Diary of a Mad Editor

The other night, unable to sleep, I found myself flipping channels. I came across this infomercial for adult acne treatments. You know the ones I mean — they get a couple of actress/models who probably have never had a serious skin problem in their lives. But they ugly them up for a before shot and then show an "after" shot, after allegedly using the product in question. These programs, much like most other advertisements are selling not the product so much as the idea that the product will somehow help us losers fulfill our wildest dreams. That’s the beauty of commercials. Doesn’t matter whether the product does what it’s supposed to do or not — only that we believe in it’s mojo.

Such is the path of the writing guru.  You get a guy — usually a failed writer or moderately successful writer, who sells you, the novice writer, the idea that he can teach you everything you need to know to make you into a successful writer. Whether they call themselves gurus or coaches or mentors, it’s the same deal. You pay them for their sage wisdom. Gurmeet Mattu the semi-successful Scot-Indian playwright (known in the U.S. mostly for his articles posted on various content mill websites) has claimed that a good writing guru such as himself can "shave five years" the novice writer’s struggle. He runs a Guru service called ScriptSchool where he offers "training modules" on every genre of writing you can imagine. Of course, the website, itself, hardly looks professional, which should serve as warning sign to would-be clients, because if he isn’t successful enough to manage a website looks good and organizes its content in a professional, usable manner, you have to question just how this guy can help you become a successful professional. I’m not saying that Mattu is not successful in Scotland, but I do wonder how much of his income is derived from exploiting the hopes of wannabe writers.

Well, you know how I feel about these writing gurus. Creativity coaching, whatever you want to call it. How many truly successful writers do you know who got their start working with these clowns? I know lots of writers — some more successful than others, and I can’t think of one of them who has ever been a client of a creativity coach. And what about some famous writers, huh? Stephen King? No way. Paul Auster? Nope. Cormac McCarthy? Hell no! It’s a scam. It’s a scam. It’s a scam.