Writing workshop..Can creativity be learned?

Sharjah: Jakati Al Sheikh
Writing is one of the most important forms of communication for humans, as it plays an important role in the organization and management of societies and states, the development of civilizations, and the continuity of consciousness throughout history. Due to the demands imposed by his civilizational process, he became aware of the importance of writing for reasons including preserving information, communicating information, disseminating ideas and expressing feelings, reaching the highest level of creative literary writing.

Writing is special because it belongs to the category of creativity, and only those who possess a special ability that is unattainable by many can master it, and the person who engages in it discovers it in himself, or others discover it through his style. However, in recent years, a new phenomenon is sweeping many countries of the world, and its advocates and managers try to inculcate creative literary writing skills in those who wish to possess it.

The Creative Literary Writing Skills Workshop is a series of dedicated interactive lectures and working sessions designed to teach writing in literary genres, although there is disagreement as to whether writing can be taught. If, as is conventional, true talent is born with the creator, and if many creative people show a aptitude for creative writing skills at an early stage in their lives, then there are some things that may indicate the possibility of acquiring these skills, such as some stories that have been repeated over time, such as the story of the great Abu Nawas, when he asked his teacher Abu Mahrez Khalaf bin Hayyan, aka Khalaf al-Ahmar, what he should do. Al-Ahmar): “How can I become a poet?” He said: “Memorize a thousand of the best Arabic poems and then tell me, and when he has memorized them, he goes to him and tells him, and he says to him: “Forget all of it,” and which one of them. The one who is committed to writing novels said: “Read to everyone before you, and forget that you read to them in order to learn how to write novels”, which may indicate that creative writing is not any different from applied sciences, because its acquisition can be. Although talent may be considered a secondary issue that matures with constant practice and experience, whoever read the first three novels of the Russian writer Dostoyevsky did not believe that he was gifted, nor that he could be creative in writing, but later he became one of the most important writers in the world. He studied many academic courses offered by novelists to obtain a degree in literature, while others relied on their own research on specific areas of creative literary writing techniques, which made the participants of these seminars accept them.

The emergence of these workshops began with the Booker Prize in the UK, which is considered one of the most important literary awards in the world, since it follows a series of traditions, including annual creative writing training workshops, supervised by well-known writers with long writing experience, usually aimed at a group of young writers, novice writers and those who want to improve their abilities from the older generation group, through whom they seek new experiences to develop their writing skills and methods, but in recent years it has greatly spread throughout the world, especially in the Arab world, and has also included other literary genres, and children are also one of the educational targets. Each workshop is organized in a specific literary genre and where it is announced and the location, and possibly in the virtual space, and determines the theme that will be discussed, the required time period and the number of participants it can accommodate, during which the concepts of creative writing in the field of study are introduced, as well as the most important practical activities that can serve as a basis, from idea to publication.

Most of these workshops are conducted by experienced trainers who have extensive creative experience in the field and are capable of explaining theoretical principles, communicating them, and promoting their application based on proven knowledge and literary methods, but this may not be guaranteed. In all these institutions, as the supervisors may, some of them have non-professional trainers who limit themselves to passing on information on a superficial level in order to line the pockets of those who are eager to learn these creative skills, which leads to a different view of them among the intellectuals.

Among the intellectuals’ views on the issue, writer Ali Abu Al-Rish believes that talent is needed to create literary works and the best time to discover talent is at a young age because “knowledge is as engraved in stone at a young age”, therefore the biggest problem we face is the lack of talent and – according to him – the neglect of teaching students themes of expression because this is what instills in them the love of writing and gets them used to unleashing their creativity so that they grow naturally over time.

Abu Al-Rish added: “If there are benefits from these seminars; they are not the benefits that people want, because the older a person gets, the harder it is to gradually grasp the basics, and what is learned as a child is imprinted in the mind and is emotional, so I think it is more beneficial to focus on improving. In the process of raising children, there is creative literary writing that can enrich and stimulate their talents, in school, or at home, because the accumulation of maturity after long-term development is different from the accumulation of a moment. Therefore, those who formulate educational curricula must pay attention to this, and intellectuals must promote this, because this is the most important reason for discovering true talent, in order to keep up with it and obtain outstanding creators.”

Abu Al-Rish pointed out that culture is the highest ceiling on which society and civilization are built, and this must be considered in light of the dangers it poses and the need to pay attention to everything that happens in its orbit. Creative writing, he stressed, is neither. He added: “I don’t think these workshops produce creative people, but some of them produce creative talents that need someone to accompany them. And guide them.”

Author Fatima Sultan Al Mazrouei, who has directed many of these workshops, believes that they have many benefits, saying, “Training workshops for creative literary writing skills are very important and they play a major role in developing creative literary writing skills. These specialized workshops enable young writers to be creative in this field as they provide them with the right steps to enter the world of writing in a comprehensive and systematic way as they are in a dire situation where they need it.”

She pointed out that some official institutions in the country sometimes adopt them and announce them as part of a valuable initiative, with the goal of encouraging young people and urging them to practice their hobbies and to work on developing them and benefiting from them. Mazrouei expressed gratitude to those official institutions and others that have an interest in supporting the subject, since most training activities are carried out through individual and voluntary initiatives of authors and writers, and unfortunately, many of these programs end without any follow-up. Fatima Al Mazrouei added: “What these workshops need is for official cultural institutions to support it and give more attention by including the initiative they organize. Establish a clear methodology and formulate the way in which creative trainers are selected, especially when we see that some training centers use these workshops chaotically as a transaction in a greedy way to get money. Considering any strict criteria for selecting skilled trainers for this important process, we found that some trainers do not have enough experience, skills or abilities to offer such an important course, and therefore the trainees who attend the workshops do not have one of them, which ultimately leads to his frustration and may push him away from writing and writing, instead of encouraging him to do so and develop his abilities.”

Fatima Al Mazrouei believes that in order to obtain the expected benefits from these workshops, all that is needed is: It is the development of a comprehensive creative course that deals with the basics of creative writing, elucidating its techniques, review, editing and criticism, and even publishing methods, including the determinants of the real creative process that needs to be studied, evaluation and follow-up, all of which cannot be achieved unless we eliminate these workshops that are widely circulated on social media under various flashy names for economic exploitation through false advertising.

In the opinion of poet Sheikha Al-Mutairi, these workshops are also very important because they organize the writing process, organize thoughts. A writer may have a set of creative ideas and language materials, but cannot use them due to lack of experience. The workshops also create a creative environment that stimulates writing by bringing together the writer, his colleagues and the workshop facilitator.

As for whether these workshops produce true innovators? Sheikha Al-Mutairi believes that this has to do with several factors, the most important of which is the presence of the original form of creative writing talent in the target, followed by a process of constant reading, exposure to various forms. The creative stimulation from culture and art, and finally the desire to continue, and the love of development, makes the writer feel… He goes through the various stages of writing and goes through them.