workshops

Choosing the creative writing concentration (as opposed to lit or ESL) was a mistake.

Fuck workshop.

"Well, I really like this poem, but I don't get a sense of place."

or

"I really enjoy your phrasing, you have a great sense of detail, but I want more emotions.."

Bitch I don't care what you want; it's a bloody poem.

Anyway, workshop's not all bad. I mean, it gets folks reading your work along with (hopefully) honest feedback. But more often than not, someone will digress with a remark like "does a coal really burn amber?" or "I don't see the point of writing a drug poem."

Luckily, most of the workshop professors are fine critics (as "fine" as a critic can actually be). Not enough objective assignments are made, usually, but that concerns a lack of class time more than a lack of the teacher's work ethic.

The point: if you can write, you can write. Plain and simple. Get people to read your shit, people who "get" poetry or fiction. Spend the rest of your time reading Yeats or Morrison or Milton or the Koran or nonfiction or fantasy or even Ayn Rand! Read. Read. Read. The newspaper, the internet, butterfat, whatever. Save the critique-classes for the studio art majors.

Lastly, fuck the Master of Fine Arts in creative writing.

[/rant]


J Paul