I know we've discussed this before, but I'm sort of on a workshop kick right now. I'm signed up for an online Story Magic workshop (although I haven't posted yet, still working my way through the nearly 200 messages in the past week getting a better feel for it all). I also spent a lot of time yesterday cleaning my office, which included triple-hole punching printouts from the online workshops I've taken in the past. I also went as far as to put in dividers to split up the lessons. That's enough organization to last me a week. (It was also a great way to avoid my real goal in cleaning my office, which was to get stuff together to finally do my taxes).
I flipped through some workshops I've taken, including deep POV, editing, plotting, and more. This Story Magic workshop came at a good time for me because I'm trying to rework my story into something better, stronger and more emotional. I think the Story Magic method will help me pin that down a bit more.
One of my other favorite workshops is Margie Lawson's deep editing system. It's great for someone who loves colors and loves to be freakishly organized (well, in certain things anyway...). It has you going through your writing and highlighting various things - like yellow for dialogue, or blue for setting, etc. Gives you a visual representation of the balance in your work and what may be lacking. I think I'm going to purchase her packet of lectures on empowering character emotions. It seems to have some great strategies for getting across emotion in a written form.
I recall a lot of you said you haven't taken online workshops before. But if you were to, what topic would you be interested in? For those of you who have taken online workshops, what are some of your favorites? Help me feed my obsession! I bought a bunch of pink binders a year or two ago with the intention of filling them with articles, lectures and workshops related to writing. I finally filled most of them, but there's still a few empty ones. I don't like empty binders...help me! ;)
11 comments:
I took Margie Lawson's deep editing and enjoyed it. I also liked the color coding and it gave me insight into what was missing from my stories. Although I think one of the entries I just judged took the class, too. It was overstuffed with physical manifestations of emotion. Waaay too much.
Sometimes it's hit or miss with classes. I've taken my share of duds that sounded terrific in the promotion. I'm drawing a blank on names of good ones. Seems like the information only sticks with me for a week. I've organized the notebooks of printouts I have from classes, but I rarely refer back to them.
Lisa, you are not going to like my suggestion but here goes anyway: Fill the pink binders with books you write.
1. Write a book, punch holes in it and put it in the binder.
2. Take a permanent ink marker and write the title on the cover.
3. Wait for awhile.
4. Reread the book. Take another piece of paper and write down what you think you did wrong and what you think you did right and any general impressions.
5. Repeat until this idea seems really, really, really stupid (that means you no longer need it.)
There you go, the Alice Sharpe non on-line, non workshop, non conference method of learning.
The point is, my best suggestion for learning is doing. Pick up a hammer and a bucket of nails, go build a fence, don't read endlessly about building one or go to six workshops telling you how to build one, get out there and build it.
Obviously, I am a hands on kind of gal. And as you know from reworking your current WIP, there's nothing like experiencing a dilemma to make "expert" advice come alive. I think doing and learning go hand and hand.
I would pretty much rather pull out my eyelashes than color code anything. So, all advice from me has to be tempered by that knowledge.
Alice, does it have to be a permanent marker? What brand?
Ditto to what Alice said!!!!
(And all those colors make my eyes cross. LOLOL)
Kendra, haha. Use a regular pen, have it smear, see if I care!!!
(Any brand will do.)
I haven't taken any online classes for a really long time. I took Margie's Defeating Self-Defeating Behavior, but it defeated me because I couldn't keep up. Sigh. I mainly took it to support her as a friend. It was her first online workshop. Not for me, but I know of many writers who got a lot out of it.
I took Story Magic in person over the course of a weekend at a retreat in Estes Park, Colorado, about 8 years ago. It was so awesome! Which is why I continue to do it with whoever wants to, whenever I can. Love it! I used to do it once a year with 3 other writing friends in a retreat environment. I like it that way because it forces you stay on track the entire weekend. So fun!
Now I just take the Ask An Author All classes and Ask An Author Pro classes that are free with PRO membership. Some are good, some are meh. But they're free, so I can't complain.
