Welcome to Dave Poyer's advice for the muse-ridden! If you're an
aspiring writer, this may be the most valuable part of this website for
you. It includes some of my most popular pieces/talks, written for
various venues, on the topics writers seem to want the most advice on.
(Sort of an FAQ for writers.) These
files range from 3000-9000 words, and are text only. They're
copyrighted and are furnished for your personal reading only, not for
republication or
distribution in any form. Downloading them means you accept these
terms. I've heard back that they were helpful from quite a few
visitors since this site first
went up, and I hope they work for you.
Lenore and I make an occasional sideline of teaching. She has an MFA and I have a lot of experience. Individually or together we've taught or presented at Florida State University, the Cape May Institute, The Naval Academy, George Mason University, Eckerd College, Florida Community College, Old Dominion University, University of Pittsburgh, The New College, and many other venues. We've been featured on Voice of America, in Poets and Writers Magazine, and on the syndicated PBS series "Writer To Writer." If you'd like to invite me, or both of us, to speak at your conference, college, writers' group, or festival, please see the Contact Information page.
I'll add more presentations as time goes on.
Though writing is a lonely art, it's not good to wall yourself off too thoroughly. Plus, you need to hear how others react to your work. I recommend attending local writers' workshops, if you can locate one near you, and going to as many writers' conferences as you can conveniently make. They help educate you in the craft. They give you contacts and names that you'll need come marketing time. And they stoke that fire in the belly we all need.
I'm a regular speaker at the First Coast Writers' Festival, held each spring at Florida Community College at Jacksonville, Florida. For more information on the Festival, or on the First Coast contests for poetry, novels, and short fiction, click here or write to Writers' Festival, FCCJ North Campus, 4501 Capper Road, Jacksonville, FL 32218. (This festival is currently on hold, though the novel contest is still running.) Another excellent conference you will often see me at is the James River Writers Festival in Richmond, Virginia, held near the end of September/beginning of October. For information on the JRWF, go here.
There are lots of other good conferences too. See the lists in
Writer's Digest or Poets & Writers.
Another excellent way to learn to write (and to make the contacts
that are so necessary, too) is to attend an accredited creative writing
program. This can be
helpful even to those who aren't in their twenties, or necessarily in
the market for a teaching or graduate degree. There are many
excellent creative writing
programs at American colleges today.
In 2006 Lenore and I joined the faculty of Wilkes University, in
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. The MA in Creative Writing at Wilkes
is a 21/24-credit,
18/24-month, low-residency course that is taught in three one-week
residencies, in January and June, and on the Web via WebCT between the
residencies.
Other noted writers, screenwriters, and poets teaching in the
program are Chris Busa, Mike Lennon, Phil Bufithis, Gary Fincke,
Richard Uhlig, Ken Vose,
Michael Mailer, Robert May, Juanita Rockwell, Jean Klein, Robert
Arthur, Jan Quackenbush, Bonnie Culver, Robert Mooney, Kaylie Jones,
Nancy McKinley,
Tom Bailey, Phil Brady, Christine Gelineau, and Tony Morris.
Students meet their teachers and complete their plans during the
residencies, then do their area reading, writing projects, and finally
their capstone (thesis) project, usually a novel or short story
collection, during the semester
periods, for presentation at the next residency. The program is a
well-planned, rigorous one that not only trains students to write, but
also to plan, organize,
refine, and market their work. Which not all
programs seem to do, in our experience! To look at that program
see Wilkes Creative
Writing.
There are many other good CW programs, though, and if you're really
serious about writing as a life career, or plan to teach at some point,
you should
probably consider an MA or an MFA in the field.
Good luck!
-----
David Poyer's most recent book is THE WEAPON (St. Martin's Press,
November, 2008). Check out his work and career advice at the Home Page
location below.