Life of Wriiting Letter

Just mailed this. Any suggestions? Volunteers?

Dear Margaret,

I'm sorry to have to bring this to your attention after being so sick recently, but it is important. As the student representative I have been asked to convey a serious frustration about the "Life of Writing Class". This particular frustration is not about the essay at the end of the class, though I suppose that has been an issue. Rather, the frustration centers around the written goal of the course- to help writers live a life of writing after they leave Newcastle- and the actual presentations themselves.

There have been a few exceptions, however, the students I've talked to do not feel as if they have received much of use in living a life of writing after Newcastle. Most of the sessions have seemed to have concentrated on what a particular person did, rather than how WE can make it happen. For example, last week's session was little more than a slide show on art work in the city. We learned who did the art work. We learned a little about how it was created- but almost nothing about how WE could get such jobs. One student even asked for this information and beyond a few statements about the arts council and reading certain arts mags and newsletters for job listings, there was little that was helpful. For those interested, a few things that might have been helpful would have been: How to write a proposal to the arts council- perhaps even practice in this field. Who to contact and how to contact. What they're looking for in a proposal. Successes of the artist in relation to getting contracts and jobs and more importantly- how and why he/she got those jobs. Failures of the artist and how and why.

As another example, a few weeks ago we were handed a list of national organizations we could peruse on our own time and then spent 2 hours doing goal planning. Some said they found this helpful- however most felt that while the goal planning did a good job of helping us see potential problems to reaching our goals (which some of us knew already) there was no help provided in solving those problems (which most of us thought was what the class would be about). And that seems to sum up what the class has more or less been about. Time and again the presenters have told us about the difficulties in getting published or living as a writer but few have actually provided any practical solutions to those problems.

To be fair, there was one presentation where the presenter gave us handouts and talked about how she markets her books. This was helpful. She gave us practical suggestions about how to get out there and sell books. How to get booked for readings etc. These kinds of practical suggestions and skills are what most of the students who've talked to me seem to desire.

Some topics that students thought would be helpful are: How to get published. How to write cover letters. How to get agents. Whether to get an agent. How to deal with rejection. How to submit. Where to submit. How to do research on learning how to submit. How to get jobs that relate to their field while they're writing- not just a list of possible jobs either, but the actual how to. In essence, practical skills and suggestions on how to live a life of writing.

This discrepancy between expectation and reality has led in some cases to anger, in others to depression, in most cases to a general frustration- a frustration that seems to be growing every week.

I don't know if this is a case of misplaced expectations on the students' part or presenters not understanding what they were asked to do or perhaps a little of both but I was wondering if there was something we could do about this?

If it would be helpful to meet with some of the students, I'm sure I could gather some volunteers.

Regards,

Sean