Once upon a time, I wanted to take a creative writing course at UCLA.
In search of a way to hone my writing, sculpt my ideas and better understand the basics of character development, poetic devices and plot progression, I set out to see what brilliant classes my school had to offer me. However, instead of opening the doors to a creative writing classroom, I found myself confronted by a wall of admission restrictions and minute class sizes that were too small to accommodate the number of students vying for seats.
Such is the fate of many of UCLA’s student-protagonists seeking to enhance their real-life stories by placing their imaginary ones into a classroom.
UCLA’s creative writing courses are tragically difficult to get into, and the English department provides no options for students to express their creativity in non-restricted courses. This must change.
In its current form, an intensive selection process awaits those students brave enough to apply to one of the school’s limited creative writing workshops in poetry, short fiction or drama. Students must submit samples of their work for review by professors, and only a select few are admitted. Creative writing professor David Louie estimates that he usually receives about 65 applications to fill the 15 seats in his class, and he has received as many as 110. Professor Louie asserts that these small class sizes are the key to a good creative writing course.
“You need that kind of individual attention in this kind of class,” said the professor. “It’s about reading and talking and developing a writing community; it’s hard to do that with 25 to 40 people.”
While I respect UCLA’s decision to keep some intensive creative writing classes small and while Professor Louie raises valid points, I am disappointed that there is no alternative to the undersized and extremely selective courses that the English department does offer. Even English 20, a lower division introduction to creative writing, requires submissions for acceptance and only offers 20 seats. Essentially, if a student’s creative writing is not some of the very best in the school, that student is prohibited from taking a class in the subject area. I find this disheartening and unfair. While classes in other departments are equally as selective, few are so broadly popular and appealing as creative writing.
“Creative writing is by far our favorite concentration,” said English department undergraduate advisor Danielle Maris. “There is a lot of demand and not a lot of space.”
I propose creating more space. The English department should offer a larger creative writing course free of restrictions and submissions for those of us who have a passion for creative writing, yet do not necessarily see it as a career choice.
A classroom, large or small, can often be the best medium to share our work. I have always been interested in art, and I occasionally dabble in painting as I do in creative writing. Being in an art class always motivated me to create better art. Thus, being in a creative writing class may push students to write better. A lecture format course would offer an opportunity to review both exemplary and student-submitted works in front of a large body of students while simultaneously studying the fundamentals of excellent short fiction and poetry. Just like in other classes, works of original literature could be submitted to a TA each week. If we can work with a TA to improve our writing skills in a political science course or Shakespeare course, then we can certainly work with a TA in a creative writing course.
So I challenge the English department to think creatively about creative writing. It’s time they extended a hand to aspiring writers rejected by an extremely selective system. The department needs to reach out to students looking for a better way to express the words and stories they feel compelled to share.
While the professor may not be available for hands-on instruction with each individual student, just the experience of learning new ways to express yourself is what really matters.
With a little guidance from a TA, a creative writing course could spark the fantastic fiction or pleasing poetry of a particularly talented student too intimidated to apply for smaller, super-selective creative writing workshops. One class is sometimes all it takes to unearth a passion that could change a life.
When we, the students at UCLA, are given the opportunity to express that passion for sculpting our own words and stories, perhaps we shall achieve the happily ever after we so desire.
Ready for an accessible creative writing class? E-mail Fitzpatrick at cfitzpatrick@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.