Well, I'm back at it again. A writing course, that is. The last one I took was an unacredited 'writing your novel' at York U. This time it 'Writing Fiction for Young Adults' and it is acredited, although that doesn't matter as much to me as getting something valuable out of it will. And, once again, it seems to be taught by someone who has just put the course together, and who has no actual experience in what they're talking about. It all starts to feel like a constant money grab against desperate authors.
Those of you who know me, probably realized I'm not that big of a fan of writing courses. As mentioned, I've had one earlier, in addition to a Writers' Digest convention with panels and agent meetings in York. Neither impressed me terribly, although something good did come from each. In the first case, the course led to the creation of the writing group I'm in, The York Novelists Society (hey, it's York, you have to have something a little pretentious) and in the second case, I learned that agents really aren't that scary and can actually be nice people. Also in the second case, I was quite surprised that I actually met more agents from Canada that are now working in London, than actual British natives.
So, why the dislike of writing courses?
Well, for starters, unless you're published, I'm not entirely sure you're qualified to teach writing at the university level. Especially an acredited course. I mean, for all the books I've read and panel discussions I've listened to, I'm don't think it would be a stretch for me to teach a writing course either.
I have learned most of what I 'know' about writing from either reading books or listening to people in the industry: published authors, agents, editors. I always research the writing books I choose before buying them, and often pick those that have both good reviews and are written by respected authors--or at least are in a respected series. For example, I've found two books by Orson Scott Card (first back to back Hugo / Nebula winner), one specifically on sci-fi/fantasy, and one on Characters and Viewpoint, to be very helpful. Stephen King's book on writing was also very useful and interesting. In addition, conventions like Eastercon have very informative panel discussions with authors, agents and publishers about the state of the market/industry.
So, when it comes to writing courses, I invariably feel like most of the information in the course I've already assimilated. That leaves me with the question: is it really worth it for me to take these courses? Especially since I'm not interested in a general creative writing degree.
In the end, for me, it always comes down to the same thing: getting out of the house and meeting new people. Most of my life these days is spent either at home on the computer, at the gym, or having another check-up at the hospital. So this year, when I learned there was a course on a topic that interested me--I have recently had the vague stirrings of an idea for a YA novel--I jumped at the chance to get out of the house one night a week. Will I learn much about writing YA that I don't already know, or couldn't learn myself? Time will tell, although I'm not holding my breath (I know that makes me sound pretentious at best, but I am a serious student, and very analytical). Will I be richer for interacting with the class, and meeting new writers? Undoubtedly.
Insight and longevity.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
Back from Olympus 2012
I've been back from this year's Eastercon, titled Olympus 2012, for a few days now, letting everything settle in. I'm also looking to use some of the ideas from the convention to kickstart my lagging... well, everything. The last year and a half has been quite.. distracting, and I'm trying to restart some interest writing and art, and return to some semblance of a routine.
Writing guests of honour this year were: George R.R. Martin, Cory Doctorow, Paul Cornell and Tricia Sullivan. Truly a great line up that need no introductions. Apart from the amazing guests, the writing segment of the convention seemed, to me, a bit more sparse than usual and consisted mostly of generating publicity and pricing (e-books), with a good discussion on YA stories (originally intended to be about dystopian YA). Of course, there was a good science program including a great presentation on worldships and an informative update on the modern Martian rovers and their missions. Oh, and Gillian Redfearn (Golanze editorial director), I have such a crush on you!
For my own part, I took along the usual 8 pieces of artwork this year, although nothing was new. Unfortunately, although I heard some good comments about a few of my pieces, none sold. For the second year in a row I did not participate in the T-Party workshop (which was a whopping 4 hours long this time). I probably would not have signed-up anyway, but the major reason I didn't was that I couldn't find information about it anywhere on the Olympus website.
While there were some interesting panel items, I probably enjoyed the author interviews the most. All authors were interesting to listen to but I think I got some of the most useful advice from the interviews with Cory Doctorow and Tricia Sullivan. Both of these authors have very busy lives, for differnt reasons, and both have had new family members this decade, which has meant a significant adjustment for them. The most useful piece of information, for me, they had in dealing with the constant demands on a writers time was to learn to write under all kinds of non-ideal situations.
This has been my pitfall in the past year and a half. I would like everything to be idea and I allow myself to get distracted very easily from my writing. It's precisely those reasons that I have recently considered downgrading my focus on writing. However, I've decided to give it another go--beginning with revising some of my earlier works while planning out future stories (I have a near-future YA in mind). The difference this time is that I am going to try and train myself to write under non-ideal conditions. With three computers of various ages in the house, this shouldn't be difficult.
I am installing Open Office Writer on each computer (so I don't go bankrupt with MS Word) and then I will set aside a two hour block each day at a different time. What I plan is to use a die to divide up the day and roll it each morning (of course, taking into consideration my hard commitments for that day). Since I have many other interests, especially with establishing myself and my brand for art, videos, graphic design, and publishing, this should allow me to focus on writing and make some progress, while still leaving time for other things. If this succeeds in getting me out of the 'ideal writing box' requirement, then I may push it buy intentionally fragmenting the writing times also. But one step at a time.
That's all from me for this week. As always...
Insight and longevity.
Writing guests of honour this year were: George R.R. Martin, Cory Doctorow, Paul Cornell and Tricia Sullivan. Truly a great line up that need no introductions. Apart from the amazing guests, the writing segment of the convention seemed, to me, a bit more sparse than usual and consisted mostly of generating publicity and pricing (e-books), with a good discussion on YA stories (originally intended to be about dystopian YA). Of course, there was a good science program including a great presentation on worldships and an informative update on the modern Martian rovers and their missions. Oh, and Gillian Redfearn (Golanze editorial director), I have such a crush on you!
For my own part, I took along the usual 8 pieces of artwork this year, although nothing was new. Unfortunately, although I heard some good comments about a few of my pieces, none sold. For the second year in a row I did not participate in the T-Party workshop (which was a whopping 4 hours long this time). I probably would not have signed-up anyway, but the major reason I didn't was that I couldn't find information about it anywhere on the Olympus website.
While there were some interesting panel items, I probably enjoyed the author interviews the most. All authors were interesting to listen to but I think I got some of the most useful advice from the interviews with Cory Doctorow and Tricia Sullivan. Both of these authors have very busy lives, for differnt reasons, and both have had new family members this decade, which has meant a significant adjustment for them. The most useful piece of information, for me, they had in dealing with the constant demands on a writers time was to learn to write under all kinds of non-ideal situations.
This has been my pitfall in the past year and a half. I would like everything to be idea and I allow myself to get distracted very easily from my writing. It's precisely those reasons that I have recently considered downgrading my focus on writing. However, I've decided to give it another go--beginning with revising some of my earlier works while planning out future stories (I have a near-future YA in mind). The difference this time is that I am going to try and train myself to write under non-ideal conditions. With three computers of various ages in the house, this shouldn't be difficult.
I am installing Open Office Writer on each computer (so I don't go bankrupt with MS Word) and then I will set aside a two hour block each day at a different time. What I plan is to use a die to divide up the day and roll it each morning (of course, taking into consideration my hard commitments for that day). Since I have many other interests, especially with establishing myself and my brand for art, videos, graphic design, and publishing, this should allow me to focus on writing and make some progress, while still leaving time for other things. If this succeeds in getting me out of the 'ideal writing box' requirement, then I may push it buy intentionally fragmenting the writing times also. But one step at a time.
That's all from me for this week. As always...
Insight and longevity.
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