The only kind of online class I'd like to take and haven't seen yet is on writing series fiction.
I'm moderating (also known as sanctioned lurking) Shirley Jump's class. I'm really enjoying it, and I would recommend her. I would take anything with Cherry Adair as well. I liked Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer's he said/she said "how to write" series. That was great and the archives are still up.
Hi, Lisa!
I was so hooked on online classes one year, I think I took a different one (or two) every month. I especially enjoyed one Mary Buckham did on synopsis writing. (We're so lucky to have her coming to give a workshop in November!) Another one that I use still is promotion for introverts. I learned something from each one because I was in learning mode.
I haven't taken any online classes lately--my time is being spent in other ways. But I think the learning year when I took so many was really good for me.
Alice may chuckle, but I do print out my stories and put them in three-ring binders. It helps keep me organized. And I've also done the highlighting with different colors. Very good for editing.
Then there's the sticky notes attached to the easel pads on the walls...
But, yeah, at some point I settle in to write. :)
Lisa -- Everyone learns in different ways, a thought that popped into my head during the night when I decided I was way out of line with my comments. You asked for classes that help. If I dig into my past, I remember going to a hundred workshops in New York quite awhile ago, soaking up every expert word like a sponge. I encourage you to keep applying what you hear because it's the application that makes it real.
I have binders (somewhere) of information I gathered from workshops, etc. The trouble is, like Kendra, I seldom if ever review it. I'd take copious notes and never look at them again. And I think highlighting everything in different colors to check balance is a bad idea unless you've noticed or been told by a trusted CP that you have way too much of this or that.
Hopefully whatever you learn in a workshop is quickly integrated into your actual work so that pretty soon you don't recall where that skill came from. Taking off an editor's hat to be creative is an important part of the process, but creativity without some kind of order can be chaotic and self defeating.
So, sorry for being a jerk. I have a terrible memory and appear to have forgotten what it's like to be anxious to soak up every new idea and method and make it my own. I agree with Wavy that Cherry Adair is always enlightening plus she's a hoot, and I enjoyed the Michael Hague workshop of character arc and would attend something else he presented with hopes that it would be just as good.
Hope it's okay to comment a bit late on this.
I've taken a total of 4 online workshops -- all this year. It was enough of a mixed bag for me to come to a decision about the usefulness of workshops for me.
The first one I took was Mary Buckham's workshop on sexual tension and I did enjoy it. I tend to write like an engineer, if you get my drift, and I was looking for ways to recognize opportunities to spice things up. I did exactly what she suggested -- I took the bits that I found useful and left the rest behind.
The second was a workshop by Margie Lawson. It wasn't the deep editing workshop, but I can't remember now what it was called (not a good sign). It was something to do with injecting emotion into your writing. She did talk a lot about her deep editing system, though. She's obviously a very nice lady and it seemed like most everyone else was getting a lot out of the workshop. Me? Not so much. I found myself rebelling against the color coding system. And if I read the words "fresh writing" one more time I thought I might scream.
I also took the Karen Wiesner workshop from our chapter, mostly out of curiosity after buying her book. She had a lot of good information about plotting, though most of it was straight out of the book. If I hadn't already bought the book, I think I might have found it a lot more enlightening.
The fourth workshop was actually not a writing workshop per se, though it was put on by the KOD online chapter. It was a how-to-disappear / how-to-find-someone workshop put on by a "skip tracer." It was an odd workshop, but fascinating and full of interesting tid-bits.
Taking the workshops was an interesting experiment and it allowed me to do some soul searching regarding the whole workshop scene. What I discovered is that -- for me -- taking writing (craft) workshops is a way to procrastinate from doing the actual writing. Not a good thing.
So, unless it's something special like the Michael Hague workshop, I don't believe I'll be taking another one. However, if a workshop on a interesting research topic comes around -- like real forensics or something put on by an FBI agent or some such -- well, then I might just sign up.
Thank you all for your great comments! I wrote out a response to each, spent time on it. And the browser froze and I lost it! I am too angry right now to rewrite it lol. But I wanted to thank you all :)
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