They think they don't know how to write. And through these tiny little steps I lead people here, then here, then here, and pretty soon, without even knowing it, they've produced a surprisingly deep and joyously creative piece of writing. That word worries me, because it's a value judgment, and it implies a standard, an agenda. The problem is, creativity is not amenable to those kinds of judgments and standards. To Your Collection Writing the Wave Perigee 272 pp.
True creativity comes from a deep source within the individual soul.
It's delicate, spontaneous, experimental, difficult to categorize. I tell people to stop worrying about categories, genres, forms, all that. Instead of criticizing what comes out because it doesn't meet some unspecified condition for perfection, I praise what comes out because it is a perfect expression for that person at that time. Those who succeed in becoming what the famous writer wants, they get the praise, they get the degree, they get the publications and the jobs, they get the chance to turn out another generation of replicas, this time twice removed from the source. I don't think so.