Reflecting on McLoughlin

Decentring Everything

A Reaction and Reflection

It is interesting to read Nigel McLoughlin's Pedagogical Philosophy for Creative Writing from the perspective of a Creative Writing Student, having been taught as an undergraduate for two years.  While I acknowledge that it is a difficult subject to teach, being utterly subjective, I admit to having felt a little frustrated with the guidance I have previously received - I felt like we were being encouraged to think small, work within boundaries and follow pre-existing (and successfully published) examples.  Where, I wanted to scream, is the place in this course for the exciting literature, that challenges ideas and formats, that breaks existing forms, that carves new niches, the literature which I love and aspire to?  Are we to be rolled out of university like clones, each parroting the same pulp fiction mass market paperback pap! After reading McLoughlin it starts to make a little more sense.

Mcloughlin quotes Bulman, saying ‘the very act of breaking a rule implies a knowledge of it’.
It's right that in order to escape the form one must first master it, or at least understand it.  It it also important that we understand the construction of sentences, of paragraphs and of stories.  One of the most profound differences I found in my first year was the experience of reading as a writer, completely different to the act of reading for pleasure.  And as McLoughlin calls it I learnt from 'aping the masters', both referring to there styles, and to their construction, in some instances even copying verbatim a page of text in order to better comprehend it's structure.

However, though his analysis is thorough, and useful, (would have been more useful at the start of my studies - in the same way as objectives are given as standard in compulsory education, giving students an idea of what they should be getting from each lesson) I also think it is important to help the students discover their own voices, and how best they learn and write.  Creative writing is such a personal subject - subjective to each individual.  This is part of what makes it such a difficult, and interesting subject to try to teach.  It must be both general enough to appeal to everyone, and yet allow enough room to cater to the individuality of each writer.

Tricky....