Where
to start teaching creative writing in schools and colleges? It’s a question I
know many writers in the ABBA community have answered in their own professional
lives, and I’d love to hear your advice.
Me,
I waver between starting with character or conflict + change, although recently
I’ve plumped for all three at once. Is place next or endings? Rising tension? Voice
or structure? Great openings from published books?
Years ago, a trainer on an author schools’ visit programme urged us
to model ‘excellence’ first, and then to work backwards from there, which was
all very well except that the model he used to illustrate his point was far
from excellent, according to professional writing standards.
Ever
since then I’ve worried that I might do more harm than good by enthusing about
turning points and climactic choices between ‘irreconcilable goods’ etc. if that’s
not what schools, colleges and exam boards want students to learn.
Overcoming
these doubts just became rather urgent since (I’m delighted to say) Authors
Abroad have now added me to their stable of writers who offer talks and
workshops to schools. Hurrah!
Fortunately,
this year I’m also training to lecture on fiction prose writing at FE level, so
I have the luxury of an academic framework within which to research the issues
and practice teaching under expert guidance.
As
a learner, I know I have a top-down bias, preferring to see the big picture
first and details later. This, broadly, should fit with the ‘model first, work
backwards’ approach, which, I now discover, has deep theoretical roots.
Bath
Spa’s amazing MA in writing for young people also taught me the immeasurable
value of mind maps as a way to avoid linear thinking at too early a stage in a story’s
development, so I’m hoping to adapt and adopt non-linear teaching techniques
also.
First,
though, I’m honing a ‘commercial’ fiction scene in order to model structure.
It’s got a lead character with a defined goal, an antagonist with a diametrically
opposed goal, conflict between the two, a turning point and a resolution. All
in 275 words!
It
favours implicit clues rather than explicit descriptions to draw the reader
through the plot, relying on our innate human desire to read between the lines
and solve a puzzle.
[In
the past, I’ve been impressed how quickly students of any age zoom in on the
turning point of a scene, and work out which character ‘won’ and which ‘lost’
from the slenderest of clues - a skill my favourite screenplay-writing gurus would attribute
to our collective understanding of story, born originally of universal
oral storytelling traditions and reinforced time and again in books, TV and
film.]
How
far this approach is adaptable to the exigencies of an examined curriculum I
don’t yet know, but I’m keen to explore opportunities to guide students
through the basics of structure, rather than trying to teach them something
that many will already know, albeit subconsciously.
Another
thing I’d like to borrow straight out of the commercial publishing world is this definition of story, first introduced to me by author, editor
and mentor extraordinaire, Beverley
Birch:
Story = a character changing through
conflict.
Some
writers I know bridle at the apparent over-simplification of this definition,
including people who love classical literature. But for me, as a working writer,
it helps scale storytelling down to size.
“Changing
a character through conflict” is do-able. It’s a solid platform from which to launch
a story idea, and one which I think might give confidence to student writers
who are just starting out.
Embracing
this definition also paved the way for my greatest writing eureka moment to date when I read that plot and character are two sides of the same coin: after the inciting
incident, plot is simply what happens as a result of the decisions, actions and
reactions of the protagonist.
Before
that epiphany I had plotted.
And
plotted.
I’d
twisted and turned my poor protagonist into ever more hazardous predicaments. But
always I put her there. She didn’t have agency.
Understanding
that she absolutely had to have agency at every major point in the story led,
logically, to telling her story from inside her head, a fresh starting point
which, ultimately, got me published.
I
suppose what I’m saying, or at least seem to be saying as I write this post, is
that there is no single ideal starting point. It all dovetails. Somehow. Hopefully.
Perhaps all I can hope to do is present the practical benefits of different
approaches to writing fiction with passion and honesty.
Am
I in danger of extrapolating too much from personal experience? Possibly. Is it unrealistic
to expect similar epiphanies to give joy to students of whatever age? Probably. I
do know that I have a great deal to learn about learning, and have increasing
respect for full-time teachers. How on earth do they do it?
As
a writer, I hope - and deep down believe - that the tradecraft of writing
fiction for mainstream publication will prove helpful in deciding what to teach
in schools and colleges - if not how to do it!
What
do you reckon, people? All and any tips gratefully received.
Twitter
@houserowena
