Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Free Consultations



I’m thinking about calling this woman for a free consultation to see what she might be able to help me with either in terms of my novel or in terms of my search for grad schools. I’m pretty leery about paying someone to edit my novel, but in many ways she seems to be more of a coach, which could be extremely useful in my potential quest for an MFA. I’m still not even sure getting an MFA is right for me, and if it is, I don’t know where to begin finding the right program.

I don’t know though, would I just be paying for advice I could get elsewhere for free? I had a bad experience a few years ago with a career counselor. Not bad in so much that her advice was bad. I think she was really great, but the process was taking too long for my budget. As a result, I spent a lot of money and all I really had to show for it was a presentable resume, which never got me a job. The one my friend James helped me put together for free got me a job.

But I like her web-site, and her bio says she was a resident at Byrdcliffe once. I did a month-long residency there a couple years ago. Of course, she’s also a Master Practitioner in NLP, so she could just convince me she’s helping me. (I’ve always wanted to learn more about NLP. I suppose I should just buy a book on it.) But, if the Byrdcliffe connection weren’t a sign, I went to a bookstore just now and prominently displayed was a book written by one of her clients. I tend to trust those kinds of coincidences, but they are, after all, just coincidences.

I guess I’ll call for the free consult, and trust I’ll have the powers to resist her NLP-ness and not sign up for anything expensive if I don’t want to.

2 comments:

  1. Don't pay just anyone to tell you what to do.

    Pay me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Alan! I guess you never did call me... : )

    If you decide to pursue it in the future, let me reassure you that I have zero interest in getting people to sign up for expensive services that will not benefit them. That's not how I operate.

    I only just found your link to my site because I have just redesigned it and can now see who has linked in. I hope your search for useful feedback has worked out - it seems like you are doing great.

    ReplyDelete

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In 1789, the governor of Australia granted land and some animals to James Ruse in an experiment to see how long it would take him to support himself. Within 15 months he had become self sufficient. The area is still known as Experiment Farm. This is my Experiment Farm to see how long it will take me to support myself by writing.