Introduction to Creative Writing:

Most creative writing courses, seminars, self-help books and videos will tell you, positively, what you should write and how you should write it. They will recommend books and novels and articles written by well-known, well-respected and well-read authors, who (or is it “whom”?) you should be trying to emulate. But that is not the only way to learn how to write good prose, in fact, I don’t even think it is the best way to learn how to write good prose. Let’s face it, the majority of us are never going to be the next Hemmingway or Dostoevsky or Austen.

The Analogy of a Marathon:

If you take the London Marathon as an analogy, it might help you to focus on where you are and what you need to do to achieve your goals. And you must have goals.

In a field of countless runners, only one or two percent are in the elite race. Only one or two percent are going to be able to give up their day job.

They start on Blackheath, under the sight of the guns, with the whole world focused on them – Victor Hugo is jostling for position, trying to elbow John Steinbeck off the track.

Behind them come the serious athletes, the club runners - the published authors who have sponsors and followers in their thousands. Jeffrey Archer stretches his hamstrings alongside Daphne Du Maurier doing her calisthenic warm-up.

The rest of us – the vast majority of us, are squashed into Greenwich Park, in descending order of book sales, interspersed with clowns in camel costumes and idiots in diving suits who would do anything to stand out from the crowd. And who can blame them? At the end of the day, it might not come down to how good a writer you are, but often it comes down to how well you can promote and market your book. In a field of millions, how do you get noticed? Someone might write like the back-end of a pantomime donkey, but at least they’ll be seen[1].

For many of us it is just making it to that finish line; actually getting that book written, typing “The End” with a flourish after the marathon slog of writing 200 or 300 pages of close-typed script is an achievement. In fact, for all of us, even the elite runners, getting to the end is an achievement. But you can’t get there if you're not prepared to put in the hard yards. Writing a novel is a marathon, not a sprint.

Working Together:

But getting to the finish line might not be your only goal. You might reflect on your finishing position, or your time and think “I can do better than that.” You compare yourself to those that finished around you and say to yourself, “Is this the best I can do? Why did No. 22003 finish five minutes and ten seconds ahead of me? What did she do that made her better than you?”

And it is amongst our peers where we are going to learn. Small steps. Beat the person in front of you. Watch what they do, then do it better. You can’t hope to go from a fun-runner to an elite-runner with one quick dash of the pen. It is a craft, and it has to be learnt, step by painful step. You may get your inspiration from the elite runners, but if you don’t do the basics, you’ll never be one of them.

Learning to be a better writer, like learning to be a better runner, is not something you can do alone. You need a running mate, maybe join a small club. Work alongside others who have the same goals and aspirations as you. If there’s not a club in your town, then you're welcome to join ours.

The New Inklings Society:

The New Inklings Society is a writing club with people, just like you, who want to improve their writing skills, who want to throw off the heavy diving suits that are slowing them down and help each other to achieve their goals.

Writing as a group; critiquing each other’s work, not only helps you to become a better writer, but it is also the best way for you to learn. If all you are ever presented with is perfectly written and structured prose, written by an elite author, you may end up thinking you will never be this good – you may stop writing all together. Reading someone like Fyodor Dostoevsky or Franz Kafka might be stimulating, but it is more likely to be daunting. Reading and writing with a group of your peers is the best way to avoid the surrender to that feeling of inadequacy. Writing can be a lonely existence. Knowing there are others around, just like you, struggling but determined to become better writers, will lift you up and keep you sane.

When you read another person’s work, you will begin to see their faults and their errors. Too many cliches; too much telling, not enough showing; over-writing; too much or not enough description; unnatural dialogue etc. etc. – all things we will cover on this course. You will learn how to give informed and constructive criticism. You will learn to accept criticism in return. Some of it may be brutal, some of it may be encouraging, but all of it will be helpful if you throw yourself into it. You will learn far more and far more quickly by reading, critiquing and adopting the critique of your peers than you ever will by reading James Joyce or Jane Austen.

Homework Challenge:

Perhaps you can help me? I have written a novel and now I am in the process of editing it. Here is a random 200-word extract. I would like you to critique the piece and come up with suggestions of how it could be improved:

“It can’t be easy being a direct descendant of Baldwin the Bastard. Protocol and duty create severe restrictions on freedom. They may be the richest family in England, but the riches and even their lives, are not really their own. The price one pays for fame and privilege is counted in constraint rather than exemption. All of them, from Queen Alexandrina down to the three-year-old, button princess Georgiana, live their whole lives under scrutiny. Not that they get much sympathy from me. The whole damned edifice was built on myth. 900 years ago, when “the Bastard” usurped the throne by slaughtering anyone and everyone who stood in his way, there was a distinct lack of protocol and duty involved. The centuries in between have turned the myth into legend and the privilege into right. Those who can trace their ancestry back to the beginning, have effectively expunged the tyranny and debauchery that got them there in the first place; and which has kept them there ever since. Until today, they can present themselves as a deity to be worshipped, held up as a beacon of hope and justice to a nation of ignorant sycophants.”

I look forward to your comments.

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