McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Night School. Will it be pennies well spent?

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Wordmaker:
I think that's the most important thing about writers' groups and classes. Building the confidence in yourself to commit to writing a book and getting it published. Too many great writers pack it in before they've given it a fair shot, and the only reason to quit before you've truly tested yourself is a lack of confidence.

Anei:
Yeah, when I was thinking about this discussion this morning, it occurred to me that a good writing group can accomplish the same exact thing without having to spend quite as much money (if my local community college is any indicator, and it's one of the largest in the US, you could easily spend $500 for one class only, while some local writing groups have dues around $75-90/year). Having some threat of a drop in my GPA helped me take it more seriously than I think I might have been able to on my own. I don't construe that as a lack of commitment or interest, more that I've got a lifetime of sidelining writing to get over. Also, not gonna lie, doing well in that class kind of felt like having an official stamp of approval from a professional, even though I know that logically, creative writing is very subjective and it would probably take a whole lot of doing nothing at all to do poorly in a class like that. Lots of writing groups have published authors in regular attendance, and people who are just as well-educated as someone at a local college.

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