Writing Fiction Vs. Writing About Fiction

I really enjoy writing fiction much more than writing about fiction. For me, the creative process will usually surpass the analytical because I feel like there are more doors open when writing something creative. While writing about fiction can also be enjoyable (I usually have a lot of ideas after reading any kind of fiction), for me the freedom that comes with being creative will always win out. The two, however, really can be to aid one another. Writing about fiction requires knowledge of terms and usage in order to point out how and why an author chose to implement them. These terms can then be applied to the creative process. If an author has a strong use of foreshadowing for example, the reader can take this example, analyze how it’s achieved and maybe work in something similar in his or her own writing. Creative writing can also help the analytical writing by allowing the writer to know what to look for in other writings. In future teachings of fiction, I will most likely do the analytical first in order to teach students the proper uses and techniques of successful authors. Once the students are able to locate terms and proper usage, I will then let them write creative fiction. Another idea is to try to implement both the creative and the analytical with maybe a paper that is written creatively and is an original story, but with strong ties to the reading I am having them read. Maybe have the students take characters from the story and write their own creative fiction in the same style of the author.

Myth Analysis Vs. Myth Creation

I really enjoyed creating the myth more than I enjoyed studying the other myths, but that's probably just because I like creative writing. I do, however, think the study of myths is incredibly important. In order to create a myth, one must first learn and grasp the basic story telling techniques of myths. I think it was crucial to study myths before we actually started writing them. In creating a myth, I learned a lot. I often found myself, going back and fourth between my own myth and the myths in the book in order to really create something unique. I think the creation of the myth website also enhances the original myth aspect. The website offers an added level of creativity that one can use to add to the myth.


I'll probably use myths in my teaching to show students the early uses of story telling and the oral traditions that they originated from. Studying myths is much different from creating myths however. The creation of myths can really only fit into a creative writing section of class, while the study of myth can be viewed from many standpoints, (historical, ect.) In the classroom, I would like to introduce the students to myths by showing them the various kinds of myths and letting them choose how they would like to look at them. I'd probably offer the students maybe an option of creating a short myth, then a short explanation of how it relates to the other myths. Then again, I'll probably just copy exactly what we did in this class, minus the website.