I loved this "rumble" of thoughts in this column. Congrats on a very provocative piece of writing - it is the kind of commentary I miss when not taking classes.
I sadly admit to falling into a reading rut since retirement. I have a l.o.n.g. list of your recommendations to pick me up: thank you! And thanks to the Tribune for giving you this forum.
havent written to you before but i was so taken with this wks column that i had to tell you thanks
i have a friend who belongs to writing groups and tells me her experiences, your own views of the nyt story really caught me and i will forward your article to her, now to read the nyt piece as well, cant be any better than your own story
Writer's workshops can be good or bad experiences, and can also be a trap. I've been in a couple of such where a few of the attendees only ever wrote stories to bring to the workshop and had little to no interest in trying to find a market or a wider audience for them. That's fine for them, but it doesn't lead to a positive feeling for the group as a whole. The best such workshops are strongly led by a real practitioner of the art who is able to encourage the attendees to bravely accept tough criticism by letting them see that such criticism isn't a personal attack.
John, twenty years ago I had the privilege of being in the room with you as we tried to negotiate the terms of what would be for each of us our first professional publishing contract. And at multiple times during that process, one of the many people we were dealing with would try to push some small advantage that didn't seem fair to us, but which also seemed so inconsequential that pushing back against it would escalate the issue unnecessarily (this is one of many reasons why writers should get agents, which we would both eventually do). We had a mantra every time this happened--we would put the phone on hold and scream "WHY CAN'T EVERYBODY BE COOL!!" I thought a lot about WCEBC! when I was reading the Bad Art Friend story. Both of these people seem to have acted badly in one way or another, but they have let it escalate in a way that is not at all commensurate with the actual offenses, and now there are bad consequences for both that were totally avoidable (not to mention the fact that we all know about it now). This is why writers are fascinated with the story, though, don't you think? Small bad events that spiral needlessly into big and terrible ones are often the basis for great stories.
I loved this "rumble" of thoughts in this column. Congrats on a very provocative piece of writing - it is the kind of commentary I miss when not taking classes.
I sadly admit to falling into a reading rut since retirement. I have a l.o.n.g. list of your recommendations to pick me up: thank you! And thanks to the Tribune for giving you this forum.
havent written to you before but i was so taken with this wks column that i had to tell you thanks
i have a friend who belongs to writing groups and tells me her experiences, your own views of the nyt story really caught me and i will forward your article to her, now to read the nyt piece as well, cant be any better than your own story
Writer's workshops can be good or bad experiences, and can also be a trap. I've been in a couple of such where a few of the attendees only ever wrote stories to bring to the workshop and had little to no interest in trying to find a market or a wider audience for them. That's fine for them, but it doesn't lead to a positive feeling for the group as a whole. The best such workshops are strongly led by a real practitioner of the art who is able to encourage the attendees to bravely accept tough criticism by letting them see that such criticism isn't a personal attack.
John, twenty years ago I had the privilege of being in the room with you as we tried to negotiate the terms of what would be for each of us our first professional publishing contract. And at multiple times during that process, one of the many people we were dealing with would try to push some small advantage that didn't seem fair to us, but which also seemed so inconsequential that pushing back against it would escalate the issue unnecessarily (this is one of many reasons why writers should get agents, which we would both eventually do). We had a mantra every time this happened--we would put the phone on hold and scream "WHY CAN'T EVERYBODY BE COOL!!" I thought a lot about WCEBC! when I was reading the Bad Art Friend story. Both of these people seem to have acted badly in one way or another, but they have let it escalate in a way that is not at all commensurate with the actual offenses, and now there are bad consequences for both that were totally avoidable (not to mention the fact that we all know about it now). This is why writers are fascinated with the story, though, don't you think? Small bad events that spiral needlessly into big and terrible ones are often the basis for great stories.