The joys of teaching creative writing

Tod Goldberg, who after many stints of guest blogging for other fine folks and much poking and prodding by others has finally caved in and started his own, speaks of what the new year means for him — another semester teaching creative writing at the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program, and coping with the categories of aspiring writers he meets:

There are three things I try to suss out the first night:

1. Who is the crazy person (there’s always, always one).

2. Who is the person who will disagree with everything I say.

3. Who is the person who will be offended by my constant use of the word "fuck" as a place holder for my thoughts, as in, "It’s hard to say whether or not a first present tense story about a woman with an imaginary friend who commits murders while the main character is asleep, but only kills the people the main character dreams of, will sell. I mean, it’s like, fuck.  You know?"

Actually, if that had been the real title of the TV show, I bet it would have been so, so much better…