A Useful Article on Writing

This piece here in the Austin Chronicle makes some good points about creative writing. But like the writer himself says, it should be taken with a grain of salt. For example, I think he's unnecessarily harsh on workshops:

Be careful of "workshop" classes in which you present your writing for the criticism of classmates and the teacher. Your classmates don't know any more than you; their comments will be mere opinions, backed by scant knowledge and experience – but they have the power to hurt you. You want your writing to be approved, of course; when it's not approved, that's painful. But if you shape your writing to the opinions of the inexperienced and unknowledgeable, you'll set yourself back years.

The above is probably far more true of online writing workshops than it is face-to-face groups. The size of online workshops, the drive-by critique nature of many of them, and the lack of clues in online dialogue make it difficult to assess the knowledge and experience of commenters. That's not so true of groups that meet in person.