{"id":4255,"date":"2018-11-18T07:45:11","date_gmt":"2018-11-18T12:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/?p=4255"},"modified":"2018-11-19T09:32:04","modified_gmt":"2018-11-19T14:32:04","slug":"have-you-been-dissed-by-a-writing-professor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/have-you-been-dissed-by-a-writing-professor\/","title":{"rendered":"Have You Been Dissed By A Writing Professor?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It happened to Harlan Ellison who was one of our most prolific and influential science fiction writers. He published 1700 short stories and over 50 books, writing scripts for Outer Limits<\/em> and Star Trek<\/em> among other shows. His work influenced James Cameron when he filmed Terminator<\/em>, and that\u2019s just a start when it comes to his cultural impact.<\/p>\n

But when Ellison attended Ohio State University, a professor passed judgment and said he had no talent for writing. Irascible even as an undergraduate, Ellison punched his professor and was expelled.<\/p>\n

I’m not defending Ellison’s response, but if you think a professor wouldn\u2019t feel the need to be so harsh and unequivocal you\u2019d be wrong.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve known creative writing professors who treat students like dirt. One was notorious for humiliating students by telling them their work was “shit.” He could make students cry or tremble with fear. Another would only let favorite students read aloud, clearly sending the same ugly message to everyone else in her class. These professors are not anomalies: I know from sources across the country that dissing student writing is a commonplace in creative writing workshops at the undergraduate and graduate level. A good friend was told she would never publish because she apparently hadn\u2019t “suffered enough.” Soon afterwards, she had a story accepted at a fine literary magazine.<\/p>\n

I loved the community of writers in my MFA program, but got poleaxed by a professor. A story that I thought was a breakthrough was demolished by my workshop, and then the professor delivered the coup de gr\u00e2ce. He said it was nothing new and the kind of thing I could write in my sleep.\u00a0 It was devastating.<\/p>\n

A few weeks later it won first prize in the program\u2019s writing contest which was judged by a famous editor. When I shared the brickbats from my workshop, she growled, \u201cDon\u2019t change a goddamned word!\u201d I then sold it for a lot of money to Redbook<\/em>, which at the time had 4.5 million readers, and the story launched my career as an author. My professor\u2019s comment at the next workshop? \u201cIt\u2019s still shit, but now it\u2019s shit with a prize.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taking writing workshops to develop and hone your craft is a good idea, but not everyone commenting on your work comes from a pace of creative nurturing and encouragement\u2013or even neutrality. Too many of them want to tear you down for whatever twisted reasons of their own. You don\u2019t have to punch out your professor or anyone who disparages your work, but it\u2019s wise to listen to all criticism with your shields up, as if you were in Star Trek<\/em>. Remember what Kirk says to Sulu: \u201cSteady as she goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lev Raphael is the author of 25 books in many genres, including the guide for writers, Writer\u2019s Block is Bunk. You can take writing workshops with him online at writewithoutborders.com<\/a>.\u201cStudying creative writing with Lev Raphael was like seeing Blade Runner for the first time: simply incredible.\u201d\u2014Kyle Roberts, MSU<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It happened to Harlan Ellison who was one of our most prolific and influential science fiction writers. He published 1700 short stories and over 50 books, writing scripts for Outer Limits and Star Trek among other shows. His work influenced James Cameron when he filmed Terminator, and that\u2019s just a start when it comes to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[298,95,1247,241,242,290,214,380,1219,495,132,206],"class_list":["post-4255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advice-for-writers","tag-advice-for-writers","tag-creative-writing-2","tag-creative-writing-workshops","tag-teaching","tag-teaching-creative-writing","tag-the-writers-life","tag-the-writing-life","tag-writers","tag-writewithoutborders-com","tag-writing","tag-writing-tips","tag-writing-workshops"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4255"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4262,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255\/revisions\/4262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.levraphael.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}