17
The art of writing: should it
be considered a craft or not?
Should writing be considered a form of craft and to what extent? Nikki White
interviews the University of Northampton graduates in Creative Writing and Journalism.
to find out.
From my own experience, writing a novel is a craft in that it results
in a product that ideally has some artistic merit and involved time
and the application of various skills to complete. I like the use of
the word to describe writing, especially novel-length work, because
it doesn’t set a criteria for achievement beyond the process – it
doesn’t focus on the result so much as the journey.
Michael-Israel Jarvis, author/writer
You generally write for a purpose, to either create, or to get your
views across, or more often both at the same time. Writing is
about more than correct language; you need to somehow engage
with your audience, otherwise you’re more likely to bore them.
Writing really ends up taking something of a personality, that of its
writer because they have limitless control over what they create.
Joseph Parsonage BA in Creative Writing
T craft an item is a process. Writing is incredibly similar. You
o
begin with an idea of a plot, then create believable and interesting
characters as well as an enticing setting. There’s a lot of editing
involved to polish up those characters and events as well as a final
check. Both involve different, but deep amounts of technical skill to
complete their products which is the definition of any craft.
Jamie Ruck BA in Creative Writing
No, I don’t view writing as a craft. In journalism writing is very
much about telling a story in a certain format, but it’s more about
informing the public of events than anything else. The definition
of the word ‘craft’ actually seems to imply that crafting should
be much more of a physically demanding task than typing on a
keyboard or writing with a pen - i.e. knitting, sewing or carpentry.
Stephen Frost, MA in Journalism &
Communications
Photo of Micheal-Jarvis courtesy of Micheal-Israel Jarvis; photo of Joseph courtesy of Joseph Parsonage; photo of Jamie courtesy of Jamie Ruck and photo of Stephen courtesy of Stephen Frost
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