WRITING WILL SAVE YOU

Imagine my surprise when I attended a workshop billed as WRITER TO AGENT, with the promise that agents read your five page submission, but when the “Ask An Agent Anything” rolled around, one agent in particular told everyone that he preferred submissions that came from a referral, because that writer has put their entire faith in this writer.

My girlfriend laughed when he said this: “It sounds like they put more than faith in it!” 

I thought he must have forgotten where he was, a pay-a-fee-for-an-agent-to-see, OR deliberately he wants everyone to leave him alone, and stop submitting to him because he knows people, real writers, who send him real good writing. 

I found this troubling. I have been in more than one creative writing workshop when a writer told everyone later that the teacher had sent her manuscript to his agent and she got a contract.  

I keep imagining more honesty than was there in these kind of gatherings. Perhaps a better warning label: BE FOREWARNED THAT SOMEONE MIGHT BE LOOKED UPON FAVORABLY BY THE INSTRUCTOR AND YOUR PAYMENT INSURES NOTHING.

I can hear you saying “DUH. Everyone knows this is the game!” 

I don’t care.  I won’t ever stop writing or teaching or tutoring because right now everyone wants/needs help and everyone knows that writing well will save you. Better writers get hired in every field. Ask around.  The same conservatives who downplay a college degree put every one of their children in college.  EVERYONE who can afford a writing tutor hires one. 

I also know plenty of exceptional writers who won’t submit for students because it looks so bad.  

I also know writer professors who are the hardest working people on the planet because not only do they have to keep publishing creative writing, they teach writing and literature, and actually help their students by writing exceptionally clear notes, so they will hopefully succeed even without a referral.  

I missed plenty of train and bus stops in New York because my head was buried in an essay or manuscript and I was writing notes while travelling. 

I love this book, “The Art of Styling Sentences,” for that reason.  I have taught this book several times with good feedback.  My students were eager to learn how to craft sentences. I wish there were more books (publishing opportunity alert) like this one.