What NOT To Do When Teaching Creative Writing

Lindsay Renee Grace:

On this lazy Saturday I've been browsing the internet and in my search came across "The Greatest Story Ever Written." You see, a foolhardy college professor had his students write a "tandem story." Pairing them up randomly he had them write a story together, one paragraph at a time, via email. Rebecca and Bill's story, which is the "Greatest Story Ever Written," is particularly disastrous and hilarious (you should definitely read it!). It reminded me of the worst creative writing class I've ever taken (yep, with the same teacher who made me answer three pages of pointless questions about an already published short story).

It was my senior year of high school. I'd already taken Creative Writing once before, my sophomore year with Ms. Hosner. Her class was amazing. I grew so much as a writer and felt that taking her class once again could only improve my writing more. But the idiots who decided who taught what classes had given Creative Writing to another teacher (who I'll leave unnamed to avoid libel). Her creative writing class was a complete waste of time in every way. The greatest offense, of her many offenses, is that she was continually making us do group assignments. Group Creative Writing? That's right.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at April 1, 2012 3:20 AM
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