Writing classes (www.writingclasses.com) is an online course and is also based on NY. Their website claims they teach more than 6000 students a year. I have not attended this class. But I have bought the book brought out by this class. It should be a great class, if the book is anything to go by.
IGNOU course is another one. It is a correspondence course offered by Indra Gandhi Open University. I did not find it helpful at all and would not recommend to anyone.
Still Waters is another course I have come across in Bangalore.(not correspondence or virtual classroom but a physical one, if I may say so) I have no idea about the quality of the course. I have come across their name a couple of times in the city hapennings section of news paper. I believe there are few courses like these in other metros like Mumbai and Delhi too. But I don't know any of them.
Finally, it may not be a bad idea to online community portals like www.writing.com where you can find good company while you write.
Have you come across any courses that you think should be on the above list. Write to me or add a comment.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Creative writing Books that I have come across
Writing Fiction, by Gotham Writers' Workshop is a book that I have personally used. It is an amazing book. They explain about all the ingredients of creative writing like character, plot, dialogue, setting, description and theme. To use a cliche, It is one book that you must have.
Creative writing, by George G Williams is another book I have found very enlightening. It was a book I downloaded for free in internet. Just search for "Creative writing George G Williams".
A Creative Approach to Writing by ROGER H. GARRISON is another book I found on the internet. It is good. But not so good as the above two.
By the way, the last two books have a degree of formalism (probably because they are written as text books for colleges ) which the first one does not have. I really think you should get the first one, if you can.
Have you come across any book that you think should be on the above list. Write to me or add a comment.
Creative writing, by George G Williams is another book I have found very enlightening. It was a book I downloaded for free in internet. Just search for "Creative writing George G Williams".
A Creative Approach to Writing by ROGER H. GARRISON is another book I found on the internet. It is good. But not so good as the above two.
By the way, the last two books have a degree of formalism (probably because they are written as text books for colleges ) which the first one does not have. I really think you should get the first one, if you can.
Have you come across any book that you think should be on the above list. Write to me or add a comment.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Four tips that will keep you in good stead
Tip 1: Write. Write regularly.
Lots of people say that they have some good ideas and want to write about it too. Atleast, as a blog. But they don't have time, they lamely add. Well, How many times have you heard of the phrase, 'Ideas are dime a dozen'. You figure it out.
You go to work 5 days a week, 4 weeks a month and 12 months a year. You need to if you have to hold a job. And so should you write regularly if you intend to make anything out of it.
Writing is lot like working in that sense.
Tip 2: Have a ball.
Few have written a couple of short stories and then have stopped because they dont see it going anywhere. 'Well, what is the point? Its not that publishers are queueing up in front of my house, anyway.' is their logic.
You have played street cricket as a kid, right? Do you remember the day the when the older boys took you in to their team the first time? As the last player to bat. Do you? Did you quit playing cricket that night because you were not called for Indian cricket team? No. You just went out and enjoyed cricket. Only few land up in the Indian team. But all enjoy playing cricket. Now why should writing be any different?
Writing is like playing too.
Tip 3: Learn the craft.
OK. You write regularly. You enjoy it too and dont bother about getting published. What next? You have got to learn to write the correct way. Is there a correct way? Of course, yes. Few people will instinctly get it. But all can learn it. Hard to believe?
Or are you the type who prefers breaking the rule? Well, even to break you should learn the rules.
If you are a programmer, you will learn the importance of the craft. Remember your first program. The crash because of the null pointer. You took hours to write a ten line program. How do you fare now? Is it because you wrote programs everyday or is it because you decided you will learn about pointers. If you are not a programmer, try the example of swimming. Did you thrash the pool the first day unable to breathe in the water. How did you start gliding in the water? Did it happen just because you went to the pool daily. Or is it because you concentrated on learning the breathing technique.
Writing is just like any other skill that way.
Tip 4: Open up.
Eventually there come a point where you would like opinions from others. We all seek to be noticed, preferably in favourable light, right? Well, the reaction of somebody to your first literary creation will more often than not reflect how much they love you than how good the output is. 'Wow! It is great' means the person is your spouse. 'I like it. It is very good.' means the peson is your friend. 'Well, I read the first paragraph. But then something came up.' is probably the comment from that not so close acquaintance.
So it is better to find someone who does not care about your fragile ego. And someone who loves reading and reads a lot. Eventually, how popular your writing becomes will be decided by how good your writing is. No short cuts there.
Writing is lot like life that way.
Lots of people say that they have some good ideas and want to write about it too. Atleast, as a blog. But they don't have time, they lamely add. Well, How many times have you heard of the phrase, 'Ideas are dime a dozen'. You figure it out.
You go to work 5 days a week, 4 weeks a month and 12 months a year. You need to if you have to hold a job. And so should you write regularly if you intend to make anything out of it.
Writing is lot like working in that sense.
Tip 2: Have a ball.
Few have written a couple of short stories and then have stopped because they dont see it going anywhere. 'Well, what is the point? Its not that publishers are queueing up in front of my house, anyway.' is their logic.
