The Cambridge introduction to creative writing
Creative writing and creative criticism
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Harry G. Broadman - Africa\'s Silk Road China and India\'s New Economic Frontier (2007, World Bank Publications) - libgen.li
| 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. Reflective criticism As a writer, you area student of the world. You do not have to betaking a writing course to profit from writing critical, reflective self-interrogations, 36 Creative writing in the world 37 narcissistic as the process may appear at first. Despite protestations to the contrary, and the occasional gratuitous mystification, many writers in the real world like to explain themselves, as a form of setting up their stall, and for creating an audience that understands their approach and purpose. They often do so vicariously when writing about, or reviewing, the creative writing of other authors. They discuss their working processes they advocate and opinionate; they make no secret of their influences, enthusiasms or motivations. You must practise at this mirror. You reflect on the aims of your writing and the process for example, of drafting – by which it arrived at its final form. You also give critical attention to your own writing – for example, the affinities you may feel it has with the work of other authors – and by placing your work in any intellectual, aesthetic, social or other context you feel it should be seen in. Reading lends you knowledge knowledge offers you power but self- knowledge helps you understand the shaping and fledging of your abilities. It may even help you realise them, and to fly alone. At the very least, it helps you to gauge where you are at, and where you want to get, and this process begins in your notebooks, as we will see in Chapter Four . Whether you are inside or outside an academy, critical self-reflection is a means to develop some self-understanding, and to create and evolve some sense of your poetics of the aim and purpose of your personal practice. This task is also useful training should you later eke out your income by literary reviewing, teaching or by writing biography. What applied to your processes might apply to another writer’s processes. It allows you to think your way inside of writing in the same way that writing a poem or story helps a non-creative writing student to better understand what they are studying. At best, these essays are personal examples of creative nonfiction (see Chapter Seven ). Download 2.89 Mb. Share with your friends:
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