I once heard that a consultant is someone who doesn't necessarily know any more than you do, but has it organized into a PowerPoint presentation. (I've also heard it said that a consultant is someone you pay to take the watch off your wrist and tell you the time. I've been a management consultant of sorts, and it's all true.)
Tomorrow is my favorite gig of the entire year -- the annual Writers Conference for high school students in Westchester, Rockland, and Putnam counties (and the Bronx, if I recall last year's cheers). The best teenage creative writers from 25 high schools get a day devoted to their favorite activity -- well, favorite academic activity. And maybe a couple of them will turn up at one of my workshops on mystery writing.
It reminds me that I once wanted to be a teacher; but I'm also aware on these occasions that I don't have the added burden of addressing a group of schoolkids who don't want to be right where they are. I'm spoiled by their brilliance.
But as I go over my notes, I'm reminded again of (a) how much I do know about writing, (b) how much I still have to learn after only 30 years in communications, and (c) how little of (a) sits in my brain in any coherent form.
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