College Writing Courses
—College Writing Courses—
I needed to fill units in my senior year of college. I was a latecomer to the philosophy program after studying music for the first two years. I worked my ass off, essentially squeezing four years into two, just so I could graduate in the prescribed four years. A smart decision? I don’t know, but it made me realize the importance of A) hard work and B) timely decision-making.
On a whim, with nothing really to go on, I decided to enroll in a 300-level English course, “Creative Writing for Fiction”. I liked creative writing and I liked fiction, so I figured, hey, why not? It ended up being one of my favorite classes in college. The professor, Michael Dean Clark, showcased a winning first impression: He was funny, smart, and seemed more like a John Keating than a Dolores Umbridge. The class was small, engaged, and featured a diverse blend of students from various majors. We spent some time discussing theory and the like, but most of the time we wrote.
This was great. I loved it. Though I loved philosophical, academic writing, I adored the free-spirited, break-all-the-rules character of fiction. It gave me the opportunity to showcase my knack for the bizarre. (One of my short stories explored the stop and walk symbols at crosswalks. Paxton, I think the walking-man’s name was, once had a dream where he launched hardboiled eggs from his ankles.) I connected well with Professor Clark and a couple of times we shared lunch and discussions of influential and absurdist works of fiction. He first introduced me to Pynchon. I think I’ll be forever grateful for that.
Of the things I learned in the class, one in particular stood out. One day, Professor Clark shared a story about a character he was struggling to write. He kept overthinking their choices, kept forcing them into unbelievable situations—even for fiction. He took a break, then returned to the manuscript only to find himself breezing through the chapter he was endeavoring to finish. His takeaway: Sometimes the story will just write itself.
This is one of the more valuable nuggets of wisdom I’ve gathered in my very short journey as a writer. Let the character be themselves. This sounds paradoxical. How can a character you’re creating be themselves when you’re the one creating them to be themselves? The answer is even more cumbersome: Just let it happen. Sit down at your computer or tablet or legal pad or feather and ink and write. Write whatever comes to mind. Get in the zone, the matrix, lock it up. Don’t worry about it in the moment. Come back to it later to analyze under the microscope. The more you do that, the more you’ll get to know your character—the more your character will become themselves.
That’s all for now. More later.
TJH -- 11.16.2023