I have an old friend who is starting a course in creative writing. I thought he could use some advice and, because I store writing advice the way doomsday preppers store beef jerky, I thought I’d make an offer.
My first piece of advice: The most important part of “creative writing” isn’t creative; you’re probably disappointed to hear this, but if you hear nothing else, this will serve.
Nothing is writing except writing. Having inspired ideas about what you’d like to write, or vividly imagining your name inside hard covers, isn’t actually writing.
For those who remember Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” you’ll know that I’m fiddling with a line when Hamlet rebukes two of his aides for trying to play him emotionally as if he were a flute.
This leads me to piece of advice No. 2: If you don’t remember your Shakespeare or never read him in the first place, pick up the collected plays. If you don’t remember your Dickens or your Douglass, your Brontes, Baldwin, Atwood or Smith, ditto. Read the great writers and then read the pretty great ones. Take notes. Memorize your favorite passages. Make them your own.
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