Many years ago, when I was taking a graduate creative writing workshop, a well-known novelist instructor of mine commented that my story, set on a college campus, did not compare well with similar books by Philip Roth, Jane Smiley, Richard Russo, and other exemplars of the genre. She was correct. My story was in no way up to that lofty standard. But perhaps, since I was an earnest young student, she might have been kinder, instead of comparing me to some of the most famous writers of the day. This particular instructor had a reputation of being this way with everyone. In fact, most creative writing professors I encountered had this same reputation, causing me to stop taking such workshops after awhile. Even so, I took these sorts of criticisms personally. I should not have done that, but I think most young writers do.

I recently saw the obituary for this person and thought it was sad. She may have been a terrible teacher, but maybe she was a good person. Then I thought that her passing really didn’t rate up there with the deaths of the true, all-time literary greats, if that’s what we are to measure lives by.

I’ve been writing and submitting for decades now. I’ve had some modest success. To be blunt, in my experience, most of the writers and creative writing professors I’ve met have been ungenerous, competitive, petty, and small minded. If and when you meet a mentor or friend in the field, you should consider this very lucky indeed. It’s everyone for themselves.

The creative writing workshop at the MFA level was a particularly odd experience. The idea, I was told again and again, was to ‘respect the work,’ yet in my classes there was little respect or support given by instructors or other students, all of whom were usually desperate to impress the professor, a person who had met with some sort of literary success at some point in their career.

What no class or instructor can do is give you the drive to write better stories. This motivation has to come from within. And in my experience, creative writing programs do almost nothing to help you navigate getting an agent or making any commercial sales, mostly because the professors have no idea how to accomplish this.

So, you write stories because you want to do it–you enjoy it and it brings you satisfaction. For most of us, we may meet with some success, or maybe not, but that becomes almost beside the point. If you meet a generous writer who wants to help you along in writing endeavors, be thankful. To quote E.B. White at the end of Charlotte’s Web: “It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.”