One of the greatest aspects of going to a small, private liberal art school are the additional perks that student receive. As an English Major with a Creative Writing emphasis, I had the amazing opportunity to hear a formal reading from short-story writer David Jamie Possiant, author of “The Heaven of Animals,” reading a new longer story and then a shorter one. I was then given the even more incredible opportunity to have him in my class the next day and have the ability to ask him questions based on the two long stories we ready for class, and two shorts. Finally I was able to have lunch with him and a few other students.
This may seem like something small – after all, authors and other publicized individuals travel and speak at schools fairly routinely, and not just in full-school addresses. As an author, I found it extremely helpful to be able to have a real conversation with someone who has experience in the world of writing. Of course, Jamie (as he introduced himself) had good, basic advice: practiced, engaged reading is essential to being a writer, as is practiced, engaged writing. “I personally like to write before I get involved in electronics – before Facebook or Twitter or whatever. I like writing in place and I don’t like becoming emerged in the electronics before I start to write.”
In a day and age in which rising authors are raised in a society that has become more and more integrated with technology, I hear what Possiant is saying. Authors are to write what they know, but we, as a millennial generation, have become people who know so much more about the world around us through the internet, knowing not only different locations but also different landmarks and sights around the world that you may not have access to as a young author. Obviously, Google is a great resource to answer questions to which we may not have the information. The internet can be helpful if you are attempting to build a world that you may not have been able to experience (particularly with fantasy and science fiction), but authors should be careful to not write too far out of their understanding of their world.
One thing that Jamie emphasized was to write what you know. Young writers have wonderful opportunities to express themselves and the things we can write are just as relevant as anything else that we may write that could be inspired by through the internet. Personal experiences are just as inspiring as stories that could be pulled from the World Wide Web and for other people our age, our stories are just as important than the ones they could pull from online.
It is also equally important that young authors have the opportunity to speak with writers. Part of what we call “The Albion Advantage” would be how we, as a community at Albion, have advantages that others may not. For me, the Albion Advantage is the opportunity to speak face-to-face with an author, who can help young authors – something that doesn’t necessarily happen at bigger universities.
