Faron Samford

12/10/09

Changing Conceptions

            My experiences before this course in creative writing were limited to small exercises done mainly in high school classes that were prompt based.  This course was the first time that I have created a work of fictional prose longer than a paragraph or two.  Much of this was based on misconceptions that I had concerning two of the objectives in this course. Dismantling my conceptions of the isolated genius writer and enforcing the idea of a manuscript being acceptable to show to others as a work in progress have really helped changed my attitudes of a creative writing course.

            My personal image of a writer was similar with the popular one. I had the impression of a solitary figure tapping away at a keyboard, preferring to be alone with their ideas, reworking and rewording them until they had a fully polished manuscript to show to the world. The class workshops have helped to dispel this image. Seeing the range of different people in our classroom and the types of stories presented showed the variation in writers and their development of ideas. Corina’s story of the polar bear and shape shifting being inspired from Scandinavian mythology was particularly interesting to me. It made me realize that inspiration can come from anywhere.  She didn’t look like someone who would be writing a Scandinavian themed story but, as Bethany puts it in her 2008 exam, “What is a writer supposed to look like?” Seeing the variations of stories that came out in our workshops from the different students made me realize that anyone can be a writer. Chapter fifteen’s account of the revisions made to the story “Sausage and Beer,” helped me see the transformation process a story goes through as the author is continually revising the story over time. 

            The workshop process was extremely valuable for my confidence as a writer. Working with other peers who are also sharing unfinished drafts of their writing with others in order to get opinions and suggestions made me realize that a work doesn’t have to be fully polished before you can share it with someone. One thing that I found really refreshing about our workshops is that all of the students seemed to avoid the “seven deadly sins of fiction” as discussed in chapter thirteen of the Three Genres text. Paul’s story, for example, wrote a science fiction story but avoided the melodrama typical of these stories by making it comedic and lighthearted.

            The biggest asset that this course has given me is confidence in my writing abilities through changing my conceptions of the writing process. The combination of the text and workshops has given me more direction on how to proceed with my future writings and the belief that I can successfully write quality fiction.