Creative Writing: Poetry and Fiction
Last Spring I took a creative writing poetry class for one reason: I hated poetry. It may seem counter-intuitive to sign up for a class on something I dislike, however, I was convinced that if I learned more about poetry and practiced it more I would learn to like it. I was right.
Reading and writing poetry was a challenge for me but the more we studied and practiced the more confident I became. Through this process I learned a lot about myself, things I don’t think I would have learned in any other class. My Professor, Ryan Vine, encouraged us not just to write the happy things in our lives, but the sad things, the hard things, and the angry things. Through the process of thinking, writing, editing, editing more, and editing again, I found a way to express myself.
The positive experience I had in Creative Writing: Poetry led me to pursue its sister class, Creative Writing: Fiction. So far, we are writing about a scene a week and each week has a new focus. These have included character development, dialogue, scene setting, and varying points of view.
Both of these classes have shaped up to be favorites. It is so refreshing to work on writing that isn’t your standard research essay or intertextual reading. They’ve also given me cool opportunities. This summer, one of my poems was published in a chapbook housed in the Twin Cities and I now have content if I ever decide I am brave enough to hit up open mic night!
Tags: academics, college, Creative, Homework, liberal arts, poetry, writing, writing intensive
