Well, WordPress ate yesterday’s posting, so I’ll just quickly sum up.
We were introduced to the workshop by Leslie and Neile, two wonderful women who do a lot of work setting up this workshop for us. After they’d explained a few tedious, but necessary rules (no bare feet in the house, etc), we were introduced to our first instructor, John Kessel.
He asked us to introduce ourselves to the group and go over some of our reasons for attending Clarion West. Everyone had a different story and background. There was at least one PhD and several Masters level students, some of whom had studied English and Creative Writing. Others (like myself) were just amateurs looking to improve their craft.
We watched the movie Miller’s Crossing to help study plot, and then we were assigned a writing exercise to write a short story in an hour that used a huge number of silly words like “stallion” and “duplicate”. This being our first exposure to each others fiction, some people spent more than an hour on it, and there was probably a little chest beating, but all-in-all it turned out to be a pretty fun exercise.
When we read them the next day, at least two of the stories were absolutely amazing. The group got some good news later in the day when Tom Rodgers was notified that he won Semi-Finalist in Writers of the Future, and Miranda found out she’d placed as an Honorable Mention. Congrats guys!
I stupidly volunteered to write a story really quickly to be critiqued first, which means that I have to complete it by tomorrow at 7pm. This is a tight deadline. The reason I volunteered was because John Kessel would only be able to help workshop stories that were written by Tuesday or Wednesday, and Wednesday filled up immediately. My admission story was my Writers of the Future winner, and I suppose it would be nice to get his thoughts on it, but I can’t really change it since it’s published. It would be much more valuable to get his input on a new piece.
Our second exercise was to write a scene where a character is developed through their actions, and I accidentally wrote a whole story. I really like it though. It’s called “Flight of the Ad Suit”, and if it’s well received at group tomorrow, I’m thinking of submitting it to Jake Freivald over at Flash Fiction Online. Jake’s a great guy, and we’ve corresponded before, but I’ve been a little intimidated about sending him anything seeing as how I edit EDF. What if it wasn’t any good? What would he think of me then? So I’m finally going to overcome my insecurities and blast something out to him. Hopefully he enjoys the read.
Signing off for the day. Wish me luck on completing my story.
3 Comments(+Add)
Jordan, I found this through a Google Alert. Invoke me, and I shall come.
I trust that your insecurities aren’t deep, but the questions you raise are worth discussing.
The question of sending a story to a fellow editor is an intimidating one, isn’t it? I’m saved from that problem somewhat by the fact that I’ve written very little since starting the magazine; I’m in fact very impressed that you’re doing the Clarion workshop.
I don’t think you (and I’ll address this to you, but consider my comments to be general) should worry about “What if it wasn’t any good?” If you like what you’ve written, then you should submit it. One’s own fiction is always harder to judge than someone else’s, so if I were to reject your story for quality (rather than for fit) that would just be an indicator that it could use improvement. Well, so what? Most submissions could use some improvement. That’s why good writers remain open to critiquing.
Speaking of which, I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but the professional writers I’ve worked with have been at least as open to critiques and editing, maybe more so, than amateurs.
With respect to “what would he think of me then?” This is an interesting question because you’re essentially asking, “What would he think of me as an editor when I submit something to him as a writer?” But editing and writing are different skills. I know that I’m a better editor than a writer. We’ve probably both worked with great writers who really need serious editing as well as people whose prose is tight but whose stories are listless. If I like EDF (and I do, conceptually and in practice) then I’d be foolish to let my admiration for you, your team, and your venture be diminished by your attempt to use a substantively different skill.
Anyway, I’m rambling, and like the old saying says, “I didn’t have time to write you a one-page letter, so I wrote you a five-page letter instead.” Good luck with your story and the rest of the workshop.
Jake,
Thank you for commenting. I keep forgetting about the magic of Google Alerts (though I have several set up myself).
I know that writing and editing are two different skills, but as editors, we judge writing all day long. If I wrote something terrible and then sent it off to you, you might think, “Man, he thinks this is good? How the heck does he edit a magazine??”
Yeah, I’ve noticed that professionals are more open to critiques. I think that’s part of being “professional”. You don’t have to take every suggestion, but you should give it weight. For instance, the first editor that Daniel Keyes showed “Flowers to Algernon” to said that he should give it a happy ending. He refused and trunked it, only to have another editor accept it practically as is later on.
And, no, I don’t really have time for Clarion and EDF, but luckily, I have Camille who is, in fact, superhuman. Once again, she’s covering my ass.
Very good points on the ‘different set of skills.’ It’s especially puzzling when you’d think they should be in synch with each other. For example, I’m quick to point out modernisms in other people’s fantasy works. Not just modern turns of phrase but modern thinking as well. Then I turn right around and get hammered with that same criticism by my own writing group. And that, I suppose, is why we have critiques.