Hey everyone. By now I’ve written blogs about Oberlin food, particular classes, my Oberlin journey, and lots of Winter Term experiences. I even wrote a blog about writing, specifically about sonneteering, but I had yet to focus on the core tenets and benefits of my majors at Oberlin, which have been the fulfilling joy that has kept me choosing to continue my education here year after year. And so, in this series of blogs, I’ll be focusing on my beloved major in creative writing and how it’s been integral to my authorial odyssey.
I decided I wanted to be an author during my sophomore year of high school, owing to the passion I realized I had for a fantasy world I’d been constructing in my mind since I was ten. Seeking out a major in creative writing followed naturally from that dream and was what led me to Oberlin (as detailed in my post All right, let's do this one last time: My "Why Oberlin?" and the time I’ve spent here so far). I couldn’t have anticipated how the college’s both measured and powerful approach to this program would take me on a journey though, and how that would help my fiction craft to blossom to the state it has achieved today.
Even though I knew I wanted to write in high school, I was busy. I’ve always worked to be a high achieving student and additionally, have always been someone for whom every assignment can take a near millennium, since—-try as I might—I’ve never been able to stop worrying about every little detail. As such, I only was able to take the time to write a handful of chapters of the book I aspired to publish during high school, and didn’t establish a regular writing practice.
This meant when I reached college I was hungry—-one might even say voracious, for a chance to learn about and practice producing my art. The first creative writing class I took—Introduction to Fiction Writing—was thus perfect in meeting me where I was. It taught me all the core principles of constructing a good short story. A process which, even if you aspire to be a novelist, you will inevitably practice within creative writing education, as creating short stories is generally the most practical approach to workshopping students’ fictional prose in a classroom setting.
I should perhaps pause at this point to explain the structure of the creative writing program at Oberlin, and why I was taking Introduction to Fiction Writing (CRWR 120, now referred to as Fiction Lab if you take it in an upcoming semester). The program’s requirements are detailed here on the creative writing program’s website, but in summary, include two 200-level courses, three 300-level courses, four textual studies courses, and one capstone course (I’ve always thought it was elegant and easy to remember that the program has a requirement matching every number of classes one through four). The two 200-level courses must be completed before you apply to the major (creative writing is the only major at Oberlin that requires a separate application within the College of Arts and Sciences), that is, unless you take a 100-level course (which now can include a poetry, fiction, or screenwriting lab) beforehand. In that case, you can apply to the major while your second 200-level course is in progress. So, I was taking CRWR 120 with the intent of getting acquainted with the creative writing department early in my time at Oberlin and being able to apply a bit sooner to join the major officially and gain access to the application-restricted 300-level courses. Some of my fellow majors who took CRWR 120 alongside me felt it was mostly a repetition of things they’d already learned in their own writing practice—how to use specific details, for instance, to show rather than tell the scene, world, or character readers are meant to perceive. For me, owing to my dearth of practice from my high school days, Intro to Fiction Writing was a perfect segway into a more advanced writing and workshopping college career as we covered techniques like narrative structure, setting, mood, voice, and more, that would be essential to my work no matter what kind of prose I wanted to compose. I would recommend to any prospective majors to take a 100-level creative writing course if you feel you need a foundation in the basics, but also to not be afraid to skip into the 200-levels (which have no prerequisites) if you’re ready to move into more specific topics in the writing world.
In any case, I grew a lot through my experiences in Intro to Fiction Writing, and in particular through my sessions with my workshop group which helped set the tone for my workshop practice during the upcoming years. Exactly how that process came about will comprise my next post and so, until then, I bid you adieu.
