Creative Writing 101
Yesterday was a turning point in my life. For the first time in eighteen years, I am officially a student, this time entirely by my own choice, learning something just because I want to. I've enrolled in an online creative writing course, and class started yesterday. I am so excited!
If you read this blog on a regular basis, you've probably figured out that I enjoy writing. I don't know who would write a blog four or five times a week for over a year if they didn't. My problem is trying to make what I write interesting. I think I either come off as a newspaper reporter, dryly reporting the facts of whatever I'm thinking about, or, when I'm trying to be particularly creative, I overdo it and my writing comes off sounding stilted and weird. Is there a happy medium?
Yesterday's lecture discussed three key elements for creative writing: observation, imagination, and language. Suggestions for exercises included things like: observe your hand closely and write about it, write about a tense moment in your life as if it were a horror story (staying true to the facts), and describe a place that seems mysterious to you.
We were given a homework assignment to write something 500 words or less entitled, "The Window". It is due next Monday. While I haven't begun writing it yet, I do have a good idea of what I want to write about.
Over the next six weeks or so, I may use the suggested exercises as blog posts. I'll probably post my homework assignments here, and I hope that any comments you may feel inclined to leave will be encouraging. Most of all, I hope that as I incorporate the ideas from this class into my writing, this blog will become a more entertaining and interesting place for you to visit.
If you read this blog on a regular basis, you've probably figured out that I enjoy writing. I don't know who would write a blog four or five times a week for over a year if they didn't. My problem is trying to make what I write interesting. I think I either come off as a newspaper reporter, dryly reporting the facts of whatever I'm thinking about, or, when I'm trying to be particularly creative, I overdo it and my writing comes off sounding stilted and weird. Is there a happy medium?
Yesterday's lecture discussed three key elements for creative writing: observation, imagination, and language. Suggestions for exercises included things like: observe your hand closely and write about it, write about a tense moment in your life as if it were a horror story (staying true to the facts), and describe a place that seems mysterious to you.
We were given a homework assignment to write something 500 words or less entitled, "The Window". It is due next Monday. While I haven't begun writing it yet, I do have a good idea of what I want to write about.
Over the next six weeks or so, I may use the suggested exercises as blog posts. I'll probably post my homework assignments here, and I hope that any comments you may feel inclined to leave will be encouraging. Most of all, I hope that as I incorporate the ideas from this class into my writing, this blog will become a more entertaining and interesting place for you to visit.
I'm excited for you! and eager to read what you write :)
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