Does it make better writers or crush inspiration through formulaic technique? BQ: Do you believe in natural writing talent? BQ2: Are you excited about the Royal Wedding tomorrow? Thank you! :')

All Answers To Questions

Having never taken a creative writing course, I have a very biased view. For beginners and people who write poorly, I'd say it enhances. It introduces them to "new" concepts and ideas that they, normally, wouldn't have come across. Now, for more advanced writers, I'd say it hinders (for much the same reason you outlined). Take "Finnegan's Wake", I highly doubt that ANY person would have walked out of a writing course with ideas like that. There's also ideas like "Slaughterhouse 5" and "Catch-22" where they defy any form of chronological ordering (which I imagine some courses turning a bit of a nose up to). Haha, Stephen King was actually writing before getting a degree (he got an English degree to be a bit more presentable to the publishers). He mentions that he HATED his writing courses and that they were either a) repetitive or b) places of rules and regulations. I honestly feel that he walked out of their with little to no experience gained. BQ: Yes, I believe that there are cases of natural talent. (James Joyce, George Orwell, J.K. Rowling, etc.) BQ2: I'm indifferent.

It only crushes your inspiration if you let it. I think its important to realize that creative writing should always be creative on some level, but the "formulas" are there to help you and give you a sense of direction. They're taught in classes because they work. I think its valuable to learn as much as you can about writing in order to become a better writer. Its not a bad thing to be better informed or have more knowledge through classes, workshops, books, etc. It just gives you more to draw from when you write. So yes, I think creative writing courses can definitely help make better writers. BQ: to a certain degree, yes. But as with all talents, writing is a skill that has to be practiced if you want to make any real use of it. BQ2: Not particularly. Just two more people getting married, I guess. I'm an American though, so perhaps the whole royalty thing is lost on me.

I've never taken one, so I'm going off how I was taught to write stories at school. If they are anything like that (well, the topic was called 'creative writing') I think it damages ability. I'll ignore the fact that we were taught to use lots of juicy adjectives and dialogue tags, because that's a very 'school' thing to do. But we were taught to write with a very rigid formula which just prevented us from writing what we wanted to. I agree with My Faded Dreams, it would only affect how you wrote if you let it. And to be honest, if you were going to one and you couldn't write what you wanted to, you could just leave. BQ: Yes, I do. I believe in natural creativity and fluency in language, but obviously if someone with this natural ability is not taught to use it well (grammar-wise mainly) it would stunt the development of their writing. BQ2: I'm excited for the day off and taking photographs of the events (around my hometown of Nailsea) with my boyfriend.

I was wondering this too! ive taken like 3 creative writing classes (taking one now) and i think it does sort of ruins the whole point of creativity and it definitely does make it less fun haha. I personally think i am way better without the rules. but creative colleges like to see those courses so i take them anyways. I do believe in natural writing talent fo sho and YES, im excited to see prince harry not william though;)

I think they enhance. If you're the sort of person who needs formulas for plots and characters and will apply them just because they are there, you're probably not a very good writer anyway. If you are a talented writer, you'll be able to take the things which work for you and leave the rest. "crush inspiration through formulaic technique" I have to say, almost every time I see this it's a euphemism for "I can't be bothered to do any editing, my rough first drafts are perfect." There's a correct way to punctuate dialogue, for instance. Using it won't make your work any less creative. That said, I don't think you need a creative writing degree to learn how to write well. It's mindset and practice rather than a deep understanding of complex material. A degree may help teach you that mindset and force you to do that practice, but there are plenty of other ways. BQ: Yes, but unless you put in the time and effort to develop writing skill to go along with it, it's wasted. BQ2: No. I hope they are very happy together...but that's as far as my interest goes. I couldn't care less what her dress looks like or whether they come out and kiss on the balcony. Nice to get an extra day's holiday, though.

Yes, creative writing course open your mind to things you don't even know, y'know? The thing is, you have to learn how to separate creative witting and technical writing. Formulaic techniques work for a reason: everything you need to work with is already laid out in front of you. Once you become familiar with a technique is when you should move away from it to develop your own method, y'know? It's there so a writer can get the gist of how something works. I don't believe you need a degree to become a great writer, but it does help you gain experience along the way. BQ: No, I believe in natural story-telling talent. I could be the greatest technical writer on earth, but if I don't possess any story-telling skills, then I have nothing interesting to write about, do I? That's where creative writing classes come into play. Writing, like any art form, is a craft that has to be learned and can only get better with practice. Some people may have a better affinity for writing than others, but that goes with anything in life. I believe it's about passion and the discipline to *want* to get better that makes all the difference. BQ2: I could really care less.

They really do enhance, definitely. It's absolutely nothing like taking an English class at school. They don't teach you formulaic technique at all (unless it's a terrible course). They show you how make the best possible story from your ideas and also teach you new ways of thinking which are great for developing plots and drawing inspiration from what you see and hear around you. They also show you where you're going wrong and teach you to avoid certain pitfalls. They're really, really good for refining raw talent into something much better. They might hinder someone who was a bad writer to start with and refuses to accept that good writing is actually *hard work*. People who think it's just all about spewing 'inspiration' on to the page and letting their 'muse' take over, and refuse to accept that they might sometimes actually have be analytical about their own work and put some effort in, might not gain much from a creative writing course. But frankly, those people are never going to be good writers anyway, with help or without it. BQ: Up to a point, yes, in the same way that I believe in natural musical talent and natural artistic talent. But I also believe that anyone with any talent in anything absolutely MUST work at it and improve it and refine it if they're going to get anywhere. Talent isn't enough on its own. Equally, all the training in the world won't make someone brilliant at something in which they have zero natural ability. I, for instance, could never be a professional musician even if I practised eight hours a day for thirty years. Some people could never be professional writers even if they took every writing class in the world. . BQ2: No, not in the slightest. I'm one of the many British people who is against the whole concept of a monarchy and couldn't give a toss that a couple of Sloanes I've never met are getting married. I'm sure they're perfectly nice people and I hope they have a long and happy marriage because I'd hope that for any couple. But the security and so on for this circus is costing the taxpayer a fortune. The only upside is that we're getting the day off work.

I've taken 3 writing courses and they were fantastic at building my skills and techniques, not to mention providing an audience for my work who could give me feedback in person. At first, I wasn't a fan. We had to write for 10 minutes about anything at all. No point to the writing, just writing for writing's sake. I was like "This is so pointless! Writing needs to have an objective! I need to have a problem to solve!" but since I had to write for 10 minutes, I just followed directions, grudgingly. Turns out, this was the best exercise I'd ever done. Writing just for the sake of writing is like stretching muscles, showing me that ideas can come from anywhere and that it's okay to suck while writing. It was one of many lessons I learned, including effective ways to come up with a title, how to use description, learning different points of view, etc. I would highly recommend writing courses for anyone who is serious about writing. BQ: Of course. Just like certain people have innate hand-eye coordination for sports, and others have graceful body movements for dance, and others have the ability to hear tones more accurately than others for music, writers have an innate talent for language and crafting a story. BQ2: Not as much as the media would have me be, but I'm not disinterested. I'm curious to see the dress. I'm definitely not waking up at 3am for it.