CREATIVE WRITING LESSON

My favorite intern (whom I've written about here and here) just told me she has spent her weekend writing a short story for a creative writing class. "It's hard to do," she said, a note of dark exasperation mingling with her sunny laugh. "Yes," I agreed. "It's amazing to me that anyone can do it."

She declined my request to see her story, but she did tell me it was based on someone she knew who had schizophrenia.

"You should write what you know," she said, with a new-found tone of authority, "at least in the beginning."

I suspect she might show her story to me if she gets a good grade on it. I asked how in the world the teacher grades creative writing, and she said it's all based on "tricks," how well you grasp the "tricks" of fiction. (She added that if you get in a group and "10 people in the group" think you should change something in the story, "it's probably not working.")

"Tricks?" I asked.

Yes, she said, elaborating that most of the tricks have to do with "creating tension." You want a lot of tension in fiction.

Here's an example she offered, which I found both enlightening and endearing: "If you have a scene where someone says 'I love you,' don't just have the other character reply 'I love you, too.' Have the other character reply 'I'm going out for a cup of coffee.' Because that will create tension."