Frequently Asked Questions

"I would like to take the writer's workshop, but I don't live in Jacksonville. Is it possible for me to take it and do well, despite the distance?"

Certainly. It won't matter whether you live in, say, Gainesville, Florida, or Gainesville, Georgia. . .or Portland, Maine. You will still be able to do the assignments.

"Omigawd, the course deals with poetry, and stories, and everything. I didn't expect that! I should just stay away from the course, right?"

Relax. The course will enable you to focus on your areas of interest. If you want to attempt something from all areas, you may do that. On the other hand, if you simply want to focus on, say, memoirs, that's possible, too. In any case, whether you write poetry or prose, many goals will overlap. For example, good poetry features sharp images. So does good prose.

"What happens again if my computer breaks down? How will I get my papers to you and back?"

You go on campus (or to a cybercafe), where you can access your e-mail.  Then you e-mail the assignments to the instructor.

"How much writing will we have to do?"

There's not a magical number of words. You may write a short story that is 4,000 words long; a classmate may be doing a story that ends after 2,500 words. . .or 6,250. There are different word counts, as you can see.

"What kind of students do well with distance learning?"

The self-starters do the best. They may procrastinate a little, but they decide to get the assignments out of the way on a regular basis. If they have a set-back, they say, "What the heck," and keep doing work. Woody Allen says that success is showing up 80% of the time. If you do show up and work regularly, you should succeed.

"What kind of students don't do well?"

The procrastinators paralyze themselves. They make an effort to sign up and say to themselves that they are really going to buckle down. . .tomorrow. . .or maybe the day after tomorrow. They never do. They are like cooks who have only four burners on a stove. They've got a pot of Work bubbling in one, Family in another, Play in a third one, and TV in another. The Pot of School Work isn't even on the stove.

"I live approximately 40 miles from Jacksonville in a town whose library consists of mainly donated romance novels, so getting my hands on collections of poetry or short fiction could be quite difficult. May I use the internet at my disposal to find reputable works and, instead of citing a particular book from which it was taken, cite the website?"

Yes, you may use the web. Some websites give you links to the text of entire novels, short stories, poems, etc.

"What part of the course is most important?"

The most important part of the course is AFTER the course has ended. During the course, you may find that you really don't want to write stories or poems for the rest of your life. "What I really want to do," you may decide, "is run a gift and crafts store, with a loom in the back so I can design and make rugs." If so, great. You may end up using your writing skills more on brochures, ads, etc. related to your shop. On the other hand, you may realize, "I am a writer. I am someone who writes almost every day, and I'm writing seriously."   Or a light may go on one day, and you may say, "Darn, I should write a book about all the screwy things that happen in a crafts store."

"What if I feel that you as an instructor are simply wrong about everything. . .and just a pain in the buttocks?"

You may wind up feeling that. Your instructor, however, will attempt to give you a solid wall off which you may bounce your ideas. He won't be wishy-washy, but will generally try to approach prose and poetry from the standpoint that words have specific meanings, that some words sound better than others, etc.

Sometimes your instructor may look at a piece of writing and change his mind about its virtues or defects. At other times, your instructor has had an irritating professor or editor who was simply wrong about everything and finally realized, "If this piece is going to get a good grade/going to be accepted/etc., I'm going to have to do it his/her way."

Eventually, when you are sending out submissions to editors, you may encounter editors at four different magazines who either dislike or are indifferent to your stuff; however, the fifth editor may like it. The goal is to keep submitting. (Oh, another reason for rejecting your work: The magazine may have just run a story somewhat similar to what your piece was about.)

"Have you had any successes with past Mighty Fine, On-Time, and Online creative writing classes?"

Definitely. Many of the successes may not occur until years later when things begin to click for the former student-writers. Generally, each year, one or two students from this class win prizes in an FCCJ short story contest.

Actually, YOU will be the one to have a success. Ye Olde Prof has no control over what you and other students do. One term, for example, about 9 or 12 students made A's, with most of them also receiving an honors designation. However, the very next term, the class had 4 A's (out of a dozen students). Several others were an assignment away from passing, but didn't do that assignment. A few others did, say, the Orientation test, a couple of critiques, and two or three exercises (all totaling to about 400-500 points), but then everything stopped.

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