Benny Lindelauf is known as an author of children's books and youth theatre. He debuted in 1998 with the book Omhoogvaldag, a collection of stories about a girl who falls upwards. Since then, Lindelauf has won several awards for children's literature: his recent novel Hele verhalen voor een halve soldaat was awarded the Woutertje Pieterse Prize 2021 and the Zilveren Griffel 2021.
However, that does not mean he is teaching students of Writing like a Writer to write only children's stories this year. “It doesn't make much difference whether you write for an adult or a child, because the elements remain the same,” Lindelauf explains. “A story always consists of the same components. You have a protagonist, you have a conflict, and you have a style in which you write the story. That's what I discuss with the students.”
Working with students
Although teaching is nothing new for the writer - he has previously given writing courses to people with intellectual disabilities and all kinds of different age groups, among others - this is the first time Benny Lindelauf has been in front of a group of university students. He likes it very much so far. “The students are intrinsically motivated, you don't have to do anything for that,” he says enthusiastically. “There is a good chance that the talent of the future is among them and that I will later think: That was one of my students back in the day!’''
Still, for some master's students, writing creative texts, rather than academic pieces full of footnotes and scientific justifications, takes some getting used to. Lindelauf: “I question students on their imagination and fantasy, on their inner world. I am not so interested in the objective, academic world. That can be liberating for students, but may also make them a bit restless.”
Writing about what matters
Lindelauf therefore wants to challenge students to step outside their safe comfort zone and look for the ‘danger’. By this, he does not mean that there should be an unsafe situation in the lecture hall, but that students should look for the danger within themselves. Lindelauf: “Find a character you would be ashamed of or afraid of. I think then you are most likely to come to something about yourself that matters to you.”
And that is exactly what the writer wants to give students: that they write something that matters to them. “In the end, it's not about the perfect story, but about the process. I'd rather you go wrong on a technical level but touch something on a content level where you think: this really matters to me,” Lindelauf says. After all, that is also how the writer himself prefers to write his stories. “If a story writes itself too easily, I get suspicious. Then there is no matter.”
Are you interested in the Writing like a Writer course? Every year, the course is taught by that year's Writer in Residence. The course is part of the Literary Studies Master’s programme. You can find out more about this course via the button below!