Lessons from TNEO 07
Originally published at The Mossy Skull. Please leave any comments there.
(TNEO would be The Never-Ending Odyssey, a writing workshop for Odyssey graduates.)
The usual notes to self:
- Work harder.
- Pay more attention to the new stuff. (Read more in general.)
- Hang out with writers more.
And the unusual:
- Work not just harder but longer. Deliberation and polish are part of the process, not to mention repeated rewriting. Suck it up.
- Plot out your story beforehand, even if it is supposed to have no plot.
- Pay more attention to character motivations-belivability and sympathy-because there can be no plot without them.
- I think I’ll allow myself some leeway to experiment with different forms. Short-short and poem, in particular. Epic poem if I can build myself up to it. Likewise with novella-I’m still thrashing around in the planning stages.
Thought-provoking stuff I read while at TNEO:
- “How to Talk to Girls at Parties” - Neil Gaiman
- “Memoir of a Deer Woman” - M. Rickert
- “Strange Wine” - Harlan Ellison