Bring me your Precious: Creative Writing in the Writing Center

When I came into Coe as a English and Creative Writing major I was terrified to let people read my stories. I’d been writing since I was a little girl, but actually letting people workshop my pieces petrified me. Every creative writer knows that in order to improve their stories they have to open themselves up to constructive criticism, but it doesn’t stop the fear from taking over.

Why Creative Writers are Scared to Visit the CWC

One resource creative writers should take advantage of is the Writing Center. Most creative writing students don’t take their pieces to the Writing Center for two reasons.

1. One, it puts them in an extremely vulnerable situation. Many people come into the Writing Center scared to share their academic essays with consultants, and that fear and vulnerability is only heightened when a writer has to share a creative piece they’ve spent hours working on and is very close to their heart.
2. Two, creative writers don’t take their pieces to the Writing Center because they don’t know if the consultants will be able to help them.

On the flip side, I know of some consultants who are scared at the idea of giving a creative writing conference because they don’t know what to look for or how to help, so they mostly just focus on grammar.

What Consultants can do for Creative Writers
As a creative writer I can say that if someone brings their piece into the Writing Center, they just want what every other writer wants. They want a conversation about the story they have written. Here are some things consultants can do when giving a conference to a piece of creative writing:

1. First, Break the paper down into parts. As consultants, we’ve been trained to look for different parts of writing, such as thesis statements, paragraph organization, topic sentences, etc. When it comes to a piece written creatively, you are doing nothing different. You are still breaking down the paper into parts, just instead of focusing on a thesis statement, you will focus on plot, character development, pacing, etc.
2. Second, be interested in their story and be their soundboard. People bring in writing assignments which deal with topics that consultants know nothing about all the time, but the writer knows what they are talking about, and by asking open-ended questions you are able to help prod the writer to get their ideas flowing to write a cohesive paper. It is no different for creative writers, most of the time they just want someone to talk to about their story and bounce ideas off of.

Come to the CWC—It’s a Win-Win for Everyone
So, creative writers please bring in your stories to the Writing Center. There are consultants who would love to nerd out and talk to you about your characters and the world you have created. And consultants, approach a creative writing conference like any other conference, ask the writer questions, be interested in their story, and offer your own ideas. Too often we think of writing as a solitary process, but why not take some help along the way if it is available to us? So please bring me your precious stories, because I would love to read them and discuss them. It would make my nerd heart more than happy.