How reading affects creativity and critical thinking | Hana Saleh | TEDxMisurata

By analyzing her experience as an assistant lecturer of creative writing at Misurata University, Hana Saleh explores the troubles students can have with writing creatively. She suggests that reading good fiction offers them a view of the world that expands their imagination.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx.

(Arabic) Peace be upon you.

(Audience) (Arabic)
Peace be upon you.

I was 17 when I finally
came back to Libya for good.

Growing up in Switzerland,

I believe the worst thing
that I found really challenging as a kid

was how to spell the word "Switzerland."

Even now, decades later,
as an assistant lecturer,

I still despise writing that word.

On my phone, I entered
this word in shortcuts,

using the English transliteration
of "Sweesra," which is the Arabic version,

and it would automatically
write it for me,

so thank goodness for technology.

There's so many daunting words
in almost all languages,

either because of their spelling
or because of their meaning per se,

but still, that's not an excuse
for us to not learn them.

Life is a school, they say,

and there are various elements

that contribute
to the formation of knowledge.

Early on in life, we learn
initially from our parents,

but for certain mundane reasons,
they just can't give it all.

And that's perhaps
why we need to go to school -

in order to learn from other individuals
who specialize in this field or that.

Therefore, our language skills
are established

by means of absorbing the words
that float out of coarse materials

and the mouths of our teachers.

With words we speak,

and through speaking, we express ourselves
and communicate with each other.

But not all of us are gifted speakers.

I for one am not an outspoken person,

especially when it comes to expressing
my inner thoughts and true emotions.

As a child, I was a very shy person,
especially with strangers,

and no sooner, I found comfort in writing.

In junior high school, I wrote
a short composition about my childhood,

and at the end of that day,

I discovered that my teacher actually read
that piece to almost half the school.

He later on told me

that my career would definitely
have something to do with writing,

and even at that time,
I had a pretty good feeling that it would.

In high school is when I actually started
to read full-length novels.

My first classic novel
was written by Louisa May Alcott,

"Little Women,"

followed by contemporary works,
namely Mills & Boon's.

When I was 14,
I was obsessed by comic books,

like almost any other teenager.

I used to read Nabil Farouk.

He's the writer of "Adham Sabri:
The Man of the Impossible."

I also used to read the Archie comics.

I was inspired by the character
of Betty Cooper to write diary entries,

and I still do so till now.

When I started college,

I discovered that there was a sort
of lacking in my writing techniques,

namely in organization,

sentence structure and also focus.

Now at that point,
I thought I had been an avid reader,

and that shouldn't be a problem for me.

But that actually urged me
to change my approach towards reading.

I started reading as a student,

which means not just reading for pleasure

but also learning the tricks
of the trade from the masters.

With further motivation
by my late colleague and mentor,

Mrs. Sabah Kareem - God bless her soul -

I decided to do
my masters degree in writing,

and by the end of 2010,

I received my degree in writing
for performance and publication

from Leeds University.

I had the greatest chance there

of exploring my ability
in writing short stories

as well as writing for stage and screen.

Creative writing honors imagination,

so why does it seem
like a secluded area or zone

that we hardly delve into

in order to give it the space
to thrive and to flourish?

Allow me now to talk about my experience
teaching creative writing here, in Libya.

And I say Libya as a whole

because I believe

this is an issue that prevails
in almost all regions here in Libya:

the problem of learning
a foreign language and actually using it.

In early 2010,

shortly after I came back from the UK,

I introduced creative writing
for the first time in Misurata University.

I was so excited about the whole thing,

but apparently, the students weren't.

Only one student
enrolled for that semester.

And therefore the course
had to be canceled.

But the next semester was quite promising;

I had 11 students - not bad -

followed by 50,

and then a whopping 80 at one semester.

Now, for creative writing,
the number of students can be problematic,

especially if they are crammed
in a classroom of 35 students or so.

The real difficulty, however,
is when you realize

that they actually don't get it.

So how's that?

Regardless of the many occasions
in which they come to me

quite frankly and say, "We hate writing."

I believe the dominant reasons
behind this hatred, in their opinion,

is because "I don't know how to write,"

and "Why should I? I don't have to."

So "How do I write?"
versus "Why should I write?"

Now, with regards to the first question,
I will not touch upon illiteracy,

because definitely,

anybody who has been through
a considerable amount of schooling

would definitely know
how to put pen to paper.

With creative writing,
I am dealing with writing short stories.

And for that, you will need
to come up with ideas.

Normally, ideas come from inspiration,

and the thing that seems to hinder
my students is limited muse.

They have confined, or limited, themselves

into a very limited, basically,

range of topics and themes,

let alone a list of inadequate
words to choose from.

Now, personally,

I'm not very talented
in creating or conducting surveys,

but according to my experience
teaching creative writing for three years,

I believe the dominant topics and themes
that I have come across are as follows:

So we have five columns.

