Creative calisthenics

I haven't been in the mood to write since I've been back in CS, so I guess it's a good thing that classes were cancelled and I didn't have to go to my Intro to Creative Writing class on Tuesday completely devoid of ideas and drive. Yesterday better have marked the end of my writing drought for the next five months or else it's going to be a long, tedious, and incredibly poorly written semester full of half-assed short stories, countless rewrites, and shameful grades.

The building that I have my creative writing class in reminds me of a high school and my creative writing classroom seemed harmless and grade-schoolish enough until my professor (who happens to be a young, published author from New York City) walked in and told us that the arrangement of the desks was not conducive to the purpose of the class and had us rearrange them into a circle. Since 10th grade "circle of desks" has always been synonymous with "class discussions", "book analysis", and (worst of all) "you will be graded on how much you participate in class". Luckily, my professor realizes that, as writers, "we are all introverted and don't have a lot of friends and we don't care to express ourselves out loud" and if we are graded on spoken participation we will all fail, so she's setting up an online forum for class participation (thank God!).

The class should be fun if I ever get over the fear of sharing my short stories with 22 other writers. I'm going to have to start writing fiction in my "special writing place" at least twice a week because writing is a "muscle" and if I don't exercise my writing muscle then I will never become a better writer. Plus I need a portfolio. Also, as writers we all have stories burning inside of us that we just can't wait to tell and we need to write them down and see where the creative process takes us. One of the stories in my head better catch fire quick or I'm screwed.