CREATIVE WRITING

at the Ruth Asawa School of the Arts in San Francisco

Welcome! CW develops the art and craft of creative writing through instruction, collaboration, and respect. This blog showcases STUDENT WRITING and how to APPLY to Creative Writing.

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  • I Can’t Snap by Sava Wallaert

    I Can’t Snap by Sava Wallaert

    Every day in the Creative Writing classroom, underneath the gentle patter of rain or swish of wind outside, the low hum of saxophones from the Conservatory Music department across the field, and one of our own daring voices reading out poetry loud and clear, a far more subtle sound can be heard. The air becomes alive with hundreds of snaps. It’s a sound I’ve grown to love over the past few weeks, but I’m afraid I’ve already begun to take it for granted.

    Here in CW, we use snapping as a way to show admiration for or resonation with a particular line or phrase in the writing that’s being shared aloud. This is a longstanding tradition within the department. Rather than interrupting the reader, snapping allows us to communicate praise without taking away from the flow of the writing. And even though I’ve only been in CW for just over a month, I can say with certainty that hearing a resounding snap go around the room after a line of your poem is one of the best feelings in the world. I relish that in the way theater kids love hearty applause. It reminds me again and again that it’s in CW where I belong—a classroom full of people who understand a love for writing.

    I think it all goes to show the strong community that the students of this remarkable department have built up over the years. We’re constantly uplifting each other, treating each poem as the beautiful and unique artwork it is, while helping each other develop our craft. I already can’t count how many times somebody’s heard that I’m in Creative Writing and followed up immediately with an expression of disdain and the inevitable “So what do you do… sit down and write for two hours?” And I can never fully explain to them because they just don’t get it. The bonds we forge in CW are so special that the first four weeks of every year are dedicated community weeks in which the new freshmen learn how to lift up and laugh with and be vulnerable to their new classmates. Every student gets assigned a buddy, an older or younger classmate to act as a mentor, a collaborator, and a friend. As an introvert, this scared me at first, but I know now that there is nothing to be afraid of. Older buddies don’t see it as a responsibility, but as a privilege, and it helps you build connections across grade levels.

    CW is truly the teenage fairytale, that idyllic place where you can be your authentic self, an archetype that is so often separate from reality. It doesn’t matter if you have some unusual hobby that drains your free time and wallet in equal measure, or are terribly addicted to some specific kind of energy drink. You are weird, and you’re a writer, and best of all, you’re here where you belong in a room full of forty other weird writers.

    I, however, harbor a dark secret: I can’t snap. At first, of course, it was incredibly disappointing that I couldn’t engage with such an incredible tradition. Did this mean that I was unable to show my love and recognition of my classmates’ poems? Would I look self-centered? But apparently I wasn’t the only one who had this problem, and as always, CW adapted to us. Emily, our department head, was able to come up with a special soft knock to our desks we could use as a substitute for snapping. It’s not quite the real thing—to be honest, it always sounds like someone’s at the door—but the mere fact that it was created especially for us is a testament to the fact that nothing can get in the way of the Creative Writing community. 

    I may not be qualified to say this, but I truly think CW has created something special that can’t quite be found when it comes to some of the other arts at SOTA. Despite a much larger grade of incoming freshmen than ever before, we’ve maintained that palpable sense of closeness that has been present in the Creative Writing classroom since the first day. And I feel confident we won’t lose it as the school expands over the next four years. When the next class of freshman shows up in the fall, all nervous smiles and untouched notebooks, I’ll be there, snapping for them. Or at least knocking my hand against the table for the whole world to hear.

  • Even My Nails Are Painted Yellow by Audrey Kearns

    Even My Nails Are Painted Yellow by Audrey Kearns

    I think Creative Writing has ruined the color yellow for me. Not because I suddenly don’t like the color now that I’ve joined the department. But now I can’t look at it without thinking about Creative Writing. It could be a taxi on the street, the light at an intersection, even the pencil I use to take notes in my Physics class. A person wearing yellow? Obviously a secret CW enthusiast. Somehow, I always end up with the same thought. I suppose that’s what happens when you spend so much time surrounded by something. Many things begin to become associated without you realizing. A chair becomes someone’s spot. A table becomes the table. And yellow becomes Creative Writing.

