LITR 3731: Creative Writing
Sample Final Exam 2005
Lindsay Niemann
Literature has always been a huge part of my life. I am never without some sort of novel or book, and sometimes, I will be in the middle of reading two or three different books at the same time. Not only do I love to read, but I also enjoy the craft of writing poetry, and now, after taking a creative writing course, I am also exploring the vast realm of writing fiction. Taking a creative writing course helped me to open up my eyes and ears to literature and understand and realize the strengths and weaknesses of my own craft.
Poetry was the first thing we learned about in the creative writing course, and although I have always been somewhat confident as a poet, I knew there was still room to grow. The required text, Three Genres, was more helpful that I had expected it to be. In chapter three of the book, Sources: Where Poems Come From, I found a section that I didn’t really think applied to me at first. I pretty much already knew how to find good material for a poem and where to look for ideas, but on page 52, the author has a section entitled, Avoiding Pitfalls. At first, I casually scanned through this section as it described the seven deadly sins of writing poetry, and to my dismay, one of those sins described me—the Impenetrable Haze Poem. I knew I had a problem with writing flowery words and lines that sounded poetic and deep but never really went anywhere, and I was kind of thrown off guard when the book actually seemed to single me out. Like I said, I knew I had a problem with it, but I didn’t know there was an actual name for it. I was humbled by this discovery, but after reading that chapter, I went back, pulled out some of my own poems, and began making changes. From that point on, I realized it was time to become serious about poetry. I didn’t want to leave my readers in a haze, and if I kept writing poetry that didn’t go anywhere, I would never have any readers.
I also found chapter 11, Poetry: From Craft to Art, extremely insightful. “The craft of writing poetry includes the effective use of images, the ways we create sound and rhythm with language, the ways we structure and order our material” (Minot 138). I had already honed in on my craft of writing poetry, but what I needed to develop was “the art of writing poetry with depth, freshness, and resonance.” Chapter 11 provides a number of suggestions and tips that helped me attempt to take my poetry to another level. It stresses the importance of support groups and revision and suggests exploring new themes and trying different forms of poetry. I already knew how to play with words and what poetry sounds, feels and looks like, but I still felt that my poetry was stagnant. Chapter 11 encouraged me to re-train myself to where I’m writing everyday. I re-discovered the importance of brainstorming and coming up with fresh, new ideas.
My main reason for taking a creative writing course was to learn how to begin writing fiction. I had several ideas in my head that could be transformed into short stories, but I just didn’t know how to get started. I was shaky with dialogue and apprehensive when it came to characterization. I was also having problems turning my personal experiences into material suitable for a fictitious short story. Three Genres pointed me in the right direction. Chapter 13, Where Stories Come From, has a section entitled, Transformation: From Facts to Fiction. This section described my “in-limbo position” perfectly. “Transformation is the first step in converting those bits and pieces of factual data floating around in your memory into a coherent narrative known as fiction. It involves restructuring, reordering, and a good deal of fabrication” (Minot 163). The chapter goes on to discuss the kinds of things you can do to make this transformation a success like changing the names and setting and even the events your planning on writing about.
Chapter 13 also lists the “seven deadly sins” of fiction, which I found extremely valuable because I was at risk of falling into one of those categories—The Twilight Zone Rerun. Thankfully, I read this section before I started writing and was able to avoid one of the pitfalls experienced by beginning writers.
Three Genres also has a chapter that covers dialogue and thoughts. Chapter 22 instructs new writers on how to approach dialogue and how to use patterns that are widely used and identifiable. “The dialogue itself has to be fresh and true to character, but the mechanical form should be so familiar that it is not noticed. This is one of those cases where art should conceal technique” (Minot 239). Tackling the dialogue in my short story was easier than I thought it would be after reading this chapter.
I also learned where to place quotation marks and when they are not needed. In my short story, the narrator’s thoughts are revealed a number of times and I wasn’t sure whether to use quotation marks or not. Minot advises against it, and in class, Dr. White suggested italicizing the narrator’s thoughts. I decided to italicize the thoughts, and after finishing my short story and letting other people read it, I was confident that the dialogue and thoughts were simple and followed the identifiable patterns described in Three Genres.
Chapter 24 in Three Genres covers characterization and when and how to develop it. “The process we call characterization is enormously compressed and ingeniously hidden. What might take months in life can be compressed into 15 minutes of reading…the writer of fiction has to supply a series of little hints, and they have to be slipped in stealthily” (Minot 257). Instead of dedicating an entire chapter to describing a character, I learned that it is done periodically throughout the chapter, either by dialogue, author’s intrusion or through action.
I had never written a drama before taking this creative writing course. I had occasionally thought about writing a play, but I felt I was too much “in the dark” to even think about diving into a form of writing that was so foreign to me. The book, Three Genres, does not have much information pertaining to writing dramas, but I learned quite a bit about the technique from class sessions. Dr. White’s sample dramas showed me how the structure of a play should look, how and when to set up a scene and how dialogue is supposed to flow accordingly. Hearing the dramas presented in class by fellow classmates was the most helpful aspect of the drama section of the creative writing class. I was able to hear the dialogue spoken aloud by people who had never looked at the play before, and I could then tell what worked and what didn’t work. I could also see if the set up for each scene worked when my drama was performed, but most importantly, I was able to hear if the humorous parts of the play actually received laughter. Once I heard my classmates laughing, I knew the play was successful to some degree.
Taking this creative writing course also taught me how to give constructive criticism to somebody else’s work and how to look at my own work in the same manner. Being exposed to such a diverse group of writers and hearing their poetry, short stories and dramas helped me realize where I am as a writer and my own unique style. Dissecting the work presented by my classmates helped me to really open my eyes to the mechanics of literature. I learned how to effectively pay attention to dialogue, time lapses, scene changes and language, and I was able to give my classmates feedback that consisted of more than just, “Yeah, that’s really good.” I also became more comfortable presenting my own material to an audience. I practiced reading my poems aloud and even attended a poetry reading where I actually took advantage of the “open mic”—something I’ve never done before.
I am a more confident writer after taking this creative writing course. I am motivated to start writing everyday again and excited about writing more fiction. I plan on attending more poetry readings and keeping in touch with some of my classmates after the course ends because it’s such a tremendous help having more than one set of eyes look at your work. I loved the feedback I received and thoroughly enjoyed the workshop atmosphere. Taking a creative writing course is one of the highlights of my long, drawn out college career.