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I've very quickly found that blogspot, although a fantastic blogging platform, is too limited for what I want to do. I'm in the process of moving over to my own website. As of the end of March, you'll be able to find me here.
Well, I’ve gone and done it. “Writing Fiction” has inspired me to enroll in a creative writing course. Workshopping my stories is a requirement of that course and so, as you may imagine, I’m both terrified and excited about it. The course starts on April 8th and is focused on the fundamentals of fiction. That’s good. I need some fundamentals.
It is only 6 weeks long which makes it manageable from a commitment perspective. It’s delivered online which also works for me. There is no way I could manage to drive to a college to do a night course right now. Not a chance.
“Writing Fiction” has a very good piece on workshops that helped me to understand what to expect. I’ve always been afraid of signing up for anything that involved a workshop. To be perfectly honest, I’m afraid of the critiquing process. What if I become some raving lunatic desperately trying to defend my baby (errrr...my work)? Even worse, what if I end up catatonic in a corner hugging my knees? Ok, so that may be a SLIGHT exaggeration, but you get the point.
What I like about the course I’ve signed up (and paid for so I’m really committed now) is that the advisory board that sets the curriculum laid out clear guidelines for how to behave when critiquing or being critiqued. It makes me feel just a little bit better that it won’t be a “free for all” brawl. They let me know in advance that I’m not allowed to talk (as in NOT ONE WORD) when my work is being critiqued. Good to know.
I’ve just ordered my textbook. I plan to continue through “Writing Fiction” so it looks like I’ll be doubling up on my reading for a while.
“Book lovers will understand me, and they will know too that part of the pleasure of a library lies in its very existence.” ~Jan Morrison
Ok, you already know that I’m a complete book geek. Imagine this. What is the best thing that could happen to a book geek (other than getting published)? It’s to win a fresh new HARDCOVER book (no cheesy paperback for this book geek)! This afternoon the courier drove up with a package from Harper Collins that contained this:
One brand new copy of Anne Berry’s “The Hungry Ghosts”. I won it with this book review tweet that I posted on twitter two weeks ago :
#cbc140 "Generation A" Quirky tale of misfits whose future is changed dramatically by a bee sting. @DougCoupland does satire so well!
I never win anything so that should explain why I’m gushing. Holy cow, just imagine how annoying I'll be if I ever win a writing contest. Yikes!
Anyway, I can't wait to dive into my new book--just as soon as I’m done with Ms. Alice Munro.
I’m exhausted! It’s my first day back to work after holidays. I had precisely 1746 emails sitting in my work inbox from the two weeks I was away. That’s the good news. I normally get 200-300 emails a day so 1746 in two weeks is light. Needless to say, I didn’t deal with all of them today. I dealt with just over 400 of them. Sadly, 246 more emails came in today. It will take me a few days to get back on top of things but I’m making progress.
I haven’t touched my short story in the last few days. I probably won’t even read it again until later this week when I’m caught up. Once I’m back into my routine, I’ll carve out some writing time again.
My spelling is Wobbly. It's good spelling but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places. ~Winnie the Pooh
Well I think that I’ve found the solution to my spelling woes. I installed a program called Mac Journal that I can use to create my blog posts and the program includes something that I consider my very best friend in the world...SPELL CHECK. Oh yes, this promises to be the beginning of a beautiful relationship!
It also includes some neat features that should I think I’ll have fun trying out:
- video that I can record from the camera in my iMac
- audio recording
- did I mention spell check?
- full screen mode to reduce distractions
- multiple journals (for those of us who have multiple blogs)
Just a quick update for now. I promise to write more later! We are home from Florida and unpacking bags. We had a fabulous week with friends at Treasure Island. I drank a few marguarittas as promised, but my short story stayed safely tucked inside my bag. I was having too much of a good time to sit still and edit. Sometimes the living of life just has to come first (haha).
We enjoyed some great time on the beach, met some dolphins at Discover Cove and spent a day at Busch Gardens. Then we headed to Disney for 5 days.
For now, I need to get back to unpacking, doing laundry and adjusting to reality again.
I'm sure this will only be the first of several revisions. I'll want to go back at it again when I've completed "Writing Fiction" but am going to take a first run through to clean it up and cut the excess. I love the characters but I think I've said all I have to say about them in 15,000 words which doesn't bode well for extending it to novel length...hence, I believe it to be short story material. Meh, I think I'll leave that to be decided on the beach with a Marguarita in my hand!