How Can I Keep From Singing Zoom's Praises?

Let's all pause so I can rave once again about how much I love Zoom workshops. At around 9:40 this morning, we decided we weren't going to do a hiking day. I raced down the hall to my laptop and registered for this morning's workshop with the Off Campus Writers' Workshop in Chicago. It was being held at 9:30 their time, 10:30 mine. It ended up being an excellent workshop led by Suzanna Calkins on a subject I can use next month.

You cannot turn on a dime like that and get to a workshop half a country away that's starting in 50 minutes without Zoom. Also, because I joined the OCWW this year, this morning's workshop only cost me $10.

I don't know if I'll ever get over being amazed by things like this.

But that's not all!

After attending a two-and-a-half hour workshop--from Chicago, remember--we made another last-minute decision to do a one-hour walk this afternoon around a reservoir in eastern Connecticut. Not just any walk, a beautiful walk.

Look at these phragmites! We've never happened to see them at this time of year. