To the Budding Creative Writer: A Handbook

Foreword

xiii To the Budding Creative Writer: A Handbook Foreword The very act of writing is one of manipulation. Each writer seeks to convince her audience of the authenticity and propriety of the written word. How many times have you read a good book and exclaimed, ‘‘Yeah! That’s exactly my story. I was thinking the same thing!’’ Yes, you may have been thinking the same thing, but the difference between you and the published author is the fact that she has deigned to put her thoughts on paper. She has come out of the closet, exposing her innermost thoughts to a sometimes unapprehending public. How do you move from point A to point B, from simply thinking to actually writing? This is a question that has concerned writers since time immemorial and John Gardi put it succinctly in the Saturday Review when he stated: The truly creative- whether in art, in science, or in philosophy- is always and precisely that which cannot be taught. And yet, though it seems paradoxical, creativity cannot spring from the untaught. Creativity is the imaginatively gifted recombination of old elements into new. And so, it may be seen that there is no real paradox. The elements of an invention or of a creation can be taught; but the creativity must be self-discovered and self-disciplined.1 Any teacher of a freshman composition class will tell you that getting started is one of the most difficult things a writer faces. But one of the first things a student in a freshman comp class is advised to do is to determine the 1. See John Haney, The Good Mind by Edgar Dale. May 16, 2009. http://www.webhaney.com/good-mind-edgar-dale xiv Roselyne M. Jua & Bate Besong purpose of her work and the audience. She is then advised to simply start and keep on writing and re-writing until her subject comes through. On the other hand, a disciple of Edgar Allan Poe would tell you that it is necessary to determine what effect you want to produce even before you start to write. What seems acceptable is the belief that there are as many approaches to writing as there are writers and stories, regardless of whether these are conveyed through drama, prose or poetry. Each writer will chose whichever mode of expression she thinks well depicts the subject under consideration. The prevailing objective should, however, be that you remain true to yourself. Over time, there have emerged two schools of thought: those who advocate art for art’s sake, and those who say that art must have a social commitment. In other words, writers and critics have continued to propound partially or wholly the 14C idea that art must either be dulce and/or utile. Whether you ascribe to one school of thought or both as the case may be, language has not only always enthralled us, it has been at the centre of things. The Holy Bible begins, ‘‘In the beginning was the word and the word was God.’’ Language is therefore a gift from God and the Holy Bible itself is our first source not only of knowledge but of how to use words and use them effectively as borne out by the many writers like William Shakespeare and Walt Whitman who have sought reliance and inspiration from that same Bible. Confucius himself also postulates that the secret of power lies in one’s ability to control or use language. So whether the objective of the writer is to entertain or to educate, it is clear that the writer/artist thinks she has a unique perspective on her surroundings and is desperate to make some contact with the common man for as Sankie Maimo suggests in ‘‘Promoting the True Spirit of Creativity and Cultivating an Art,’’ ‘‘the artist, in the final analysis is not a medium but also, in fact, […] a catalyst’’ (11). The xv To the Budding Creative Writer: A Handbook language she employs as she reaches out in her attempt to be understood will determine her level of success to communicate instantly with her audience anywhere. This is probably truer of theatre than the other art forms, which is not to say that this is not obtainable as far as they are concerned; the operative word here is ‘‘instantly.’’ The written word is magical; it ensures that a thought lives forever or leaves footprints in the sands of...