Author Hanif Kureishi went on record last month in U.K. paper the Independent, calling creative writing courses a “waste of time.” And he should know — he’s a creative writing teacher.
Yes, that’s right. The author of The Buddha of Suburbia is also a professor at Kingston University, where he teaches creative writing. And yet during a recent talk at the Independent Bath Literature Festival, he didn’t appear to have much faith in such programs.
“It’s probably 99.9 per cent who are not talented and the little bit that is left is talent,” he said. Then he added, regarding his own students, that a lot of them “just can’t tell a story. They can write sentences but they don’t know how to make a story go from there all the way through to the end without people dying of boredom in between. It’s a difficult thing to do and it’s a great skill to have. Can you teach that? I don’t think you can.”
I share this not because I agree or disagree with what Kureishi said. I didn’t attend such a program, so I can’t speak from experience. I do have friends who did, though. And while none of them have turned into ‘famous author’ (yet, at least — time will tell), they do take the work seriously. From what they’ve told me, it was the opportunity to concentrate so intensely on writing that was the most valuable.
Think about that one more time: The opportunity to concentrate.
For those of us holding down jobs or taking classes or taking care of children of family members, such opportunities can be difficult to find. We get occasional moments, tiny bits of time to focus on work, and often when we get them, we’re worn out from our ‘regular’ day-to-day occupations.
If all creative writing programs do is provide you with time and space to focus on writing, that alone has the potential for powerful outcomes. Whether or not you abide by Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule, it’s certainly true that we won’t make much headway without a lot of trial and error.
Two other benefits of a creative writing program: professional feedback and a community of peers.
Sure you can get all these things on your own if you’ve got the drive to create such an environment for yourself. You can set aside time and space to write every day; gather peers to create a vibrant local writing community; and even seek out professional feedback when you need it. But doing all that on your own will require tremendous energy.
Which is why some people instead choose to invest tens of thousands of dollars for a university program to provide their opportunity to concentrate. Looked at from one perspective it’s a luxury, sure, and one that not everyone can afford. On top of that, it’s not exactly the most financially fruitful of occupational choices.
But if it helps you focus on writing, and if writing is important and a true passion in your life, then to me that’s perfectly valid and not at all a waste of time.