Leadership Redux

A mere short example of Leadership in action:

My creative writing class has been evaluating student written short stories for the last week, and for the rest of the semester.  According to the teacher our class is the most critical, or more accurately, her previous classes have all engaged in something akin to mutual back patting and dick sucking while our class seriously discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each piece in an effort to make them better.

Why?

Me. 

I'm not patting my own back here. I didn't set out to be a 'leader' in the class, though I did set out with no fucks given about how people viewed what I did.  But I hate people blowing smoke up my ass and telling me how great I am without telling me what I could be doing better. So, when invited to critique a story about ball breaking bitches who take down serial killers like yesterday's news, despite my distaste for the theme, I do my best to make it the best damn story about a ball breaking bitch who takes down a serial killer like yesterday's news.

And I invite others to do the same simply by breaking that ice, being willing to take that first, potentially hostile, step.  I also do it by riffing off of others, spinning observations into advice and ideas, and helping them do the same.  

I set an example, looking for ways to make my points without making them attacks. 

That is Leadership. Its a small example, trivial on the face of it, but I am making my class better, and subsequently, hopefully, myself.  

And I don't find myself, after class, raging at the enforced politeness, the unearned praise for shitty writing and so forth... the pretty lies that we are all great and good.  I don't let those lies take root. 

I could probably skip every other day of class and the process would continue. I've set the ball in motion, and it would take a willful, deliberate act to stop it.  I can't claim I did it alone, as we have some insightful people in class, people with good writerly instincts... the manospherian might want to point out that the men are doing the yeoman's work of critiques, but I am reluctant to make that charge without caveat.  

It occurs to me that we find pockets of greatness in history.  A fine example is Frankenstein, written by Mary Shelley, who's husband wrote the first English vampire story of note, developing many of the tropes we now take for granted, in the presence of Lord Byron, who was himself a creative powerhouse.  The phenomenon can be found in almost every human endeavor, read the Wiki on Lord Keynes (even if you, as I, disagree with his economic theory), and you find he lived and worked among a cluster of 'who's who'. 

Why?

My belief is that one successful person passes on their wisdom and connections, they grow from the smarter but perhaps less creative voices, inspiration passes around and around, ever growing.  

I'm not saying my class is that sort of supercell of writing.  Not as it is now, and maybe not ever. But I'd like to think my own effort has improved it, and I've been, in turn, challenged by the writing we've heard so far. I've written my short story for class, but I will be rewriting it because it doesn't meet the standard I've been shown. 

If I believe I've been a leader so far in Class, why not see if I can continue to lead? Why not try to form a small writer's group with these people, continue our efforts outside the often ridiculous 'lessons' and exercises we are given by our teacher? 

Thus, I have two challenges for myself: To improve the writing I intend to present to the class, and to grow as a leader amongst my peers by helping create a more permanent (and useful) group.  

This does not eliminate my earlier challenge to more actively flirt with the girls I find attractive enough... it merely makes the backdrop more... interesting.