WRITER’S CORNER, continued  

In that case, I definitely want a manuscript critique. When and how do I submit?

Hooray, you’re taking the plunge! We’ll send more details after you register in the workshop, but here’s the gist:

Email your writing to us circa mid August, and you’ll receive a written faculty critique at the event. We’d also like to share your writing with peers in our pre-workshop e-anthology (with your photo). We’ll critique some peer writing in groups, for those willing.

What kind of writing should I send?

Any combination of genres listed below. You don’t need to write something new. Maybe you’ve dashed off a writing prompt in school that can become the springboard to a story?

Your submission may also include questions, such as: “I’m stuck. Not sure if my character should battle with another subplot, or charge ahead to the main story’s finish line. And how the heck should I end it?”

We invite you to share from half a page up to 10 double-spaced, typed pages. (Please send imaginative writing, rather than book reports.) Choose one or more of the following genres.

Your writing sample(s) may be: 

• Journal entries; memoirs
• Story-in-poems (stanzas)
• Short scenes (a setup, argument, etc.)
• Character sketches (desires, fears, etc.)
• Completed writing prompts (story material?)
• Descriptions using the five senses (a setting and/or experience)
• Short stories or skits (if not finished, include a plot summary)
• A novel’s opening chapters (if possible, include a whole-novel summary)
• Questions for brainstorming: how to start or continue your story or skit?

Feedback will be given to you in the most useful, positive way possible—leaving the final decisions in your hands. We’re here to help and inspire you!

I LOVE writing! Will I get enough at this workshop?

Probably as much as you can absorb! You’ll have many hours of instruction and hands-on sharing. There’s also free time for writing, revising, and imagining. Try it!

Before our time, knowledge came down
from the top of the pyramid to the broad base where
the students survived as best they could. The gods spoke and the
children listened. But lo! gravity reverses itself. The massive pyramid turns
like a melting iceberg, until the boys and girls are on top. The base of the pyramid now teaches.

— Ray Bradbury, a 1980 essay in Zen in the Art of Writing

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