I’m getting towards the end of a three year Creative Writing course at Bath Spa University. I’ve had some classes where I’ve learnt things that are incredibly useful and I’ve had other classes that weren’t quite as handy, but it’s definitely been a highly valuable experience on the whole. One of my favourite things about taking this Creative Writing course, has been getting to have lots of other people read my writing and give me their own interpretations of it. So for today’s blog entry, I’ve decided to write down some of the more interesting responses to my work.
– “This is wonderfully absurdist!” said one teacher, about a story that was supposed to be fairly realistic.
– Lots of people thought two of my characters were gay. That was never my intention, but, since they all read it in, I decided to have one of them harbouring an unrequited crush on the other.
– One person recently thought I was making a distasteful joke about rape. That was a little upsetting, both because I’d hate for my work to appear that way and because it makes me sad to think that this person would imagine me making rape jokes.
– I have one character who is supposed to be particularly pathetic and obsessive; somebody thought I had based him on myself!
– Somebody suggested that every piece I write has an air of sexual tension to it. I didn’t intentionally include anything like that, so, I don’t know if it says more about me or them.
– I was told I should make the evil villain of a story turn out to be God. I decided not to heed this advice.
– One time a teacher thought the hero and the villain of a story were secretly the same person. This was a wonderful idea and, while it isn’t what I planned, I decided to have fun sneaking in some clues that pointed to that false conclusion. (Although, technically, this was just before I started the course).
– Finally, and this is the most unusual reading of a piece: after reading a story about a clown on a sinking ship, one of my friends was sure it was my coded way of telling them that I no longer valued my life and was feeling suicidal. While this certainly was not the case, I was touched by their concern!
– “This is wonderfully absurdist!” said one teacher, about a story that was supposed to be fairly realistic.
– Lots of people thought two of my characters were gay. That was never my intention, but, since they all read it in, I decided to have one of them harbouring an unrequited crush on the other.
– One person recently thought I was making a distasteful joke about rape. That was a little upsetting, both because I’d hate for my work to appear that way and because it makes me sad to think that this person would imagine me making rape jokes.
– I have one character who is supposed to be particularly pathetic and obsessive; somebody thought I had based him on myself!
– Somebody suggested that every piece I write has an air of sexual tension to it. I didn’t intentionally include anything like that, so, I don’t know if it says more about me or them.
– I was told I should make the evil villain of a story turn out to be God. I decided not to heed this advice.
– One time a teacher thought the hero and the villain of a story were secretly the same person. This was a wonderful idea and, while it isn’t what I planned, I decided to have fun sneaking in some clues that pointed to that false conclusion. (Although, technically, this was just before I started the course).
– Finally, and this is the most unusual reading of a piece: after reading a story about a clown on a sinking ship, one of my friends was sure it was my coded way of telling them that I no longer valued my life and was feeling suicidal. While this certainly was not the case, I was touched by their concern!
I hope it was entertaining to read those pieces of feedback. I certainly enjoyed receiving them, but then again, it is my work, so I might be much more inclined to enjoy it than you. It’s a shame that I’ll have left in a couple of months, I’ve had so much fun for the past three years and I’ll miss it terribly when it’s over.
