Back from TNEO
Whew! I had an amazing time, learned a lot, got some great feedback, and even got some writing done in the process. And got to hang out with some really cool people and wonderful writers, including maggiedr and pantlessjohnny! Lots of other wonderful folks who aren't on lj or I don't know your user names. Because I'm too lazy to reinvent the wheel, the following is excerpted from an email I sent to the Odyssey class of 2006.
I went expecting a refresher course in some things I need to be reminded of and a kick in the butt to get me inspired to do more writing. I got all that, and so much more that I'm afraid I'm addicted. I didn't think anything could top Odyssey. I was wrong! In the short space of a week, I believe I made progress as a writer, learning to pay attention to technical issues I hadn't considered before and getting great feedback from others to help me fix things in my novelette that needed fixing. I became a smarter critiquer, partially due to the fact that we got the manuscripts ahead of time and I could read something, sleep on it, and really consider why something did or did not work for me.
Because of everything I learned at Odyssey last summer, I came into this workshop at a significantly higher level as a writer. This allowed me to take advantage of new ideas and techniques beyond what I would have been able to do last summer. I haven't done as much writing as I would have liked since Odyssey, but I was relieved to find that the lessons I learned still stuck, and I wasn't making many of the same old mistakes. Now my attention has been called to lots more mistakes I didn't even realize I was making, so next year I'll be even better.
The people were wonderful and I enjoyed getting to meet Odfellows from different years. Many participants gave lectures or plot dissections which helped me consider different ways to approach plot. I gave a lecture on Christopher Booker's THE SEVEN BASIC PLOTS which forced me to go through the long book in greater detail than I had before. Yes, I learned things I hadn't on the first read, well, skim, of the book.
In summary, TNEO is a wonderful thing and I would have been insane to miss it.
I went expecting a refresher course in some things I need to be reminded of and a kick in the butt to get me inspired to do more writing. I got all that, and so much more that I'm afraid I'm addicted. I didn't think anything could top Odyssey. I was wrong! In the short space of a week, I believe I made progress as a writer, learning to pay attention to technical issues I hadn't considered before and getting great feedback from others to help me fix things in my novelette that needed fixing. I became a smarter critiquer, partially due to the fact that we got the manuscripts ahead of time and I could read something, sleep on it, and really consider why something did or did not work for me.
Because of everything I learned at Odyssey last summer, I came into this workshop at a significantly higher level as a writer. This allowed me to take advantage of new ideas and techniques beyond what I would have been able to do last summer. I haven't done as much writing as I would have liked since Odyssey, but I was relieved to find that the lessons I learned still stuck, and I wasn't making many of the same old mistakes. Now my attention has been called to lots more mistakes I didn't even realize I was making, so next year I'll be even better.
The people were wonderful and I enjoyed getting to meet Odfellows from different years. Many participants gave lectures or plot dissections which helped me consider different ways to approach plot. I gave a lecture on Christopher Booker's THE SEVEN BASIC PLOTS which forced me to go through the long book in greater detail than I had before. Yes, I learned things I hadn't on the first read, well, skim, of the book.
In summary, TNEO is a wonderful thing and I would have been insane to miss it.