Documentary: Bad Writing

This doc really doesn't need an introduction, but it's going to get one anyway.

When I was 17 and a member of a writing program at a university, it was a revelation to learn I was not the best living writer I'd ever met. Of the fifteen in the program, I suffered the most by comparison.

So the worst sentence I've ever written, and there have been so many bad ones you'd think it would be hard to choose but cream rises to the top, happened while in this writing program.

At ages 17-24, we only wrote about love and sex, of course. Entirely confessional, life experiences. All we wanted to do was spill our guts on the page, then go out for some more life experiences an hour or two later.

Ok, on to my sentence: Blah, blah, blah ... "She felt he had sucked her soul from her throat and ... swallowed it."

"Well," the instructor said, "where to start?"

I think she had a 15-point summary of errors -- by way of metaphor, science, logic, just to name a few.

Rob jumped out of his chair. (There were no Bobs in the 70's, only Robs.) "I think what Karin wrote is perfect. Perfect!"

Rob was probably the best writer in the group, and he provided an impassioned argument in my sentence's defense.

Rob had a crush on me, and had been angling for a date the entire semester.

Moral of the story: Defend a girl when she's attacked by all sides and at her most vulnerable, she will agree to date you. Other moral of the story: Odds are, she won't let you suck her soul.

Here's the link to the doc:  http://vimeo.com/56625296. Only free in the month of January.