A critical but usually unspoken component to writing well is the quality of the human being who writes. Is he or she smart? Thoughtful? Curious? Provocative? Original? Has he or she done emotional research to undergird the story? “Living a conscious and reflective life is a prerequisite for writing a memoir of substance,” writes Judith Barrington. Likewise with poetry and fiction. The written word may be wiser than the human who wrote it, but never by much.
Writing classes don’t address these questions, for good reason; little can be done in a school setting to address a student’s basic nature. Perhaps when writing teachers despair of ever being effective, this is why. Unfortunately, many writing teachers shy away from teaching revision as a result. Creating writing prompts is easier than helping writers to jettison egos, generate new narrative structures, and discover the emotional undercurrents that will become unifying themes.
But to never address the inextricable link between creative writing and the human creator is a mistake. We write, innumerable authors claim, to find out what we think; personal discovery is intricately interwoven with the effort to make art. Fiction writers are consciously or unconsciously engaged in exploring the workings of the human psyche; memoir writers thrive on the interchange between memory and the present; poets understand poetry to be not just a craft but a lifestyle. A writer genuinely interested in improving his or her craft won’t get far without also striving to see the world (and therefore live in the world) afresh.
–Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew