Norwescon 2007 Writing Workshop details received

I also received the details on my session in the Norwescon 2007 Writing Workshop. My session is Friday April 6, from 10-11 AM. I submitted "The Case of the Killer Dog" and there are four people critiquing it: Chris Bodan, Ted Butler, Deborah Layne, and G. David Nordley.

Chris's name was all in caps in the email, so I'm assuming he's the member of the Fairwood Writers Workshop (both critiquing and moderating) and the other three are the pros. I didn't recognize the names off the top of my head, so I'll have some homework to do in getting familiar with their work before the session.

I find that if I am familiar with a writer's work before I get a critique from them, I can get a better sense of where they're coming from and how I can interpret their feedback (including any suggestions).

The classic critique story is the one someone at Worldcon told about being critiqued by Bruce Sterling: First, he tears your story to pieces; second, he tells you how to make it better. The first part, if you can take it, is very useful. The second part usually sums up to "turn it into a Bruce Sterling story", which can be useful - if you want to write stories like Bruce Sterling.

But still - it's just me, three pros, and one Fairwood member in the room for a whole hour! Wow! It's sessions like this that will hopefully help me pick my writing up to another, higher, level.

Overall, Norwescon looks like it should be fun also, though there's not that many details on the events available yet. I'll volunteer to help at the con, now that I know when my writing workshop commitment occurs.

Potlatch 2007 Writing Workshop details received

I received my information for the Potlatch Writers Workshop. My session is Saturday, March 10 from 10AM to noon. I submitted the newest version of "This Moment, and the Times Before" for critique.

The pros reviewing my group are Jay Lake (http://www.jlake.com/) and L. Timmel Duchamp (http://ltimmel.home.mindspring.com/). Yikes! There's only one other writer in my session, which means each of us gets an hour. Double Yikes! That's very intimidating and nerve-wracking, but also awesome.

Mary Rosenblum (http://www.theflyingparty.com/maryrosenblum/index.html), who is coordinating the workshop, is not one of the pros for the short story sessions. That's a bummer, as I picked up her collection "Synthesis & Other Virtual Realities" and have been enjoying it. I think my style and sensibilities and close to hers, so I'd be interested in her opinion. I might see if I can bribe her into a critique!

The preliminary Potlatch program is up (http://www.potlatch-sf.org/program.php), and looks really good. I don't get there til Saturday morning, so I'll miss the Friday night fun. But I'll be there for the auction, almost all the sessions, and the Sunday brunch. I'm really looking forward to it!

Story off to Potlatch

Revised "This Moment" and sent it off to Potlatch for the Writers Workshop. The four pros running the workshops are Mary Rosenblum, Jay Lake, L. Timmel Duchamp, and Dave Goldman. All four sound great - I wonder who I will end up with (I'm doing the Pro Workshop). More details on Potlatch Writers Workshop at http://www.potlatch-sf.org/workshop.php.

I'm also planning on sending the same story to Critters for critiques in that timeframe (early March). After those two, I'll revise and hopefully the story will be decent enough to enter it in Writers of the Future (www.writersofthefuture.com).

Now, I'll be finishing "Brand Loyalty". I like that story and it has been unfinished for too long.

Feb 7 SacSpec meeting

Went to SacSpecFic (the Sacramento Speculative Fiction group) and received critiques on "The Game of Chase". The comments were mostly positive, and I got some very good points on character actions and character traits. I also got feedback on my version of zombies, which aren't like the "standard" zombies. That is something I'll have to clean up.

Preparing "This Moment, and the Times Before" to submit to the Potlatch convention (http://www.potlatch-sf.org) for their Writers Workshop. It's due Feb 9, and I finally have the time for some minor adjustments before the convention. I think this story has real potential, so I'm looking forward to getting it into the Workshop and seeing what feedback I get. Potlatch is a small literary convention (I went to it in SF in 2005), so it's always fun.

The Book of Honor at Potlatch is "Dimensions of Sheckley", a collection of excerpts from novels by Robert Sheckley. I ordered the book, along with "Masque of Manana", a collection of short stories, from NESFA (start at http://www.potlatch-sf.org/boh.php).

They might not come before the convention so I checked out "Is THAT What People Do?", another collection of short stories. So far I'm really enjoying Sheckley's satirical stories, especially "The Robot Who Looked Like Me". It's a marvelous story about a time-challenged man who decides to outsource his romance, with a nice ending and thoughtful final twist. It's as relevant now (if not more so) than it was when first published in 1973. Highly recommended.

No, Really

I'm really doing this. In fact, I'm doing this so much I don't have time to blog.

Update: 2006 was the year of "Write, Dang It!". In the year, I was able to write or significantly revise 10 stories. The SacSpecFic writing group was a significant spur in getting writing done and getting good feedback on the first version of stories. Critters (http://www.critters.org) was tremendous for getting a large variety of good critiques on stories (usually 8-16 critiques on a story). I kept entering WOTF, but last two entries ("Brandon Magi", Q4 2006 and "Hunters", Q1 2007) both did not place.

2007 is the year of "Get Good Enough to Sell". The current plan of how to get better is: revise stories one or more times, based on feedback from people way better than me. Where to get this feedback? My current thought is SFF online writing workshop (http://sff.onlinewritingworkshop.com) , Critters (to some extent), and writing workshops. Most sci-fi conventions have writing workshops, in particular Potlatch (www.potlatch-sf.org) and Norwescon (www.norwescon.org).

There are also some week-long writing workshops like Orson Scott Card Bootcamp (http://www.hatrack.com/bootcamp2007.shtml) and Viable Paradise (www.sff.net/paradise/). These are "apply and see if you get invited" workshops, so there's no guarantee there, but one might as well give it a shot and see what happens.

And, of course, there are the big spec fic workshops: Clarion, Clarion West and Odyssey. But those are six-week workshops and there's no way that's going to happen this year.

In the meantime, it's keep writing and keep trying to get better. We'll see how that goes!