Fiction Writing?

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Hey, has anyone ever grown up reading sci-fi/fantasy or some genre that they really enjoyed and tried to take a class on writing fiction and all the f*****g class will teach you is how to write 5 pages of description with not ONE god damn thing happening? or the entire class focuses only on poetry, or autobiographical pieces? its kinda drives you nuts. I have an imagination goddammit! why are there never any classes that teach you to channel it, and instead force you to bore yourself and your reader to death?! Its like academia cannot handle fiction if there is genre, (despite the fact that some of the best generations of sci-fi writers were in fact academics, somehow that is not a thing anymore) anyone else have this experience?

I don't know... I can read countless fluffy paragraphs of "the rays of the dusty dusty sunbeam played over the finish sealed grains of the wizened rocking chair." and nothing happening for so long until I loose patience, but THIS is what 'good' writing is supposed to be, yet Heinlein, one of the gods of science fiction, writes AMAZINGLY good and engaging stories with only the NECESSARY amount of description, then balances everything else between exposition, action, dialogue all the while advancing the plot AND developing a world and NOT BORING YOU TO DEATH. and yet, teachers who teach writing NEVER want to cite Science fiction or any really well-written genre piece as "good writing."

I REALLY don't get it...

(sorry, didn't mean for that to turn into a rant. I just get annoyed that none of my writing classes have ever helped me with what i wanted to do, becasue poetry and s**t is perpetually more important than plot, structure, arcs, exposition, placement of information, etc. alot goes into a writing a damn good, well-executed and very cool story, but it seems in writing classes, that is not "high art" or some s**t...)

As an aspiring fiction writer myself, I sympathize with your plight. I do agree with that while vivid description is all fine and dandy, you're still trying to tell a story at the end of the day. I go to a local college, and I've gotten in trouble a couple of times simply because I'm into the horror genre. If I were one of those avant/garde or high literature types, I'd be in their good graces. Genre fiction? Not so much.

I wonder why that is? is it because genre is too subjective to be measured by academia, so they shun it? or is it because genre, typically has the power to engage a wide variety of people where as artsy stuff is meant to engage only the select few?

Its when I tried to take an art class to get better at drawing for comics, and they claims that was not art, despite the fundamental of visual art being VERY well represented in the medium, but I guess that fact that it can appeal to kids offended them...

I've never taken a writing class... but there's definitely such a thing as too much description. I know there are exercises that have you writing things you wouldn't necessarily use, though, like a story that's all dialogue. They're just meant to get you thinking about how to use different aspects.

I write science fiction and horror, too.