Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Introducing creative writing
- Chapter 2 Creative writing in the world
- Chapter 3 Challenges of creative writing
- Chapter 4 Composition and creative writing
- Chapter 5 Processes of creative writing
- Chapter 6 The practice of fiction
- Chapter 7 Creative nonfiction
- Chapter 8 Writing poetry
- Chapter 9 Performing writing
- Chapter 10 Writing in the community and academy
- Illustrative bibliography
- Index
Chapter 2 - Creative writing in the world
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1 Introducing creative writing
- Chapter 2 Creative writing in the world
- Chapter 3 Challenges of creative writing
- Chapter 4 Composition and creative writing
- Chapter 5 Processes of creative writing
- Chapter 6 The practice of fiction
- Chapter 7 Creative nonfiction
- Chapter 8 Writing poetry
- Chapter 9 Performing writing
- Chapter 10 Writing in the community and academy
- Illustrative bibliography
- Index
Summary
Some form of compulsion seems to be far more important, in the making of a writer, than innate literary gifts. It is as if one grain of talent – in the right psychological climate – can become a great harvest, where a load of grains – in the wrong climate – simply goes off. The really unusual thing happens, no doubt, when the load of grains meets the right climate. Then, maybe, precocious abilities really do prove that they are convertible to real abilities. But the suspicion remains that we are talking about an unhappy not to say disastrous state of affairs, where this immense biological over-supply of precocious ability is almost totally annihilated, before it can mature.
ted hughes, Winter Pollen (1994: 31)An act of criticism is, at best, also an act of creativity: they are hemispheres of the same world. Historically, in the West at least, criticism and creative writing are two phases of the same activity, and criticism illuminates most sharply when practical experience of writing is at the bottom of it. The best criticism creates new open spaces for creativity.
Creative writing and creative criticism
Many university creative writing courses place an equal emphasis on the study of literature and the practice of writing. Out of a belief that criticism must rest in balance with creativity (or motivated by an unvoiced qualm that too much creativity numbs or softens critical intelligence), many writing courses are asked to require that students submit for assessment a reflective essay, or a commentary, on the aims and processes involved in writing their portfolio of creative writing.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing , pp. 36 - 63Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007