Writing Class: The 600 Pound Gorilla
In the distant past (2008), Mark A. Clements taught a six-class series entitled “The 600 Pound Gorilla.” Its premise was simple: there’s a hulking anthropoid in the room that many writers either ignore or fail to notice: they aren’t trying hard enough. They say “I’m done” too soon; “that’s fine” when it’s not; “I can’t do any better” when they can.
The truth is this: 1) the odds are excellent that you can make whatever you’re working on right now much better (more powerful, moving, beautiful, authentic, etc.) than you think; and 2) the most certain way to burn out or lose your way as a writer is to ever stop trying to improve. But before you can do better, you must first acknowledge the presence of the gorilla. Then you have to accept it. And then you must develop the skills to get the beast working with you rather than against you.
That’s what “The 600 Pound Gorilla” series is meant to do.