Tricks of the trade

Developments in print and communications technology have led to a vast expansion and diversification of media outlets —newspapers, magazines, television channels, radio stations and so on. These changes have also touched the world of books. They all have an inexhaustible appetite for raw material; that is, for writers who can turn out articles and books on subjects of contemporary interest. Hence the rise of writing schools and creative writing courses in universities as a regular subject at the postgraduate level.

But the question is: can writing, creative or otherwise, be taught after school? The answer is both yes and no, depending on what kind of writing you set out to teach. This is because all publishing boils down to a few simple queries — who are you writing for? What is the readership profile, that is, the linguistic standards (for the Indian market knowledge of language skills is very important) and the current interests of the potential reader? These are not easy questions to answer but they lie at the root of all successful writing.

Simple communication skills can be taught. Although these skills ought to have been taught in school, the emphasis on grammar, sentence structures, correct usage of dictionaries and close reading of texts is not given importance because of the pressures of syllabus. The job is left for the universities or the fine-tuning is done at the post school stage. There are a number of excellent texts on language and style that a student can pick up without relying on a teacher. This is to say that the urge to improve must come from within.

Can creative writing be taught? The answer is no to a large extent. Of course some creative writers have come out of such workshops but what these courses did was bring out their latent talent that was waiting to emerge. Some excellent books must have helped too: John Gardner’s Art of Fiction, Strunk and White’s Elements of Style, William Zinsser’s On Writing Well, Eudora Welty’s One Writer’s Beginnings, Norman Mailer’s The Spooky Art: Thoughts on Writing, Margaret Atwood’s Curious Pursuits: Occasional Writing, and several others. Having said this, there are some problems why creative writing can’t be taught.

First is the lack of interest many students show in reading. And those who read often lack the training to observe subtle clues or the close reading that is required. Potential writers have to savour books rather than racing through them, a strategy that may require “some rewiring, unhooking the connection that makes you think that you have to have an opinion about the book and reconnecting that wire to whatever terminal lets you see reading as something that might move or delight you.”

Second, writing requires some living with and living by. In other words, as Evelyn Waugh said, it is “experience totally transformed.” “Every writer,” Hemingway famously said, “must have a built-in, shock-proof shit detector.” This is the voice of the story or its feeling that can’t be taught. It must come from within.