Creative Writing Level 1

Am I a writer?

I know I am a reader, between scientific papers and text books, fiction and non fiction novels, blog posts, news articles and magazines. My day is thoroughly filled with the written word. I could curl up in the library and spend the rest of my life with words.

But am I a writer?

As a scientist I write up my observations, I write papers and review articles, proposals and theses. I may one day write text book chapters. Prepare written materials for courses. And will certainly write grant applications, year after year.

For the past few years I've slowly come to identify myself as a blogger. Writing about my interests, about events in my life, whether small or profound, which I feel the need to share broadly with who ever out there might be reading.

A few months back I wrote about how all of the inspiring memoirs I've read (often by remarkable women) leave me wondering and wanting to one day write my own. And it seemed as though by committing that idea to text, I great part of me decided that yes one day I will do it.

So am I a writer?

(source)

Maybe not quite yet, but now I am determined to be.

And so, like many other great decisions in my life, last week I spontaneously signed up for a Creative Writing class at Mount Royal University, which was starting the following evening. I paid my tuition, picked up my textbook (Imaginative Writing: The Elements of Craft by Janet Burroway) and somewhat nervously embarked upon learning a new skill.

Keep in mind that I haven't taken, in the whole of my life, more English or writing classes than the bare minimum 1 per year high school requirement. Science and the arts tend to seem mutually exclusive no?

Bare in mind that I have always considered written communication to be my weak suit. Perhaps the years of (and still continuing) feedback that I can't spell to save my life have convinced me of this. Even after revisions anything I write remains littered with typos which I cannot seem to see.


But so far I've found the class to be quite interesting, and a breath of fresh air towards the end of the week spent in the lab. I've been pleasantly surprised by some of the bits and pieces I've written in during the class itself. And I hope that it will translate into new fevor for posting on my blog, I know I certainly intend to share some of my 'creative writing' in this forum.