Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

...And the Beat Goes On

...And the Beat Goes On.

This is Sunday Morning and I still have two reviews left to write. I am amazed by what a bright group of talented writers I have.

Linda is harping that I get it in gear. We have to go to Church and she wants to watch the Playoff Games. Plus I need to get up and put some wood in the outdoor wood stove… It was cold last night and I suspect the fire is long gone from the box.

One of my students had a vignette I couldn’t shake from my mind. It germinated my own version of her story which I provided to her. It risked taking liberties with content that many writers resent, but I did it anyway and she thanked me politely but said it wasn’t her story… What the experience showed me was that when we are doing Exploratory Writing our thoughts are fluid enough to demonstrate the vast array of radiating possibilities that flow from a single idea or concept. That we quickly choose one to the exclusion of all the others which then wither on the vine.

One of my concerns about the course is that many of the students are bringing to the table a story line and characters that are already well developed. They are using the workshop to test a story and characters that are already matured. In doing this they lose much of the benefit of what the course offers. That is doing sketches and getting a sense for all the possibilities that radiate from the vignettes. I need to make a point of stressing this potential shortcoming in the Welcome Letter, introduction and Class Forum. I won’t proscribe it but I need to discourage using the class to refine a work that is already well developed, somewhat rigid and already set up in the mind of the writer.

It is like someone facing a problem and deciding the answer is the first thing that pops into their minds. The Problem solving process was created to insure a problem solver looked at all the possibilities rather than what appeared to be the most obvious solution. Thus using the Workshop to refine the “obvious solution” does not garner the full potential of its utility. It is a question of how well developed the material is…if it is still fluid enough to accept change and flow in new directions.

One of the things about exploring is that you find out things that go beyond what the writer expects to uncover. That is the real benefit of the course. ...To hear the plaintive voice of our muse crying out…. “Turn left at the junction Dummy! Not right.” Anyway it is fun to see the dynamics of what is happening and how each of the students responds. Some are barely in the ball park and others have slam dunked the first lesson and most are fumbling around with their lights trying to cope as best they can.

We have created a great Workshop with some interesting dynamics. What Karen did batting clean-up with her organized and disciplined mind keeps popping up in unexpected places and ways. Thanks Boss