Why Creative Writing Isn't—Or Is (1970)

In Elementary English, in which this was reprinted (as is?), the piece appeared first in a special section called "Stimulating Creativity."

It feels like this article starts out as an instance of Murray pushing back against the inevitable deficit thinking of teachers (i.e. all the things my students CAN'T do). But then he shifts gears to creative writing.

The creative writing teacher is particularly on the spot, for more and more people are discovering what the writer knows, that talent is plentiful, that most of us have far more talent than we ever realize. Now our colleagues are seeing printed evidence of our students' capabilities. A number of teachers of writing in this country and in Great Britain have published books and articles which demonstrate how well even the most disadvantaged students can write. Such teacher-writers as... (list) and many others have documented the talent which can be demonstrated through the creative writing of average school children. (523)

By bottom of 523, this article has turned into one in which Murray is attempting to document what happens when writers write. "There are seven elements, or experiences, the writer goes through most of the time when he produces something which gets under the reader's skin."

So Murray is writing this article, in part, to argue against the term creative writing as it has traditionally been understood. He wants to think of the term as meaning "words which make the reader itch and scratch" (524).

So, what he later calls "the seven stages of creativity" are:

1. Awareness
2. Caring
3. Incubation
4. Discovery
5. Commitment
6. Detachment
7. Effectiveness

Again, his central move here, like in earlier articles, is 1) to ask/analyze what the publishing writer does, 2) to suggest implications for student writers:

"If we accept these seven elements or stages of creative writing then we must face their implications for our teaching. (525)

Again, Murray's purpose here is to push back against traditional notions of creativity: "The class can't be creative, the individual can. There is no norm, no level by class, grade, age, sex, or race for creativity. The very idea of creativity implies the personal, the private, the individual and rejects the herd, mass or group." (525)

On the process: 

This is the cycle of craft--prewriting, writing, rewriting. The student passes through it again and again, until he is finally ready for publication, where he finds out his effectiveness. When his peers and his teacher read the work he has chosen as his best, he discovers if it stands up, if it works, if it communicates, if he has built a meaning. (525)

On the role of the teacher (is this the first time we are hearing these things in writing? I think so...): 

If the teacher is to encourage his students to pass through the cycle of craft and the final testing of publication at their own pace, he will discover that there are few chances for him to stand before the class and preach. He doesn't tell and he doesn't assign. he doesn't correct, he reads. He doesn't initiate, he reacts. He confers. He prods, and pulls, and goads, and praises. He is a coach. (525)

Teachers Should Be Writers, Too: