Good morning, everyone…
A generation ago, when “Annie Hall” won the Oscar for Best Picture, talk therapy occupied a prominent place in our collective imagination, whether or not you partook. If you wanted to spend several hours a week baring your soul to a stranger who was professionally obligated to listen and react, you went into therapy. Today you join a writing workshop.
I love the craft of writing – whether it is writing the words that compose a simple text message, a long email catch up with a friend, a posted comment to an Op-Ed in the Times, a business letter, a personal essay, a novel, or even a simple G+ post. What is often the most difficult thing to write is the personal note – telling someone we love them, we miss them, that they matter to us, they they have hurt us, or admitting that we have hurt them… and then apologizing.
The creative, intellectual, exploratory and emotional journey a writer takes often leaves me slack-jawed, because it takes courage to lay it all bare. It doesn’t matter whether it’s fiction or nonfiction, there is no way to write without examining one’s life and history, coming to terms with one’s emotions and beliefs, trotting out one’s sense of humor and stash of anger, sometimes being coy, charming and seductive, sometimes flat out nasty, sarcastic and cynical.
While there are those in the traditional publishing world who bemoan its diminished reputation and are fearful of the encroaching power of e-publishing, blogging and a veritable spate of online rags, mags and zines, I champion what seems to be an effort, whether conscious or not, to reinvent the social media version of the long-lost art of letter writing. Granted personal letters were, well… personal, and what is written for social media consumption is well… public to a great degree, but if writing online in a social media venue gets people communicating and commenting, then I champion, and herald, and second it.
No need for a stamp. No need for a slick of saliva across the gluey flap of an envelope. No need to head for the shrink’s couch. Instead, read Steve Almond’s Why Talk Therapy is on the Wane and Writing Workshops Are on the Rise and dive into the art of literary nonfiction or fiction or poetry yourselves. The point is not to saddle yourself with the goal or aim or ambition of becoming a published writer. The point is much more simple: to write. I communicate, therefore I am.
I don’t care what anyone says – Writing is therapy. And thank God for that.
Have a great week, all…and thanks for reading.
Giselle
March 26, 2012 at 1:46 pm
Leland LeCuyer just wrote in another venue a reminder to someone who was worried that her therapy (she’s a therapist) was not active enough…and in Greek, he told her, the word “therapy” comes from “to act.” That writing is action has always seemed very real to me.
That said, I would say that there is a lot that can be gained from talk therapy too: depends on the problem and on the therapist.
“Talking much about oneself can be a way to hide oneself.” (–Nietzsche) so what one gets out of writing (and probably therapy too) depends a great deal on the writer’s ethics, authenticity, purpose.
Those words that resonate with me are words that resonate in me: the writer has bared something that I did not want to see, forgot or am delighted to realize.
I once had the opportunity of visiting a relative’s therapist to whom she had been going for over ten years. I went as an invited “visitor” to her therapy. I had known her as a child and I knew she had been brutally beaten by her brother regularly. The first thing I asked the doctor was, “So what do you make of her brother?”
He responded, “She has a brother?”
March 26, 2012 at 2:09 pm
Something is changing in me, and it has a lot to do with all the writing that has escaped my troubled mind for so long. Each of you has played a part in lighting a path.
Giselle, you are definitely on to something. There is currently more emphasis on numbers, SEO, et cetera. This “core” of self-organized friends is different. Among your readers, there must be many gatherings of people who are sharing within a few groups that represent their core.
In the days before this platform took hold, my groups were family (Facebook), work (eMail), strangers (Twitter) and business (LinkedIn). This is something far more and particularly divergent from that recent past.
How about this? Writer workshops on Google?
Have a fabulous day everyone.
G+
March 26, 2012 at 2:22 pm
Jack C Crawford I’d say “writer workshops on Google” is what Google Plus IS!
March 26, 2012 at 2:33 pm
Back when dinosaurs walked the earth (or thereabouts), there was a Science-Fiction Writer’s Workshop on CompuServe, where the wait to get in could be over a year. Participants would write a short story; the faculty – all published authors and the formidable Sasha Miller – would critique that work, along with your fellow students. One of the professionals would also put up a story for the class to go over.
I have to admit, it was an eye-opening experience (and also a bit humbling), but I see no reason why we couldn’t make something like this happen on G+.
Felicia Day David Brin, any guidance/caveats?
March 26, 2012 at 2:37 pm
There’s a lot of merit in what Steve Almond wrote, but I was bit alarmed at what seemed to be a mostly positive depiction of MFA programs. I did not earn a MFA degree, but my English dept., where I earned my MA, had a very highly rated MFA program. I question how “therapeutic” it was for some of my friends in it. For one thing, tuition for some of these programs is astronomically high, making talk therapy (not cheap either) seem like a bargain. I remember a visiting prospective student checking out my university’s MFA program seriously torn between attending my school, which at least offered fellowships and tuition remission, and going to a university only slightly higher ranked, that did not. To boot, the latter was in very expensive NYC. The poor, deluded fellow was looking at some serious debt in just two years time all in the name of writing poetry–hardly an occupation that pays the bills. That is, unless, after earning that shiny MFA he was able to get a book published, notice and hired in the publishing field or taken on as a fulltime prof. Only a handful of such students achieve such. And therein lies another issue: the professors in MFA programs. The majority of them (as is the case in a lot of academia) are hired more for their publishing record and less for their ability to teach. Indeed, many instructors are writers first, teachers second (and not therapists either). Some even privately have contempt for some of their students; others express such openly. Add to all that, MFA programs (like a lot of grad programs in other fields) can be a hotbed of neuroses and fragile egos, and on top of it, students are earning grades for putting down sometimes deeply personal experiences. Between debt and rejection, I would suggest some need therapy after going thru the MFA ringer! Having said all that, there are a lot of crummy therapists out there too. And, I do think writing can be therapeutic. If I were to do a writing workshop, I’d take one at a community center or at a community college where the academic pressure and professional striving are at a lower bar.
March 26, 2012 at 3:30 pm
Bob Lai Isn’t that sort of what we are doing?
March 26, 2012 at 3:33 pm
The writer’s workshop was much more formalized. 😀
March 26, 2012 at 3:38 pm
Kena Herod As a community college professor, thank you! ;’) And what I love, love, love about my job is that I do NOT have to deal with all the academic BS (even though I do write academic papers, etc., my college could care less). I am rated by how well my courses are received by my students. Interesting note: I teach philosophy now, but spent a number of years teaching psychology and once I had to sub for a co-teacher. Her class was reading aloud their varying essays. The first person gave an essay that I thought very personal, a little too much private information, and the purpose of the essay seemed to be answering some kind of therapy questions. I dug a little deeper into the original assignment and learned (to my shock) that this teacher was actually practicing group therapy and not teaching the subject at hand. When the next student started reading about how her father was still raping her (!), I closed down the class and got together with the teacher and helped her understand the ethics (lack thereof) involved in what she was doing. Not only did she not have a license to practice, but these kids did not have the support system that such groups create for therapeutic purposes. I’m pretty certain she did whatever she wanted. And I’ll bet there are plenty of profs out there who do not know “the line.”
March 26, 2012 at 3:39 pm
Bob Lai I understand and agree. And I think we’d have to do it in Google Groups rather than on G+. Just sayin’ that there has been a great deal of wonderful prose going around these circles!!!!!
March 26, 2012 at 3:52 pm
Taking a coffe break, but must chime in to say that, quite aside from the issue of MFA programs or traditional therapy, I absolutely without question think the arts – all of them – are therapeutic in profoundly personal and different ways for each person. That does not mean that they are a replacement for talking to someone when that needs to happen or an escape from the necessity of doing it where there might be fear. But an art form being therapeutic is part of its inherent nature. As is commonly said in the theatre world: one is only as good an actor as one is an observer of life and to do that you have to be vulnerable and open. I would say the same about writing: one is only as good a writer as one is an observer of life and as one is capable of being honest with oneself. You cannot write literary nonfiction without being truthful…because um…then it would be fiction, not nonfiction.
All that said although I opted out of an MFA program because I was not interested in any program I came across, I know many people who have gone and loved it. I know those who have not and regretted it. There are good and bad writers, and good and bad teachers and I don’t think MFA writing programs either win or lose on the amount of Academic BS or neurosis or power trips that are played.
That stuff is everywhere in school, including kindergarten. Back much later…
March 26, 2012 at 3:56 pm
This struck a nerve Meg Tufano “but these kids did not have the support system that such groups create for therapeutic purposes….And I’ll bet there are plenty of profs out there who do not know ‘the line.’ ” I think that could be applied to how folks reveal themselves in published writing as well as non-professional writers on social media. I’ve read some writing on Salon.com and other sites by professional writers who reveal such deeply personal thoughts and events that I can’t help but think, “are they prepared for strangers to comment?” and in a few months from now, “how will they feel about revealing such to the world–forever on the internet?” If there is one advantage to therapy (with a good therapist at least) as opposed to writing for public consumption or in a writing workshop, one is assured of privacy, a privacy that may not seem important in the moment of writing but might become so down the road.
March 26, 2012 at 3:58 pm
Giselle Minoli Love the part about Kindergarten! ;’) “One is only as good a writer as one is an observer of life and as one is capable of being honest with oneself.” Amen!
March 26, 2012 at 4:05 pm
Kena Herod Excellent point. And one that I have been assiduously focusing on here: where is the line? I have rewritten many things I’ve posted to leave out stories that are others to tell.
Another Story About Therapy in Classrooms
I happen to be an expert in dream interpretation (long story ;’)) and when I was teaching Intro to Psych, we’d get to Depth Psychology, and students would ask me to interpret their dreams. I’d tell them that it is unethical for me to do that both because I am not a licensed therapist (I am WAY too empathetic to be helpful to people in crisis) etc. Well, one student just would not stop. Before class, after class, she pestered, pestered, pestered. So, one day, after class I had her stay behind. OK, I will do it just this once and you will understand why I cannot do it in class.
She tells me a dream that, simplified, she walks into a pizza restaurant and throws her wedding ring in the garbage can.
“What does a pizza parlour mean to you?” (Dream interpretation is like philosophy, it’s all questions.)
“Well, my husband works in a pizza parlour.”
And then she gasps. And immediately realizes what was obvious to me (dream interpretation really isn’t all that hard, the dreamer interprets her dream).
“OK, I get it!!!!!” ;’) And she never asked me again.
March 26, 2012 at 4:11 pm
I am plussing all of these comments. Each has one or more jewels worth deeper reflection. In follow-up to my earlier comments, the value I have found through reading and writing here is based on the coalescence of small groups via the volition of each of us as individuals.
It’s relatively safe due to the collective engagement in open and transparent exchanges. Even the one on one discussions are superior to email because of the ability to control each thread and the benefit of keeping that thread off the thousands of email forwarding servers that transmit mail from point a to point b.
Community, controls and convenience add considerable change to our consciousness. (IMHO)
March 26, 2012 at 4:18 pm
Meg Tufano It is indeed a fine line as to what we reveal and how we respond to those who open themselves up to us, isn’t it?
March 26, 2012 at 4:35 pm
Side note: Oddly there was a considerable lag for me in Giselle Minoli and Jack C Crawford latest comments. Either my computer or G+ is glitchy today. Interesting and valuable thread this one so far.
March 26, 2012 at 4:40 pm
Kena Herod That’s ok Kena. Gave me time to fix my typos!
March 26, 2012 at 4:44 pm
Thank you, Meg Tufano, for bringing this fine topic to my attention. With my internet access so restricted these days, I am following my newfound friends on G+ primarily through the notification manager. That said, having the opportunity to write about my friend and the emotions of both of us confronting mortality has provided me much comfort and strength. Putting into words how I feel forces me to come to terms with my own insecurity and uncertainty, making it possible to simply accept whatever comes and, equally important, accept myself with all my flaws and shortcomings and inconsistencies.
The end of your first comment, Meg Tufano — He responded, “She has a brother?” — brought me a chill. It reminds me of the moment when my therapist, Lynn Bever, turned the tables on me asking me why I hadn’t mentioned my father. We are blind to what is closest to ourselves. Blindest of all to ourselves. By writing we expose ourselves to others — and sometimes to ourselves. Steve Faktor, in his Ideafaktory blog, once compared Facebook and Google, arguing that “Facebook knows the image you want to project to the world,” whereas “Google knows your dark, ugly, dirty truths,” revealed by your search history. So too with G+: we can either write to project a positive image or to get at the truth. The former perpetuates an illusion, the latter shatters it. Having online friends like you helps me pick up the shattered pieces and metamorph into what I would like to become. Thank you, Giselle Minoli, Jack C Crawford, David Amerland, Meg Tufano, and especially Rhonda LeCuyer for being with me by reading and replying to what I write.
March 26, 2012 at 4:51 pm
Leland LeCuyer I really only know one way to be happy: love what is. WHEN I can be in that state? I find that what I might think are the wrinkles and dark sides just don’t have that heavy feeling anymore. Facing what is is the quickest way to a state of happiness that I know. It is, however, a very demanding way to live, but not nearly as demanding as the alternative (denial). The thing about the latter way of living is that the truth does always come through, but if you have not been facing it and are out of practice? OUCH! So much more suffering.
March 26, 2012 at 5:03 pm
Love, like everything else in this world, is never perfect. Coming to terms with the ways I fall short in love is one of the lessons I am in the process of learning. But the key to love is not its perfection so much as its tolerance — even unconditional acceptance — of imperfection.
March 26, 2012 at 5:09 pm
A quote (I’m not sure who ‘SSB’ is) posted by my friend Jim Sinclair on his gold blog (http://jsmineset.com) this morning. Just FYI, he has shared in the past that Buddhism is a big part of his life. I’ve seen it in his perspective over the years.
“People are bereft of gratitude, which is not right. One should be grateful for the help they have received from others as long as one is alive. There are two things you must forget: the help you have rendered to others and the harm others have done to you. If you remember the help you have rendered, you will always expect something in return. Remembrance of the harm done to you by others generates in you a sense of revenge. You should remember only the help you received from others.”
–SSB”
March 26, 2012 at 5:12 pm
Except for the middle initial, I’d have said ‘Siddartha Buddha’
March 26, 2012 at 5:15 pm
Aha!
March 26, 2012 at 5:19 pm
Bob Lai I should have “googled” it first … looks like Sathya Sai Baba
from a website “Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba was born on the 23rd day of November 1926, at a quiet little village, Puttaparthi, in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh …”
March 26, 2012 at 5:36 pm
Mind-blowing thread! Well worth the time I spent reading it here. In a different life, one summer, I ran a writing course for students at Macclesfield College in Cheshire (UK tot he rest of the world). The central theme running through it was that a writer needs to reflect himself or the world and he cannot do either well unless he delves into the deep of what it is that makes him tick. Great thoughts everyone.
March 26, 2012 at 5:42 pm
Jack C Crawford I have worn a Sai Baba gold charm around my neck for years. He was a wise man.
March 26, 2012 at 5:44 pm
I am learning every day. I’m grateful for that. I’m also grateful for the people at Google who built this “platform.”
March 26, 2012 at 5:57 pm
Wow Giselle Minoli you really have struck such a chord;and this is exactly what differentiates G+ from all other social networks. You are an incredible writer by the way. All of the comments in this stream are terrific! What a great group! Happy Monday to all!
March 26, 2012 at 6:00 pm
Jack C Crawford I agree with you, especially when it comes to Giselle Minoli’s threads. I learn from hers and those of others. My use of G+ (at least I hope!) has been undertaken to be mostly (if not always) positive in what I post and how I respond to threads (and if I am negative, I hope I come across as civil, fingers crossed). I think that there is a real benefit to social media to us all, but it is all in the way we use it. To get back to Giselle’s point that writing can be therapeutic, for me, just reading and writing on threads such as this one has something of that benefit. And +1 to Kim Crawford M.D. comment on Giselle’s writing!
March 26, 2012 at 6:02 pm
And I am too busy here in the office to be as verbose as I wish but suffice it to say I also have read Jack C Crawford ‘s comments and agree and yes yes yes Kena Herod and nice to see YOU today!
March 26, 2012 at 6:04 pm
Thanks Cuz!
March 26, 2012 at 6:06 pm
Hey U 😉
March 26, 2012 at 6:08 pm
I printed this quote on a sheet of paper 15+ years ago (did they have computer printers back then? I forget.) It’s been framed and posted in our kitchen since then:
“Good morning! This is God! I will be handling all your problems. I will not need your help. So, have a good day.”
