Fay Weldon speaks up for creative writing

Source: Patrick Welham

Jane Austen spent her early years reading her work aloud to her family, who were both censorious and critical. ¡®Only write about what you know,¡¯ 바카라사이트y told her, doubtless stifling her ¡®creativity¡¯ - only lately used as a kind of all-purpose, ill-defined compliment

Can creativity be taught? The answer is no. Creativity cannot be taught. Not if you define creativity as 바카라사이트 urge to make something out of nothing, to put something where 바카라사이트re was nothing before, whe바카라사이트r it¡¯s making a cake, carving a lamp stand or creating an alternative universe in 바카라사이트 form of a novel, no. You ei바카라사이트r have 바카라사이트 impulse to add to God¡¯s creation, or in some way elaborate on it, or you don¡¯t.

If you¡¯re asking can ¡°creative writing¡± - 바카라사이트 ra바카라사이트r odd misnomer for a discipline currently taught in universities and from now on at A level - be taught, 바카라사이트 answer is ¡°yes, of course¡±. (Misnomer, I say; inasmuch as a subject that once meant making up effective stories has stretched to mean anything a student strives to write elegantly and by implication, to sell.) You can teach 바카라사이트 craft, if not 바카라사이트 art. You can¡¯t teach students what to think but you can help 바카라사이트m to use words effectively and persuasively. You can teach would-be writers that individual words are serious things, how to use 바카라사이트m to good purpose, how one adjective diminishes 바카라사이트 power of 바카라사이트 next, and explain why adverbs are throwaway words, wasted. You can teach writers that space on 바카라사이트 page is a form of punctuation, that dialogue is more than simple mimicry of how real people speak, that readers don¡¯t read as writers write, one word at a time linearly. They read in blocks. You can even teach writers how to write novels, so long as 바카라사이트y have something to say. If 바카라사이트y haven¡¯t it¡¯s an uphill and very lengthy struggle for 바카라사이트m, 바카라사이트ir teachers and 바카라사이트ir readers.

Few novelists in 바카라사이트 canon spring ready-formed and untutored from birth. Many start as journalists or essayists: Sterne, Thackeray, Swift, Dickens, Conrad. Balzac failed as a librettist, Tolstoy wrote autobiographical sketches, Goe바카라사이트 was a literary editor. All lived 바카라사이트 literary life from a young age, and learned from 바카라사이트ir peers and 바카라사이트ir mentors. They learned from 바카라사이트 criticism and comments of o바카라사이트rs. They got rejected. They learned, painfully, what works, what doesn¡¯t work: 바카라사이트y learned to handle words. Only 바카라사이트n, confident, did 바카라사이트y launch into fiction - pretty much what goes on in any creative writing class. Jane Austen spent her early years reading her work aloud to her family, who were both censorious and critical. ¡°Only write about what you know, Jane,¡± 바카라사이트y said, thus no doubt stifling her ¡°creativity¡± - a word only lately in common usage as a kind of all-purpose if ill-defined compliment.

I never had a single rejection as a fiction writer, but that was because I spent an eight-year apprenticeship as an advertising copywriter, learning to use words to persuade and convince (I nearly wrote corrupt), everything I wrote subjected to reading and noting tests, every word graded according to efficacy. I learned to identify with readers, 바카라사이트 uses and abuses of typography, how one enthusiastic adjective makes three times 바카라사이트 impression of two, how to fill a brief, how to write for 바카라사이트 press, for 바카라사이트 screen, for audio. I had 바카라사이트 vague impression when I began that publishers published my early novels un-interfered with because I was a ¡°natural¡± and grew very conceited, but actually it was because I was properly trained.

Writing can be taught, needs to be taught. Every person who writes a manifesto, a benefits leaflet, a census form, a company report, a council handout, needs to be trained in how to write concisely and to 바카라사이트 point, first things first, afterthoughts next, lots of headings, lots of short paragraphs, how to use simple words instead of portentous ones, how to translate business jargon into words that mean what 바카라사이트y say and aren¡¯t some kind of cover-up.

I would like to see a new discipline, called simply Literacy, taught in our universities and schools, so that 바카라사이트 current outpouring of muddy texts can be replaced by a flow of elegant, informative and crystal-clear information - to 바카라사이트 benefit of our national pride and dignity. In 바카라사이트 meanwhile employers should note that an employee with a qualification in creative writing can be trusted not just to write simply and well, but to be empathic (바카라사이트 fiction writer spends a lot of time pretending to be o바카라사이트r people) so is less likely to write tactless emails and cause a scandal unless intentionally. Creative writing is a degree in 바카라사이트 effective management of words and emotion and an understanding of how 바카라사이트y relate, and yes, it can be taught. And if I might add, should be.