I took four creative writing courses at BYU and I enjoyed them thoroughly. The writing workshops in these classes helped me out the most, I think. Having my work critiqued in front of the rest of the students really scared the bejesus out of me, yet helped me to see the weaknesses in my writing.

I loved my creative writing teachers because they were always there to offer me critiques on my writing and to cheer me on when I felt discouraged. I still remember the advice Donlu Thayer gave me when I was a nervous seventeen-year old freshman at BYU. “If you want to write, then get a degree as fast as you can and go for it!” she told me. Eight years later, I’m finally taking her advice.

Thank you for this post. You pose a question that I, as a teacher of six 13-year-old homeschooled would-be writers, ask myself all the time. It doesn’t help that I’m not much of a writer myself–I believe I can identify the elusive qualities of good writing, but a master of the craft I most certainly am not. In fact, I’d say that generally, I myself do not enjoy writing. Sigh.

Five of my six students have come a long way in the two years that we have been working together. One thing that has been invaluable has been giving them the vocabulary to talk about a piece of writing; I don’t assume they are too young to “get it,” either. My one of the six who straggles along is still writing about fairies and rainbows and kittens–I’m not sure when or if it will click for her.

I’ve been listening to the New Yorker’s short story podcasts and really enjoying them, and I do find it hard to imagine those stories growing out of a conventional classroom setting, because they have such quirky individual genius, which I imagine could be stifled in a classroom. But, if someone has the confidence to stick to their quirky genius AND the humility to find ways to hone and polish that quirky genius, then a fiction class could still be useful.

Also, your point about classes motivating output is probably a huge benefit — much as we’d like to think otherwise, many of us are only motivated when we have some kind of accountability. But then I wonder if that means the writing stops when the class ends. And then there are people who find deadlines paralyzing. So I guess it really does depend on the individual, and classes or deadlines are more helpful for some than for others.

I think a proclivity for rewriting can be inborn as much as a general drive to write — I base this on the fact that I will, for example, re-write portions of my own year-old blog posts, even though no other person will ever read them. It’s just an obsession I have to keep tweaking. On the other hand, one reason I decided against majoring in visual art in college was because I didn’t have the same kind of humility and patience with that medium.

That being said, I realize how hard it is. It’s hard for me still, and I’m absolutely convinced of its value. I think part of the problem is that so many of us are so task oriented that it’s hard to throw out a piece of writing, no matter how much it’s dragging you down. I like to tell my students, though, that writing isn’t quilting. If you have to go back and pick out your stitches on a quilt, then you’ve made a mistake. But if you “pick out your stitches” in a story or an essay, then you’re doing what you’re SUPPOSED to be doing!

And Jennie, you do have it. But I think you’d like a writing class, if only for the fun of it.

I haven’t ever considered taking a writing class. I suppose I’m of the opinion that you either have it or you don’t.

Too often I find that as I am teaching students to write, either in an academic genre or a creative genre, they are willing to produce a first draft, but there are a lot of students who don’t find the value in revision. To me, this is where the discoveries are heightened and gained as a creative thinker and writer.

I loved meeting with author Pamela Munoz Ryan and inquiring about her writing process. Her response to the question–what is the most important part of the writing process to you? Her reply was this: the creative part, but most of all, the revising part.

She had a waist-high pile of drafts for her last book. Waist high. Can you imagine? That is discipline, but it also tells the tale of a writer who appreciates not only the creative side of the writing process, but the reworking, the tightening, the leaving, out, and the re-framing, which is so much a part of creative writing.

Sure, we will always ask: what is good writing and what is good literature? Perhaps teaching students to have a taste for creative writing and the writing process is where the magic begins. Louise Plummer was my first creative writing teacher and I never looked back. It was my undergrad emphasis, and also my grad school focus because of her tutelage. Teachers and professors are instrumental in the process, but the tools, the discipline, and determination are essential pieces as well,not to mention the humility that one must have.

My favorite students right now are not those in my creative writing classes on a college campus, but a group of kindergartners where I witness on a weekly basis that creative writing can be taught. These little ones make me believe in the act of writing. I witness “ah-ha” moments in their finest form.

Thank you for giving us the forum for this conversation today. It was a breath of fresh air after an afternoon teaching APA and analysis of psychology articles.