At the opening reception, the director of the program announces the theme of the residency. Friday night he gave us seven questions to think about for the week. I had trouble answering a few of them.

1- Would you rather be an author or a writer?
2- Would you rather be well known or well respected?
3- Do you prefer being described as an artist or a professional?
4- Would you rather write 1 good book or 10 not so great books?
5- Do you believe more in art or craft?
6- When you read do you skim or read every word?
7- Do you want your audience to skim or read every word?

The responses from others were interesting and we found that most of these questions were actually kind of hard to answer. However, one of the professors gave interesting insight on question 1. We’re all writers because that is an action. But author is a title. Author is the root word for authority. Interesting to see the weight behind that word instead of writer. Most of us seem to have said we’d rather be well respected. But in many ways, well respected would also mean you’d have a degree of being well known in certain circles. But being well known does not always mean that you’re going to be respected.
I said that I’d rather be described as professional for a few reasons. First because we’ll have to have a professional presence when at conferences and book signings. We’ll have to take criticism with a grain of salt. Second, because I want writing to be more than just a hobby. That’s why I’d rather be described as professional over artist.
Would I rather have one good book or ten not so great books? I don’t think most of us really answered that. Although it felt like people were leaning to ten because it is a business after all and we’ll need income.
We believe that you can have art without craft but the fact that we are all in this program shows we want more than just art and want to perfect the craft so we can get published.
I personally read every word. Or nearly every word. There are times when I read quickly and probably skip over words but that is when the action really speeds up.
I was going to say that I’d want my audience to read every word. But a friend of mine had a great point. “I don’t care what they do as long as they’ve bought the book.” I have a stack of books that I have bought and still haven’t read yet. From the business side of writing I can’t be too concerned with what they do after they buy my book just so long as they buy it. But the writer side of me would say that it doesn’t matter if they are skimming or reading every word so long as they are enjoying their time.

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Location:Greensburg, PA