🚀 go-pugleaf

Ah, yes, I once contemplated grad school and the Creative Writing major. 
But the only real motive I had was to get into the academic system so I
could land one of those mythical "cushy English professor" jobs which
held a certain allure during my misguided youth.  

Now I know better.  And I'm glad I never did it.  (I work for professors
now, and I would not want that life one little bit.  The office politics and
the tenure chase are very large and unpleasant aspects of the job.)  I
believe my eventual reasoning (on not going) went something like this: 
If I'm already a good writer, I don't need to go.  If I'm not a good
writer, and I go, and don't improve, and do get the Mythical Professor
job, I'll end up being one of those creative writing instructors who has
never been published (I knew a few of them--pathetic creatures they
were, too).  That would not be a good thing.  The question then became: 
is there a way I can hone my skills and find out how good I am without
spending 2 or more years and thousands of dollars on a graduate writing
program?  And the answer was, of course there is.  It's called Clarion
West.  They DON'T limit the workshop to SF and fantasy, although that
is definitely the focus.  It's basically a 6-week writer's boot camp for
"those on the verge of professionalism", in which you write and/or
critique every day, with a different professional writer as your instructor
for each week.  This is the workshop at which Harlan Ellison traditionally
makes students write a story a day, and if they don't turn one in, they
don't get to critique the others' stories that day.  A very intense
experience, in which you receive approximately two years worth of
writing instruction in a month-and-a-half.  The critical feedback alone is
worth it--you'll learn more about yourself and your abilities and
capabilities than you ever thought possible, and you'll learn what it takes
to be a successful writer.  And it doesn't cost as much as an MFA.

The simplest way to learn about writing, of course, is to write, send it
out, and keep sending it out until you figure out what works.  And read
the sort of books you want to write, and STUDY them.  This method
takes a little longer, but it's a damn sight cheaper than either of the
above.

(You can also just keep rereading Crawford's posts on writing--they're
full of damn good advice, on a level similar to the things I learned at
Clarion.)

Submit, Submit, Submit!

Alex