You can approach the act of writing with nervousness, excitement, hopefulness, or even despair at the sense that you can never completely put on the page what is in your mind and heart. You can come to the act with your fists clenched and your eyes narrowed, ready to kick ass and take down names. You can come to it because you want a girl to marry you or because you want to change the world. Come to it any way but lightly. Let me say it again: you must not come lightly to the blank page.
Stephen King (1947 - ), On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, 2000
However you are coming to this course, know that you have already cleared the biggest hurdle. You have taken a big risk, one that not many people take in their life: to set out to create art out of a language that is unruly, imprecise, and infuriating.
Through the 18 weeks of this course, you will study different forms of poetry and prose and use this knowledge to create your own work. This means learning to appreciate editing: nothing truly great was ever written in one draft. If anything, this course is a study in deletion as well as creation.
But we are all in this together. As a workshop course, your writing will benefit from the feedback and suggestions of your peers. Be ready to share your work and ideas with the class.
Geist Writing Contest!