When teaching others how to write, giving an example of our own work is the third rail. Doing so invites distraction. Instead of demonstrating the desired principle, the presentation of work itself is questioned, picked apart and criticised. The broader lesson is forgotten. This is made worse in that a sentence or even a paragraph of writing rarely stands sufficiently on its own to impress — especially if we're discussing fiction, as opposed to academic or scientific writing. It is for these reasons that creative writing teachers avoid demonstrating their work in any way, shape or form. The counter to this is that many such teachers are published authors... and that if the student wants a demonstration, the teacher's book can be purchased.
This restraint, however, has led teaching the practice into a swamp. Forced to lay out "principles" rather than hard evidence, advice has long been mired in what not to do, what isn't good writing and what techniques don't work... while the reverse is a malodourous concatenation of advice like "just write," character templates, three-act arcs and a plethora of other process-driven techniques that do not address the grounded substance of actual language, sentence-by-sentence communication and word choice. We dare not say, "choose this word," because it beckons a rush of voices telling us we're wrong, or that another word is better.
No comments:
Post a Comment