I've been writing since I can remember. (I literally cannot remember a time when I was not coming up with stories.) I didn't understand why people didn't view writing stories as an acceptable profession when they asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. But as I grew up, I realized it was because writing was not easy. Just because it came easily to me didn't mean everyone found it easy. Like acting, art and music, it was something that had to be learned.
Then I hit high school. And I suddenly understood why so many people had a distaste for writing. Grammar. Punctuation. Word usage. Essays. Thesis. Research papers. Outlining. Dictation. Blah! It was hard, even for someone to whom writing came easy. It was now clear to me what had happened - people hated writing because they had had bad experiences with it. All those courses are necessary. But having those only had squeezed all the joy out of writing.
It went from being a gift and privilege to being a chore and a burden. Students are left to try and come up with something to write about when they don't have any desire to or inspiration. They stare at a blank page. They can't think of anything to say. They don't want to have to write anyway because there is nothing fun about it. So they grow up thinking that they can't write. All because they were never given the chance to find the beauty and joy in writing.
To this day, it is my firm belief that when you love a subject you will do everything you can do learn how to do it well. When you hate a subject, you will do just enough to get by, get it over with, move on with life. That is the purpose of this class - to give you a love for writing and a reason to write. Even if you never write anything story-related outside of this class, you will have the confidence in knowing that you can write. And you will have had a good experience with it, one that will change your views of writing altogether.
The following videos are from Week One of Creative Writing 101. They contain all the material from class. (Pardon the quality on the first two.) Please watch them, do the exercises in them, and story away your homework for future assignments. (We will be coming back to them, so make sure you have them on hand.)
