What I know by Susan Breen:

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Whenever I hear the expression, "Write what you know," I always wish I knew something more exciting. For example, one of my creative writing students used to be a stripper and I've always envied her. How could you write a boring novel about stripping? (You probably could-but it would take some effort.)

For better or worse, the things I know are decidedly less salacious: how to be a mother, daughter, wife, teacher-and this last was one of the important experiences I drew on when writing my novel. I've been teaching creative writing for Gotham Writers' Workshop (in Manhattan) for more than six years, which means that I have met more than one thousand people who want to learn to be writers.

Any successes in that bunch?

A few, if what you mean by success is that they went on and got a story published.

A lot, if what you mean by success is that the student had a story inside of her and figured out how to tell it. These stories are what fascinate me as a teacher-because each one is so different. The students themselves tend to fall into certain general categories: there are women whose children have gone off to school and they're struggling to figure out what to do with their lives, and then there are people in their twenties who are worried they'll get sucked into a meaningless job. There are retired people who've always dreamed of writing, and people who are visiting New York from all over the world.

I've never actually categorized my students formally, but, for the sake of argument, I would be willing to bet that there are forty different kinds of creative writing student. But, what amazes me every class, is that within these categories, each person's story is so individual. I have literally never seen a writing exercise done twice in the same way. And, even more intriguing, is that I can never predict who is going to do what. That quiet little lady sitting in the corner might be writing pornography, or she might be writing a quiet little story. You just don't know. And this is the joy of teaching creative writing-it reminds me of how unique we all are, and how special our stories are.

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Susan Breen, The Fiction Class, mother, writing, New York, story, Penguin Books, books