March 26, 2012 at 6:09 pm
Oh wow how cool is that Jack C Crawford !
March 26, 2012 at 6:12 pm
Nice to see you too Kim Crawford M.D. !
March 26, 2012 at 6:14 pm
I’m feeling inspired. I declare this post threadjacked by #InspirationMonday (sorry Giselle! Giselle Minoli )
From Selina Ray ‘s website (http://theselinarayshow.com)”
“As your faith is strengthened you will find that there is no longer the need to have a sense of control, that things will flow as they will, and that you will flow with them, to your great delight and benefit.”
— Emmanuel Teney
March 26, 2012 at 6:27 pm
Tingles
March 26, 2012 at 7:02 pm
Mid-afternoon green juice break. Apologies for not having the time at the moment to respond individually but I will later. In my own life at the moment I’m not sure there is a more important topic. I have a theory that there are no accidents and no coincidences. That things happen in our lives for multitudes of unseen reasons and that doors open everywhere and we either choose to step through them or not. Life is Alice Through the Looking Glass.
I do not know if it possible, once someone has committed to put brush to canvas, toe shoe to sprung floor, mouth to reed, fingers to keyboard or pen to paper not to reveal oneself and manage to create anything of worth in that state of non-revealing. The artistic trick is to peel back the layers of the onion and ask: What is my purpose here? If it’s to tell a universal story – an Everyman story – the writer will tell it in one way, using a certain kind of language. If it is to tell a confessional story – another skill, another set of words and another tone will be used. Because writing has so thoroughly fallen off the charts as a skill, people have forgotten the multitudes of styles that can be applied to it, just as in the theatre, where there is classical, farce, comedy, drawing room comedy, drama, melodrama, musicals, etc. So, too, with music: there is classical, jazz, pop, rock, fusion, improv… War Horse on the stage, although the same story, was different than War Horse on film. How the directors got to where they were going was different.
So…I’m not so sure about the don’t reveal anything too personal on the internet theory. Some stories, in order to be real, in order to be truthful, must be nitty gritty. And were it to be written in a book that was published traditionally, such as Bastard Out of Carolina, I’m not sure anyone would caution that writer not to be so revealing. I think people have to be conscious. They have to ask themselves: What is my purpose here over and over and over again. There is a difference between knee jerk text messaging and writing. One implies no thought, while the other implies thoughtfulness and mindfulness. Big difference.
March 26, 2012 at 7:12 pm
This truly is an inspiring thread! Thank you Giselle Minoli and to you… Jack C Crawford and all the comments! What a fantastic way to begin the week! Namasteॐ
March 26, 2012 at 7:13 pm
Kena Herod Yes, it’s a fine line. But it also is something that we have to recognize might involve some risk, or at least some vulnerability. There’s a line in a poem somewhere (I forget where), “Love’s not love until love’s vulnerable.” Now I’m not saying we’re running around loving one another (that’s to be seen), but something of value is being created, and that something might be close to what Plato talks about when he talks about discussing ideas. He says that there must be eros for those ideas to really come alive. He doesn’t mean “erotic,” it’s that Platonic love that has been so misunderstood through the centuries. So, to repeat, there is a line, but then there’s also the vulnerability that honesty brings with it. (I’m not talking about TMI (which I pretty much consider to be telling things about OTHER people that are not ours to tell), but, rather the honesty Giselle Minoli was talking about that is what the best of writing endeavors to achieve.
March 26, 2012 at 7:19 pm
Jack C Crawford I love that line on your wall. I have a tendency when talking in a conversation to try to answer all the questions in my head at the same time (that is a LOT of questions) and I have heard myself answer: “Who gave YOU this job?” That is, it’s not my job to figure everything out, my job might be (as Buddha might say) to go make dinner! ;’)
March 26, 2012 at 7:37 pm
What a wonderful comment Meg Tufano! Your teaching of philosophy shines thru (I modestly happen to have not just a BA in English but also in philosophy). Vulnerability and honesty for sure as you mentioned (your point on Eros well taken–see philosopher Martha Nussbaum, if you haven’t, on this issue in terms of Plato). I would add “reflection” to that though in social media we all respond rather quickly (and that can be okay too!). What I love about about Giselle Minoli’s posts (and those of other favorite G+ers) is not just the honesty but the feeling I get that she, like others, has thought thru enough of what she has written and that quality engenders often equally thoughtful comments (like yours and those of others here) even though most of us are flying by the seat of our pants in responding! What an interesting thread this is–I’ve been here on G+ since the second week of its existence but have never participated this much on a thread before.
