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- Nov 10, 2017
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Just looking for advice before I leap into expense and perhaps poor advice.
I live in the Tacoma area and was considering taking a multi-part novel course offered by the BARN on Bainbridge Island. I knew they had a new writing program after hearing about several courses from friends. Right now I am taking another course there and it's pretty good, but the instructor seems a bit unable to answer questions beyond the basics.
Regardless, the BARN novel in four months course appears comprehensive and interesting. Write a 60,000 word novel in only a few months. Is that enough words? Anyway, I was just about to take out the credit card when I decided to really dig deep into the instructor's Google past. To my surprise I could not find a single credential. She's never been in the publishing business, large or small, never been an agent, never even taken submissions or worked for a short fiction journal of any kind. She's never taught writing, but used to teach in high school. She's never been published unless you count something that appears on Amazon that doesn't even appear to have a real book cover, just something slipshod. She does have an MA, but she won't say from where. That raised another flag for me.
The money isn't a lot, but what I am concerned about is this: will I be receiving suitably good advice from an instructor who really has few if any credentials at all? Is she qualified to be leading me through all the various twists and turns of writing a novel from start to finish?
I'm interested to hear what the community thinks, and if anyone can offer advice perhaps for a different and better course in the Sea-Tac area.
Thank you!!!
I live in the Tacoma area and was considering taking a multi-part novel course offered by the BARN on Bainbridge Island. I knew they had a new writing program after hearing about several courses from friends. Right now I am taking another course there and it's pretty good, but the instructor seems a bit unable to answer questions beyond the basics.
Regardless, the BARN novel in four months course appears comprehensive and interesting. Write a 60,000 word novel in only a few months. Is that enough words? Anyway, I was just about to take out the credit card when I decided to really dig deep into the instructor's Google past. To my surprise I could not find a single credential. She's never been in the publishing business, large or small, never been an agent, never even taken submissions or worked for a short fiction journal of any kind. She's never taught writing, but used to teach in high school. She's never been published unless you count something that appears on Amazon that doesn't even appear to have a real book cover, just something slipshod. She does have an MA, but she won't say from where. That raised another flag for me.
The money isn't a lot, but what I am concerned about is this: will I be receiving suitably good advice from an instructor who really has few if any credentials at all? Is she qualified to be leading me through all the various twists and turns of writing a novel from start to finish?
I'm interested to hear what the community thinks, and if anyone can offer advice perhaps for a different and better course in the Sea-Tac area.
Thank you!!!