Creative Writing Workshops

In response to the Rachel Cusk article on Creative Writing Workshops:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jan/18/in-praise-creative-writing-course

For a start, ‘creative’ is a misnomer. One cannot teach creativity; one can ignite or encourage it. Individuals have different behavioural styles: some are altruistic, some pragmatic, some analytic or a combination of all three in varying degrees. Creativity comes from within, especially from the thinking mind.

However, one can certainly learn writing skills and techniques. Perhaps the title of the courses should be Constructive Writing Workshops, where one can learn how to improve skills and techniques to develop a personal style or to become a ‘better’ or a ‘specialist’ writer.

Writing creatively is like dreaming with a pen in your hand or with your fingers on the keyboard.

French author, Sébastien Vidal states that when a writer sits before a blank sheet of paper or before a computer screen, nothing else exists. Though one’s feet are on the ground, one’s senses float in another world. The image derives from that state of mind, powerful and strong enough to transport one elsewhere on the planet, yet sufficiently fragile for the image to evaporate with the slightest loss of concentration.

That is creativity.