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 3 - Challenges of creative writing
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
But for women, I thought, looking at the empty shelves, these difficulties were infinitely more formidable. In the first place, to have a room of her own, let alone a quiet room or a sound-proof room, was out of the question … The indifference of the world which Keats and Flaubert and other men of genius have found so hard to bear was in her case not indifference, but hostility. The world did not say to her as it said to them, Write if you choose; it makes no difference to me. The world said with a guffaw, Write? What's the good of writing?
virginia woolf, ‘A Room of One's Own’ (NE2: 2181)The major challenge to any writer is the work itself: getting the book written; making characters believable; allowing subject and form to work together; and creating verisimilitude. In this chapter, we look at some significant challenges – and opportunities – that we might be able to bend to the purpose of our writing, including cultural and social pressures, quality, translation, experiment, design and your own mind's workings.
Challenges to writers
The phrase ‘enemies of promise’ entered the language as the title of Cyril Connolly's (1961) compendium of circumstances that inhibit writing, and is very much of its time: self-centred, brimming with masculine concerns, and obeisant to elite literature. However, the book is thoughtful, even cunning: a white, upper-class forerunner of Silences (2003), Tillie Olsen's feminist study of the frozen opportunities for women writers, working-class and black authors.
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- Information
- The Cambridge Introduction to Creative Writing , pp. 64 - 87Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007