"Dear [Jae],
Catching
up with your blog again. You've hit on the difference between a student
and a writer. And between an English major (which I used to be too) and
somebody who wants to create. English majors are supposed to become
professors. Grades help you get into graduate programs and pursue that
goal. Otherwise, they don't mean much. Nor do the essays you write in
class -- except that they give you practice and some feedback. How
valuable is the feedback? It depends. If the teacher is inspired -- and
understands what you're trying to do -- then fine. If your classmates
can spot something you're blind to, OK. But most feedback (including
mine, I'm sure) is fairly useless.
I
think you know, instinctively, that a writer's first duty is to her
talent -- to whatever makes her bang out those words. Whatever sprinkles
cold water on that fire is to be avoided. Or at least kept to a
tolerable minimum. There's a fearlessness to your blogging that, if I
were you, I'd hang onto for dear life. There's no way you can please
everybody...Learn what you can about technique -- and most of that learning
will come from the writers you'd like to emulate, not from school. If
necessary, be a hard-ass about it."
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