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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think one of the things that bothers me deeply about this whole mess, and other similar stories like the Isabel Fall story, are that they seem like a confirmation of sorts of what I have suspected MFA programs and writer groups to be like, and what it is like trying to make it as a new writer. (Of course, the cruelty itself is the worst thing, but that's been covered by many others, so I won't rehash here.) I have been writing for years, I've had positive feedback and encouragement to go further with writing, and I would love to dive in and get an MFA and really learn about the craft of writing. I want to become better. However, I've always held back, because I've been worried about exactly this sort of thing. I'm a quiet person who isn't very sophisticated when it comes to navigating treacherous social waters like this. I'm neurodivergent; this is beyond my literal social abilities. The idea of trying to hang with groups like GrubStreet in order to become a better writer is completely intimidating. I am not worried about my ability to learn and improve my actual writing in an MFA program, but I know I could not excel at the social climbing and general nastiness that seems to be part and parcel of the programs and the writers groups.

Because, let's face it, Celeste Ng, Sonya Larson, NK Jemisin, Roxane Gay, Chip Cheek, Calvin Hennick, and the other writers at the center of inexplicably cruel destructions of budding writers like this, well, nothing will happen to them for what they've done. Their victims won't recover, but they'll be just fine. Isabel Fall is literally destroyed as a person. Dawn Dorland will never publish even if she wanted to, unless it is a predatory "tell all" contract, but probably not even that since what else is there to say? Meanwhile literary gatekeepers like Helen Rosner are out there defending the indefensible, so you know where the publishers stand.

I want to learn to be a better writer, but at what cost? Does improving your writing mean losing your ethics? Does it mean you have to be willing to savage people behind their backs? To turn into someone who delights in mindless social destruction? Is it even worth trying if you know you don't have the social skills to navigate such treacherous interpersonal waters? I don't know, but the whole story saddens me on an additional personal level because I know one thing for sure: I'll never fit into that world. I can't. And it seems that's the price of admission for learning to be a better writer.[/quote]

It is not the best time for art.

There is a lot of emphasis on only presenting the correct narratives, on having sensitivity readers, on only crossing boundaries that are allowed to be crossed. This makes a world that is stifling and insular and awful.

I am a little more removed from the NYC publishing scene than I was once, but I am not sorry for that. I found a group of like-minded writers online, and many of us have parlayed our shared efforts into real careers writing fiction, writing scripts, writing games, and just writing. One thing the last two decades have taught me is you write because you love it, because you want to know what happens, and because you have something to say.  But it is a strange thing interacting with other writers. I have a friend who lives nearby now. When we were kids we wrote novels together. We tried to start a Sunday afternoon writing group a few years back... but we were just in such different places, we had such different opinions... it didn't work. I'm not even sure we are friends anymore. It is very hard to find a writer's community. It involves trust, and maybe it also involves distance. There is a competitive edge that's hard to shake. There is an ugly part in all of us that isn't sure of ourselves, but knows we thing what someone else wrote is bad. Sometimes it's even hard to separate that feeling from their perceived success--or lack thereof. Things are subjective: sometimes you look at a piece of writing that is beautifully executed and it leaves you cold. Other times, you do something like read "The Goldfinch" and wonder wtf was going on with the last third of the novel. It's all a mess, and short stories... I mean, they're lovely, but who really reads them as a genre besides aspiring mfa students? Or aspiring science fiction and fantasy writers...

It is hard. It is painstaking. And at the end of the day you have to be doing it for the love of it or that will show in the work itself.

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