Well, folks, apparently if you get a book published, people think that you know what you’re doing. They may ask you to do things, like co-lead a writing workshop.
Yikes!
Even though my long distant college degree was in Creative Writing, I never really got into the mechanism of the whole writing thing. My strength is that I have an ear. I just write, and I know what sounds good and what doesn’t. I don’t proclaim to slay the adverb or to vary sentence length or any of that stuff. I’m of the “I know it when I hear it” school. (It’s kind of like my previous career, firefighting. People either got it or they didn’t. It doesn’t take much to slog along under direction with a tool, but when it comes to predicting what the fire will do and what your options are, it is an art. I wasn’t automatically gifted with that talent, but I worked with people that were. It was breathtaking to watch.)
So when another author and I were asked if we wanted to lead a workshop, I was both excited and afraid. I love talking about writing. I love hearing other people’s stories. But I can’t answer how to diagram a sentence. That turned out to be okay, because our two attendees were brimming with enthusiasm. They brought some fine writing to the table, so much so that the whole thing was easy. We offered suggestions and advice and prompts, and I think the real value is just in talking. Talking about our stories, how we want to tell them, and where we want them to go.
Go, ladies of the workshop. You’ve got this.