CREATIVE WRITING COURSE #1 INTRODUCTION

Welcome to a course on creative writing. Writing is an art. It is an expression of your creative urge. Through this course people will not only stimulate their creativity but will also cultivate their writing skills.

So, let’s start the course with a fundamental question that keeps cropping up the moment one sees the course.

Can creative writing be taught?

Is it a subject that one can teach?

Does it work?

I would answer more confidently yes. Some people say that the creative impulse is in born, but certain aspect of creative writing can certainly be taught. The grammar of the language, the building of the climax, the exact place where the ending should come- such technicalities can be taught. Even the creative impulse, the spark can be developed and honed. This will be demonstrated to you as you proceed with the course.

Now let’s come to the question. Does it matter? It can be answered differently. If it does not work, there are certain benefits which come to the surface in the very course of its failure.

It is a process of sharing; of drawing out, of learning, which is the true aim of education. There are no obscure codes, formulas or shortcuts for creative writing. It is like learning or teaching an instrument.

Everyone has his own pace of learning. Some students will be better and faster at learning. Some will have more will power and discipline. But everyone can improve if they applied themselves and are willing to learn. The students who have talent and discipline will go faster and learn tirelessly. The students who are hard working and disciplined will also learn a huge amount.

This course will stimulate you to think, write and act. At the end of the day creative writing may be challenging but it can be great fun.

Everyone wants to communicate with others. It may for imparting information, sharing experience, joys and sorrows. This communication is made through speech, action or artistic creation.

Now let’s ask a question, why does one write? It may be easy but inadequate to say for money, vanity or drive for fame. But the answer lies in the urge of the writer communicate a thought or a feeling.

You write because you feel the need to free yourself of something- T.S. Eliot

It means that it is writer’s psychological and ascetic compulsion to write something. Some people write for social need. Some people write to establish a bond with others. But for the reader, he goes through the work of a writer; he will read new things, with its unique social situations, characters and emotions.

Creative writing-

All forms of writing are categorise in creative and non-creative.

Non-creative writing- It is ideas, its purposes is to share information. It is like, books on history, religion and science etc.

Creative writing- It is almost a spiritual activity, its purpose is to reveal, a highly creative writer meditates on either concrete things of the world, or on abstract thoughts like love or divinity and pours out his feeling in his writing.

The writers bring his unique imagination. They may interact with life around and write about social situations and events, so as to enlighten, uplift and transport, in a manner all their own, as in the novel, in short story or in blog. You can sense their individual vision in their writings.