    And of course, this isn’t a bad thing. If anything, it makes the boring bits of my day so much more fun. I could be sitting in class, staring at my chipped yellow nail polish and remember the most interesting conversation I had with the other CW students the other day. Now, I don’t go around everyday totally consumed by writing. The first day of school didn’t flip a switch that caused me to be completely fixated solely on writing. There’s plenty of time when I’m not, but it does tend to pop up, especially when there’s nothing even remotely related to CW happening. 

    I started noticing how much yellow there actually is once I began associating it with the department. Apparently, it’s been following me around this whole time. I just didn’t have a reason to properly see it before. Maybe that’s the part that seems strange to me. Nothing about the color has changed. A traffic light is still just a traffic light, and my pencil is still just a pencil. It’s still yellow, a color I didn’t mind but had no real reason to think about. 

    Really though, I don’t think I can ever look at yellow the same again, which is a little ridiculous, but that’s why I love Creative Writing so much.

  • Perspective by Nicholas Gunter

    Perspective by Nicholas Gunter

    During the first half of freshman year I was in a constant state of confusion and anxiety, and I pretty much constantly looked to the more experienced creative writers as examples. But when sophomore year started, not only was I more experienced, but the new freshmen were now looking up to me and my peers as examples. This was a very strange experience for me, especially due to the fact that most of the freshmen just so happen to be older than me. Now that the first half of my second year is almost done, and with the poetry show approaching, which I am greatly looking forward to, (Go see it assuming it hasn’t already happened by the time this is being read,) the freshman are stressing about the upcoming show while I, who am no longer stressing, am shunted into the role of helping them out.
    Aside from having a new freshmen class, my thoughts on poetry changed a lot since this time last year. When I started last year I hated poetry, and thought it stupid, but now that I have one poetry unit under my belt as well as most of a second, I have come to really love poetry. I still don’t read it in my free time or anything, (Not that I have free time,) but it has become one of my most practiced writing forms. Not only have I learned to enjoy it and gotten more experienced at it, but becoming a poet has also made me better at other forms of writing, by teaching me how to use more flowery and descriptive language.
    My perspective on performance has also changed a ton since last year. Whereas at this point last year I had horrible stage fright, and the things I was looking forward to the least were the two performances, now they are the things I’m looking forward to the most.
    All this retrospective thinking has made me wonder how things will change next year and the year after that, but I suppose all will be found out when it happens.

  • Analysis as Advice by Zosia Mosur

    Analysis as Advice by Zosia Mosur

    Throughout my years in Creative Writing, when I have passed out printed copies of my poems, I have received them back with advice and questions of logic. That is what workshopping has taught us to do! Poems are brought into the workshopping space to come into themselves. So, this past unit in Creative Writing two, when I handed out my poem and read it aloud, I was delighted to hear and receive actual analysis. 

    In the first half of our poetry unit in Creative Writing two, we learned about the four temperaments: music, imagination, structure, and story. And though I have a complicated relationship with this way of analyzing poetry, it meant that we were bringing each other’s work into the space and truly identifying how the art affected the reader. We were viewing one another’s poems as whole works that need not be altered nor improved. We did our best to discuss as though the author was not in the room with us. The poet would read aloud and the group would split into the four temperaments to identify how they are used in the poem. I found it wildly amusing to watch people debate over what they thought my writing meant. At times, I was given the opportunity to share my perspective on my writing, and the most exciting part was: my input was no more true than anyone else’s. We were all interpreting what my writing meant. This allowed me to identify the parts of my poem that didn’t come across the way I had hoped they would.

