Week One Assignment: Who Are You?
Many creative writing workshops begin with what’s often called an “I believe exercise…”
This takes us beyond the personal introductions we’ve given in the first forum. That’s largely external stuff—where you live, what you do. Here we are concerned with the internal. Who are you? What motivates you?
Borrowing an idea from a book called Creative Nonfiction, by Philip Gerard, we’re going to expand on the question for “who you are” further and ask three questions, which I want you to answer together in a single personal essay of between 3 TO 4 PAGES.
First question: Who are you? Ask yourself these kinds of questions as a starting point: Where is my passion? What are the rules of conduct I’ve set for myself in the world? What makes me rage and what makes me cry?
Second question: Why do I want to be a creative writer? Why do I want to make up stories? You might have considered this question in more abstract form when we were talking about George Orwell’s Why I Write in this week’s forum. Now reconsider this question in light of the thinking you’ve done in response to question one.
Third question: Who is my audience? “Your story is just black marks on a page until it happens in someone’s head,” says Gerard. How do you perceive those people who will turn your black marks into a work of imagination, part yours, part theirs? What sort of people are you trying to reach? Are you hoping to entertain them? Educate them?
In your 3 to 4 Pages it’s up to you to assess the relative weights you will assign each question.
This is both an exercise to help you focus and be more self-aware as you begin the process of writing, and since it will be shared with the other students, will help us all understand each other better.