View From the Bushes

I was sitting at the family dinner today, and my brother-in-law mentioned that he was thinking of taking some creative writing classes at college, and asked me what I thought. My own degree is in English, with a creative writing emphasis, and I'm glad I got it. My work already resembles that of a 7-year old who was raised by the wolves. One can only imagine what it would be like if I hadn't gotten a degree in creative writing. But having said that, one had to wade through a lot of crap to get anything out of any of these classes.

I think I may have mentioned this earlier (not that it matters, the most any of these entries anyone has read without going blind is three) but in a creative writing class you have all these people who desperately want to be professional writers, and they know the only way that's going to happen is if they are really, really good. Certainly they have to be the best in a room of 12 other students at a state college. One of the ways they make sure of this is they rip into everything else like starving hyenas in the Serengeti, so as to make themselves look better by comparison.

All of this is compounded by the fact that everyone wants to write short stories on the theory that it's too difficult to write a novel. It is insanely difficult to write a novel, but on a per-page basis it's probably ten times more difficult to write a short story. Add to this that the market for short stories is tiny, nay diminutive, perhaps even fine (could you get any lamer than D&D humor?) and the market of people producing short stories is colossal. I don't think it was just the university I went to. Later, I joined an online critique group called Critters and it was mostly the same. Though I would still definitely recommend Critters if you are interested in writing science fiction, horror or fantasy, it's just not for the timid.

Carpe Diem Quam Minimum Credula Postero,
Ross