My high school English teacher told me to stop writing about dragons and try something real. I'm glad I didn't listen.

3 comments

3 Comments

Feel so bad for teachers who squash that kind of creativity. They miss the whole point! Stories about dragons or magic can show real feelings better than just writing about your boring summer vacation. My friend wrote a space story about loneliness, and it hit harder than any "real" thing I had to read in class. Good for you for sticking with your dragons.

tyler_burns661mo ago

Imagine if Tolkien listened to that advice. No Smaug guarding the Lonely Mountain. No Smaug means no epic dragon sickness plot for Thorin. We'd just have a book about some short guys taking a very long walk to ask for their house keys back. Sounds way less fun. Some teachers just don't get that the best "real" stuff is often totally made up.

hill.troy10d ago

Man, your Tolkien example is spot on. My creative writing teacher in high school would have hated The Hobbit. She told me to write what I know, so I wrote a story about my cat. It was just him sleeping and eating for twelve pages. Nobody wants to read that. The best stuff comes from imagination, not from what's right in front of you. Made-up worlds can get at real truth way better than a diary entry ever could.