In my opinion, creative writing cannot be defined as either successful or unsuccessful. The reason for this is that any and every piece of creative literature has room for some kind of improvement. Therefore, I say success in literary realms is relative because the more improvements you make, the more relatively "successful" a work becomes.
Creative writers aim to express. Whether it be an emotion, a memory, didacticism, a question or a narrative, creative writers want to share with a specific or general audience an experience or interpretation of an experience. I say this because whenever I am in the process of writing, I draw not only from imagination, but from real-life experiences—from people I’ve known to places I’ve been to desires to accomplishments to failures. But the beauty of creative writing is that whatever the writer chooses to express, someone somewhere will find his or her own interpretation of the work and appreciate some aspect of the writer’s creativity.
The majority of my writing is created in complete solitude. I could be in bed, at a park, at a desk, but I need to be non-interactive. While this is simply my personal preference, the downfall is that there is often no one to enjoy, or better yet, critique my writings. I am looking forward to having talented peers examine my work and provide feedback, and I am excited to read the works of others who possess entirely different voices and creativity. I hope to emerge from this class with a more open mind, a sense of fearlessness and a more carved voice. Looking forward to our semester :)
-Jackie
Nice exploration here, Jackie. I really like how you're approaching the class with an "there's-always-room-for-improvement" attitude--it's the best one to have for a class like this! I do wonder, however, what you think makes successful writing in, say, an already published work. Do you think each of those (and I'm thinking of famous poems here, or short stories and novels that are highly acclaimed) are imperfect as well? What is it that makes published, classic successful works considered as such? Or do you think all writing, including these works, could be improved? I look forward to discussing in class! Nice work.
ReplyDeleteAnd after my speech about signing everything, I forgot to sign the post above.
ReplyDelete- Jessica
Thanks for the comment Jessica! I appreciate the question you pose here. One of my favorite poems is The Good Morrow by John Donne (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/donne/goodmorrow.htm).
ReplyDeleteI could speak endlessly on why I love this poem so much; however, I think another reader could easily speak on why he or she doesn't enjoy it and why. Does this mean the poem is actually imperfect? No--I think this simply means that poems are meant to be open to interpretation and therefore can never be classified as perfect or imperfect.
For longer works, such as Paradise Lost or Rape of the Lock, I think they are "successful" in that the authors successfully deliver the message that they intended to convey. They aimed to fulfill a purpose, and they achieved their goals through literary means. From an objective perspective, such works can be judged as "successful."
I hope this clarifies some of my views.On a last note, I pose a related question--do you think a work can be successful and imperfect, or unsuccessful and perfect? Is success and perfection the same idea?
-Jackie