Sunday, November 06, 2011

Lynda Barry Has the Cure for Rejection Blues, I Think

In a world where there are a lot of people saying "no," it's nice to hear someone say simply "good."  Not "the best."  Not "better than his but worse than hers."  Just "good."  Without any specifics or actual judgments.  That part is up to you, the writer.

Because are we really doing this for approval?  Really?  There are much easier ways to get approval, I think.

The big irony is, maybe 80% of my published work came out of working with Barry's method.  Some of it even came out of the class itself.  Barry's focus is on imagery and working in series.  She steers away from publication, fame, all that claptrap.  Regarding fame, she says, "It's a cookbook," which only the gray haired people and science fiction geeks understand, but then she is kind enough to explain.  I won't here.  Wikipedia does a good job.

This article on Barry's class in the NY times is worth a read.

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