Creative Writing 101: All done!

Overall, it was a great experience. If I had one complaint, it would be regarding feedback. I'm the first to admit that I take feedback a little too much to heart. However, I was excited when the instructor liked my first piece because I put a lot of work into it.

But then, my second piece was not nearly as good. Still, amazing praise!

By the time I submitted my third piece, which was quite awful, all that praise rang pretty false. I wanted to learn - I know I'm not an amazing writer. At least not yet! Where was the constructive criticism? What was I supposed to be improving?

I finally received comments on how to improve the next two pieces. But our final assignment, which was a rewrite of assignment #1, was posted publicly for the entire class to see in addition to the instructor. I was interested in her comments though to see if I had improved. Instead, her comments were almost verbatim exactly what she had written the first time around. Also, one of my classmates posted a list of grammatical corrections that was just blatantly wrong.

So overall, the feedback process wasn't AWFUL but I think I was hoping for more. Beyond that, the course materials were amazing and I learned a lot.

Now I'm on the lookout for my next class. Likely, it will be the nonfiction course also offered through Gotham.

Most of us can read the writing on the wall; we just assume it's addressed to someone else. -Ivern Ball