What's it like to take a creative writing course?

During the last two weeks I've tried to challenge myself as a writer and have been attending a creative writing course. I enrolled on the course because I didn't really have anything better to do and because I thought that perhaps I could learn something from it. 

After all,  even though  I know a lot about the craft, you can always learn more about it. There isn't much of a downside in taking part in a workshop that doesn't require a long term commitment from you and doesn't have any specific prerequisites. 

So when it comes to the course, our class consists of seven people and a teacher (a literary major). We get together once a week at a certain location, where we have a two and a half hour class after people have gotten out of work that day.  

When it comes to the actual content in the workshop, the course includes an overview of the fundamentals of the craft. There's bit of a theory at the beginning of every session when our instructor goes through her notes that she has prepared for us.

Theory-wise, even though most of the stuff is pretty basic, it's still useful to revisit those fundamentals and not take them for granted. You always learn something new, even though you might think that you know everything already.

So once she's done with the basics, that's when get to  the practical stuff. We as students are expected to write quite a bit and we have several writing assignments that we try to complete as well as possible over the course of the session.  

For example, during a class our instructor might choose a word and we need to immediately start 'free writing' (by hand) based on the word given. During these 'free writes', we either write for like 5 or 10 minutes straight, without stopping at any point. 

After our time for the assignment is up, the next step is to read aloud what we managed to write. We do that, regardless of how good or bad the text turned out to be and regardless of whether we managed to 'complete' our task. 

So when it comes to these tasks, the good thing about them is that they force you to challenge your beliefs and habits. They challenge you,  because most of us aren't used to speed writing and we aren't really used to reading out loud our texts that much either. 

After all, at least when it comes to me, I tend to do endless amounts of rewrites before I let anyone else see my writings. I do these rewrites, because I 'know' that I make tons of mistakes and that I need to rewrite stuff over and over.

Yet, when it comes to my 'free write' samples that I've written by hand, it seems that the stuff that I write on the spot isn't that bad. I shouldn't be that wary of making mistakes and think that I need to be careful before I start trying things with my scripts. 

In that sense, I think it's clear that even if I don't manage to learn that many things from this course, I haven't taken it in vain. I have certainly learned to challenge myself when it comes to my beliefs and habits about certain aspects of the craft.

After all, as a writer, I could certainly be better when it comes to being creative and coming up with new ideas. I shouldn't always be thinking that I need to come up with that super duper idea before I can start working on project that is worth my time.

In the end, challenging yourself is what being creative as a writer really is about. You need to be willing to take certain risks every once in a while and not always play it too safe when it comes to starting a new project.

After all, even though it's almost never easy to get started, at some point you need to take that risk. You need to take that first step, because otherwise you'll never get to write and finish your screenplay that might have merit and value.

In that sense, if there's any chance that a writing course might help you, you should probably take one. You should take one, as long as the course is something that challenges you and as long as it could make you a better and a more prolific writer in the long run. 

Situations where writers need help from others.

When it comes to me being a writer, it's not exactly a secret that I like doing things alone. Whether I'm working on a screenplay or something else, I prefer doing things by myself, so that I could concentrate on the task and figure out what I'm supposed to do.

The reason for this is that as a writer, it's up to me to come up with those quality screenplays. I'm in charge of the project and can't expect others to bail me out if I screw things up and don't manage to come up with stuff that is good enough.

At the same time, just because it's my responsibility to write the stuff, that doesn't mean that I'm never supposed to get help from others. There are situations in which it's pretty obvious that we need advice and guidance as writers.

For example, when it comes to learning the basics and the fundamentals of writing, you shouldn't be learning them all by yourself. There's very little point in 'reinventing the wheel', if there are other ways to learn how the craft works.

So in practice, if it's only possible for you as a writer, you should learn the basics from either reading some well written books or attending some classes about the craft. This is a pretty easy way to get ahead of the learning curve as a writer.

The next situation in which we all need help has to do with the rewriting and the polishing process. This is when you let your trusted readers - friends usually - take a look at your writings, after you have finished your first draft.

The reason for this is that once you let your readers take a look at your script, they will help you fix those (hopefully) minor problems that can make it better. They will fix those annoying typos too, which are almost impossible to notice by ourselves.

The third and perhaps the last time when you need help is when you have written and finished that script (with feedback and corrections). This is when you're supposed to start marketing the script, so that it could perhaps be sold at some point to someone.

After all, there's nothing worse than writing a solid screenplay / manuscript and leaving it to gather dust in your drawer. You need to find someone who pushes you and controls your projects so that you won't leave them once you're done with the script.

In retrospect, the reason that I finally managed to gain some traction for my career is because I got myself a manager. I was lucky to get myself a project manager who supervises my tasks and makes sure that I contact the right people and don't slack too much.

After all, without her efforts, there's almost no chance that I would have turned my movie screenplay into a book. There's no chance that I would have contacted a publisher and done all those other things that have mattered lately.

In the end, even though it's me who writes and has written every word that I've ever published, me writing is still not the only thing there is to the process. It's clear that there are other things too that count and that have benefited me as a writer.

After all, me becoming a solid writer is a result of having gotten help from all kinds of sources. I've read the right books, I've asked my friends for feedback and I have also gotten a manager who takes care of the rest of the things.

In that sense, even though it's not always easy to ask or to get help from others, there's no reason not to do it. There's no reason not to do it, as long as the advice and the guidance that you'll get will help you and will make it easier for you to succeed as a writer. 

Looking back at 2018 & things to do this year.

Now that 2018 is over and we've reached 2019, it's time to look back a bit and check what I managed to do last year. Did I manage to challenge myself enough as a writer and what are the things that I should do better this year?

The reason that I'm taking a look back at last year is that even though I managed to be fairly productive, I could perhaps have done better. There were some things that I didn't do well enough and that I should have paid more attention to those things.

Nevertheless, when it comes to 2018, by far the best thing about last year is that I managed to turn my movie screenplay (Valerie and The Girl) into a book. I wrote my first book, even though I had no previous experience in writing novels at all.

What this meant in practice is that I had to learn pretty much everything from scratch. I had to learn the basics of novel writing and write in a way that would make the characters feel believable and authentic in the book version too.

This, of course, was easier said than done and required a lot of effort on my part. I had to be thoughtful about how to write the book version, which meant that I had to write and rewrite scenes over and over again in order to get the tone right.

In practice, this also meant that I had to make some changes to the structure of the story. I had to change things like the main character's overarching storyline a bit, so that the 'arc' would be longer and that the story wouldn't be too dark.

Still, now that the book is more or less done, it looks like I managed to make correct adjustments for the book version. Based on my own thoughts and the feedback that I've received, it looks like I've written a solid children's story.

After all, my readers said that the book is not only really well written and fun to read, but also informative and educational. They said that once you give it a go and start reading it, it's hard to put it down and not finish it right away.

In that sense, based on the positive feedback, I guess I need to send the manuscript to the publishers next. I need to send the book to them so that they can decide whether they think it's as well written as we think it is at the moment.

After all, considering that there aren't really that many well written 'new' books for children at the moment, it shouldn't be too difficult to get the book published. There's certainly demand for well written stories that have universal message in them.

In the end, getting published would really be so awesome, because I've struggled for so many years trying to get my 'lucky break'. I've spent so many years writing television specs (and that movie screenplay that the book was based on) without any success. 

Although, considering that if the book is good enough to be released, I probably need to take another look at the movie script too. I should certainly make some improvements to it and use those changes that I made for the book version.

After all, let's not forget that even though the book version is good, the movie script is solid too. It's pretty solid too, so if things go well with the book's release, you never know what might later happen with the film version of the story.