Welcome to Applied Writing

What are we doing in this class this semester?

Applied writing will give you some experiences in several different creative genres. 

• Short story (flash fiction)
• Poetry
• Travel writing
• Food writing
• Personal essay
• Playwriting/screenwriting 

You will be writing a poem a week.

5 short stories

1-2 travel

1-2 food

2 personal essays

1-2 play or film script(s)

• Students will gain an understanding of the characteristics of successful creative writing, specifically the short stories, poems, and films found in today’s commercial arena.  Why do these works succeed?  What formulas, strategies, and mechanics have the authors used to generate enthusiasm for their work?
• Students will examine writing as art and, through exercises and group critique, learn to write more effective sentences. 
• Students will incorporate techniques of developing and expanding creativity, originality, and art in writing.

What are the tools in your toolkit?

A notebook for notes, ideas snippets, conversations, ANYTHING that can/does/will spark a idea.

A notebook for morning pages, and more about morning pages, and do the morning pages. 

Finally, a notebook as your writing space (we do not write first drafts on a computer. Computers are bad for your creativity.) 

WRITE WITH A PENCIL OR PEN - There are physical and metal benefits

I have a special pen. I love my pen and have taken pictures of it. 

This is my pen. There are many like it but this one is mine. I want you to make your own writing and creativity creed. Take a look at this clip from the movie "Full Metal Jacket"

Take these actions seriously. Here a a favorite quote of mine: 

“Are you a born writer? Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In the end the question can only be answered by action.
Do it or don't do it.
It may help to think of it this way. If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don't do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself,. You hurt your children. You hurt me. You hurt the planet.
You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God.
Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It's a gift to the world and every being in it. Don't cheat us of your contribution. Give us what you've got.” ― Steven Pressfield, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

And here is more from Pressfield. Read him. He is a creative monster. 

Your first assignments for Friday:

• Get your notebooks and personalize them.
• Write your own creative prayer to say to yourself before starting. (I would put it inside of my new notebooks)
• Write a short but powerful paragraph about what you hope to gain through so much writing practice this semester.