let me just start by putting this on the table so we can all see it:
the way literature and creative writing are taught in schools is completely and totally wrong.
it is. it’s fucked up. it’s backwards. now, to be fair, i don’t have an alternate suggestion for schools….
that’s how my teacher right now for writing is teaching us and I couldn’t be happier.
I can’t help but feel that you’re selling the craft of writing short. Stuff like word selection, grammar placement and theme can be key in demonstrating what you’re trying to say when you sit down to write.
I mean, yeah, telling the story is important, but a writer should put just as much care and love into putting the pieces together as getting from point A to point B. Stuff like imagery and the meaning behind the words is important, and it’s something one should keep in mind when they write. Not on the first draft of course, but as you write, you should eventually come up on things that would be a great demonstration of what you’re trying to say. Because you are saying something. Otherwise you wouldn’t have felt the need to write in the first place.
A story without a theme is an anecdote. Maybe it’s entertaining, but it doesn’t stick with you. A reader can tell when the author’s just “telling the fucking story” because it tends to be dry. If you don’t even consider your craft or your style, it’s hard to get the reader to care. And that’s what really matters: getting your reader to care. If you didn’t bother thinking about your story, why should the reader? Why should the reader even keep reading your story at all?
I can’t help but feel that just saying “it’s written like that cause it’s awesome” is actually insulting the writer, though you don’t mean it. Writers spend months and countless drafts to get the story absolutely perfect (even those we consider hacks), to get an idea across with that story, and you not only didn’t see it, you just wrote it off. You didn’t even bother giving even a second of thought to a passage that might have taken upwards of ten drafts to get right. You may as well have spit in the author’s eye.
There’s nothing wrong with just letting the story through you, and getting it all down. But eventually, you do have to sit down and think, “What am I trying to say here?”
Also, a lot of that so called analysis tends to be little more than masturbation. I mean that exactly as I say it: stuff like plot speculation is fun, it makes you feel good, and it ultimately leaves a lot of nothing splattered all over live journal comments and tumblr dashboards. That’s not to say that stuff like Homestuck, The Wire, or Doctor Who haven’t gotten great analysis, but it’s closer to the “Academic” than you think.
The teacher analyzes analysis, because it’s the only way that a student can apply that analysis for themselves.
To sum it all up, craft is just as important as storytelling. Claiming otherwise is not only terrible advice to a burgeoning writer, it’s insulting. It’s damning someone to mediocrity in the guise of giving hope. Writing is an art, and we’ve got to remember that.
reblogging this again because the commentary above is beautiful
See, I felt like this all through high school. And after a couple second year university Lit courses, I vowed that I was done with English forever. Then I sat in on a fourth year Contemporary Lit course during the add/drop period and holy fuck. Holy fuck, guys. They actually do shit in fourth year classes. Instead of micro-analyzing the ~Deeper Meaning~ hidden in that one line about the white curtains, we talked about the big picture. We talked about feminism and Angry Young Men and then we psychoanalyzed the shit out of the characters like gloriously over-educated fanboys/girl. I fucking adored that class. I feel like a lot of people on tumblr are in their teens, but stick it out to the upper level courses. They just want you to learn how to think small before they set you loose to think big.
It’s important to understand great works of literature beyond the surface meaning. There is a lot of culturally/socially/politically important information you’re getting from it and while not every piece is going to have a life-changing impact on you, it’s going to expose you to new ideas, fresh viewpoints. It should shape, at least partially, the way you think and understand the world.
That said, any teacher who says your analysis is wrong without telling you why probably sucks. Because the second function of lit is to give you analytical skills. If you read Hamlet, get the impression that the play is about repressed lesbianism, and actually manage to back it up? Who the fuck cares if it’s not orthodox or “right”? You’ve learned to look at something and find meaning beyond what’s readily apparent, and damned if people shouldn’t be doing that more. You’re learning to take abstract ideas and find evidence to support it. You’re learning how to organize those ideas. What the whale in Moby Dick represents? Of course that information’s useless. But the process you took to reach that conclusion is what’s supposed to stick with you. It’s like math: I don’t remember how to do cosines any more, but every time I write a story, I rely on the straight, logical way of thinking that math cultivated. I’m not saying the system’s perfect – most schools seem to enjoy fucking it up - but that’s what I think the rationale behind it is, and it’s a good one. If you want to read a book and enjoy it, tell the school to give you Library Time. But you’re in school to learn, and it’d be a waste of time and money to show up to class every day to flip open a book, point out which bits were awesome and leave it at that.
Regarding creative writing, I’m a creative writing major and my writing has improved massively since I joined the program. Everyone asks me, “How do you teach creative writing? It’s not really something that can be taught.” I beg to differ. My program lets in kids who are already pretty talented. And then they teach us concrete skills. They talk about structure, narrative positioning, telling details. They force us to write, write, write. Maybe the pressure turns your writing “lifeless.” I really love being forced to keep churning something out; otherwise, I’d take months to finish a single piece. No one has ever “told” me what I had to write. My peers and my profs told me that my writing was too subtle, that the events didn’t seem to justify the payoff, that a minor character should be more fleshed out. But that’s pointing out weaknesses. No one ever told me that I need to have a Theme.
Yeah, I do ask myself, “What am I trying to say?” Because Stephenie Meyers is a sparkling example of what happens to writing when you don’t. Subtext, foreshadowing, layers of meaning, that’s what makes stories interesting for me – not just action or awesomeness. Maybe it’s because I also write poetry, but a huge reason I read rather than watch a movie or a play is for the beauty of the written word. There’s power in a well-turned phrase and a single word – or even a comma – can be the tipping point.
Tell the story. Write it because it’s awesome. But don’t completely dismiss the other perspective, either.
