Does that say more about the creative writing classes, or about you?

In third grade we were assigned to write a story. We were given a sheet of paper with a list of titles on it. I was very put off by the idea of having to fit my imagination into a pre-chosen box and, in a fit of pique (leavened with 9-year-old laziness), I refused to do the assignment.

It's the otter thing, I think.

Did you take CW with sleigh? ^_^

I think you should mail a copy of your grade, and a copy of your awards, to your creative writing teachers, with the note, "SUCK ON THIS, JERKS!!"

I didn't fail but the two times I took Creative Writing, my instructors scratched their heads and said, "Gee, that's good but why do you want to write something else?"

I was never taught anything practical by either Creative Writing or English teachers. Everything I know came from Journalism and Communication instructors and real life experience (the best teacher of all).

I aced both CWs in college, but with little notes from the prof warning me against wasting my talent on fantasy. But having to write a story from scratch the night before it was due was probably useful.

Flipside to this: I did not fail creative writing, but in my senior year of H.S. I took it because I figured writing for a grade would be an awesome relief from my college-level history and english classes.

I had up to this point been very, very careful not to tell my teachers that I was a published writer because a) I hated the attention and b) I wanted to be evaluated by my works rather than my reputation.

Well, someone (not me) told my creative writing teacher that I had a handful of short stories published. Also, they were sold to an anthology she herself had tried to sell to, to an author she adored.

In addition to repeatedly singling me out in front of the other students, at one point she gave me a "C" on a story I wrote with great love and devotion, with the appended note, "This was excellent for an average student, but I expected more from you, Stephanie."

All this reminds me that while I was admitted into the A.P. English Lit classes, I failed the A.P. English Writing test. Also, I got graded down for referring to "manunkind" in a Chemistry paper. I thought I was being clever and witty; it never occurred to me that my Chemistry teachers might not have heard much of e.e. cummings.

Oh, man, now I want to post on the Important Crossroads of My Writerly Education. Stop me before I manifest my inner Total Git.

So really there was no way to go but up!

Didn't Harlan Ellison send copies of his published works to his despised creating writing teacher until the man's widow implored him to stop? :)

Huh. I'm not sure you should be able to actually fail a creative writing class, short of not handing anything in at all.

*laughs* That gives me hope! I only failed it once though, so apparently I've got some catching up to do. Oh, wait... does a C in Playwriting count? ^_~

One of the many reasons we love you.

I too, failed creative writing, repeatedly. They said I didn't try, but me, I prefer to think of it as they didn't challenge me enough with what I wrote. The one piece I wrote that my teacher did like, was a short story about a girl coming to terms with the death of her grandfather.

It earned me a B. In another fit of creativity, the class was given an abstract picture and we were supposed to dissect it, seeing the images inside of it. Most people got maybe half a page to a page, but me, I got three pages worth of images.

I got a standing ovation. Question: if I'm supposedly so creative, why am I not published, yet?*

unpublished writer's wank. Think nothing of it.*

Would that I had had the chance to fail...! I was at school/college so long ago, they hadn't invented Creative Writing as a thing to be taught (not here in the UK, at least).

As carbon-dating evidence, I learned typesetting with proper loose lead type, setting it up in formes and rolling ink all over it. 'Computer' meant a thing the size of a school hall, that did simple arithmetic on its fingers, and there was one, count 'em one, in all of Oxford...

Well, I didn't fail Creative Writing. But I did fail tenth grade English.

Understanding that I was in oh-so-much-trouble, I grabbed my bank book and hotfooted three miles to the bank, where I tried to draw out the funds with the intention of buying a bus ticket to, oh, Alpha Centauri. Alas, the cashier insisted that my father needed to countersign any withdrawals, which meant that I was in for a Very Bad Time, and I was, even though it's true that...

...tenth grade English, much like Creative Writing, Actually Has Very Little To Do With Actually Doing It.

I avoided Creative Writing. Less trouble that way. :)

I'm in a Creative Writing Program at the moment (part time, as I work full time... writing!) but I'm not seeing that as the ultimate in "how to write" at all... it's more of a fun exercise. I take what I want, leave the rest without much concern, and learn as much as I can along the way. Which, ok, makes it much more of an exercise in adapting the program to me than the other way around, but hey, the teachers don't need to know that's my approach. (And this term/year, I took the Shakespeare option from my lit class requirements. Heh.)

So that's why you're so good.

I knew there was a good reason I really like your schtuff.

I took it twice as well, once in high school and once in college.

My original high school creative writing teacher fell ill in September and actually died the following January. The random sub who became the long-term replacement was trained as an English teacher, I think, but had never taught creative writing before. Her assignments were very open-ended ("write a short story about something and hand it in") and she thought I was BRILLIANT. Naturally, I loved her, too. I mean, who wouldn't? :g:

In college, the CW teacher loathed me. I passed, however; the class was graded S/Cr/NC (Satisfactory, Credit, No Credit) and I got an S, which was the usual grade for someone who'd handed in all the assignments. Again, the assignments were open-ended. I felt rather stifled, though, as he made it clear he had nothing but contempt for SF/F. (I handed in stories that stayed just barely on the "mainstream" side of the line. I didn't see the point of handing in stuff that was obviously SF just so everyone could complain that they didn't like genre stuff; I wanted halfway useful feedback from my peers, if not from the teacher.)

I wasn't allowed to take Creative Writing in junior high because I wasn't good enough at writing five-paragraph essays. My English teacher was the Creative Writing teacher and he said, when I asked him to sign off on my registration slip for Creative Writing, that I lacked a sense of structure and that if I hadn't managed to learn how to write a coherent five-paragraph essay I wasn't going to be able to write a story so I might as well go do something that I could succeed at, like maybe take the Garment Sewing class that the Home Ec teacher was teaching.

I took Machine Shop.

I came out of the English educational system before they had "Creative Writing" too. I did manage to score A's at "O" level in both English Literature and English Language, but then I dropped 'em to specialize in sciences at "A" level (you couldn't really mix'n'match arts and science subjects if you wanted to go to university back in the late 70s/early 80s).

It was, however, a creative writing assignment that really got me started on fiction, back when I was 12. An English teacher decided it'd be a good idea one term to get my class to write a story -- but not just the usual 4 or 8 pages: we were to fill a whole exercise book, and take a couple of hours a week for the entire term. Of my class of about 30, half failed to finish the assignment, but three individuals filled not one, but two exercise books. Guess which section I was in ...

[:: shakes your hand ::]

I failed the fiction portion of the comprehensive exams I had to take in order to complete my M.A. in Writing. But I only failed it once; I passed it the second time.

So you win. :)

I aced last semester's creative writing course and I barely showed up... not that it's done me any good in terms of actual marketable writing, apart from an overemphasis on baroque prose and glittery description. Being able to shine up a turd doesn't mean you've produced a sapphire.