It happens every year. With every instructor. At some point in the writers workshop a person feels their needs are not being met...
The first day everyone has bright shiny happy faces. As the week progresses two things happen. A writer takes on a dogged determined appearance and their writing becomes lighter...more fluid...a distinctive voice develops.
OR.
The second, third, or fourth day?
They do not come back. At first we think they've slept in or are ill. Then the truth comes out.
We have NOT recognized their brilliance.
Darn.
And I thought everyone was supposed to recognize mine...
There are as many reasons as there are plot points. The thing is? So you don't learn about gripping dialogue. You learn something about characterization. Or maybe you learn more about the structure of a novel. Or just maybe you find a way out of your story and into another story...I never learn what I think I'm going to and the funny thing I often learn from my classmates...
And at the VERY least? You have more best selling authors to list on your query or resume and have an in to get a blurb from...What else it teaches? How to take criticism well - that helps when working with a publisher when they tell you to change something. So my hat's off to Jackie Mitchard and Karin Slaughter. They came. They saw.
They taught...
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7 comments:
Must have a thick skin to be an author; otherwise you remain as a writer, unpublished and succumbed to self-pity.
I believe that the ultimate test of a writer's self-confidence is the moment his publisher requests a revision. Likely it's a structural revision. Like remodeling your house. And if you write literary fiction, take a deep breath, then yell!
I felt blessed when my publisher told me that my literary novel's manuscript only needs minor editing. That's line editing, i.e., final stage before lockdown. As you know well, they don't line edit your manuscript until you're past the structural revision.
Writers who don't have the nerves to absorb criticism usually don't fare very well in their writing career (if they choose).
Go to NYC Pitch and Shop Writer Conference and test your mettle. Or any creative writing workshop.
And don't take yourself too seriously! LOL.
How sad that they walked out on such a wonderful opportunity!!
If they can't take the criticism in a workshop, I wish them the best when they start to query. That's when the true stinging begins.
You're kidding. People travel to Hawaii for a writer's conference and then leave????
You ARE IGNORANT of MY gENIUS!
Seriously, let me take their places. I so wish I could have come to Hawaii for the conference and learned and mingled and networked and rubbed elbows....
But truthly, I felt like I wasn't really a real writer until I grew some thick skin and decided criticism was great. That was the turning point for me, and I was a better writer because of that. These people are losing out.
I think it's desperation that leads to a certain amount of ...hmmm...their not being able to take any information in. Yanno? I mean, it's like they want so much, they want it now, but they can't stop to consider what you are saying.
This being said, I think a sign should go up in all workshops that says, "Please check your ego at the door." Because truly, writing is a humbling experience.
Then afterwards, go eat chocolate, drink gin, or better yet --my solution was to get on the freeway and listen to really sappy love music as I barreled down the freeway from West L.A.
I would have taken their place and pretended to be them! That's a lot of money to just blow...and a lot of opportunity to squander.
You know, I never thought about that, but there is always one, ALWAYS at least one who leaves.
Maybe they are unhappy because their brilliance isn't being recognized, but there could be many other reasons.
Maybe they feel intimidated by the other talent in the room? Maybe some personal issues came up for them in the writing process?
Maybe someone else in the workshop creeped them out. This happened to a woman at a workshop I helped organize.
Who knows?
Don Miguel Ruiz's second agreement?
Don't take anything personally.
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