Creative Writing is for Everyone: Q&A with Engineer Dillan Gay '24 on the Creative Writing Techniques Club

 

Pictured above: Members of the CWTC gathered in Evans Annex 239 for their weekly meeting. Join them Wednesday nights from 7:30-8:30, and follow their Instagram account @cwrtctamu for updates on meetings and other events. 

Q: It’s interesting that an engineer is leading a creative writing club. What made you decide to do so, and where does your interest in creative writing come from?

Dillan: A creative thought process is essential to being a good engineer. I have had to reinvent how I approach the engineering design process through my mechanical engineering journey at Texas A&M countless times. And I wouldn’t have been able to do that as effectively without a proper creative outlet in which I could familiarize myself with how I ideate and better my ideas. My passion for writing in particular started when I joined my high school writing club and eventually became the president of it. When I joined the Creative Writing Techniques Club (CWTC) at Texas A&M my freshman year in September 2020, there wasn’t much else to do other than stress about catching COVID or not getting through ETAM, so I doubled down on my passion for writing and stuck to writing a high quantity of different short stories that kept me sane and emotionally engaged with school in a positive way. Joining RoboMasters my freshman year, a competitive robotics team that I am now also an officer for, also helped me engage in my passions, engineering and being creative with the engineering design process, in a healthy way outside of the virtual classroom.

Q: How does your background influence your writing? Does it give you a different perspective on your peers’ writing?

Dillan: What I’ve noticed being in a creative writing peer group for so many years, is that everyone’s perspective is very distinct. It’s rare that someone points out the same thing during a constructive critique, and there is no opinion that is “above” anyone else’s. In fact, half if not more of our members have historically been STEM majors–their need to express themselves more creatively outside of an elective or two is exceedingly high–and that incentivizes them to interact respectfully with those like-minded, creative students they otherwise would’ve never met. These are the people who can help them the most in understanding themselves and their voice as a writer. One of my favorite activities at A&M is talking to and learning from these other students whose studies and backgrounds are wildly different from my own, it is this conversation that is crucial towards learning and writing about a wider range of perspectives in society.

Q: What genres do you enjoy writing? 

Dillan: I enjoy writing short stories and poems primarily, but I’ve dabbled in other mediums that the other members of the CWTC are really good at such as screenwriting, novels, nonfiction storytelling, etc.

Q: What’s your best writing advice?

Dillan: To simply write. This isn’t really my advice since it’s said a lot, but it is the best writing advice I could give because of how true it is. Many people are great writers or storytellers, but never learn until very late in life. Practicing how to write from a perspective, learning which perspectives and stories you’re best at telling, and controlling language to influence and understand how your audience reads it are all skills that transcend writing, and train someone to become a better human being.

Q: Are there any ways that creative writing helps you in your STEM courses?

Dillan: Thinking outside the box is not a skill that is exclusively learned under a creative influence like drawing, writing, sculpting, etc., but it helps. My admissions essay to A&M was, in hindsight, a cringey but endearing and honest account called “Writin’ Texas Aggie,” that details how passionate I was, and still am, about balancing my hobby of story telling with building and mechanical engineering. There is a very similar art to picking apart sentence structure and engineering the English language to form a captivating narrative as much as there is towards designing mechatronic systems and finding the perfect angle to solve that really hard engineering problem set.

Q: What are your career goals? How do you plan to continue your interest in creative writing after your time at Texas A&M University?  

Dillan: By the time I graduate or maybe shortly after I graduate Texas A&M, I plan to complete a compendium of my best short stories that I have written during my time as an undergraduate here. I also have many other writing project ideas in the works, but who knows where they will go in the near future. My primary focus is to use the skills I’m learning outside of the classroom to my advantage so that I may do the very best I can in class, in RoboMasters, and eventually in my first job as a professional mechanical engineer. Whether that be in continuing robotics, aerospace, or simple product design, the A&M mechanical engineering program, combined with my extracurricular pursuits, allow me to feel confident and comfortable to work for any type of industry.

Q: What is a typical meeting of the Creative Writing Techniques Club like? 

Dillan: I always start with inviting anyone to share any work they want feedback on by reading it aloud or sharing online with us all for us to read silently. After a healthy amount of constructive criticism, we move on towards tackling a writing trope or concept. This could be anything from world building, character building, dialogue, and even an open discussion on how to write an anti-hero or a melody. A lot of discussion happens about a wide range of topics, and we do it all in sixty minutes. We do derail sometimes, but that happens when the discussion is as friendly, insightful, and inviting as ours can be on a typical week.

Q: What are the requirements to join the Creative Writing Techniques Club? 

Dillan: Hardly any. Beyond the standard that we all make sure we’re passing our classes and committing to the conversation in a healthy and helpful way, I hold no bar for entry to the CWTC and keep it strictly inclusive. All creatives are welcome, from amateur artists to published novelists, from freshman to PhD students, as long as you are an Aggie that wants to engage with creative writing, you are welcome. Nobody is even required to attend meetings; I am happy to have someone no matter how frequently they come to Evans on those cool Wednesday nights.