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Clarion Training Month 1 of 4 March 24, 2006 So here's my training log to help me feel more ready and worthy of going to the Clarion Writing Workshop this summer. If my sentences fail to make sense it's because I've been spending too much time on a computer to think straight. Another month before I'm likely to find out whether I'm accepted to Clarion. I note Orson Scott Card's Boot Camp for Writers is also in June and since I'm no longer running a marathon on the 11th, this would be a nice alternative if I don't get in. However, at the end of last year I applied to an eight-week online workshop taught by James Gunn, which filled up early (before they got my application), making me among first in line for the next one, starting on Monday. I think that'll be plenty of writing class for the year, even if I don't make Clarion. I did all right this first month. Addressed some concerns and validated others. I may have to adapt the "training program" for the James Gunn class, and I'll certainly have more flexibility if I don't get in, but I think these are all worthwhile goals no matter what happens in the next few months. 1 story, 3 outlines My aim was to do four outlines, one per week, and turn one of them into a full fledged story. I did much better than this. I did four outlines, turned two into prose rough drafts, turned one into a comic script submission to 2000 AD, and another one into a short film script. Above and beyond, right? But no matter how much I worked on my two prose pieces, they still aren't submission ready yet. In fact, today I decided I'll likely submit an older story to Writers of the Future on Monday because I know I won't be satisfied with the one I'm working on before the end of the month. And I'm not stuck. I'm just slow. I don't know how I'm going to be able to have something ready every week to be critiqued at Clarion. Sure, I can do a really rough draft in five days but that's not much better than a glorified outline; certainly not something I'm ready to show other people. I'll keep at it, I guess. And I'll keep working on the rough drafts I've got. Maybe prose just isn't my medium and it would be good to figure that out before I spend another eight years working at it. 350 wpm reading speed I think I'm at 350wpm, though I'm too brain fried right now to measure. And I read half a dozen books this past month, including Nancy Kress's Beggars in Span, making it so I've now read at least one book or at least a dozen short stories/essays by each of the six Clarion instructors. Ideabox Templates Implemented I've focused less on this as I have getting scrap paper sorted (next month's task). So I've made decent progress on that, but I've still a long way to go. Filed under Clarion, Journal, Prose and Poetry  
Comments: Discuss this entry at LiveJournalby Alex Wilson. This is from an online journal/blog I kept from 1998-2009. Back to alexwilson.com. |