I recently received a batch of anonymous evaluations from a
class I taught a year ago – a 15 week work shop wherein each student
submits almost 60 pages of prose which the class and I then discuss with a view to pinpointing what is and what isn't working.
Generally I get good reviews – and these were no exception. A few grumbles about odds and ends – you can’t please everyone—and a suggestion which I shall take to heart – more writing prompts to break up what can be the drudgery of fifteen week of critique.
But there was one puzzler. A student complained that he (I suspect it was a guy from the handwriting) would have liked more focus on ideation. Huh? The student repeated this criticism in his summary – he would have liked more discussion of ideation.
I have a pretty big vocabulary but this word ideation isn't part of it. Obviously it has to do with ideas . . .
So I Googled ideation creative writing and found THIS LINK
'Boost your creativity -- ideation techniques for writers. '
Aha! It's the old "Where do you get your ideas?" question that always gets asked in interviews and at book readings.
My answer, after I've fought back the impulse to say 'Walmart, Aisle 4', is generally that I get ideas from life -- living, observing, reading, paying attention.
I'm not sure one can cold-bloodedly generate an idea, as suggested in the link above, that will sustain a writer through a novel. Writing prompts are great for short pieces -- and sometimes in a writing prompt one may meet a character that demands more attention or a situation that could be a part of a longer piece.
What was it this student expected, I wonder -- especially since the class dealt with work (presumably) already written?
I'm also wondering if this is a kind of creative writing buzzword -- it's happened before that I get a student who's taken lots of writing classes and is fixated on certain words or techniques -- in another class one student kept talking about filtering which was a term new to me, as applied to writing anyway.
I looked that one up too -- and found much very useful information. It's basically the same advice that Strunk and White give in Elements of Style (avoid unnecessary words) but HERE is an excellent explanation.
Always learning . . .