    The act of workshopping is to find ways to communicate a poem’s message with more eloquence and tact. Therefore, how can workshopping be productive if a poem’s meaning hasn’t been verbally interpreted by its receivers? From now on, I will always treat the work of my peers as complete and ready for analysis, while allowing my analysis to inform the future alterations to the poem.

  • I Guess I Have Group Chats Now? by Kavi Nielsen

    I Guess I Have Group Chats Now? by Kavi Nielsen

    Before I joined creative writing, I was in zero active group chats. Now, I’m in two. This number may seem small to those of you group-chat-jugglers, but for an introvert who dislikes a lot of people and doesn’t know what to say to anyone, this is a miracle.

    My two group chats are “Wiggly Worms,” which is the freshman-sophomore group chat, and “CW SOTA 29’,” which is what it sounds like. Wiggly Worms started in the summer, and I remember how adamant I was that I was going to silently lurk in the chat and not otherwise contribute to the conversations. I didn’t understand most of what was happening, anyway. (And these two statements basically sum up my entire personality). So imagine my surprise when my plan doesn’t work, and in fact I begin to have 11 pm poem share-outs with people I’ve never met. What is this sorcery?

    Nowadays, while I am not the most active person on the group chats, I don’t hesitate to text whatever comes to mind, usually pictures of weird things that remind me of my friends or disgruntled responses to bad pictures of me that were taken without my permission. (And this paragraph basically sums up how much I’ve changed since I’ve joined creative writing). The things that used to terrify me about people don’t scare me anymore, at least not when I’m at school. The weird things about me that I tried to hide are now the things I display prominently to my friends, and they’re fine with it (mostly). I love the confidence that’s arisen from knowing that I have people who know exactly how weird I am, how easily I get scared, how little I know about pop culture, how bad I am at peopling, and knowing they’ll tolerate me anyway. This is the kind of security little Kavi wished for every night, and now I have it, and I can tell how much I needed it. I’m so grateful for my department.

    There will be times where I’ll be living my cool new life and I’ll be struck with how happy little Kavi would be if they could see the things I now consider normal, like the way I walk home with random things on my arm (mostly 67 because Tanner is monster), or how I have 6 books in my locker because people (Aubrey) are lending me things they know I’ll like faster than I can read them, or the fact that I have a locker now, or the fact that I’ve been brainwashed by MLA format, or the fact that I know my people well enough to feel perfectly comfortable sleeping on their shoulder while we watch a movie in creative writing (well, I guess that’s not accurate. I’m usually the pillow, for reasons I still don’t understand). These are the things I’ve wanted since I stumbled across the blog I’m writing for now, and I still can’t believe that I get to be the person on the other side of the computer.

    Since little Kavi used to read this blog like it was religion, I’d like to think they’d read my post if they could. So, little Kavi, I want you to know this: It’s going to be okay. You’re going to find your people, and it’s going to feel like everything you didn’t let yourself hope it would be.

  • Development by Filip Zubatov

    Development by Filip Zubatov

    Creative writing taught me how to notice. How to sit with a line or even a single word long enough to understand what it’s really trying to say. How to recognize when something feels off, even if I can’t name it yet. I used to think writing was about expressing what you already know. Now I think it’s about listening. First to yourself, then to others. It’s about tuning into the quiet truths. 

    There’s a natural honesty that comes when writing fiction or poetry. You build up characters, scenes, dialogue, but somehow, meaning slips through in ways you didn’t ever mean for it to carry. I’ve written lines I intended to be meaningless jokes, only to realize a week later they were confessions. That accidental truth is what keeps me engaged in writing. My development also came largely through group discussion and feedback. I learned that critique isn’t just about pointing out what works or doesn’t, it’s about learning how to enter someone else’s world in a caring way. You start to see that vulnerability is what writing is all about, and how much trust it takes with people to share unfinished work. When you’re the one getting feedback, you learn how to separate your ego from the work, and how to revise even if that means cutting a line you loved, because the work is nonsensical with it. 

