Aspects of Creative Writing

Last term, I was convinced by my academic advisor to take a creative writing course. I was very opposed to the idea, insisting that I was "not a creative writer" and therefore could not possibly benefit from the class, even though I have always secretly wanted to write a novel someday, but never thought I had the talent to do it. Much to my chagrin, I took the class after her prompting and learned that I can write creatively. The instructor of that class said something that has stuck with me since: "Good writing is five percent talent, and ninety-five percent hard work."
As the author of the article, "Getting Started Writing Science Fiction" points out, you don't have to be an expert in writing craft to get started writing...and thats all it takes; practice makes perfect. I liked this author's idea of getting started: "open up a word processor and put words together to form sentences,and sentences to form paragraphs." He is absolutely right, most of us are terrible writers at first, but the more we practice, the better we become.
I think that this idea would be coupled well with the main theme of the article I found, "How to Write A Novel Using the Snowflake Method." For people who like the idea of writing creatively, but don't know how, or don't believe they have the talent, (like me) this method is perfect. It is especially useful to me because I am such an organized person, and making something that I look at as intimidating and often messy (the craziness of not knowing where to begin a story, how to develop it, or what to do next with it) much more attainable and less frightening. I guess I am more "right brain" in most respects, and therefore a ten-step method to writing a novel seems much more practical than just plunging right in and getting stuck partway through.
I also really appreciate this author's emphasis on the importance of character development. This was often my problem in that first Creative Writing class I took. My instructor would mention some view that he, as a reader, got from my character, and would ask if this is how I wanted to portray the character. I usually realized that I was giving more of my attention to what was happening in the story than who it was happening to--not a good thing to do. After all, characters are "a driving force that propels your work forward and captures the imagination and the attention of your reader," according to the author of the article, "Ideas in Creative Writing--Characterization."
In short, creative writing is difficult to master--all aspects of it. But if you can persever long enough to do so, the payoff, whether material, social emotional or any other kind, will be very great.