Summer classes

Currently sorting out my classes for the summer. Will be running a Novel Writing (continuation) class in Dublin, among others. I'm looking forward to that. More info when I have it.

Just finished up the spring term at CTYI, which involved a presentation to parents as part of the final class. Previously it's been parent/teacher meetings, one-on-one, but I liked the way this worked; parents get a little taste of what the class is like and hear some of the work, and I get to remind the students, while explaining to the parents, what we did in class and why.

It's a tricky balance, how much to explain to the students (the youngest are eight, and may well not particularly care about the 'why' of doing something) and how much to 'send them off into the world with', and how much to explain to parents so that they can offer reassurance or guidance for their kids in the future without being pushy about it. But I liked the inclusive nature of this, having to discuss with parents what had been covered without alienating the student section of the audience. There's so much 'talking over their heads' at that age that it's nice to avoid that.

Until the summer, I'm doing some 'reading over stuff' in a few different capacities and some school visits. Trying to decide whether manuscript critiquing might be worth looking into (as a proper service to offer, rather than as a very occasional favour) or if it's far too time-consuming. Leaning towards the latter at the moment, but any thoughts would be appreciated...

Why take a writing class, part II.

Some points on that last post and over at the LJ:

1) genre snobbery: which I feel is silly and pointless

2) one 'right' way of writing: see above

3) time spent workshopping versus 'in a class', critiquing work by peers vs by published authors, free writing, genre/form-specificness of a class: things to muse upon

Because for all that there isn't really one right way of going about teaching a class, because people are not robots (last time I checked) and even the same people will want something different from a class depending on where they're at with their own writing (or possibly lack thereof), and I don't think anyone really emphasises this enough, but teaching creative writing is a creative activity in itself. If you're using some of the same building blocks each time you do it, you're still adding on new ones each time, still coming up with something different by the end of it.

All that being said, I get a lie-in tomorrow rather than getting up to teach, and I am grateful for it. :)

Why take a writing class?

I don't think anyone needs to take a writing class, which is possibly the wrong sort of thing to be saying when one teaches such things. But it's the truth, and honesty is a good policy: it is possible to write, and to write well, without ever having taken a writing class in your life.

So why bother, then? First off is why anyone takes any kind of class - because it's motivation to do the work that you could do on your own, but would tend to put off if you didn't have a class to go to. For the majority of people who want to write, there is always something more immediate, more pressing, than writing. Their full-time job. Their families. Housework. Social life. For the majority of people, especially when starting off and not at the stage of publishers' deadlines, they only have to answer to themselves when it comes to their writing and getting it done.

Having a class helps. It means people work instead of not working. It means there's a structure to it, it means getting to meet other people who are facing the same problems you are - the balance between life and work and writing - and finding ways to deal with them. It means productivity, first and foremost.

That's before the help that constructive criticism, especially from a practicing writer or experienced facilitator, can provide, not to mention comments from your peers. Before getting a kind of structure that might be useful in working on larger projects or in new genres or fields.

But for now I'm curious, and opening this up to whoever might stumble across this - what experiences, good and bad, have you had in writing classes or workshops? If you write but have never taken a class, why not? For both: is there any kind of class you wish was out there, but doesn't seem to be?

(I came across a thing that combines yoga and writing recently, which seems quite cool and would be the sort of thing that would be amazing to run if one were both a writer and yoga teacher. Oh, these multi-talented folk.)