Web wunderkind Andrew Boni has done his job and my site is reborn. MicahNathan.com is all growns up.
(Aside from some lingering menu issues but those will be fixed)
So how do we mark this occasion? With shameless plugging of current and future endeavors? Nah–we’ve had enough of those for awhile. How about an update of my life as a graduate student at Boston University’s writing program? Self-indulgent, yes. But this is a website for Crikey’s sake. We traffic in self-indulgence.
So here’s where we are: a couple of workshops, a local bar, and my amazing classmates (who have delivered better edits than any professional I’ve worked with). Most of your emails are filled with questions about the relevance of writing programs for the as-yet-unpublished, and I don’t have an answer just yet. I may never have an answer. Do writing programs improve one’s writing? Sure. How can they not. Especially if you’re writing in a bubble and burdening your friends/spouse/family members with editing requests. Writing programs widen your readership, and that is always helpful. Writing programs thicken your skin, and that is always, ALWAYS helpful. I remember my first bad review like it was yesterday. The anguish, the self-pitying, the ridiculousness…
But writing programs are not mandatory for writing “success” (whatever that means), and they are not an automatic entrance into the supposedly-hallowed elevators of publishing houses, and they are not and they are not. They are not many things. What they are is a tool. One of many tools. Reading is another tool, which a good writing program will force you to do (and which BU is forcing me to do, much to my annoyance). So why a writing program at this point in my career? Because I like having many tools to chose from, and now I have officially pushed the imagery too far. Onward…
The local bar is The Dugout. I have lived in Boston for nine years without enjoying the laid-back atmosphere of The Dugout. Shame on me. The situation is being remedied every Thursday night around 8 p.m. All are welcome.
Our session is over. We all need a sorbet and here you go:
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