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Clarion Training Schedule
February 15, 2006

If I can train for a marathon, I can train for the Clarion Writer's Workshop, right?

Okay I've got just over four months (if accepted) to get my writing habits in shape. I figure I've got three big changes I need to make between now and then to be truly effective as a writer away from home and, most importantly, to get the most out of this workshop.
  1. I need to produce weekly stories.

    I figure I'll benefit the most from each instructor if he or she can actually look at my work. But at my current rate, I'll only have a story for one and a half of them. Prep work takes me the longest, so for any week I don't have a finished story, I'm going to push myself to at least work out a new plot outline.

  2. I need to bring my reading speed up to 500+ words per minute.

    This is important or else I'll be spending all my time getting through other people's stories with no time to write my own. I think this is possible. I've already increased it by 50% and I've only been at this speed reading thing a few weeks. As a bonus, I'm also finding my retention rate goes up with my speed... very important when reading critically.

  3. I need to get my notes digitally organized.

    I can't be taking boxes of scrap paper with me to Michigan. And even if I could, then I would need a system or else I'd never be able to find the idea I'm looking for. I've got to type these babies up and enter them into a system that makes sense. I do have a few OmniOutliner files that serve this purpose, but between them and my Moleskines, I'm sure I'd have trouble finding even what I was working on two weeks ago.
I've got just over four months left, so here's how I'm breaking it down:

February 16 - March 15
  • 1 story, 3 outlines
  • 350 wpm reading speed
  • Ideabox Templates Implemented
March 16 - April 15
  • 2 stories, 2 outlines
  • 400 wpm
  • Scrap Paper Sorted and Typed Up
April 16 - May 15
  • 3 stories, 1 outline
  • 450 wpm
  • Notebooks Sorted and Typed Up
May 16 - June 20
  • 4 stories
  • 500 wpm
  • Information Optimized
I get extra time in June because for a few days I'll be recovering from running a marathon (not to mention a practice marathon in May).

I also have an extensive reading list (this is the first year that I've already read stuff by all the author-teachers at a Clarion, but a few of the books and stories were a long time ago. Plus there are plenty of SF classics I'm embarassed to admit I haven't picked up yet), and I would like to get at least six weeks ahead with Telltale so there's no downtime there. And notes and such aren't the only part of our place that I need to unclutter.

Phew. This is already looking harder than the marathon.


Alex Wilson Writer

Alex Wilson writes fiction and comics in Carrboro, NC. His work has appeared/will appear in Asimov's Science Fiction, The Rambler, Weird Tales, The Florida Review, Futurismic, Shimmer, ChiZine, FutureQuake, Pif, and Dragon. Locus Magazine has called him a "promising new writer," and Publishers Weekly also has nice things to say.

Alex runs the audiobook project/podcast Telltale Weekly and the writer wiki Guidevines. He publishes the minicomic/zine Inconsequential Art. He is a 2006 Clarion graduate.



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