Writing Salon: Creative Writing at BYU
This might be more of a ramble than anything cohesive, or argument-driven, but I just wanted to comment on the “Writing Salon” held by creative writers and/or faculty members from BYU on March 26th, 2008. It was a well-attended event, and the discussion was interesting, albeit sometimes dominated by speakers who hadn’t been entirely invited. I just want to touch briefly on two subjects that came up with regard to writing. Being mostly Mormons, this again draws on the topics I’ve discussed in previous posts.
There was good discussion about how/why we write. I mentioned the creative writing club write2publish I started under the student chapter of AML and Y Publish, our emphasis on submission for publication, and also mentioned New Play Project. But I’m wondering what everyone else does to write? Do you outline? Just sit down and start typing? An hour a day? Long spurts whenever you have time? I personally find the best way to write is to do some every day, maybe an hour or an hour and a half.
Many of the faculty brought up the well-known fact that rarely do writers make a living at just writing, and most have other careers to augment their writing. I’ve always heard that to be a real writer, it has to be something that you would do anyway if it weren’t going to be your career, and that’s definitely me. I write just to write. But in thinking of writing I’m beginning to wonder if maybe it doesn’t take even more than normal to be a writer who is LDS. I definitely have story ideas that I feel are important and need to be written, but I’m wondering if writing as a Mormon doesn’t present even more obstacles than normal writing would. I don’t really have an answer to that question; I’m still mulling on it, but I decided to throw it out there anyway.
One of the students (a male interestingly enough) brought up a question I’d never heard with regard to writing before: how do I balance having a family with writing? An interesting question, but one that definitely doesn’t have an answer. What did he expect? A formula. Oh, you do this, this, and this and it works great. You just do. You make balance work. Family comes first of course, but for some writers, if they don’t write and sell, they don’t eat, so you have to keep focused on writing also. One of the faculty suggested that if writers are even asking that question, maybe they shouldn’t be writing. The question is one I’ve never personally had to deal with, but maybe I’m just being too harsh? You just do. You balance, you sacrifice, and you work hard. If it comes down to it, you could even abandon writing for a time and find a job that will pay to put food on the table if it gets that desperate. But hopefully you are good enough, find interesting enough ideas, and are resourceful enough to sell yourself to the point that that doesn’t have to happen.
The best advice may be submit, submit, submit. If you aren’t submitting, you aren’t publishing. It’s just like a girl from my ward in Florida said once when I was debating whether to become an English major or not because I was afraid of failure: “If you don’t try, sure you don’t ever have to confront that fear of failing, cuz you won’t. You won’t ever fail. But you’ll never succeed either.”
And it’s true. You can’t succeed if you don’t take the risk and just go for it. As a writer, I may be a dreamer, but that dream has worth to me, because I love the way literature affects me and I want to give that to other people. Be it enjoyment, an emotionally-salient moment, or a message I feel needs to be heard. Writing gives voice and gives place and that’s why I do it.
The english department has been severely lacking (in my opinion) in their emphasis on creative writing and those of us non-literature majors have had a hard time getting ourselves recognized, but this was a very good step in the right direction. Rumor has it there’s even an MFA for creative writing in the works. Hopefully they will continue to encourage creative writers outside the creative writing classes as we continue striving to make a better, more noticed place for ourselves. Any other ideas on what we can do to help this along?
March 30th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Interesting recap on the writing salon. I also enjoyed it. I think that people misinterpreted my question on “how do you balance family with writing,” though. I wasn’t looking for a formula, I was just trying to take a realistic, long-term look at the subject. A lot of people say that writers usually don’t make enough to live on, so I wanted to examine that a little bit closer and discuss the practical side of writing and being a writer. I did feel that the panelists answered the question quite well, and I was satisfied with their comments. I think it’s a valid question we should all be asking, at least of ourselves, and I don’t know why people questioned whether I should be a writer just because I’m asking for a different point of view on the subject. But it was a good discussion nonetheless.
March 30th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
If BYU is working on getting an MFA for creative writing, about how long do you think it’ll take to actually happen? Because if BYU had an MFA, I’d have no doubt of my major for my first year of college in the Fall.
But seeing as that’s not the case currently, I’m wondering whether or not to switch into Anthropology and pursue English as a minor.
What I’d really like to ask, point blank: do you feel that BYU is helping you to improve your writing and progress towards publication?
March 30th, 2008 at 9:17 pm
In answer to the how-we-write part: for me, spurts (squeezed out by deadlines) have been most common, but I agree that a regular, set time each day is far more productive.
On the smaller scale, whether I outline, freewrite, or just start typing (or all three) really varies from piece to piece. But usually I freewrite to snag the idea, then write down the flanking idealets that trail it down, and for the rest of the piece I alternate between outlining and writing, switching whenever I get stuck.
