This was an amazing experience. I wrote a story here, that I truly believe I would not have been able to write before the workshop. I hope that I retain even half of what I learned.
The first two days we were in a lecture with about fifty other people. At the end of Day One, Mr. Card gave us an assignment.
Take 5 notecards and come back tomorrow with five complete stories–complete as in, begining, middle, end, but not Flash Fiction. These are the Hollywood Pitches of complete ideas.
2 based on research
2 based on observation
1 based on an interview
On Day 2 we picked and presented one of those, knowing that we would spend all of Day 3 writing it to turn in Thursday morning.
On Thursday, I was the third story in the lineup. We went around the room with people saying very nice things, and offering comments. And then it was Orson Scott Card’s turn. The first words out of his mouth were, “This is a nearly perfect story.
I was hard-pressed to appear calm. Especially when he went on to say, “This is fictional anthropology at its best.” “Marvelous story”
And then he went on to point out the holes in it. But, they are all things that I feel very comfortable in handling. One of them turned out to be a stupid omission on my part from writing at three o’clock in the morning.
I’m exhausted now, but very excited. I’m looking forward to my next story, and to polishing this and sending it out.
