Insight of the Moment: Creative Writing Class #2: Ordinary Object

My second class in Beginning Creative Writing was over a week ago on 4 June, but as you can imagine, I have been slightly overcome by a monster lately and the blogging has suffered. You know THE monster of which I speak.

Anyway, in this class we each read our writing assignments out loud and everyone critiqued each other's writing. More interesting than each person's writing style, was each person's unique interpretation of the assignment.

We were supposed to write about an ordinary object and make it extraordinary. My approach was to give it the context of a story. I was told that was an easy way to do it and didn't necessarily meet the intent of the assignment. But other people took a very direct approach and killed their ordinary object with adjectives. The best ones used personification and imagery in a effective yet sparing way. I took note.

You know how each organization and discipline has its own language to tell someone that they suck? For example, if someone shows tremendous potential, that means they haven't lived up to it yet. Or if someone isn't the right match for a job position - they did a crappy job at it. Well if someone's creative writing misses the mark completely, "well, it's a contribution."

Mine wasn't labelled a "contribution," but it's only a matter of time.

This class is good. It's yet another humbling life exercise in practice makes a better product and if you do it every day, you get better and better. Dreams of being a brilliant writer overnight and making tons of money - checked by reality. But it's no surprise. I've been in a creative "straightjacket" for almost 20 years!

Our assignment for the following week is character development. Observe a stranger in a public place and take note of specific things about them. Things like how they are dressed, if they are married, not married, body language, anything that might give clues as to what their life is like. Based on that info, create a life for that person but without a laundry list of adjectives. I took this to heart, but definitely didn't invest enough time due to the monster.

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