I wanted to post again on the Institute because of a couple comments. When I first came to this board for the very first time, I was not involved in the Institute. Now I am. I teach several courses in the children's area. I've written a course. I write their free email newsletter. I answer questions from aspiring writers all day long via email (for free). I'm heavily personally invested in helping writers who want to be published get that way -- but sometimes I also gently steer people away.
As an instructor, I'm not the student's spell checker or grammar checker. If I have a student who HONESTLY and clearly doesn't know some specific grammar rules -- I will explain them and give examples and mark them every time I see them. If I have a student who's just being lazy and not checking their own papers but I know full well they know the rules, I don't mark everything. I'll mark some of it -- and eventually I'll give the person a little lecture on the importance of actually checking over your work. The idea is to send the instructor what you would send to an editor so the instructor can help you with WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW -- not what you didn't bother to do.
Most of my instruction is about WRITING -- how to strengthen characterization, appropriate use of specific detail, plot, point of view, theme, didacticism, voice, dialogue, etc. I'm supposed to teach folks how to write for publication. Sure, for students who don't know a specific grammar rule about verb tenses or how to handle run-on sentences, that means I need to explain it to them -- that's part of writing instruction for that person. But for students who just send me rough drafts and don't check over their work -- that means a general lecture on being careful and a few spots marked...I'm not their human spelling/grammar checker.
I don't want my instruction on the REAL stuff of writing a good story to be lost in endless mark-ups on spelling/grammar for students who actually do know how to do that (again, I never ever mind helping students who are really struggling with a specific bit of grammar or word use or punctuation and need instruction and examples).
Are there other paths to publication that are just as valid as ICL? -- sure, TONS of them. And some of them may be MORE VALID than the Institute for YOU. Each of them will work brilliantly for some people and not so well for others. Distance learning works brilliantly for some people and not so well for others. Learning by pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps and seeking out information and crit groups works brilliantly for some people and not so well for others. Face-to-face courses in college work brilliantly for some people and not so well for others. We each have to find the path that works for US...I was a bootstrapper myself (I have a Journalism degree but it did nothing to help prep me for writing for children except to teach me to write short -- which is pretty valuable -- though I also had to unlearn a lot to go from newspaper writing to writing for children).
The Institute courses are NOT the right path for everyone, but for those who found real success at it (and I get emails from folks who did every single day), it was a good path. But every path is going to require things from you -- some of them are going to be hard things. You need to pick your path and then you need to be ready for real WORK.
Now, I didn't put this in to convince folks to take Institute courses. This thread makes it really really clear that they don't work for everyone. Distance learning is NOT the right road for everyone. Before you BEGIN to consider it -- you need to ask yourself some serious questions:
__ Do I learn well from text? Some folks are audio learners -- if you are, distance learning isn't going to work NEARLY as well as taking face-to-face classes and going to conferences and workshops. But if you find you read and retain well, it might be an option.
__ Do I tend to resist instruction? Some folks don't like being told what to do -- if that's you, you're probably a bootstrapper. Nothing gives you more freedom and flexibility than learning by pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps. You'll go to conference, read books, and take away only what you want from each thing. So things like MFA programs, college courses, and distance learning will seem rigid and expensive since you'll be resisting the whole time.
__ Do you need a lot of social interaction? If so, a college course where you have actual classmates or joining face-to-face writing/critique groups are going to be much better for you. The give and take will involve more people and more voices. Distance learning is going to seem cold and frustrating.
The best way to choose any learning journey is to look at yourself first and see what kind of learner you are and thus plan what kind of system will work best for your needs and style.