I spent last week flying coast to coast to attend a writing workshop. It turned out like a Crackerjack box full of prizes. The entire week met or exceeded my expectations, with a surprise bonus of snow in the Berkshires. My Oregon winter had been snowless and a brief, civilized exposure to snowy winter woods was just right. A final sigh of winter before the weather actually warms up.
The reason I was able to go to the class is that a dear friend decided she wanted to go and wanted to have me come with her, so she offered me a scholarship. In other words, she paid my way. Is that great or what? So in addition to a good workshop, we had a chance to spend some girl-time together, which we’ve never done before. What a treat!
The workshop was led by Gillian Kendall, a reader for the Sun Magazine and resident of Australia. She blended exercises to stimulate our right brains with skill building ones like writing dramatic scenes. There was plenty of gentle critique, reading our own or each other’s pieces, and the pleasure of hearing the work of other good writers.
I encouraged Gillian (pronounced like “Jill” and not with the hard ‘g’ of garage) to submit a proposal for a class at the Willamette Writers’ conference here in Oregon. I’d love to have a chance to take another of her classes. The cherry on my sundae was winning one of three free critiques from Gillian. Now I have to push to get a piece of my novel-in-progress to the point that I’d want her to read it.