March 26, 2012 at 8:48 pm
Kena Herod Well, we have! ;’) I cannot remember when this group first met but we have had a wonderful time discussing ideas ever since. I tend to be more of a responder than a poster (I do like to post photos) but a nice group of us have found one another and we happen to like to read and talk about what we’re thinking. I, personally, cannot think of a greater treasure to have if you’re a reader or writer. As David Amerland occasionally will say (while he’s in the midst of getting a manuscript ready for publication), we’re here because we’re spending a lot of time in our own thoughts and having some responses here helps us enjoy thinking and writing with a whole lot more enthusiasm.
March 26, 2012 at 11:32 pm
Giselle ….. are you there?
Giselle Minoli
March 26, 2012 at 11:35 pm
Meg Tufano Dead on! Just past the witching hour where I am and without G+ to dip in and out I am pretty sure I’d be brain dead by now!
March 27, 2012 at 12:59 am
I am speechless. I feel slightly naughty…and voyeurish. You are all so interesting and self-entertaining, I think I’ll just step to the back of the theatre and watch from the back row if you don’t mind. (Actually Jack C Crawford I went flying and took pix…of the sliver Moon and Venus.)
March 27, 2012 at 1:03 am
Let me explain my “voyeur” comment. There’s an old saying in the theatre (among directors) that you put a show together, cast it, direct it and there comes a point when the cast just sort of kicks you out and takes over the show and it’s such a weird feeling but also wonderful. Of course this isn’t the same thing at all, but it’s amazing to me how so many people who don’t know one another can just show up at a moment in time on someone’s post (whether it’s mind or someone else’s) and get to know one another and then slip off into the darkness again. It’s called site specific theater and G+ feels like that to me. All this improving going on. All this story-telling going on. Very like the seminar tables in a way at St. John’s…+Meg Tufano…and I imagine your own classroom. Hello everyone, thank you for giving so much of yourself in this post today. I really appreciate it. I have to catch up!
March 27, 2012 at 1:05 am
Soar Giselle Minoli! Soar …
March 27, 2012 at 1:08 am
Giselle Minoli Aren’t we lucky to have had this IRL? I cannot get over how similar this is to St. John’s (generally speaking). The idea that discussing the ideas was the most important thing, and our personal selves, maybe not so much. (Tho that too.) Been a fascinating day where I did not do all the things that David Amerland encouraged me to do yesterday when he was interviewed on the radio (the disciplines of writing). But a part of me is just sitting in the back row too (even when I’m contributing). I do not know where this is going, who I’m going with, what is really happening.
But I know this: we are seeing the future and it isn’t looking so bad. ;’)
March 27, 2012 at 1:25 am
I just posted a pic of what I was doing when you all were so capably and articulately and feelingfully carrying on without me. Warms my heart it does….
March 27, 2012 at 1:34 am
This thread has been been a first me in terms of participation of engagement on a thread. (Call it time I have on my hands today–I’m usually late to Giselle’s postings!) It’s been positive. The discourse here has been civil, and dare I say, rather positive! I think that is because Giselle Minoli sets the right tone, strikes the right note, one could say. I have seen, though, including today, a couple of other threads on G+ that got snarky and frankly belittling to folks from places on G+ I thought I would have never seen such. I go back to this of what Giselle said in her post, “I communicate, therefore I am.” Seeing negativity makes me even more determined to try for the positive–or if I have criticism to express, to be civil and mindful of others. I thank all of you who have been on this thread and Giselle Minoli most of all for so often making a good place to discuss ideas. Yes, reading–and writing (the point of her post!)–are beneficial!
