Essays are intended to inform and there is a presumption that they will be factual, accurate, true. Journalism, perhaps more so, is bound by a requirement that the writing be factual and true. In creative writing, we can lie! However, most writers and readers agree that the best creative writing is, nonetheless, believable.

How does that work? How can you make things up--create people and events and yet have others believe them? Again, many writers trust that even "imaginary" writing is grounded in the real events, observations, details of our daily lives. So creative writing is writing which, while it isn't "true," is true to life! In literary circles we call that "verisimilitude:" believability, or a life-like quality.

There is a tendency, referred to as the "biographical fallacy" to think that writers always write about what happened to themselves. This, of course, isn't always, or certainly not necessarily true. Above you are advised to trust that your own experiences will provide ample detail for good creative writing. 

Yet, even journalists must agree that when reporting what happened, complete truthfulness or objectivity is a myth. By recalling, selecting and rendering events in words, we are always introducing an element of "fiction." Journalists acknowledge this as a "filter" through which their message must pass. Language is a filter. The word is not the thing.

Creative writers filter, select, revise, calculate the final effect of their details and in so doing, compose a "more perfect" poem, story, script than life itself is likely to provide. Yes, sometimes the events of our lives happen as a perfect story. Often we can look at a moment and find just the right words to capture it; in so doing we have a perfect poem! 

But creative writing classes assume that writing is infinitely perfectible. No matter how you have written something, you could revise and write it another way. Consider that art is life made finer. The work of a creative writing class is to find material, write, refine it. The result is, at least in this class, a collection--a portfolio--of finished writing.

Another good way to see writing in a class of this kind: Write for yourself; revise for others! The reactions of your fellow writers in discussions of your work will help you gauge the effectiveness of your writing. If you truly don't care what others think about your work, if you don't care whether they understand what you mean, you probably shouldn't take a creative writing class. Continue to write for yourself and enjoy! 

If, on the other hand, you want to share your work and you care about its effect on others, you are in the right place. Welcome to the creative writing class, a workshop where your writing will teach us all.