Book Review and Author Interview: After The Workshop by John McNally
I was a media escort. With those five words, John McNally begins his fictional biography of Jack Hercules Sheahan, a once promising graduate of “The famous Iowa Writers Workshop”. Jack, is suffering one of the greatest bouts of writers-block and underachievement to come out of The Workshop since its founding in 1939. For those blessed (or cursed) with the need to write, the travails of Jack Hercules Sheahan will be, if not memories, nightmares and fears that keep one up at night. Jack, who had his story, “The Self-Adhesive Postage Stamp”, published in The New Yorker and selected for The Best American Short Stories prior to graduation from “The Workshop” has not written one word on his post-MFA novel in ten years.
Seven Things I learned in a Creative Writing MFA Program
1. No character ever stands in front of the mirror and narrates what he or she looks like. No matter how sexy, tortured, or intelligent he or she may be. 2. #1 also, sadly, includes rain-stained windows. 3. When one of your stories is being workshopped, if someone says “I– I just don’t get it,” [...]
How a Technique Stephenie Meyer Used in Writing her Twilight Novels Can Help Your Writing
Beginning stories and novels is always a challenge. Most beginnings are discarded eventually. Often, these ignoble starts bear no resemblance to the final product. This difficulty is, I believe, a direct result of the writer having an unclear idea of the story and of the characters who will populate their imaginary world. Stephenie Meyer, the [...]