Guest Post - Lori from In Pursuit of Martha Points

Today's guest poster is Lori from In Pursuit of Martha Points. She does not have a degree in Creative Writing. Does it matter? Read on:


How An Education Can Ruin Your Writing


Once upon a time, before the speech pathology degree, before the lab coat, and long before the blog, I was a creative writing major at the University of California at Santa Cruz where, I am proud to say, I voted for the banana slug mascot. (Hey, it was Santa Cruz. We ate all-organic, if you know what I mean.)

Here is what I envisioned a creative writing department to be: a cross between the Algonquin Round Table and an academic decatholon, but with hip, college clothes and mascot-voting-herbology (if you know what I mean). It was going to be a place to discuss the big questions, to root each other on to the writing of the Great American Novel (to be known from hereon out as the GAN), to sweat out learning the ropes of character, voice, plot and to help shape immature writing into powerful, Virginia-Wolfe-Worthy stuff.