Do we really need to go and study how to write? Is it something you have or you don't?
Replies
First, I want to explain why I asked the question: some people tell me that to get anywhere with what I want to do (creative writing for teenagers) I should go to uni and do a degree. Others, tell me that writing is something you have or you don't have. It can't be taught.
I made the decision, more than once, not to go to university and study creative writing. Basically, when I was in school, I loved art. Then I went to college and did art. And it stopped being fun. I didn't want to go and study writing and have all the fun taken from it. My writing is something I can call my own and it's the only thing right now that I'm allowed to do my own way.
However I did complete some secretarial studies after my art course. This massively improved my spelling and grammar and so on. And my writing has changed and improved purely through life experience. But I still get people telling me that I need to study the actual subject of creative writing and I was just wondering what others thought.
There is an element that "storytelling" is something that one does or doesn't have.
"Writing" may be a different thing though. There are different forms (or modes) of writing - journalism, academic paper, technical instruction, short story, shildrens story... the list could go on. Some of these have more defined requirements than others.
Should one study "literature" in order to write? Maybe that should be "to write well"?
I think that a broad background of reading - including some absolute trash (as an example of how bad writing can be) - is more than a good thing... But the study of "literature" is aquite different thing - and - I would take a personal position - a bad thing for a "writer" - at least - for a writer of stories... A story should be about - the story - not hampered by academic concepts of things that have already been written - and then analysed - often bvy people that don't (or can't) write stories.
On the other hand - learning good grammar is like learning the basics of a musical instrument. Les Dawson could make a delightful mess of any piece of music - but his skill was based on being an excellent paino player who really knew how to do things properly.
The thing with grammar - is that when you know how to do it (at least reasonably correctly) you can then mess around with it when appropriate.
I am biased though. All the "writing courses" I have seen do one of three things:-
1 tell you the obvious - obvious if you have read widely - and have a good grounding in grammar.
2 load you with a pile of rules and requirements - which I think stifle creativity
3 tell the paying customers to "do it this way or it is wrong" - which potentially stops them writing at all.
As I said - I am biased.
Perhaps what anyone needs to do is to look at what/how they write and try to see what their shortcomings are - and then look to see what efforts they can make to resolve those.
We all have limited time (and often limited cash) so it makes sense to carefully target any study that we undertake.
Then moving to the second oart of the question - I suspect that we all have some degree of "storytelling" / poetic / journalistic or whatever ability... and that we can all work to enhance what we have... Just what we might do to improve our eforts must be extremely individual
First, I want to explain why I asked the question: some people tell me that to get anywhere with what I want to do (creative writing for teenagers) I should go to uni and do a degree. Others, tell me that writing is something you have or you don't have. It can't be taught.
I made the decision, more than once, not to go to university and study creative writing. Basically, when I was in school, I loved art. Then I went to college and did art. And it stopped being fun. I didn't want to go and study writing and have all the fun taken from it. My writing is something I can call my own and it's the only thing right now that I'm allowed to do my own way.
However I did complete some secretarial studies after my art course. This massively improved my spelling and grammar and so on. And my writing has changed and improved purely through life experience. But I still get people telling me that I need to study the actual subject of creative writing and I was just wondering what others thought.
I don't have any qualifications. Ah - maybe I can't really write, then ;)
Reminds me a bit of that old saying 'Those who can, do: those who can't, teach.'
I don't have a teaching qualification either. That's the wife's department :)
First answers - "no" and "maybe".
There is an element that "storytelling" is something that one does or doesn't have.
"Writing" may be a different thing though. There are different forms (or modes) of writing - journalism, academic paper, technical instruction, short story, shildrens story... the list could go on. Some of these have more defined requirements than others.
Should one study "literature" in order to write? Maybe that should be "to write well"?
I think that a broad background of reading - including some absolute trash (as an example of how bad writing can be) - is more than a good thing... But the study of "literature" is aquite different thing - and - I would take a personal position - a bad thing for a "writer" - at least - for a writer of stories... A story should be about - the story - not hampered by academic concepts of things that have already been written - and then analysed - often bvy people that don't (or can't) write stories.
On the other hand - learning good grammar is like learning the basics of a musical instrument. Les Dawson could make a delightful mess of any piece of music - but his skill was based on being an excellent paino player who really knew how to do things properly.
The thing with grammar - is that when you know how to do it (at least reasonably correctly) you can then mess around with it when appropriate.
I am biased though. All the "writing courses" I have seen do one of three things:-
1 tell you the obvious - obvious if you have read widely - and have a good grounding in grammar.
2 load you with a pile of rules and requirements - which I think stifle creativity
3 tell the paying customers to "do it this way or it is wrong" - which potentially stops them writing at all.
As I said - I am biased.
Perhaps what anyone needs to do is to look at what/how they write and try to see what their shortcomings are - and then look to see what efforts they can make to resolve those.
We all have limited time (and often limited cash) so it makes sense to carefully target any study that we undertake.
Then moving to the second oart of the question - I suspect that we all have some degree of "storytelling" / poetic / journalistic or whatever ability... and that we can all work to enhance what we have... Just what we might do to improve our eforts must be extremely individual
:-)