Recap and Follow-up to Meeting #2

Another week goes by...and that's another week of blog posts that I planned and never wrote. I'll get around to them eventually, but the actual writing (aka the fiction, aka the fun stuff, aka the stuff that will make me money) comes first and I'm finding myself with less and less time each week.

As a quick preview on some upcoming topics (because, hey, it might motivate me to actually write them), we've got:

Career Observations from "Rain"
Teaching Creative Writing: Instinctive vs Analytic
The Devil's Advocate Speaks! -- Tell, Don't Show
The Devil's Advocate Speaks! -- EXTREMEism

That should take me through the end of the month at my pace, right? :P

Anyways, the meat of the matter here is that we had another meeting of the Pre-Professional Fiction Writers Business Workshop Extravaganza Fantastique...et al. And this one was a highly productive one -- from my perspective. There was some engaging discussion and identification of areas that we will need to explore more thoroughly, as well as a brief (and then long, and then lengthy) presentation from myself on publication process (and then agents, and then indie pub, and then...it was over).

Below, you'll find a quick recap of the discussion's highlights (including the list of topics that we've identified to talk more about in the coming weeks), as well as some supplementary reading material that I sent out after the meeting for folks to look into if they're interested. Peruse at your own pace and discretion.

Pre-Professional Fiction Writers Workshop -- Week 1 Readings

Hello, again.

As I said in the "Overview" email, this week's topics are:

1. Every writer is different.
2. You can make a living writing fiction.
3. This is a business; we need to adjust our attitudes.

We're going to dive right in, then. Below I present the topics again, with relevant links below. You'll find there are Primary readings, and Secondary readings.

Primary readings are those that I think do the best job of communicating the information we need to start having a conversation on the topic. It might not be the most balanced or accurate in terms of the picture it paints, but it'll definitely be the ones we try to talk about at our meetings.

Secondary readings are the "if you want more information" links. These are likely to come up in our discussions (I'm sure I'll reference them without realizing they're secondary), but are by no means required to understand the core of the topic. Sometimes, they present the same information from a different angle or in a different manner, so if you have trouble grasping the ideas or believing what the primary author is saying, then maybe looking at the secondary material will help you.

Again, as I mentioned in the Overview email, the schedule is fluid. If we want to expand our discussions of these initial readings into two or three weeks, that's fine. We'll just see how things go on Monday.

Okay, that's all I'm going to say. Here we go.

Pre-Professional Fiction Writers Workshop -- An Overview

Hello, everyone.

Welcome to the PPFWW.

This is a new project I'm putting together for a group of writers here on campus who are getting ready to make the jump from student writer to published writer.

This is an area that I've been doing a LOT of research on lately, and it's my hope that by sharing this research with others and opening it up to discussion, we'll all be able to learn.

It occurred to me while I was working on the outline for this week (and the next few weeks overall) that there's little reason for me to keep all this information to myself. As a result, you get this series of blog posts. Basically, they're going to be the reading packets that I send out to the group each week, provided for your perusal. Lots of good links in here, so hopefully you all can learn something along with us.

If I think there's a particularly useful or exciting discussion at the group's weekly meeting, I might share some insights I gained from it, but otherwise you're going to have provide the discussion for yourselves.

And, with that introduction out of the way, check out the workshop overview after the jump.

I Suddenly Feel Very Overhwlemed

Today was registration for classes next semester.

Well, qualification, today was the day that I registered for classes next semester. Unfortunately, due to several complications having to do with transfer credits (namely, that I haven't done anything with them yet), I'm a bit behind most of my friends. So, while everyone else has been gleefully celebrating their schedules for the past two days, I've had to wait until this morning to register.

Naturally, this has led to complications with scheduling the final semester of my college career. But that's not what I'm planning to talk about today. Sorry for the diversion.

Instead, I have exciting news!

But first, a picture: