Unlike what many writers will declare after the event, writing is a damn hard thing to do. And since it isn’t easy for me to write this, I shall put together the following bullet points for new writers, and I shall call it Six Tough Rules to Writing Well:
• Write everyday at a fixed time for a fixed number of hours/minutes
• Read everyday for a fixed number of hours/minutes
• Prepare to trash every single thing you have written in favour of writing better stuff
• Never omit to do a spelling/grammar check after each page
• Write down the plot first
• Revise, revise, revise and then when you’re done, revise again
The most important rule, and it is such an important rule that it cannot be included in the Six Rules, is NEVER GIVE UP. This, in fact, is the easiest rule to follow. All it means is that you start at the beginning and keep going on till you reach the end.
The above is the essence of any good writing. In any creative writing course, the first half of the schedule should be given over to reading. A book a week should be a good way to inculcate the reading habit amongst students. Without reading, how can one write? How does one even know where to begin?
And of course, writing cannot be taught. I didn’t learn writing at Pittsburgh. My faculty, all of them well-known writers, opened my eyes to the world of books, and writers, so that I could revise my own writing, and turn it into something that I could enjoy.
Therefore, the only teaching methodology for creative writing programs, if they are indeed required, is the workshop method, where students write, and write, and write, and read, and read, and read. There must be no teaching.
