I don't do writer's workshops

From Buzzfeed an interesting what if:

I don’t usually read chick lit, but I didn’t hate reading this draft of your novel, which you’re calling Pride and Prejudice. I really liked the part where Elizabeth and her aunt and uncle went on a road trip, which reminded me of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales (also about a road trip — check it out!). Anyway, good job. I do have a couple of notes to share, in the spirit of constructive criticism.

This is funny. Of course, like most men I don't read Jane Austin for the same reason I don't read Bridget Jones. I am a heterosexual man.

But that's not really the point.

I took a creative writing class in high school, which was better than sitting through English, and one in college (I got a D). In retrospect I haven't found much use for what I learned in these classes. In both cases, I noticed the teachers had never published anything. Being read is kind of the point of writing, isn't it?

I see, sometimes, people with MAs in creative writing. All I can think is, you know, while you were studying creative writing, you could have been writing. I've never been in a creative writing group, I've never submitted my stuff for 'formal criticism', I've never attended a workshop. Which isn't to say I don't ask people to read my stuff.

Once this year I spoke to the Raritan Valley Writer's Club. I was most impressed. Not one student asked me about writing, or process, or any of that. All they wanted to know is how I sell books. How did I get published? How did I get my stuff edited? They were already confident writers, they wanted to know how to get read.

Which is the point.