting them? When your first grade teacher told you to write a page-long story, did you give her five, along with colored illustrations? Do you find yourself writing poems and stories “just for fun”? Do you journal? In other words, do you like to WRITE, then WRITE, then WRITE some more? In Creative Writing your teacher will give you recipes for common kinds of literature. You will be given the opportunity to try your hand at each of these. You’ll be writing fast and furiously. First quarter (prose) alone you will write a character sketch, anecdote, short story and play. These will be 4-10 typed pages each. The theory is that the MORE you write, the BETTER you write. Second quarter (poetry) you will write traditional, metric poems--ballads and sonnets-- along with about a dozen or more free verse poems. You will also write and illustrate a children’s book and still have time for one major project--the writing and rewriting of your favorite genre. The semester exam project finds you writing three genres as well as submitting something to a publisher. Are you tired yet? If your semester grade in Creative Writing is a B+ or better, you’ve earned yourself admittance into Advanced Creative Writing for a semester of your senior year. Advanced Creative Writing makes the quantity written in Creative Writing look like baby stuff. Advanced Creative Writers have all the recipes in their heads, so they can just take off and write their own thing....every day and every night. The group critiques each other regularly so you can expect to develop thicker skin. When you leave Advanced Creative Writing, you will have a polished portfolio of your work to take along to college with you. The pet peeve of Creative Writing teachers is the kid who whines, “Why do we gotta write again? I didn’t know we’d have to write in here!” If you don’t like to write, DO NOT TAKE THIS COURSE. It will save all of us much anguish. If you do like to write, however, no matter your skill level, please join us. Creative Writing was designed for students just like you. Welcome! Creative Writing instructors-- Lin Mooney Courchane and Mark Boyd |
