Twist of Cain drives my brain! Twist of Cain make me come alive!

I'm having a bit of a crisis of faith, as it were. This is not over my religious beliefs, don't get the wrong idea, this is about my faith in others. And no, this isn't going to be a hate speech directed at George W. Bush or Barack Obama, this is going to be something else. I'll get right to it.

I'm a Creative Writer. I'm not joking, this is the label I have, because I'm doing a course at university entitled "Creative Writing", therefore making me a "Creative Writer". What does this entail, I hear you ask? Well, here's the thing... I'm not entirely sure. Because I know how to write. Writing is all about creativity. So isn't it a bit weird to declare a course on writing is "Creative Writing"? Isn't it just as sane, albeit weirder looking, to call this course "Writing Writing"?

I am creative! I have to be. This isn't me being arrogant, we're all creative, here at Psychotronik, else pursuing this comic book publishing venture would be ridiculous. We are ideas men. We are the future of the medium, or story-writing. We are the future because we are here now and we will be after. The futures of the medium right now will be dead eventually. The writers we are fans with won't live forever (unless Grant Morrison is granted his dying wish and becomes part of the field of creativity that seeps out of the atmosphere... or something) and then we will have to step in place to fill that void. We are our own fans. We are our own favourite writers. There is a cycle there, and no one will ever break it.

But here's the thing. I'm surrounded by my peers. We have to be, duh, we're all doing the same course, but when we're given feedback... it's hollow. And it's obvious. A man is hurting inside so... obviously he should have the smell of alcohol on his breath to really push forward that idea! People obviously can't be conveyed an emotion of loss without a marker! Without a cliché! Need a tortured character? Kill his parents. Need to show how evil someone is without subtlety? Have them murder their parents! Obvious, obvious, obvious... how am I supposed to engage the reader when the reader apparently wants stories spoon fed to them step by step, instead of thinking for themselves?

Let's mess with peoples' heads. Let's buck expectation. Let's go where no-one thought we would. Let's be bloody creative, not freaking obvious. Else doing this course, doing "Creative Writing" is nothing of the sort, it's conforming, you know? And I don't want to conform to the tastes of a majority that shouldn't be in the position it is.