Can creative writing be taught?
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The question has been posed a few times to Monique LaRue, writer-in-residence at the Department of Lettres françaises. Her answer? Above and beyond a writer’s gift, Monique LaRue believes creative writing requires hard work, commitment, interest and “a certain technique.”
LaRue holds a doctorate in literature from the Université de Paris and is the author of five novels and several essays and articles. She believes that there is a “rule-based knowledge” that must be acquired in order to write. The creative process, much like learning the piano or painting, requires a technique that is not always easy to master, she says. “Someone who has no technique may not tell their story very well, for many do not have the glimmering of an idea of the work that goes behind the simplest of sentences.”
Larue, who won the 2002 Governor General’s Award for her book Gloire de Cassidore, wants her students to learn from her experiences. As she leads them on a journey of discovery into the world of writing novels, she hopes to enhance their progress by teaching them how to avoid pitfalls and common errors. She immediately recognizes that she would have developed much quicker as a writer if she had followed a similar approach.
Writing can be a daunting challenge. How to fine tune a text, a dialogue, have characters speak, describe a place, invent a storyline, chose a narrator, use appropriate verb tenses: these are some of the elements of creation that are possible to learn. “A writer must be able to express who they are and want they want to say. I know the fears and emotions of creative writing, the good and bad motivations for writing, and the many traps and false illusions that can assail students.”
The creative writing workshop that brings together 15 or so students has another key advantage for students: readers.
“It is not enough to simply create,” insists LaRue. “The written work must be read and critiqued.” Each week, in keeping with a predetermined theme, students’ works are critiqued without anyone knowing who wrote them. “We also learn by reading other people’s work,” explains LaRue.
If this exercise made students nervous or apprehensive, those feelings quickly dissipated. “It must be done in a spirit of friendship and constructive criticism.” The dynamic interaction of the group, lauded by LaRue for their maturity, is a sure sign that this objective has been met. “The main point is to search for what is good in each person’s text. The point is not to create masterpieces, but rather to learn how to express each person’s inner self. Receiving a reader’s feedback is also a way to break the solitude that often accompanies the creative writing process.”
Monique LaRue’s role as the writer-in-residence allows her to spend the majority of her time writing. This is an advantage that cannot be overlooked, “since a writer must also make a living,” she reminds us.
