Valencia was a fascinating book. How cool she flirted with you. My sister had a english major. She's always said, the only thing it prepared her for, was the brief time she was a book editor. Creativity is a hard thing to teach.
Oh, and I have a trick for writer's block. I get an old poem of mine and write it backwards, or reverse the meaning of all the verbs, or switch nouns around. I've come up with some bloody awful stuff, but I've stumbled onto some really cool stories, too. Either way, it makes you think and write.
The little sprite was resting under the mushroom when the catapiller came inching along...."why so glum" asked the catapiller?....the little sripte sighed and said "ive had a long day at work and i need a backrub" The sweet fuzzy catapiller used all 870 of her legs to give the sprite the best backrub ever!
"reading radically feminist lesbian local authors, go to their poetry slams, support them and try to learn the tricks of the trade."
School just gives you the rules so you can break them! I agree about how it makes you question yourself -with all that crap about genre...but if you stay true to your writing than you can take what you want and leave the rest.
Oh, and I have a trick for writer's block. I get an old poem of mine and write it backwards, or reverse the meaning of all the verbs, or switch nouns around. I've come up with some bloody awful stuff, but I've stumbled onto some really cool stories, too. Either way, it makes you think and write.