I was excited.
I had a few things to say to them.
They apprised me of the fact that they had both been lit majors. Yea, in the 1950's and 1960's. Had I, they wanted to know, been taught THE PROCESS FOR WRITING.
I said.
About one percent of the adult population of the United States buys ONE BOOK in a year. That book may be "How to repair your Volkswagon."
The best selling fiction is bodice rippers. Romances.
The number one topic in fiction or nonfiction on best selling lists is MURDER.
Very few people read books. Very few people are like me. I've read hundreds of books.
An "S and M" porn author with a trilogy that began on the internet, which resulted in some bad films as well, became rich on shit. Badly written. Horrible acting. Shock value lost on me. But because I wanted to understand the popularity, I read some of it.
AND
No matter how many classes I have taken, how many readings or question and answer sessions I've experienced in which audience members ask published authors about their recipe for success, there IS NO ONE WAY. You may hear that the person wrote their whole novel while taking a shower. Or that they are committed to 100 words a day. Or that they didn't write for years but then they sat down and it flowed. Or that they took a decade to write one book. THERE IS NO ONE WAY TO WRITE and NO ONE WAY TO LEARN TO WRITE. There is simply learning as you write.
And WOMEN are UNDERREPRESENTED and ALWAYS HAVE BEEN when it comes to getting agents and getting published. The stats against women writers are horrendous.
I forgot to say that in my Women's Literature class, within an esteemed Literature program that was judged to be about number 7 in the nation - something like that - when I attended - NOT ONE MALE GENDERED STUDENT took the class.
And so, you have to write because you have to write.
Without letting POLITICAL CORRECTNESS be your CENSORSHIP.
I couldn't write my own memoir and be politically correct.
This is the way writers and authors are being CRITIQUED. Not for their ability to write or tell a good story, but if they are writing in line with the current politically correctness. This is deadly if it happens in writing programs. It's deadly when it happens in publishing. So, no I've never read Harry Potter, but leave that author alone.
And so writers are, like the 'S and M porn author" publishing themselves.
And buying guns to protect themselves.
In this case, the two old lit majors just kept their mouths shut. I guess these strangers stopped talking to me, at least for a while.
C 2020 Christine Trzyna
All Rights Reserved