You have played street cricket as a kid, right? Do you remember the day the when the older boys took you in to their team the first time? As the last player to bat. Do you? Did you quit playing cricket that night because you were not called for Indian cricket team? No. You just went out and enjoyed cricket. Only few land up in the Indian team. But all enjoy playing cricket. Now why should writing be any different?
Writing is like playing too.
Tip 3: Learn the craft.
OK. You write regularly. You enjoy it too and dont bother about getting published. What next? You have got to learn to write the correct way. Is there a correct way? Of course, yes. Few people will instinctly get it. But all can learn it. Hard to believe?
Or are you the type who prefers breaking the rule? Well, even to break you should learn the rules.
If you are a programmer, you will learn the importance of the craft. Remember your first program. The crash because of the null pointer. You took hours to write a ten line program. How do you fare now? Is it because you wrote programs everyday or is it because you decided you will learn about pointers. If you are not a programmer, try the example of swimming. Did you thrash the pool the first day unable to breathe in the water. How did you start gliding in the water? Did it happen just because you went to the pool daily. Or is it because you concentrated on learning the breathing technique.
Writing is just like any other skill that way.
Tip 4: Open up.
Eventually there come a point where you would like opinions from others. We all seek to be noticed, preferably in favourable light, right? Well, the reaction of somebody to your first literary creation will more often than not reflect how much they love you than how good the output is. 'Wow! It is great' means the person is your spouse. 'I like it. It is very good.' means the peson is your friend. 'Well, I read the first paragraph. But then something came up.' is probably the comment from that not so close acquaintance.
So it is better to find someone who does not care about your fragile ego. And someone who loves reading and reads a lot. Eventually, how popular your writing becomes will be decided by how good your writing is. No short cuts there.
Writing is lot like life that way.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Indians-Course specially for us?
Do Indians need a creative writing course specially designed for them? Will not hurt, I would say.
I know, many of you would immediately get offended. Especially if you are not from India. Isn't music supposed to be universal? Aren't emotions and feelings universal? Hasn't great literature transcended the boundaries of geography and barriers of time?
My answer is, Yes. To all the above questions.
But here is my take.
Read Jane Austen. Read Ernest Hemingway. Read one of the early O Henry prize winner (or a O Henry short story itself.) Then compare it with a O Henry winner of last year. All of them are great. They show that great literature is universal. But you will also agree that there is a great difference between a Jane Austen and a Hemingway. Right from the ideas that form the basis to the way it is written. Our ideas, tastes have changed. So the courses to impart writing skill should also reflect those changes.
Just like the way our tastes have changed with time, it changes with geography and culture as well. In writing place and setting has got a vital importance. A story where the characteristics of the place intertwines with the story becomes that much better. Slumdog Millionaire could have happened only in the slums of Bombay.Whether it was a great movie or not is a separate discussion. Fargo could have happened only in the wilderness of mid west America. In fact literature is supposed to find the universality of emotions at the bottom of it all and celebrate it.
I am not advocating a course tailored for Indians because the principles that govern Indian writing is vastly different. I come from a more practical standpoint. The reference books that I have read from ( all published and bought in U.S) quote extensively from John Cheever, Raymond Carver and the likes. They are great authors. No doubt. But we dont get their books in India. Not in the neighbourhood book stores anyway. We get our Hemingway and JD Salinger. But the reference books want to go beyond that because enough has been said and written about them already.
But Hey, Why don't you include Ruskin Bond, Rushdie, Arundati Roy, Shashi Deshpande in the reference books. For that matter Mahabharata instead of that compulsory mention of Bible?? I am sure more Indians will find the course (or book) relevant then.
Let me close this with my pet peeve.
Right through my college, I have read all the books associating cloudy weather and the cold wind with a sombre mood. It was really strange. I am from tropic. And I have loved those days when the sun is hidden behind the clouds and the temperature drops. Only when I went to U.S did I understand what the authors meant when they went on and on about the sombre sky. It gets really cold and really grey out there. But here, we would love our skies not to be clear blue.
Same goes for 'tea with lot of milk and lot of sugar at the road side shop'. I have traveled to many places in India. Yes, tea is sweeter in some road side shops in some places. But surely, they dont put too much sugar. And definitely not milk. Common, they will go bankrupt. Then why do all these writers repeat it. (Trust me, it is a cliche) Where is that place in India where they serve tea with lot of milk and lot of sugar? I got the answer when I boarded my first flight to U.S ! (Some more cream please and some sugar too, I repeated half a dozen times to the air hostess) They serve tea with lots of sugar and milk all over India!!
But I still don't get one thing. Why do Indian authors talk about depressing grey sky, and tea with lots of milk? What next, writing about hero sneaking up on heroin during Halloween night?
I know, many of you would immediately get offended. Especially if you are not from India. Isn't music supposed to be universal? Aren't emotions and feelings universal? Hasn't great literature transcended the boundaries of geography and barriers of time?
My answer is, Yes. To all the above questions.
But here is my take.
Read Jane Austen. Read Ernest Hemingway. Read one of the early O Henry prize winner (or a O Henry short story itself.) Then compare it with a O Henry winner of last year. All of them are great. They show that great literature is universal. But you will also agree that there is a great difference between a Jane Austen and a Hemingway. Right from the ideas that form the basis to the way it is written. Our ideas, tastes have changed. So the courses to impart writing skill should also reflect those changes.
Just like the way our tastes have changed with time, it changes with geography and culture as well. In writing place and setting has got a vital importance. A story where the characteristics of the place intertwines with the story becomes that much better. Slumdog Millionaire could have happened only in the slums of Bombay.Whether it was a great movie or not is a separate discussion. Fargo could have happened only in the wilderness of mid west America. In fact literature is supposed to find the universality of emotions at the bottom of it all and celebrate it.
I am not advocating a course tailored for Indians because the principles that govern Indian writing is vastly different. I come from a more practical standpoint. The reference books that I have read from ( all published and bought in U.S) quote extensively from John Cheever, Raymond Carver and the likes. They are great authors. No doubt. But we dont get their books in India. Not in the neighbourhood book stores anyway. We get our Hemingway and JD Salinger. But the reference books want to go beyond that because enough has been said and written about them already.
But Hey, Why don't you include Ruskin Bond, Rushdie, Arundati Roy, Shashi Deshpande in the reference books. For that matter Mahabharata instead of that compulsory mention of Bible?? I am sure more Indians will find the course (or book) relevant then.
Let me close this with my pet peeve.
Right through my college, I have read all the books associating cloudy weather and the cold wind with a sombre mood. It was really strange. I am from tropic. And I have loved those days when the sun is hidden behind the clouds and the temperature drops. Only when I went to U.S did I understand what the authors meant when they went on and on about the sombre sky. It gets really cold and really grey out there. But here, we would love our skies not to be clear blue.
Same goes for 'tea with lot of milk and lot of sugar at the road side shop'. I have traveled to many places in India. Yes, tea is sweeter in some road side shops in some places. But surely, they dont put too much sugar. And definitely not milk. Common, they will go bankrupt. Then why do all these writers repeat it. (Trust me, it is a cliche) Where is that place in India where they serve tea with lot of milk and lot of sugar? I got the answer when I boarded my first flight to U.S ! (Some more cream please and some sugar too, I repeated half a dozen times to the air hostess) They serve tea with lots of sugar and milk all over India!!
But I still don't get one thing. Why do Indian authors talk about depressing grey sky, and tea with lots of milk? What next, writing about hero sneaking up on heroin during Halloween night?
IGNOU Course
It didn't work for me. It may not for you either, in all probability.
In a course for creative writing, you expect you will write something, discuss each other's creative output (without hanging your head in shame when your literary baby comes up, hopefully), improve upon your effort, learning all the while. Instead, what you get in IGNOU is a set of booklets. These booklets define creative writing, lists authors who have wielded this skill exceptionally well, sights a few paragraphs of their work here and there and forgets to tell, tell you till you get it, how they are great.
To be fair to IGNOU, it is a correspondence course. So One cant expect much of class room discussions anyway. There are supposed to be some contact sessions. And It also has a requirement that you write something and submit to the university which will be reviewed. But let's face it. I called the contact number in Bangalore a dozen times over a period of a month. Nobody picks up and if anybody did, I was told that a card will intimate me the timing of the contact classes. I actually joined IGNOU so that I will get a chance that my output will be reviewed critically by somebody who knows his stuff and help me improve it. If that is your aim too, you better drop the idea of joining IGNOU.
If you want to join IGNOU to learn the basics and get a list of reference books, why dont you start with Google the fountain of all information. Just type Creative writing in that google search bar and there you go, you have saved the money that you were about to spend on IGNOU. Also follow this blog as I do intend to get to write about what I have learnt since I typed that two words in google a good six years back!
A disclaimer, I signed up for IGNOU course five years back. This rant was based on my experience then. Things might have changed in IGNOU now. For the beter, I hope.
In a course for creative writing, you expect you will write something, discuss each other's creative output (without hanging your head in shame when your literary baby comes up, hopefully), improve upon your effort, learning all the while. Instead, what you get in IGNOU is a set of booklets. These booklets define creative writing, lists authors who have wielded this skill exceptionally well, sights a few paragraphs of their work here and there and forgets to tell, tell you till you get it, how they are great.
To be fair to IGNOU, it is a correspondence course. So One cant expect much of class room discussions anyway. There are supposed to be some contact sessions. And It also has a requirement that you write something and submit to the university which will be reviewed. But let's face it. I called the contact number in Bangalore a dozen times over a period of a month. Nobody picks up and if anybody did, I was told that a card will intimate me the timing of the contact classes. I actually joined IGNOU so that I will get a chance that my output will be reviewed critically by somebody who knows his stuff and help me improve it. If that is your aim too, you better drop the idea of joining IGNOU.
If you want to join IGNOU to learn the basics and get a list of reference books, why dont you start with Google the fountain of all information. Just type Creative writing in that google search bar and there you go, you have saved the money that you were about to spend on IGNOU. Also follow this blog as I do intend to get to write about what I have learnt since I typed that two words in google a good six years back!
A disclaimer, I signed up for IGNOU course five years back. This rant was based on my experience then. Things might have changed in IGNOU now. For the beter, I hope.
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