    Overall, my development in creative writing boils down to my precision and openness. I used to chase cleverness in my writing. Now I chase clarity. Clarity isn’t about word choice. It’s about emotional truth. Writing taught me that growth doesn’t come from being right, it comes from being willing to rewrite in service of deeper meaning.

  • Writer’s Block by Olivia Brody

    Writer’s Block by Olivia Brody

    In Creative Writing, most of our time is spent analyzing, generating, or editing writing of our own or our classmates. Through in-class prompts and external assignments, we are creating almost daily. To be surrounded by such a flourishing community of writers and in an environment that pushes both your creativity and capacity is nothing short of a blessing— but it’s no secret that it can be exhausting. Every student, across grade levels and experience, has suffered from writer’s block in some way shape or form. In fact, I’d venture that every artist has dealt with creative block in some manner. However, in Creative Writing, we are encouraged to write through it— and here are some of the methods employed by seasoned and fresh writers alike.

    First, it’s important to recognize where your writer’s block stems from. For many, stress and burnout saps both their energy and creativity. Overwork and underconsumption are also common culprits— in other words, writing too much without reading enough. Many writers are inspired by the works of others, and studying art that speaks to you in its various forms is essential to producing work that you are proud of yourself. Watching films, reading across genres, and studying visual arts are all great ways to find inspiration and fill your creative well. Similarly, take advantage of the community around you! Read the work of your classmates and take inspiration from their writing and workshopping. Art is everywhere— there are no limits. And finally, if all else fails, take a break. To create something you’re proud of is a process that moves at its own pace on its own time. Sometimes, all a story or a poem needs is a step back to breathe, or to let it sit for a couple days. Come back to it when you’re refreshed and inspired— your best work can’t be forced. 

  • The Elderly Senior Class by Tasha Leung

    The Elderly Senior Class by Tasha Leung

    The annex! A magical place filled with the fervent creation of stories and a lot of groaning & banging your head on the wall.

    Every Wednesday, since my first day in Creative Writing over three years ago, the elderly senior class would lock themselves into the annex to work on their theses. Even as a junior planning the topic of my own thesis, I was still in so much awe of this mysterious tradition. Just you wait, the seniors would tell us, soon this will be you. 

    Yet even this past summer as I was toiling over my characters and worrying over page counts, it didn’t feel quite real yet. As I greeted my classmates on the first day of school and smiled at the new freshman’s nervousness, I felt like I was just doing another creative writing assignment, just returning after another restful summer, and just going to keep doing the same thing that I had been ever since I was the nervous freshman on the first day of high school.

    And then—the annex. After community bonding weeks at the beginning of the school year, seniors in creative writing are banished into the annex with the senior thesis coordinator to make the first steps at turning whatever incoherent word soup they drafted over the summer into the neat and tidy book that will be read at the end of the year senior thesis reading. Filled with workshops, peer editing, workshopping, and more, this week is an intro to the weekly thesis workshops that the seniors have every Wednesday for the rest of the year. This was when the realization hit me, as we sat discussing the sliminess levels of my friend’s main character, I suddenly understood how all the past years of seniors felt: we’re old as hell!

    This light bulb moment got me thinking about how cool creative writing’s structure is. Yes, it does feel like just yesterday that we were all freshmen with iffy haircuts who didn’t know what iambic pentameter is, but when I take a closer look I can see how much we’ve managed to pack into the past three plus years. Thesis writing seemed like such a far off thing when I was an underclassman, but that’s the beauty of how creative writing works, and how magical it is to keep growing with the same group of people for four straight years. Every analysis that ended in laughter over someone’s completely unrelated tangent, every afternoon spent after school abusing our whiteboard privileges, every museum trip we’ve ended with a random talk about bugs on the train ride home, every lazy day spent in a patch of sun in the botanical gardens like a pile of kittens, every poem we’ve watched each other cry over, every day we’ve spent not saying anything to each other because four years is a long and tiring time, every confession, every mundane conversation, and everything under the sun has led us to these quiet days spent on the final thing we will write for creative writing. This assignment doesn’t just feel like another thing to check off the list before I graduate, it’s a culmination of everything that I’ve learned being surrounded by such a beautiful class of writers. And while at the end of the day this is a solo project whose content we’ll have to cry over in our own bedrooms at three o’clock in the morning, there is still that tradition. That tradition where, every Wednesday, as we meet to curse our last-month selves for not doing better time-management planning, I am reminded that even though this is our last year together, we are still spending the whole thing as we’ve spent our entire time here: together.

