From: mumble@nomail.invalid   
      
   On 06/13/2014 02:11 PM, William Vetter wrote:   
   > On Friday, June 13, 2014 7:32:16 AM UTC-4, mumble wrote:   
   >> On 06/12/2014 02:55 PM, William Vetter wrote:   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> I don't personally know anyone who just sat down at a keyboard and made   
   >>   
   >> it happen.  I /suspect/ that many of those who came generations before   
   >>   
   >> us did that, but that's only a suspicion and not anything backed by   
   >>   
   >> historic knowledge.   
   >>   
   > I saw an except from Mark Twain's first published story in a book about   
   writing from the 70's and I can't find it now.  I think the Public Library   
   discarded it.  He was trying to describe a riverboat being untied from a dock   
   and moving out into the    
   water, a very simple action sequence.  I can't describe how clunky it was, but   
   it was almost unreadable.  That was the point, to show what beginners are like.   
   >   
   >>   
   >>   
   >> These days there seem to be more "bestselling authors" who have   
   >>   
   >> published their first novel and found it to be a grand hit.   
   >   
   > People like Carl Sagan wrote _Contact_, already famous for other things?   
   >   
   >> Veronica   
   >>   
   >> Roth comes to mind here because I've been reading her first trilogy   
   >>   
   >> lately, but she went through a college program for "Creative Writing"   
   >>   
   >> according to the author-blurb.   
   >   
   > It is impossible for me to believe that a creative writing course would   
   teach somebody to be a professional author.  It is meant to a fun course for   
   students to write pieces in and is structured around exercises that can be   
   graded.  A lot of the people    
   who teach them are authors of some sort, and they may teach the students some   
   writing techniques.  Being a creative writing teacher is often listed on   
   authors' blurbs as a sort of resume item.   
   >   
      
   Yes, a creative writing course can only amount to some kind of   
   introduction, but the author-blurb I'm referring to said that she had   
   taken a *degree* in "Creative Writing".  I didn't realize there were   
   colleges with full degree programs in Creative Writing, but apparently   
   the world moves on whether we're watching it or not.  I can imagine a   
   four-year program that would go a great distance toward teaching someone   
   to be a writer of merit.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)