Dear Theo and Ryan

Dear Theo and Ryan,

I've had you both as writing teachers in the past, Theo for a year in the UW Certificate in Memoir program and years after in her seminar classes and tutoring.  I've had Ryan for one six week course at the Hugo House.  While the amount of experience is different, I have been taught by both of you.

Ryan recently wrote an article published in The Stranger entitled:  "Things I can Say about MFA Writing Programs Now that I No Longer Teach in One."  Theo was upset at your attitude that people can't be taught to write.  I am trying to figure out who is right.

Having met Ryan and taken a class from him, I will say he isn't a bad guy.  Yet, I am somewhat surprised at what he wrote.  He is funny and the class was engaging.  Most of the class was crazy writing prompts to help us get our juices flowing.  For example, he brought in 30 pieces of random stuff from him apartment and we had to pick two and write a story.  Go.  After 10 minutes, we had to pick something else and work that into the story.  Go.  And again.

Were the exercises teaching me to write?  No.  Was it fun?  Yes.  Did I write something I otherwise would not have written?  Yes.  One could argue that no one taught Shakespeare to write.  He wrote in groups and had feedback from his audiences.  He didn't study Shakespeare because he was Shakespeare.  Shakespeare didn't have an MFA, but that doesn't mean teaching people to write is a waste of time.

Nevertheless, did I learn to write from taking writing classes?  Eh.  Have I learned to be a better writer from writing classes?  Absolutely.  Learning to write as an adult (and likely as a child) is an exercise is reading stuff that is considered good and then trying it yourself and getting feedback.  Are there techniques and craft that can be taught?  Yes.  Does it make someone a better writer?  Not by itself.  Ryan is right.  Writers need to spend time in the woodshed.  I don't think Theo would disagree.  The hardest part of writing as has been so often acknowledged is getting one's butt in the chair.  Like the Boy and his practice of the saxophone, he'll start out with the goal of practicing for ten minutes, and then forty-five minutes later I am telling him to put the horn away because dinner is on the table.  (Nothing like live music to help one's mood while cooking dinner.)  Try writing for ten minutes.  Likely you'll go for much, much longer.

Ryan made several points, some of which I agree, others I don't.

Writers are born with talent.  Perhaps they are, but if you never spend time in the woodshed, it won't happen.  I am sure there are lots of talented writers out there who have never written a word.  What does that mean?  A lot of writing is sweat.  Does sweat by itself make you a good writer?  No.  Writers still need something interesting and/or important to say.

I believe solid writing instruction can help people be better writers.  I'll look at the sample of people in my family.  When I was growing up, we learned tons of grammar in English classes.  My kids have learned how to capture small moments, how add details and how to structure a story.  My son is studying Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces in sixth grade.  Both of my kids are far better writers than I was at the same age, and I would argue it is due to how they were taught.  Why can't I learn these same things as an adult that I didn't learn thirty years ago?  Will my kids have a greater head start on writing the Great American Novel than I did?  Yes.

If you aren't a serous reader, don't expect anyone to read what you write.  I agree with this one.  Someone (I wish I remember where I heard this -- Ira Glass on NPR?) said that what makes a good artist is taste.  Within their medium, they know what is good and what is great.  They aspire to greatness.  You have to know the genre to know what is awesome and what isn't in order to do better.

No one cares about your problems if you are a shitty writer.  This is probably true, but there are exceptions.  Here Ryan suggests most memoirists are narcissists who want people to feel sorry for them.  I know several dozen people who are working on memoirs, and I only know one who is a bona fide narcissist.  I've known a few "shitty" writers who changed verb tenses every two sentences who had freaking awesome stories to tell.  Ryan argues that some people do use writing as therapy.  So what?  Writing is probably better than turning into an alcoholic.  If writing makes you feel better and doesn't bother anyone, isn't that a good thing?

If you didn't decide to take writing seriously by the time you were a teenager, you probably aren't going to make it.  The GOATs (Greatest of All Time) probably all loved writing since they were twelve but there is plenty of room in the world for the rest of us.  I am sure Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Victor Hugo loved writing as teens.  I am sure they had a large dose in talent, too.

While there might be problems with MFA programs, there is likely a difference between the potential of a writer and where they are when they decide to study to be writer.  How would Hugo and Garcia Marquez have faired in an MFA program in their early twenties?  These two people created their masterpieces when they were older, not while they were in their twenties and in an MFA program.  Hugo was born in 1802 and published Les Miserables in 1862.  Garcia Marquez was born in 1927, and published One Hundred Years of Solitude when he was forty.  Love in the Time of Cholera was published in 1985, when he was 58.


Finally, is the problem not with MFA programs or teaching adults to write, but with something else?  Perhaps the problem is with young people deciding what they want to do when they are twenty-something.  What can we expect of young people with no experience?  This probably applies to many people in many fields, not just MFA programs.  Many are foolish and don't have enough life experience to say anything interesting.

I know there are a few young folks out there who know what they want to do with their lives and have it all mapped out when they are 20.  Did Stephen Colbert?  No.  How did he end up?  Back in the day when I worked at a consulting firm, I knew a young man about my age who had an MBA.  (My guess is he was paid more than I was, which really frosts me, but I digress.)  He couldn't find a mistake in this column of numbers:

       $500K
+     $200K
____________
       $300K

Did he have an advanced degree?  Yes.  An ounce of common sense?  No.  Likewise, I had another colleague who wanted to "help with the strategy of the practice" three months into his first real job.  I am not saying we need to write these people off.  Instead, we need to let them grow up.  Do these folks exist in MFA programs, too?  Probably.

Back to the main point:  Does that mean we should stop trying to teach people to write?  I hope not.  If nothing else, taking a writing class can be emotionally satisfying and a great way to meet other writers.  At worst, we share a little piece of our soul with another person.  As E.M. Forster says at the beginning of Howards End "Only Connect."  At best, you never know.  One of us could become a GOAT.

Sincerely,
Lauren