We'll start with poverty,

poverty as a means
to actually lead the main character

to take up jobs that are quite demeaning.

For example, he has to cook in a kitchen,

or he has to be a house cleaner,

or maybe he becomes a thug.

The second one -

which is quite popular
by the girls, by the way -

marriage.

The main character
has to leave the one she loves

in order to, you know, marry someone else

who is either richer or has some kind
of higher influence in society.

Cancer seems to be the winning ailment

whenever there is a chance

for them to talk about someone
who gets ill and later on dies.

So this is the easiest way,
the easiest route, towards death.

And then car accident.

This is quite surprising to me

because every time
they want to kill the parents,

they have them killed in a car accident.

Social disputes are namely inheritance,

the ever-evil uncle

and the love triangles
that happen at school.

Now, some of you might think
that this is actually fine

given the students' background.

It actually is fine

because people tend to write
about things that they know truly well.

But the problem is when they write
about things or stories

they believe is what other people
expect from them.

This is where the limitation lies.

Now, imagine, if we go back to this box,

imagine this is the structure
of our culture - these five columns -

incredibly limited,

and at the same time,
it really gets tiring

when you're subject to it every semester.

There was this one semester
when I firmly announced to my students,

"Please don't kill the parents
in a car accident.

If you don't want them in the story,
then just keep them home, safe and sound,

and then move on
to something worthy of telling."

We need to think
outside this cultural box.

A foreign colleague of mine once said,

"We're dealing with students
who haven't really experienced life."

And he was right.

How can we expect creativity from students

whose experience range is probably
three out of five of these columns?

That is when we need
to put a book in one's hand.

Reading not only makes you
become a better writer:

Through living the lives
of fictitious characters,

we learn from how they deal
with abnormal circumstances

and learn from their mishaps.

We also delve into the various
cultures of life, of the world,

and there's our free ticket:

we have successfully broadened our minds,

and we're practically ready
for the extraordinary.

So if we go back to this box

and imagine that we have students

who have read books that actually relate
to these topics and themes,

What are the possibilities,

what are the creative possibilities
that they will be able to present?

So here we have the five topics
that I mentioned earlier,

the five things that seem to be on repeat,

and examples of novels
that deal with these themes.

"The Hunger Games" is a very good example
that talks about poverty,

by Suzanne Collins.

The main character
is forced to enter a tournament

where contestants actually
kill each other in order to win.

There's an idea.

The second one,

"Pride and Prejudice," by Jane Austen.

Now, this is a novel that's been written
almost 200 years ago,

two centuries ago.

The thing that makes it long lasting
and still alive is because -

I mean for this specific
topic of marriage -

is because the main character,
Elizabeth Bennet,

actually opposed social code.

Imagine that happening back then.

"My Sister's Keeper"

has brilliant issues
or cases of health issues,

by Jodi Picoult.

We have more than one, which is cancer.

We have acute promyelocytic leukemia,

which is blood and bone marrow cancer.

We also have drug abuse in this novel
and a case of epilepsy.

I will not comment on the car accident:
please don't kill the parents.

So, moving on to social
disputes, the last one,

"In the Country of Men,"
written by our very own Hisham Matar.

Here we have a story about political chaos

that actually affected a domestic life

as a result to what was going on
here in Libya back in the '70s.

So, before I move on,

I'd like to quickly acknowledge
some of the previous works of my students

who have been able to come up
with extremely creative stories.

One student wrote a story
about an American who converted to Islam

after living among a group
of Tuaregs here in Libya.

A second good example is -
one of the students wrote about

the struggle of a man who's trying to flee
the Rwandan Civil War in the early '90s.

The third example
I'd like to present to you

is about a creature
who's created from mist,

and he's the last of his kind

and the only one who's able
to stand in the face of evil.

This was written by the translator
that's translating to you, by the way.

So, going back to those two questions.

How do I write
now that we've read,

now that we've broadened our minds?

Well, of course,

you need to start reading books
that might be of interest to you

and for authors who are actually -

whose style of writing
you find interesting.

And then you start putting pen to paper.

You scribble.

You draft.

You redraft, maybe 100 times.

And then you're done.

The second question - why should I?

Well, actually you don't have to write

unless you're one of my students -

then you just have to do it.

Storytelling is an art;

it allows you to translate
your inner thoughts

and perhaps your philosophy in life.

And that's actually why
people enjoy reading.

There's a literature
that needs to be conveyed

for generations to coexist and intertwine.

I'd like to conclude
with a quote by Elif Shafak,

the author of "The Forty Rules of Love."

Okay.

"Isn't connecting people to distant lands
and countries and cultures

one of the great strengths
of good literature?"

Indeed, it is.

So let's start thinking outside that box.

Thank you.

(Applause)