I studied English at Advanced Mains level in college and I have an MA in CreativeWriting. I have taught Creative Writing, too, but, shall I tell you what? You cannot teach anyone to write creatively. You can mark their work, make suggestions,advise some serious editing, point them in the direction of books that might inspire them, but . . .

Writing has a lot to do with the waywe think. E.M. Forster, the novelist,said that you do not know what you think until you see what you say. That's putting whatI said back to front.Let's think again.

A student said to methat any wordsput on paper are an act of creation. Ye-es. So. We'll try it.

You got out of bed this morning, visited the bathroom, made some tea?Interesting? I don't think so. Why? Millions of others did the same thing.

But, you woke up this morning and there on your pillow was a frog with a rhinestone collar around his dear little neck (or whatever passed for his dear little neck) and standing behind him was a snow leopard? Getting better?

The problem with many studentsis that they lovetheir own work.I had the oppositeproblem. I was too critical of myself, destroying much of whatI wrote. Perhaps this is why it took me so long to write my novel 'Salt Blue'.

Although I could write, I felt the need not just to tell a story, but to use words 'creatively'. We'll look at Page 173 in 'Salt Blue'and see howI handlethis: Stella, the heroine wakes up on the day she is due to fly to America. She's not been further than London before.

'I wake early. An ice candlecrackles against the sleep-warm flesh of my thighs, claws at my belly, scrapes its way to the polished tin knocker guarding the quiet chambers of my heartand rattles hard.

"Wake up, little kiddie. Today you're off to find you're Great American Dream and you're going, frit-frightened or not."'

I might have said, if I'd listened to the student; 'When Iwoke I felt frightened about going toAmerica and I had to force myself out of bed.'

What's the verdict on the last sentence? I've placed words ingrammatical order and they make sense butwould anyonewant to read more or would thay have nodded off to sleep beforereaching the next sentence?You be the jury.