August 16, 2008 @ 10:49 am
A couple of amusing bits from Andrew Pyper’s latest novel, The Killing Circle:
People read less today than they used to. You’ve seen the studies, you’ve got teenagers, you’ve been to the mall — you know this already. But here’s something you may not know:
The less people read, the more they want to write.
Creative writing workshops — within universities, libraries, night schools, mental hospitals, prisons — are the true growth industry in the ink-based sector. Not to mention the ad hoc circles of nervy aspirants, passing round their photocopies bundles. Each member claiming to seek feedback but secretly praying for a collective declaration of brilliance.
One of the characters in the novel is a struggling horror writer. He takes a fragment of a story to a group reading that may sound familiar to some of you:
Though Len feels that only the opening paragraph of a proposed “epic horror trilogy” is ready for presentation, it nevertheless goes on forever, a description of night that is a long walk through the thesaurus entry for “dark.”
Ahh, I’ve read one or two of those. I think I’ve managed to avoid writing one, though.
It makes me want to go out and get my Master’s in creative writing so I can teach classes to all the “aspiring” writers out there.
And that guy Len? I’m pretty sure I know him.
I’ve never been much for classroom learning, which is why I balk at writing workshops and circles and the rest. I’m not against them or anything. They just don’t work for me. Not sure if I could teach, either. I don’t think I have the patience.
And I think all of us in the horror writing biz know a Len or five. :)
I agree that creative writing doesn’t really lend itself to classroom learning all that well, since the only way to get good at writing is to actually write. (And having a few good people whose opinion you value to critique your work goes a long way, too.) As far as Master’s degrees go, I find the idea of paying someone to tell me that my writing isn’t “literary” enough completely off-putting. And here in Canada, I think I can be reasonably certain that’s what would happen. But there’s a low-res Master’s program at Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania that’s completely dedicated to writing popular fiction, and the program appeals to me a lot.
On the other hand, I find I have a very low tolerance level for people who aren’t serious about improving their writing, and my patience is exceedingly low to start with, so maybe teaching isn’t for me after all.
I don’t think the Len’s are limited to the horror genre. My other genre of choice is mystery, and they seem to come out in droves for that, too. :)
I agree completely. But Masters degrees are probably good for getting writing-related jobs, which are helpful to support one’s self financially. As a source of literary criticism, yeah, they’re probably off-putting to a lot of people. Especially when you can get the same thing for free from online writing critique groups and the like.
Part of the reason why my wife hates short stories is because she was forced to reading and analyze them to death in university. Canadian literature in particular has a reputation for having a big stick up its ass. I read my share of stories that were full of imagery and deep meaning that had no plot whatsoever. Andrew Pyper actually spoke about these kinds of stories when he was asked about why his work is never considered for awards. He referred to an element called the “anti-plot,” which I really liked because it sums up those kinds of pretentious stories so well.
On the other hand, there are plenty of so-called “literary” stories that do have plots. And, as you said, I see a lot of prejudice among genre people who have a chip on their shoulders about literary fiction that they use it as an excuse for shoddy writing. Ironically it’s the same kind of snobbery they accuse the literati of having toward genre fiction.
I’ve heard of the Seton Hill program and it seems a lot of great writers have done well with it. But it’s a bit of jaunt for me. :) Like you, I don’t have a lot of patience for people who aren’t serious about the craft. That’s another thing that keeps me away from the writing workshops, reading circles, etc.
You see it in every endeavour. My wife just joined the university woman’s rowing club, but first she had to take an introductory rowing class. She hated it because so many poseurs came out. “Look at me, I’m rowing, isn’t it hilarious!” People who just aren’t serious, and who end up wasting the time of those who are. The hobbyists.
Just to clarify, it’s not the criticism in itself that I find off-putting. To me, a good critique is just as cool as a piece of chocolate cake. The aggravating part is people looking down on my work because of the subject matter, rather than simply judging it by the quality of the writing.
Of course, as you said, that prejudice goes the other way, too. And it’s kind of funny, really, how many justifications people can come up with for bad writing.
U of T wasn’t too bad for stick-up-the-assiness. I’ve heard that York is a lot worse. I never really liked analyzing all the poetry and short stories, either. It always made me laugh when the prof would ask, “What did so-and-so mean by this?” and everyone would be coming up with all these weird, literary ideas, because that’s the way they were trained to look at it. Then I’d stick up my hand and say, “Maybe he didn’t mean anything by that. Maybe he was just a crappy writer whose manuscript wasn’t subjected to proper editorial rigor,” and they’d all look at me as if I’d just suggested tossing the damn book into the fire. Which, in some cases, is maybe where it should have gone.** If you’ve ever read some of the “classics” of Gothic lit you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Seton Hill would be a bit of a jaunt for me, too, since I’m only about an hour closer to Toronto than you are. But, you only have to be on campus for a week every semester, and it looks like it would only be about an hour and a half trip by plane, which wouldn’t be bad at all. Hmmm. The more I find out about it, the more I want to do it.
I know what you’re saying about the poseurs. For me it was horses. My horse came from the riding school and cost $700 - which isn’t expensive at all - but if I put him at a four-foot fence he’d jump it without hesitation. Then there were all these other kids who had horses that cost ten times or more what my guy cost, because the parents seemed to think that a more expensive horse would make them better riders. Of course it doesn’t work that way. They just ended up with horses that looked good in the stall, because they were way too much for the kids to ride.
**This was just a figure of speech. I would never advocate burning a book, any book, no matter how crappy it was.
One of the big horror/sf novels of the twentieth century wasThe Body Snatchers, by Jack Finney. Plenty of people have said the story was an allegory for the Communism scare of the 1950s, a Red under every bed, as they said. But Finney said publicly that it was no such thing, it was just a story meant to entertaining and nothing more.
I think it’s cool, sometimes, when people read that much into a story, but I don’t think it’s a prerequisite. I don’t see anything wrong with a story’s only merit being that it was a good read.
Seton Hill would be nice to go to, or maybe even Clarion. If I had the money and the time…
I don’t see anything wrong with a story’s only merit being that it was a good read.
I couldn’t agree more.
Isn’t Clarion only for short stories? And also, now that I think of it, isn’t it only for fantasy, as well?
I think you’re right about Clarion, although I admit I haven’t look into it too deeply. I’ve just heard many good things about it.
I just went and checked, and apparently, it’s not just for fantasy and sci-fi, but horror as well. The actual workshop is quite expensive and runs for six weeks, but they also have a on-line workshop that you can sign up for. The cost varies, depending on the length of the manuscript, but it sounds like you get almost all the advantages for no more than a quarter of the cost of the real-life workshop. And as an added bonus, in the on-line workshop they’ll do novel length mss, as opposed to the regular workshop which only does short stories. Here’s the link for the virtual workshop if you want to check it out: http://www.theclarionfoundation.org/vc-home.htm
They must have opened their doors a bit. I’m pretty sure it was only sf/fantasy at one point. I’ve heard it’s quite expensive, and it’s not like I can just take six weeks off of work to go down to the States for a writing workshop. Don’t think I could swing the wife on that one, no matter how much she supports my career. :)
Thanks for the link to the online version. It’s definitely worth looking into.