No One Wears Pants in London

“It’s a reasonable question, but no matter how often I’ve been asked, I never know quite what to say. Because if what people mean is: Can the love of language be taught? Can a gift for storytelling be taught? then the answer is no. Which may be why the question is so often asked in a skeptical tone implying that, unlike the multiplication tables or the principles of auto mechanics, creativity can’t be transmitted from teacher to student. Imagine Milton enrolling in a graduate program for help withParadise Lost, or Kafka enduring the seminar in which his classmates inform him that, frankly, they just don’t believe the part about the guy waking up one morning to find that he’s a giant bug.”

-from Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and For Those Who Want to Write Them by Francine Prose

This is a question that I’ve often thought about. I’m sure that most people, myself included, don’t really think of me as a writer, but it really is something that I love to do.

When I enrolled as an English major at my University I decided against doing a writing based degree. Simply due to the Creative Writing program that they had at our school. I had several friends who had taken the creative writing classes that were offered and not one of them had anything good things to say.

It seemed almost impossible to get a decent grade in the course. Sure, students might have come a way with new knowledge, but some students only had their creativity crushed. I’m not saying that creative writing courses should be removed from the curriculum, I just think they should be taught in a different way.

Granted, the only creative writing course I ever took was in high school. But it was one of the best classes I ever had. I learned new writing styles and learned that I could write a fun story or poem that someone might want to read some day.

Who is to say that someone’s creative piece isn’t “good”? A professor, editor, publisher, friend? Just because someone deems a piece of work as “bad” doesn’t make it so.

Imagine having your work turned down nine times. Would have have given up? Would you have decided that your piece should never see the light of day? Toss it into the fire place? If J.K. Rowling had done so the world would have never known Harry Potter or Hermione Granger.

Then again, there are some best selling books that aren’t so great. I won’t name any names, but they only sell because they are about vampires or kinky sex. Are these works creative? Maybe. Great works of art? Probably not.

Think of Shakespeare or Milton (as the quote above references), they did not have someone telling them “here you are now free to write whatever you would like.” They wrote because they loved it, because they had a story to tell.

If you have a story inside of you that you need to tell, keep writing. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

What I’m saying is, you don’t need years of schooling and a professor to tell you that you are a “creative writer.” Just keep writing, keep exploring, and keep trying. Take criticism as it comes, but don’t brush it off; instead use it to grow as a writer.

Am I a published writer? No. I really don’t have any kind of authority on the subject other than I love to write and have many friends who love to write. But if people will read a three book series about bondage that was adapted from a fan fiction, then they will read just about anything.

So why not tell your story?