Petra was so lucky to get into Ms Brignell’s creative writing class. There was a waiting list as long as your arm trying to get selected. All that Petra had done was to knock on Ms Brignell’s door and say “I really really REALLY want to get into your creative writing class.” And indeed she did.
The first lecture involved learning how to write an opening sentence. In fact Ms Brignell set an assignment. First sentences are so important. I want you to bring four opening sentences of your own making next time we gather.
The assignment seemed easy, but once Petra thought about it she realized how difficult it was. She spent the week thinking and jotting down and crossing out. In the end, Petra had four opening sentences and she was dissatisfied with every one of them.
The second class began. Ms Brignell began. “I don’t want to see any of your opening sentences. If you think they’re rubbish then they probably are.”
Petra grew to hate Ms Brignell’s creative writing classes. They were too hard. They were challenging and useless. She thought when she had signed up for the course they would spend their time writing poetry. Stuff like that. This wasn’t creative; it was work.
Weave a Web 
Yep.
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Yep.
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Writing is work. It’s a job, which is why, writers burn out. Having said that, I think you’ve captured a creative writing program well. They’re full of criticism and enormous egos. You have to be really gutsy to do an MFA in creative writing.
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I’ve never done a writing course – I always felt you had to be a writer before learning how to become one.
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Writing can be hard work BUT fun if you indeed love writing!
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It is certainly very satisfying (so they tell me!)
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I know you know!
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You mean you can quit any time you like?
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You don’t get the “credits” – or whatever they’re called in the USA!
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I have written thousands of first lines. Thousands. All but two or three of them are complete rubbish. And my opinion of which ones aren’t rubbish changes.
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I presume you have had dark and stormy nights thinking about them.
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My favorite story contest I ever entered was an “It Was a Dark and Stormy Night” contest in which the story had to begin with that line and then pack in as many cliches as possible. Mine ended with, “and then I woke up” and starred a bombshell blond with ruby red lips and legs that would not quit, whatever that means. What amazed me was how much work it actually took to write, and I didn’t even have to come up with a brilliant first line. I also didn’t win, but I had a good time.
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Ha! I’ve never seen anything wrong with the dark and stormy night and always wondered why it was regarded as bad. Still, I suppose there are the best of times and the worst of times.
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Now that is a Dickens of a first line.
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Oh those poets and musicians….damn bunch of layabouts. No work in that at all.
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That’s true Max. I’m constantly jealous of the laidback life you lead.
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I know Bruce! I’m just Max the layabout. I like that word
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You were born with a silver hammer in your mouth.
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Bang Bang….
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Ha, and now, as they say in these parts, (although I’ve no idea what it means) I’m going to teach your grandmother how to suck eggs.
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When we were kids we used to “blow” eggs – i.e. make a hole at either end of the shell (usually on a barb wire fence or something sharp) and blow the yolk and white out. I suppose grandma sucked.
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Clearly I live in a once impoverished area where sucking an egg was the only source of nourishment.
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It’s origin is a very interesting question. We use the expression in two ways I’ve just realized: Teaching your grandmother to suck eggs, and “Go suck eggs” (which means “Jump in the lake”).
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Not heard of the second one. Some bizarre antipodean phrase no doubt!
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There must have been a waiting list of creative writers trying to exit the class, increasingly getting longer than the one of aspirants trying to get in.
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LOL! Learning centres these days are very flexible.
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