Great Regulars: One of the unfortunate, perverse, even terrifying aims

of some creative writing workshops is to help you become what you are not. We look at your writing in workshop and identify what is not happening, and then try to help you accomplish what is not happening. You're not making a good image. You're not writing believable dialogue. You're rushing the narrative--and so you're not exploring what the novelist Kent Meyers calls "infinite time." If you would just do that, if you would just do what you're not doing, then, well, at least we the reader would be a lot happier. So we say, fix your weaknesses. Focus on what you're not doing. Write what you are not writing. Become who you are not.

from David Biespiel: The Rumpus: Poetry Wire: Follow Your Strengths, Manage Your Weaknesses, and Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys

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