workshops, the rules, evolving standards

[katya]

I'm taking a creative writing class now, and I find my teacher, while he's a cool guy, is way too into making us write the same old typical crap stories. I was wondering what your opinions are on what sort of rules there are for "good" fiction, about the way writing is evolving and what direction it is going and and what direction you would like it to go in, and the value or lack of of workshops and critique.

Personally I'm all for creativity even if it doesn't come off well at first. Something that's bad and creative is better than something that's well written and typical. Well, to a point.

I know this is kind of a lot of questions in one thread but they tend to get off topic anyway, and it's not like there's enough traffic in this forum for all separate ones...