March 30th, 2008 at 9:32 pm
[…] commenting on David Hulet’s post on the recent BYU writing salon, I realized the topic was something I wanted to write about some […]
March 30th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
Inasmuch as college in general makes me think and gives me material to write about, I’d say that BYU is doing an excellent job preparing me for publication. But I’m getting most of that out of the political science department, not the English department–not because the English department isn’t that good, but because the political science department expands my mind and gets me asking questions about the world. I think creative writing is like stargazing: if you look at a star really, really hard head on, it tends to disappear right in front of your eyes, but if you turn your head and look at it out of your peripheral vision, it becomes one of the brightest objects in the sky. I study things other than English to give me materials to write about, and I learn how to write by practicing and studying the craft on my own.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:18 pm
David: Thanks for the post.
onelowerlight: I know exactly what you mean. Interestingly enough, some of my best ideas for stories have come from general education classes. Probably more so than creative writing classes. I’ve been having all kinds of inspiration in my physical science class this semester, for example, because I’ve been learning about physical laws and how the world works. Same with the BYU forum last week where famous string theorist Brian Greene came and spoke. Listening to him made me feel as though I were catching a glimpse of the universe. Those experiences are very conducive to getting the creative juices flowing.
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:24 pm
Quasi-post length response to Paradox:
>>If BYU is working on getting an MFA for creative writing, about how long do you think it’ll take to actually happen?< <
Because I'm not directly involved in the creating itself, I don't have a solid answer on this. It depends on how many more times they hit snags on the way to the top. I think they are three? two? tiers from going all the way. The latest snag I know of involved expanding the vision slightly, and more inane paperwork. But it's in the works.
>>But seeing as that’s not the case currently, I’m wondering whether or not to switch into Anthropology and pursue English as a minor.< <
As for your choice of college path, I would say that you should stick with English. Especially with words like these: "The only thing worth writing at all is the thing you want to write most. The words that man must write or die, the words that speak from the very pit of the human soul, that taste of desire, the purest human experience and unadulterated truth--This is what we live to write. These are the words that, when spoken, are heard again and again, even if they're only read once; that bring tears for reasons that are unclear, but felt all the same... 'even if...it's just for a day.'"
If you are like me and absolutely hate math and science, you want to stay away from stuff like Anthropology. As much as I wanted to be the next Indiana Jones and dig up cool stuff the change the world, I came up against a wall a year-and-a-half into the Anthro major once I had to take classes like "medical anthro" and "biological anthro." I mean EWWWW. So I switched to English.
And that brings me to my next bit of advice. If you are just starting in the fall, then you should be just fine for when BYU gets the MFA done. I did the major in 4 semesters (2 years of Fall/Winter, with 3 classes done in Spring/Summer) and that was W A Y fast. I mean I was taking sometimes up to 3 literature classes at a time (that's like 33+ novels a semester). So if you are just starting, then you will most likely be fine. I was in the Anthropology major long enough to 1) get a minor :P and 2) realize the ONLY future there is teaching other college kids about digging stuff up, just like my professors. And I don't really want to do that.
What about a psych minor? Those are fun. *waves his*
>>What I’d really like to ask, point blank: do you feel that BYU is helping you to improve your writing and progress towards publication?<<
Definitely yes. The creative writing faculty (ie, Steven Tuttle(my fave ever!), Margaret Young(even if she is part-time, she’s still awesome and another fave!), Rick Walton(my #3 fave only because he’s more picture books and I don’t that much), Dean Hughes, John Bennion,… there’s like a million more) are all STELLAR. Like way. Totally improved my writing.
And honestly, any time I felt there was something lacking, I just created it. Quark has a creative writing group specifically tailored to sci-fi/fantasy writers, but myself and my co-conspirator Jackie Slade started a writing group with the specific goal of critique/feedback for publishing two semesters ago called Write_2_Publish (w2publish@gmail.com). I’ve also worked directly with her as the co-captain of Y Publish which runs the publication lab designed to help inform students where to publish and how to submit. So it’s definitely better than when I arrived. Just today I got an email from the English Department about a newly created scholarship for Undergrad English Major Creative Writers, so that’s another step in the right direction. I think by the time you graduate you’ll be good to go as far as grad school.
Let me know if you have any more questions I can spout off about :P
April 2nd, 2008 at 6:39 pm
Thanks so much for that! That’s exactly what I needed to hear.
November 12th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
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March 18th, 2009 at 5:30 pm
I realize this is a little late, but I’d like to respond to the question:
“What I’d really like to ask, point blank: do you feel that BYU is helping you to improve your writing and progress towards publication?”
which was then answered with this comment:
“I’m getting most of that out of the political science department, not the English department–not because the English department isn’t that good, but because the political science department expands my mind and gets me asking questions about the world.”
I can see where onelowerlight is coming from, as I get material from Earth Sciences classes, but what you’re referring to is really material, and not writing better or publishing. As writers, we are responsible for putting good stuff in our heads. We then take that stuff and make something out of it. A Creative Writing Program helps writers to be more effective sayers of whatever it is they say. It certainly won’t and shouldn’t tell you what to say. If you have nothing to say, then work on saying nothing interestingly. Eventually, you’ll say something.
As far as the BYU faculty, I don’t know. But as of Fall 2009, BYU is offering, officially, a CW MFA.