I started my writing career in non-fiction and I did exactly what you guys are telling fiction writers to do here – I wrote like a mad woman! I published something every week for more than two years and now that little business is thriving, which gave me time to write three novels this year.

So I agree – I make money as a non-fiction writer because I have so many titles it’s hard not to purchase something from my store!

My three fiction books will all come out at the same time (October) so I can make a big splash at all once. And while I will promote for a couple months, I’m already writing the fourth book in that series and it will be out early next spring, with the fifth and final in that series to follow in the fall.

And then? Why, I’ll start another series and do it all again.

I’ve never been to a creative writing workshop. Why? Because none exist in my country. No, wait, I’m lying. Workshops exist for a couple of years now because even “real writers” ran out of income due to the ungrateful economy and an even more ungrateful audience who refuses to buy their golden works. But I’ve been to a reading of works created in such a workshop. Can’t say they were bad but they certainly didn’t hook my interest. Of course, this was all “real literature”. Whenever the word “genre” is mentioned, it’s usually accompanied by a snicker or a laugh.

I think writers could make good use of the mentoring system, of course if the master writer wouldn’t try to create a younger version of him/herself. I think the ancient way of schooling was very healthy way, one tutor to two or three students at maximum. The modern way – one teacher to 30 students – is unfair to everyone. Those who need help don’t get enough of it and those that are ahead of the class get pulled back to be slow. I’ve experienced that; I felt the ruler on my head, pushing me down, trying to make me more like the rest. Hell, I’ve been raised in an atheist family, living in a Church controlled area. I could talk for hours what happens to children who refuse to go to sunday school. Honestly, sometimes I can’t believe I survived. I can relate quite easily to what you’re saying, Kris.

And I love to screw with them. All their effort has only spawned their worst nighmare: me.

Thank you for the post!

As a writer, I’ve been thinking a lot about what Kris and Dean have to say. There are times when I want to try something different, but overall, I agree with them. In particular, I think that the best way to “promote” writing is to write a lot. I’m not entirely sold on not revising (in one of Dean’s posts) or on avoiding workshops altogether, but I do agree that ever since I’ve started responding to other writers as a reader rather than a critiquer both my reviews and my own writing have improved. I also like Dean’s idea of using workshops to see what other writers are doing right so that you can learn from their techniques.

So, that leads me to teaching. I am going to start teaching this coming Monday — it is my first year outside of student teaching, and I’m feeling a little overwhelmed and deer-in-headlights (I got the job and have been training for 2 weeks since then, so I haven’t really had a lot of time to actually spend on my classes). One of my classes is Creative Writing. I plan to focus less on trying to “improve” works and focus more on quantity of writing. There will be workshops, but I’m going to make sure they are responding to each other as readers, not critics, and that although they should be specific about their comments, they shouldn’t go out of their way to “find” or “fix” mistakes (unless we’re specifically working on grammar, which is a completely different thing), and to try to learn something from the other person’s writing that they can apply to theirs.

Anyway, I guess what I’m saying is that I’ve been straddling these two worlds for some time, and it does sadden me that many English teachers have no idea how writing works outside of academia. Academic writing is one sort of writing, and if you want to go in that direction, it is a skill you might need. For all the students who just want a Liberal Arts degree, that’s probably all they need. But there doesn’t seem to be much support for other types of writing, aside from journalism. I may be only one person, and I might only have 21 students, but I’m hoping to change that.

It kind of reminds me of first time pregnancies. There’s this huge focus on preparing for the birth, gearing up to the big event and so on. What those women don’t know is that it will all seem like a fragment in time when it comes to the long haul of actually raising a child. That’s the stuff where you’re really tested.