During the NanoWriMo, there was an almost unending stream of solicitations for donations to support that organization’s young writing program. You’d think that funding this program was mission critical as if was the most important achievement in the world.
You know what I just realized? There are literally thousands of these programs out there directed at teen writers. Thousands.
And they all act like the writers of the future won’t become the writers of the future if they don’t start out in one of these programs. What a fucking racket!
If you’re going to be a writing guru scam artist, the aspiring teen writer is really where the money’s at. All you’ve got to be a some random shitbird with a few dubious publication credits to your name. You go buy some rundown farmhouse or cabin at a sheriff’s sale, slap a coat of paint on the barn and call it a youth writing retreat or something. Personally, I think your average teen writer is better off taking a seminar in how to get rid of blackheads than waste a dime on one of these programs. Thing is, I don’t remember there being any of this garbage when I was in high school. When I started writing, it was just me, a notebook, a Smith-Corona manual typewriter and a library card. Oh, there were creative writing contests here and there that were for teens, but I don’t ever remember all these retreats, workshops and the like. When did this sort of thing become so popular? And Seeing as how, there is more arts funding at the state level for projects centered around teens and less for individual writers of genuine merit, I have to ask:what have these programs really accomplished? Are we really churning-out future Hemingways? Are these programs even turning out more teens who can pass the writing part of their statewide high school assessment tests?
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