Moxley, Joseph. "A Writing Program Certain to Succeed." Creative Writing in America.

Aw, my last blog on this book. I'm kinda sad about it, although I'm excited to begin reading Wendy Bishop's book tomorrow. I keep hoping a used edition of this book will show up somewhere on one of the numerous searches I've set up on internet bookstores, so I can own it myself for reference someday. I'm not excited about returning my present copy to the library.

Oh well. In Joe's last chapter, he summarizes what he thinks the book has proven about creative writing theory and pedagogy, and whether he feels that the current way creative writing is taught (this book was published in the 80s, but I don't think much has changed in the last 25 years) best serves students: "For me, it wasn't until I became familiar with the research and theories of rhetoricians and composition scholars that I learned about the creative process or about the composing process, and I wondered why there wasn't a stronger dialogue about the creative process or pedagogy among teachers and creative writing, composition, and literature students" (253).

I think, from what I've gathered myself, that there are clear connections between what works best in both composition and creative writing classrooms: a need for collaboration, crafting or processing exercises (critical thinking), and revision. There are definite needs to keep thems separate too: Composition still feels more directive to me, while creative writing allows for experimentation and opportunities to fail so that the next work will be better. I do feel that I have perhaps a better handle on why some pedagogical approaches work in the classroom, and why, than other students who study "just" composition or creative writing, and I feel students would have a better understanding and appreciation of writing, as a whole, if they took classes in more than one or the other of these currently separated styles of writing.

Finally, I just wanted to record some of the points you made in the final parts of your chapter:

1. "One of the best 'secrets of the craft' is perseverance. Successful writers must be disciplined and driven by a need to create. And although we obviously cannot imbue students with the creative spirit, we can certainly teach students how to generate, incubate, and revise material accordingto a realistic schedule by studying and learning from the working schedule of successful writers" (256). I have to admit, one of the best pieces of advice I've gotten from Joe is "one page a day." I've been so overwhelmed by the novels I've writing -- so much to do! -- that often I didn't start at all. When he gave the "one page a day" advice last semester, I applied it to my novel writing. It's coming along, at least in volume, much better now. I apply the same rule to longer critical works I have to do. Even if I'm ultimately writing three to four pages a day, it's in different works and it feels less overwhelming.

2. Writing is not solely a cognitive process, but a deeply affective one. We don't know enough about how personality affects composing strategies, but we do know that we are intellectualize beyond value when we ignore personality in our theories and practices" (256). I wonder if this is part of the reason why a line was drawn between composition and creative writing: Composition tends to want to explain away the process, while creative writing allows us to feel our way through it, finding our own paths.

3. There is no all-purpose writing process. Writers testify to an infinite number of strategies (256). That's why, again, I feel that students benefit from learning from more than one professor, if only to learn different strategies in which they can approach their work. What works for me one day doesn't the next, but I know enough strategies now to wrangle with that I can generally get the words out in some way.

4. We should require productivity (257).

5. We should teach a variety of prewriting techniques, such as drawing, meditating, transcribing, maintaining a journal (257). I've employed several techniques, including drawing, journaling, and freewriting, in my exploratory expository writing class, and it seems that students always seem to benefit from at least one of these, if not all.

6. Naturally our primary goal should be to help students write the kind of material they wish to compose. Yet, we should also attempt to stretch our students' writing muscles. The works and productive strategies of the writers in this book forcefully illlustrate the importance of writing in different genres. Much as we encourage students of expository writing to address different audiences and purposes, we should also challenge students of creative writing to write in different genres, such as children's literature, screenwriting, mystery and suspense fiction (257). Well said, and I concur. I'd also add they should write journalism, marketing, and traditiona essays, just to find out what craft issues are emphasized in each type of writing.