Learning From the Best: How a Writing Course Can Change Your Life

In late 2005 I decided to apply to The Humber School for Writers. The program I desired was the Creative Writing by Correspondence course. The eight-month course which began in January 2006 forced me to question if I possessed the skills to write professionally. I quickly realized that the course was not for the faint of heart. Each student was assigned a mentor. The mentor’s role was to critique your submissions in order to hone your skills as a writer. My mentor was Lauren B. Davis, author of The Radiant City. I should mention the talent that comprised the faculty of mentors was astounding. Past mentors included Margaret Atwood, M.G. Vassanji, Carol Shields, Nino Ricci, Timothy Findley and Mordecai Richler.

Rejection, utter rejection of my work was what greeted my venture into the course. My mentor’s words were pleasant in her first email. Then her tone changed. She was not here to play the role many of my friends and family welcomed. She was not paid to love my work. She was not paid to entertain the notion that I was a good writer. Her role was to explicitly share her critique of why I wrote that particular story, paragraph, sentence or word. She picked apart my work without hesitation.

Near the middle of the course I began to dread my submission deadlines. I felt defeated. She must have sensed my lack of enthusiasm because she suggested that I take a break from the piece I was writing. It was one of her nicer emails, but it still floored me. Have people humored me with regards to my ability as a writer all of my life? Maybe… probably…yes.

That realization caused a rift in what I knew to be real in my life. From the age of three I was a storyteller. By five I could read and write. I never stopped. Here I was at 33 and not sure if I would ever write again.

I waited for that moment when the clouds part and the heavenly beam of light shines upon you and life once more becomes clear. I waited. Thankfully I am not patient, so I stopped waiting. I decided to swallow my pride and re-read all of Lauren’s emails. I re-read all of my work. Humility can lead to honesty if the time is right and you are ready.

I did not agree with all of her comments, but I began to understand them. The reason she was in my life was for me to become a better writer. From then on I paid greater attention to her homework, to the course, the texts and to my work.

“Vinnie” was born from one of those homework exercises, With Lauren’s mentorship, a character I came to love developed in my mind and on paper. As he grew, so did his story. The short story came together slowly but quickly gained momentum. Lauren helped me eliminate the fluff and steer my focus on the heart of my characters and their environment. The result was a piece of work I was proud to say I wrote.

What did my mentor think of my final submission?

Dear Giselle,

Well, you’ve pulled out all the stops for your final submission, I see! Well done. I had hoped you would set the story in a real neighborhood, one you were familiar with, but since you’ve removed the New York element, and left us in the purely fictional ‘Dawson’, it doesn’t worry me so much.
Your pacing is also much improved and you’ve restructured the flashbacks very well indeed. There’s lots of good tension in the piece, but you don’t sacrifice character! I’m very pleased with the rewritten sections.
One area where I really notice improvement is in the scene where Vinnie’s in the bath and overhears his parents and Uncle Joey talking. It is a terrific example of how to reveal character and conflict through dialogue. Compare this section to the very early submissions you made and you will see for yourself how you have improved.

The entire piece is much better now. My only suggestion is that you slow the narrative down just a tad so we get better picture of Joe. We do not see enough of him interacting with Vinnie before the fateful events of Friday night. I strongly encourage you either to expand one or two of the scenes you already have, or else add more scenes. I suggest you refer to the outline I suggested with your 9th submission. Thus far you have the 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5th scenes, but you haven’t shown us the 6th plus scenes I suggested, wherein we see Joe beginning to ’seduce’ Vinnie. As presently written, it comes upon the reader too quickly and because we don’t have a true sense of who Joe is, the potency of the final scene suffers. You have so improved the character portraits of Vinnie, his mother and his father, why not do the same with Joe?

I love the bit about the love letters from another woman, by the way. I also couldn’t help but wonder if Joey was really Dan’s son? Because you make such a point of saying how little he looks like his father, I wondered if we might find out his biological father was someone else. Just an observation. There’s also that odd remark Joey makes at the end of the story about the safe possibly not being Vinnie’s Dad’s. That dangled a bit. I don’t quite feel it wraps things up. However, the symbolic gesture, the transformation in Vinnie is very good. All you need to do now is show Joe to the reader in far more detail before the climax scene in the bedroom.

I’m really proud of you Giselle. The improvement you have made since your first submissions is notable, and it is on that basis that I’m granting you your certificate. You have not turned in as much work as you might have, but I am well aware of how much effort you have put in to the work you have submitted, even in the face of some pretty blunt criticism. I know firsthand how difficult it is to take such criticism – all writers do – but the ability to digest such criticism and apply it is the mark of a professional.

I do hope you continue, Giselle. It’s been a pleasure watching you grow and I’m very glad to have had the opportunity to work with you.

All the very best in writing, and please keep me posted!

Lauren

Lauren B. Davis
www.laurenbdavis.com

“What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters
compared to what lies within us. ”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Would I take the Creative Writing by Correspondence Course from Humber, once again? My answer without hesitation is YES! I believe in order to grow and fortify your craft, hard work is required. Leave your ego at the door and find out what it takes to become great.

Many schools that offer Creative Writing programs and I encourage you to look at a few different ones to find the one that is the right match for you. Here are a couple of suggestions:

Douglas College in British Columbia offers a course that focuses on style and content, rather than writing skills.
Ryerson University in Toronto has a Writing Workshop program that incorporates  in class and online courses.

Do you have any writing courses/workshops that you can add to the list?