Throughout the school year, the Creative Writing Department will have a number of different units: the poetry unit, the playwriting unit,—and my personal favorite—the fiction unit. 

Fiction, for me, has always been the best part of writing—since I was a kid I thought this. The fact that I can build a whole world in my head, and then realize my vision? Unreal. My favorite part though, is creating relationships between characters, and then developing the characters to the max, until there is no more development for me to assign them other than what is in the plot. Before I applied to Creative Writing, my bedroom walls would always be filled with green and pink sticky notes, scrambled writing all over them. 

Fiction in Creative Writing is a little different. There are no post-its on the walls—though I’m sure Heather, our director, wouldn’t be opposed to the idea, other than the mess it might make! Instead, fiction in Creative Writing relies heavily on process. Our unit teacher: Christian, has been teaching our department about procedures unique to the writer who undergoes them in preparation to write. 

At first, we were tasked with researching our favorite author’s writing process. Mine was a screenwriter, best known for introducing the emotional aspect back into horror films. Then, we were given several short stories, to which we wrote responses. After that, there were more assignments, some that seemed pointless at first, but then I began to think about them, and I thought hard. It wasn’t until a few days ago though, that I finally realized the importance of all these lessons.

 Writing is not an easy practice where someone can sit, try their hand, and write a masterpiece–yes I’m sure this has probably happened before, but my point is that it’s not usual. Writing is not even a semi-easy practice, where two rewrites gets you a masterpiece, no. Writing is an art, and just like any other, you have to practice it. Writing is a difficult feat that, when accomplished, makes one feel like they’re on top of the world. 

I’ve been lucky enough to have a few moments like that. And now, I can understand all the “pointless” assignments: they were to aid us in the practice of our art form, so that we may get to the point where we feel as though we have just achieved the world and greater.