So I've been gone for the past... oh... three weeks. I didn't intend for that to happen at all. I was fully planning on updating at least every two days. Clearly that didn't happen.
You see for the last three weeks I have been entrapped in a void where time and space have no meaning; a void where reality doesn't exist. I was at a two week long creative writing workshop and then at a close friend's house for the next four days. I just got in last night.
In this workshop, which shall remain nameless in hopes of protecting my identity (An endeavor that I doubt will succeed for long), about fifty five aspiring writers were split into five groups of eleven. The first week we created our very own fantasy world together. And I mean the whole thing. Religion, species, gods, environment, cultures, politics, economy, fashion. Everything all in one week. And it's not like we were locked in to our groups either. When we weren't in our groups we were listening to lectures by visiting writers, eating meals and talking non stop with each other, taking trips to the local book store etc. And of course we were writing in our spare time.
In the second week, we began writing our short stories. They had to be 3,500 to 8,000 words. Which may seem like plenty of room but in two days, I hit 9,200 words and I had to cut 1,200 words out of my story. Exactly that amount. In the end my work was exactly 8,000 words.
The short stories were then critiqued in a few days by the visiting authors and we got some wonderful feedback on our strengths and weakness. I made so many wonderful and true friends there that I was very sad to leave. It's a good sign when you feel like you've known the people for months rather than days.
So, as you can see, I was in a creativity void, in which I am often prone to creative explosions. I pumped out over 9,000 words in two days which is much faster than my usual rate. Everyone else thought I was psycho too.
"So how much do you have so far?"
"Oh I just broke the minimum."
"I've got 4,000 now!"
"Oh that's good! What about you?"
"I have 9,200."
"...Seriously?"
"...Yeah..."
Usually I'm more of a 2,000 words a day kind of girl but that's what this workshop does to me.
My point is, workshops are wonderful opportunities. Opportunities to form lifelong relationships, opportunities to connect on what you love to do (Because even though a lot of us are quiet, when someone is listening to us we love to babble on and on) and an opportunity to really let yourself go. You can't worry about outside distractions so you just write.
It's definitely worth the money.
-Authoress Anonymous
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