March 27, 2012 at 1:43 am
Giselle’s picture https://plus.google.com/104028329852681318179/posts/PzetdPe11jk
March 27, 2012 at 2:30 am
Kena Herod I cannot tell you how much I appreciate those words of encouragement. I am very aware we live in a scary world with a lot of negativity and suspicion and cynicism. And people are frightened to death about privacy issues and the environment that is created can be very hard to cut through. But I made a commitment to myself to be the writer on G+ that I am professionally and to do everything I could possibly do to encourage that civility. But it is a choice and not an accident and I am conscious of it because I do not want my life to be controlled by the voices of suspicion and negativity. I think having a column and my own website helps, because it carries over. And, who knows, maybe you’ve just been dipping your toe in and now that you’ve moved and feel a bit more settled are ready to do a little more investigating. All I can say is that the intelligence level here is a constant and pleasant surprise. So…it’s not just me. I can’t and don’t do it alone….
March 27, 2012 at 2:54 am
Disclaimer: I read every word of Giselle Minoli ‘s comments before I plus one them. Also, I always plus one her comments.
My name is Jack C Crawford and I approve this message.
March 27, 2012 at 2:59 am
I am very grateful for my one person cheering squad of Jack C Crawford. (Psssstt… I pay him to write things like this.)
March 27, 2012 at 10:48 am
I’ve just now, in the peace and quiet of the early morning, had a chance to read back through all of your comments and wanted to just say a few things about the exchange between Kena Herod and Meg Tufano about MFA programs and teachers and the process through which we learn and become who we are (and David Amerland you’re included in this, too).
Just like in the acting world where some people go to League Schools, others work their way up through Off Off Broadway theatre or come out of regional theatre or independent films. So too with writing, some come out of MFA programs but many, many others do not. In our culture now I think there is a fear of not having a degree because some think it grants automatic entry into a particular world. The danger, whether a writer goes through one of these programs or does not, is in having one’s voice tampered with by people who shouldn’t be tampering with it.
Recently at a dinner I heard a writing “teacher” proclaim: cross out every adjective and adverb and write short crisp sentences, and I said, “Really? That works for Cormac McCarthy, but have you ever read Gabriel Garcia Marquez? His sentences can go on for pages upon pages.” It’s easy to come up with rules. Don’t start sentences with “and” or “but.” But jazz pianists don’t think that way. And choreographers bend rules all the time.
Writers are different, each one from the other. Going on an archaeological dig for one’s authentic style is the hardest task at hand. Be careful the company you keep while you’e digging.
March 27, 2012 at 3:58 pm
Giselle Minoli Excellent advice. And FYI, I hated Cormac McCarthy’s latest book (The Road) and wrote a review which you can read here:
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=102PSayXjp0q_4ofeYvPU1YXKRuuXeRMpBeWgvpc2mfE
March 27, 2012 at 5:14 pm
Giselle Minoli Emma did some translation work for a medical company a year ago. The product was patient support materials in various languages. Her requirement was to write it at fourth grade reading level which had specific guidelines for “short, crisp sentences.” So, the next time you hear a television advertisement or read a popular checkout stand news magazine, such as The Enquirer , you will understand why.
And, my favorite mag today is The Atlantic by the way.
March 27, 2012 at 5:43 pm
Jack C Crawford My favorite mag too. My husband, on the other hand, can’t stand it because every article is a commitment ! ;’)
March 29, 2012 at 12:20 pm
Whenever a young writer tells me the “lessons” of good writing that they have been “taught,” such as: don’t start sentences with “and” or “but,” or cross out all the adjectives and adverbs in your prose, I’m prone to saying things like: why don’t you start every single sentence you write with “but,” “yet,” “so,” or “and” and see where that leads you? Why don’t you make every sentence so chock full of adverbs and adjectives that you can’t even find the verb and subject anymore…and see where that leads you?
When I was a jewelry designer my model maker was this young woman who’d graduated from Parsons. She was quite talented and was prone to having a meltdown whenever I asked her to do something that she had been “taught” in school couldn’t be done. She actually thanked me years later for forcing her to go back to her creative roots and confessed that all of her metalsmithing teachers would only allow the students to do what they, the teachers, thought was beautiful or interesting, which was often (suspiciously) things that looked exactly like their own work.
Only the best and wisest of teachers are able to get out of the way of the student so that their talent emerges, not the disguised intentions of the teacher. Sort of like stage mommies.