Abel, Robert H. One Writer's Apprenticeship. Creative Writing in America.

Here Abel wrestles with whether creative writing even belongs in academe: "Formal academic writing may not be necessary for the writer who can and does explore the world and the world of ideas out of a powerful personal curiosity. And it may even be true that if a writer is too immersed in the theories and methods of a particular academic discipline, the door to artistic discipline may be shut" (169). This is a hypothesis with which I struggle on occasion: sometimes I feel my Ph.D. work, or even the atmosphere created by pursuing a doctoral degree in something as "formal" as rhetoric/composition, can affect my creative writing, both my pursuit and drive for it.

Abel points out that pursuing other academic fields does not necessarily mean that a student will not become a creative writer: "Study in pre-medicine did not hamper the creativity of John Irving or Walker Percy, starting out as an engineering student did not cap the creative well of Norman Mailer, and serious study in anthropology did not crush Peter Matthiessen or Saul Bellow" (169). In fact, I think studying or gaining life experience outside of creative writing can lend itself to good writing; too many of us write characters who are writers or academics because they are what we know. If we got out more and experienced life outside of academe, we could probablly write more empathetic, relatable characters for our readers.

"A writer has to leaern and to keep learning. Whether or not a college is the best place to begin this lifelong activity is the question" (169). And I believe this is true. You can learn craft and technique in school, but if you have no life experience of which to write, you won't be a good writer. LIkewise, if you have a lot of experience but don't know how to correctly express it, you won't be a good writer either.