I had a bad writing online teacher John DeChancie who criticized my writing. He wrote “Well, I have to say that I was surprised to learn that you are a native speaker of English. You write in what I would have to call “broken English,” or something that sounds like it. I would describe your prose style as “idiosyncratic.”

His word “idiosyncratic” astounded me. It is out of context for my writing stories. These are only a first draft of the writing stories. I am a native English speaker. You were right he is not a real teacher. I spent 449 dollars for the writing online class (Focus on Short Stories) with a bigotry-minded teacher, and it turns out to be a big rip off. His critque hurts my motivation and suppressed my writing opportunity. Please avoid writer”s digest online classes. It will throw your money into a toilet drain without any benefit for your writing.

Great discussion here. I had a few thoughts to add. I find the original Boudinot article to be extremely hurtful to and disrespectful of Boudinot’s students, precisely because he talks about his students not to their faces, but in an open-letter format on the internet. Were his students personally offended by his piece? I don’t know. But in my mind that’s beside the point.

What I do know is that as a writing student, if one of my MFA professors ever wrote an article like that no matter how anonymous, I would automatically assume that I was one those talentless students he referred to. It’s one thing for a teacher to offer criticism–however harsh or kind–to a student’s face. It’s a whole other thing to rail on students in a format where they essentially have no way to respond or defend themselves.

Second, I think many of the issues he addresses are actually very subjective, but he talks about them as though they were cut-and-dry. He talks about things like having talent or being a serious reader, and frankly, those are subjective things. After all, who decides what exactly constitutes “talent” or what makes one reader “serious” and another not so?

And that’s aside from the fact that some of these so-called “truths” he spouts are actually just plain ridiculous. Chuck Wendig wrote a point-by-point response on his blog and I thought it was so right on that it would have been redundant to write another such response here. For anyone interested in checking out Chuck’s piece, here’s a link to the article:

https://terribleminds.com/ramble/2015/03/01/an-open-letter-to-that-ex-mfa-creative-writing-teacher-dude/

Boudinot does make the occasional good point in his article. Unfortunately, in doing so he also uses the word “woodshed” as a verb. And this guy was teaching writing? Like, seriously? Yeesh!

Aw, Karen, I’m so glad to hear that DIY MFA has helped you. It’s my pleasure and my honor to help writers find their voice and get their stories out into the world. And if it means I have to smack some meanies upside the head (virtually speaking, of course) than well… it’s an ugly job but someone’s got to do it, right?

Keep writing and keep learning. You can do it!

Well I would not doubt that there is a possibility that I misunderstood. It is very difficult for me to have a strong opinion about a situation that I did not experience first hand. I cannot really say he was right or wrong, harsh or kind because I was not there.

My initial post was just my initial response to the article, I don’t know the details therefore, I am also really confused hehe.

Basically, when I read the article, It made me remember my mean teachers. I’ve had really mean teachers throughout school, including college, so I was just happy to hear that I was not the only one.

So wonderful to hear about how your college professor’s words boosted your confidence and allowed you to become the writer you are, today!

I love your description: “I just feel like ME when I write.” I think this is so true of anything that is a good match for us creatively – it makes us feel like our very best selves.

I think perhaps I miscommunicated. I wrote my comment in an airport while waiting for a delayed flight. 🙂

My original thought was that the original article (not this one, but the one it’s responding to) addressed specific patterns of thinking that the author saw in students that kept them from achieving their true potential. They are not imaginary problems, but real issues that I have seen holding back my peers, so I can’t fault him for saying the truth, even if he was kind of harsh with it.

He wasn’t addressing subjective issues of craft, as some people have implied. He was addressing destructive approaches to studying the craft. And he probably has a pretty good idea of what he’s talking about, since he had the opportunity to work closely with students and watch which ones saw success in the long run and which ones didn’t…

I find it telling that people as a whole seem to be avoiding addressing the core information of his article, and are instead attacking the /way/ he presented his ideas. 🙂 Seems kind of ‘ad hominem’ to me, especially for a community composed in large part of English majors, who ought to know better…

I think you’re probably right that the way he worded his criticism was overly harsh and stopped some people from hearing it. But honestly? If an anonymous internet article that isn’t addressed to you directly can hurt your feelings enough that you would stop writing, then you shouldn’t be aiming to publish anyway. You aren’t tough enough to handle it. In which case, he’s actually saving them a great deal of public embarrassment, mental anguish, and probably money. So who exactly is the article supposed to be /hurting/?

The whole point of the article seemed to be that he never felt he could say those things to his students directly, because it would be too harsh. Which tells me that he /didn’t/ speak that way directly to his students. So again… Who is being hurt? I’m just really confused about what is supposed to be destructive about the original article…

I agree Terra!

My family took my confidence away for writing, but my teacher gave it back to me 🙂

I don’t know if I will ever be the “real deal” or not either, but that’s okay. I write because it’s who I am, and I will never let anyone take that part of me away again either. I know I have a lot to learn still, but I just started trying to write a few years ago… my confidence builds slowly and I’m trying to shake the perfectionist in me. She doesn’t believe in rough drafts. It has to be perfect (novel ready) as I write it…. she is silly. 🙂

But writing (like any art) is a subjective topic. If it were objective, like math it would be fine to be “honest”. “No Timmy, 4+4 is not 9”. Everyone has a different idea of what makes a good story. Although, If someone cannot write well, they should learn obviously.

Honesty has so much flexibility in any type of art appreciation… Someone could hate your book, while another could beg for a sequel!

Even if you come across something you want to be honest about, there are tactful and constructive ways to give criticism. Being blunt is not a good or effective way to say that you hate something. The person will just become defensive, and not hear you.

But I’ve been isolated (I wish I was on vacation), so I don’t know anything… it’s just my 2 cents lol

I also had a teacher who inspired me to start writing again! (my family are the ones who tried to take my passion for writing away… unfortunately, they succeeded for many years before I met my college professor – so my skills are lame hehe).

My College professor told us that “anyone could be a writer”. My family took away my confidence as a writer, so hearing this was essential to remembering my passion for it! What she failed to mention, is that it takes a lot of work to become a writer 🙂

I am thankful for her words of encouragement everyday… I may never become a great writer, but that is okay. I just feel like ME when I write. My teacher gave me a part of myself back that my family took (I’m sure they had good intentions) when she said those words. I could never have tried to write again without confidence. 🙂