Another good post at The Reading Experience on creative writing and literary criticism (aka critique). These posts have been very helpful to me in calming down my rebellious spirit and general dissatisfaction with both what is being published these days—especially in short story form—and what creative writing is all about.
I’m finding that I’ve really, after all these years, just started learning about literature, and have quite a long road to trek towards successfully producing something that is readable by literary standards, or perhaps, even the general reading population.
Perhaps textbooks in Creative Writing courses should quickly pass through the Hemingways and Munros, and concentrate more on the present. Perhaps they shouldn’t, focusing instead, as they do, on good writing skills and what makes a good story. I suppose, as in anything, if the basics are learned first, then we can go on to fuck with them.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology