Master of None
Why is there a gnome at the top of this post? Because I searched for “master” in stock images, immediately regretted it and chose this gnome as a palate cleanser. Partly because he looks serene even despite the bird in his beard but also because he’s not wearing leather and chains. Let’s say no more about it.
Well, it’s a great day because I finally finished the Joyce Carol Oates Masterclass I’ve been bogged down in for months.
MasterClass is a website that offers beautifully produced workshops with experts. They’re all long - up to 8 hours if you pick Aaron Sorkin talking about screenwriting. You can watch Christina Aguilera explain to you how to be a great singer (I haven’t watched this but I expect it starts with “Step One: Be Christina Aguilera” and goes on from there). Or Anna Wintour can explain how great leaders work but I’ve already watched The Devil Wears Prada 500 times so I’m pretty sure I’ve learnt everything Anna has to teach me on that front.
It’s a little exxy so I thought about it for a while before going for it. It was all the writers that got me in. There’s a lot. And great ones. Salman Rushdie is there! And Joyce Carol Oates!
I started with David Sedaris and he was fantastic. He had a way of explaining his process with just the right amount of encouragement and severity, particularly when it came to how much work was involved in one of his essays. I loved it.
Then I moved on to Joyce Carol Oates on the short story and it too was excellent. Especially if you’ve always wanted to be on an MFA course with Joyce Carol Oates. She talks beautifully about her own writing and about other writers, especially when she’s discussing Hemingway’s short story, Indian Camp. The last two episodes were two writers discussing their first drafts with Oates, discussing what works and what doesn’t. I felt as if I was peeking into a world I wasn’t ever going to be part of - the one where people discuss each other’s short stories in an airless room and say things like “I really felt a great sense of joy throughout these passages” but Oates was tremendous, asking what the reader was supposed to feel at the end and teasing out what was literally happening in the story, as opposed to what metaphorically happening.
Now I’m onto James Patterson. I chose him because he has a lot of episodes on plot and outlining and those are my weak spots. I’m up to episode two, he’s funny and interesting so it’s already good.
So far, I am a master of nothing and I won’t ever measure up to those writers but it’s satisfying to listen to highly accomplished people talk about the thing they're best at. That on its own makes it worth while for me.
