Basically that's just masturbation. Why do they bother? The question, it has answered itself.
when you refer to the writer's collective it gives me the impression that you would do better to develop self confidence and do what you think is right, or to study writers that you find inspiring, rather than spend time on the collective I learned a lot about style and ideas from the writers I find inspiring, but I also learned a lot about construction and editing from the FC...as well as what not to do and what I don't want to write about. They were a good mix of transcendent, competent, and terrible writers, and I got to see a lot of variance. Editing and development has always been the hardest thing for me to do, and while I can learn a lot from just reading, it's very hard to learn the writing and editing process from reading the finished product. Writing about thinly-disguised real people may be a good exercise, but it always seems to me to be a transitional phase; finished characters are composites of real people blended to create one. I am trying to experiment and write what I want to and what I find right; at the moment, I don't feel comfortable writing about real people, and I have very little desire to write anything as delicate and evocative as poetry. That may change, as it often has.
If it works, do it. If it doesn't, why do it? That's my attitude. A very good attitude it is, and I'm glad you've found a process and peer group that works for you. I miss the Fiction Collective and their input, and the Poetry Collective and their playfulness, but I'm slowly finding other people who I'm on the same wavelength with and whose input I can trust. :)
no subject
The question, it has answered itself.
I learned a lot about style and ideas from the writers I find inspiring, but I also learned a lot about construction and editing from the FC...as well as what not to do and what I don't want to write about. They were a good mix of transcendent, competent, and terrible writers, and I got to see a lot of variance. Editing and development has always been the hardest thing for me to do, and while I can learn a lot from just reading, it's very hard to learn the writing and editing process from reading the finished product. Writing about thinly-disguised real people may be a good exercise, but it always seems to me to be a transitional phase; finished characters are composites of real people blended to create one. I am trying to experiment and write what I want to and what I find right; at the moment, I don't feel comfortable writing about real people, and I have very little desire to write anything as delicate and evocative as poetry. That may change, as it often has.
A very good attitude it is, and I'm glad you've found a process and peer group that works for you. I miss the Fiction Collective and their input, and the Poetry Collective and their playfulness, but I'm slowly finding other people who I'm on the same wavelength with and whose input I can trust. :)