workshops, the rules, evolving standards

[katya]

I'm taking a creative writing class now, and I find my teacher, while he's a cool guy, is way too into making us write the same old typical crap stories. I was wondering what your opinions are on what sort of rules there are for "good" fiction, about the way writing is evolving and what direction it is going and and what direction you would like it to go in, and the value or lack of of workshops and critique.

Personally I'm all for creativity even if it doesn't come off well at first. Something that's bad and creative is better than something that's well written and typical. Well, to a point.

I know this is kind of a lot of questions in one thread but they tend to get off topic anyway, and it's not like there's enough traffic in this forum for all separate ones...

[Nautipus]

Well, in my opinion, I think that a writer should be able to make his or her decisions about their story. They should be able to express themselves in any way they want, regardless of which way the mainstream is flowing at the time. No one is being forced to read what some one writes, so it's their choice to read a book, that said, you shouldnt muddle a story with to much.....stuff....you know?

Either way, I think that a writer should be the governor of their world (or worlds, as it is with me ) So write what you want to write, someone is bound to like it.

[Curubethion]

Originally Posted by katya

I'm taking a creative writing class now, and I find my teacher, while he's a cool guy, is way too into making us write the same old typical crap stories. I was wondering what your opinions are on what sort of rules there are for "good" fiction, about the way writing is evolving and what direction it is going and and what direction you would like it to go in, and the value or lack of of workshops and critique.

Wait it out. What he's doing is he's helping you to write with the fundamentals, I suspect. I personally don't like the idea of writing "evolving", I rather think that it's stopped evolving for a while. If anything, we're seeing a trend towards more vivid writing, but that's it.

Personally I'm all for creativity even if it doesn't come off well at first. Something that's bad and creative is better than something that's well written and typical. Well, to a point.

I don't know that I agree with this. Depends on what you mean by creativity. I don't hold with so-called "avant-garde" styles of writing, most of them are just excuses for bad writing and grammar. On the other hand, properly-done "avant-garde" can be good. It has to be a very carefully done technique, with a lot of intention behind it.

And the other thing is, you have to know the rules before you can break them. Learn how to write in conventions, and then look into experimenting with them.

[katya]

Originally Posted by Curubethion

And the other thing is, you have to know the rules before you can break them. Learn how to write in conventions, and then look into experimenting with them.

That's a good idea too.

The thing with "creative", stories is that even if it doesn't work for the particular story, you could keep following that path, refining it, and recreating it into something that does work, is what I'm saying. I don't want literature to be stagnant.