At 08:24 11/25/97 -0800, you wrote:
>On Mon, 24 Nov 1997, Kirsten Corby wrote:
>
>> In a message dated 97-11-21 15:00:39 EST, you write:
>>
>> << I doubt there's been any studies done on this, but I
>> wonder just how many published writers actually TOOK any creative writing
>> classes or graduated in the "field.".......
>> >>
>>
>> I took one creative writing class as an undergraduate. A horrible
experince!
>> Hordes of dreary postmodern stories from my fellow students, trying to be
>> "meaningful." The instructor, a writer of artsy-fartsy short stories (you
>> know, the kind where nothing actually *happens*), who gave us as the text a
>> short story anthology with one of *her own* stories in it, told me I had no
>> talent. I failed the class!
>>
>
>Now, hold on a sec -- please don't blast an entire field based on one bad
>teacher! I'm a graduate both of a university CW program (Princeton's
>undergraduate one) and of Clarion West, and I teach CW now. I'm a firm
>believer in workshops: the trick is to find one where the participants
>are sympathetic to your project. Yes, there are plenty of artsy-fartsy
>nazis out there, but plenty of us aren't, too. My own students have
>commended my willingness to read *anything* they write, whether it's SF,
>historical fiction, satire, postmodernist meaningfulness, etc.
>
>
I agree. I took creative writing -- made some excellent friends there --
and now teach it. I'm more than willing to read anything my students
write, but I do insist that they don't just recycle the unexamined
fantasy ideas they bring in. I want them to THINK about their characters,
and their situations, and make them physically and psychologically logical.
THEN they groan. (Like my student who had his evil usurper jail all the
potentially dangerous dissidents while executing the criminals. I told him
to read the rules for evil warlords, and not write anything stupid. He took
it pretty well, I think. And he'll have a better story. (I hope. I have to
read 'em all in a couple of weeks.)
Martha Bartter
Truman State University
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