The final post in this series discusses how creative writing pedagogy can benefit vocational education. It emphasizes the importance of life stories in addressing students’ identity crises and fears about the future. By studying the lives of various figures, students can gain insights into their own unpredictable journeys, learning that success often comes from embracing unexpected paths and overcoming failures.
The final post in a series on what creative writing pedagogy has to offer vocational teaching in any discipline.
Teaching and advising creative writing students can mean dealing with frequent identity crises. “But how do I become a real writer?” my students often ask. “How do I get published?” they want to know, or, “How can I pay my rent while pursuing my art?” Instructors of other disciplines may be able to relate, with students doubting their abilities to become a skilled enough doctor, lawyer, or engineer. “Do I really have what it takes to go to med school?” they might ask, or, “How do I choose between my passions and a job that pays the bills?”
Creative writing pedagogy can enhance vocational teaching across disciplines by encouraging students to construct literary “family trees,” tracing their artistic influences. This exercise fosters a sense of belonging and legacy, linking students to historical figures in their fields. It empowers them to explore their roots, celebrate their influences, and envision their future contributions.
A series of posts on what creative writing pedagogy has to offer vocational teaching in any discipline.
Kalpis painting of Sappho by the Sappho Painter (c. 510 BC).
One of the most revealing exercises that teachers regularly assign in the creative writing classroom is the construction of a literary “family tree”—a map of a student writer’s artistic influences, those influences’ influences, and so on. In my creative writing MFA program, I had to construct a family tree of 20 poets who had shaped my own writing style, starting with 20th-century poet Adrienne Rich and stretching back from her to Emily Dickinson in the 19th century, on to Shakespeare, and all the way back to Sappho, who wrote 2,500 years ago. I then read and took an exam on all these figures’ writing. The exam resembled comprehensive exams in a PhD program, but with the explicit framework of my own personal artistic lineage and legacy.
In this post, I offer the “family tree” as a tool to be used by instructors in any discipline to help students on their vocational journeys.
Creative writing pedagogy can enrich vocational teaching by emphasizing process over product, embracing failure, and prioritizing revision. This approach fosters courage, openness, and trust in students while encouraging them to take risks and learn from their mistakes. Ultimately, self-trust and experimentation lead to personal and professional growth.
A series of posts on what creative writing pedagogy has to offer vocational teaching in any discipline.
In On Being Stuck: Tapping Into the Creative Power of Writer’s Block, Laraine Herring writes, “We all have methods for getting in our own way. It’s human nature.” Her point is true for everyone—not just for creative writers. It’s especially true for students on their vocational journeys. As I mentioned in the first post in my series, the skills required for vocational discernment—courage, openness, and trust—are the same skills required for making art. And the same barriers to making good art—fear, self-doubt, and self-criticism—can also block or challenge students as they explore and discern their vocations. That’s why I think creative writing pedagogy offers helpful frameworks for all instructors when it comes to teaching vocation.
Creative writing pedagogy offers valuable insights for vocational teaching across disciplines. By emphasizing storytelling, community feedback, and personal narrative, educators can guide students in reflecting on their vocational journeys. Creative writing pedagogies foster specificity, helping students articulate their experiences while navigating challenges like self-doubt and imposter syndrome.
A series of posts on what creative writing pedagogy has to offer vocational teaching in any discipline.
At a recent workshop on vocation at my university, I heard a colleague use a beautiful metaphor to describe the vocational journey: “It’s like driving a car at night: you never see further than your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” I love this metaphor, and it’s one I know well as a creative writing instructor because the original quote refers not to vocation but rather to writing. This metaphor’s source is a Paris Reviewinterview with American novelist E.L. Doctorow, in which he describes the writing process.
It’s not surprising to find wisdom about writing popping up in conversations about vocation. After all, when we ask students to reflect on their vocational journeys, we’re usually asking them to tell a story about themselves, and creative writing is the discipline of storytelling. That’s why—in this post and those that follow—I offer several frameworks, tools, and activities from the field of creative writing that instructors in any discipline can use as they integrate vocation into their teaching and advising.
