Typically, writing students can achieve those goals by practicing their written responses to assigned prompts. The feedback from instructors (and from other readers) usually enables writers to better understand how they could have expressed their thoughts more accurately and more efficiently in terms of communicating the ideas on any subject matter of writing. It might be helpful for this writer to think about the distinctions between motivation in writing and execution in writing. Similarly, she could benefit from learning how other elements that may have an influence on her ability to perfect her writing (such as organizational skills, clarity of thought processes, and interpersonal communications, for example) are not actually writing issues.
If this particular student's reaction to the course is typical, it might suggest...
The course should help students understand that the process of learning how to write well is distinct from organization in more general ways. It should also emphasize the distinction between creative thought and creative expression; whereas expressing creative ideas is certainly one aspect of writing, the thought process and specific interests are not writing issues. That may be why introductory writing (and painting) courses specifically use arbitrary subject matter for their exercises. Instead of allowing students to write about ideas that they are already thinking about, perhaps it would be more beneficial to assign specific topics or to formulate specific arguments to practice their writing mechanics.
