Yesterday we had a terrific first Tuesday night workshop. We had nine people -- four registered at the last minute -- but it worked out very well. It's one of those workshops that has a special kind of energy, and I think the participants can and will help each another. I'll do my best to pitch in.
It there's one thing I'd like to say to all of you in the workshop -- and writers in general -- it's that workshop is like a scrimmage in football. It doesn't count against you. You can't really lose. It's a place to test your ideas and skills and not worry about the outcome. Any workshop, in general, that doesn't make you feel like your can be yourself and write from your heart might be a workshop to avoid. I hope my workshop is the opposite.
Which brings me to a quote I like. It's from Gore Vidal, who has written some fine things and some not so fine thing, but despite everything, is a serious intellect, particularly in modernist period of the 20th Century. Here's what Gore Vidal (who, by the way, is a cousin to Al Gore) said: "Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn."
That's what I want for my workshop participants: to know who you are as a writer. To not care too terribly much what others think. Say what you want to say; learn to craft it; then shape it; and there you go. It's yours.
See you next week. And for those who want to take a workshop, drop me an e-mail or call. I don't tell you to write my way; I don't care about your education or lack of it. I give out very few rules. I simply hope to help you become the writer you can be. That's all.
It there's one thing I'd like to say to all of you in the workshop -- and writers in general -- it's that workshop is like a scrimmage in football. It doesn't count against you. You can't really lose. It's a place to test your ideas and skills and not worry about the outcome. Any workshop, in general, that doesn't make you feel like your can be yourself and write from your heart might be a workshop to avoid. I hope my workshop is the opposite.
Which brings me to a quote I like. It's from Gore Vidal, who has written some fine things and some not so fine thing, but despite everything, is a serious intellect, particularly in modernist period of the 20th Century. Here's what Gore Vidal (who, by the way, is a cousin to Al Gore) said: "Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn."
That's what I want for my workshop participants: to know who you are as a writer. To not care too terribly much what others think. Say what you want to say; learn to craft it; then shape it; and there you go. It's yours.
See you next week. And for those who want to take a workshop, drop me an e-mail or call. I don't tell you to write my way; I don't care about your education or lack of it. I give out very few rules. I simply hope to help you become the writer you can be. That's all.