As any professional writer will attest, to learn/study the art of writing—and get better at it—requires a deep engagement (a love affair!) with the art of reading. To become our work’s own ‘Best Editor’ demands that we put in the effort necessary to understand a bit about how our own style, voice, and tendencies for making textual decisions have come about. It’s important that we ask questions like:
Why are we drawn to the books, authors, voices, stylistic mechanisms and conceits we find ourselves, in our own work, emulating (or seeking to emulate) again and again?
In other words, as writers, we need to get a sense of (and hopefully, eventually master) our own critical palate. Which, in turn, facilitates both the development and refinement of a personal aesthetic.
Fundamentally speaking, HillHouse views this process as being comprised of the following three activities:
As embodiments of this master-reader-as-writer maxim, our HillHouse Mentors are equipped to assist, aide, and abet your quest for the Aesthetic Grail. Taking into account where you are as a writer—your aspirations, goals, work-as-it-currently-is, idiosyncrasies of style, readerly preferences, curiosities, intrigues, intellectual obsessions, and so on—your Mentor will work with you to sculpt the perfect study plan, and post-retreat artistic regimen.
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