I cannot see the point, actually; what’s the difference between writing for this site, during private, leisurely moments, and the writing that takes place during socially constructed time frames? In other words, what is the benefit afforded by the writing workshop? The person behind the writing is one and the same, with the identical grim isolation of one-ness compared to being amongst many-ness. The motion of the pen is somehow different, I think. There is a lightness when doing work, when writing, at a workshop. It is less suffocating, allowing a certain joyousness to escape.
Below is the first piece, hastily written during a frantic 15 minutes. This was actually the 3rd exercise that Jane set for us, after she found an unwilling and uncooperative class impeded by internal censors. The brief was simple: imagine a period in your life when you first encountered “creative writing”.
the piece:
Mr. McLaughlin was already in class when we shuffled in that morning, a chilly morning with the radiator creaking into life after the weekend sabbatical. He announced a change of plans - that we would not be discussing the parliamentary system of government and the impact of the Prime Minister’s Office in shaping public agenda. Nothing could be more boring, and we sat in anticipation of the new subject to be covered.
The next words he uttered were the first instance of an encoupling that had until then seemed alien to each other and to the class.
CREATIVE WRITING
read the words on the blackboard, the very words he whispered upon turning his back to them. Our youthful optimism took a fatal turn as we realised our reprieve was short-lived, and our groans drowned the ever-creaking, ever-rattling radiator as it warmed to its task.
CREATIVE WRITING?
What rubbish! What is creative writing? writing is about truthfulnes, facts, history, theories and abstraction. Surely “creative writing” detracts from writing?
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