  • Better Two Than One by Sara Hunt Florez

    Better Two Than One by Sara Hunt Florez

    When I first joined the Creative Writing department, it was halfway through the school year. Right in the middle of everything. I was so lost and out of rhythm. Everyone knew what they were doing, everyone had a route. Everyone already had their buddy, and I did not. At first, I did not really feel like I missed out. I had friends, I started getting used to the pace of the department, and things felt fine. But when the next school year started and I finally got my own buddy, I realized what I had been missing.

    The buddy program is one of those things that sounds small but ends up meaning a lot. Whether you are the older one giving advice or the younger one receiving it, the support you get is real. You have someone who knows the teachers, the assignments, and the little unspoken things that make SOTA what it is. You can ask them about what classes to look out for, where to find quiet corners to write, or how to survive workshop nerves. Or, if you’re the older one, you can pass down what your buddy passed down to you. It sort of starts a tradition. 

    But it is not all guidance, sometimes it is just fun. My buddy and I hang out during our buddy dates, talk about stories we are working on, or go get food somewhere we both like. It is simple, but those small moments make the department feel closer, more us.

    Having a buddy has reminded me that SOTA’s Creative Writing program is not just about writing. It’s about community, about feeling like home. You are not just learning how to create stories; you are learning how to connect, share, and grow alongside someone who gets it.

  • A Wondrous, Sunny, Beautiful Day by Alexa Grospe

    A Wondrous, Sunny, Beautiful Day by Alexa Grospe

    As a freshman in Creative Writing, I can already tell you that field trips and wondrous days with your classmates will be some of the most memorable moments you make at SOTA. 

    To mark the end of community weeks this year, CW took our annual trip to Aquatic Park. After everyone had changed into their swimsuits and shorts, we took the bus straight from SOTA all the way to where the Ghirardelli sign meets the Bay. The sun was high in the sky and perfectly lit against the water, and Emily (our wonderful CW director) set up a speaker playing lovely music as we ate popsicles on the concrete steps, ran on the sand, swam in the soothing cold water, and basked in the warmth of the day. The perfect way to end the week, on a sunny Friday afternoon with classmates, just hanging out and having no worries. 

    We spent about two hours there, simply relaxing and laughing with our friends. And then all of a sudden, as it turned 4:00, it was only the freshmen left. Our plan was convenient, as it was Friday, and we all were planning on heading over to Cine Club (where you eat delicious cookies and watch films in various genres from around the world- a mandatory but exciting opportunity for all creative writers). We all decided to take another long bus trip to the Randall Museum to watch the film, Run Lola Run. However, we did end up missing one of our bus stops along the way, while also getting hilariously lost within the streets of the Castro neighborhood, surrounded by cars and people and colors. We ended up getting directions from a very kind pedestrian (who definitely thought we were tourists judging by our exceedingly confused expressions) and worked our way up the hill just in time to grab refreshments and enjoy the film at the museum.

    Whenever I reflect on the funny and slightly concerning moments of that day, I remember that my happiness didn’t come from where we were, or what we did. I realize that it was the people around me that truly made me smile and made the day special, and that goes to say for every trip and activity that we get to experience during community weeks. I will be forever grateful for the beautiful day I got to experience with CW.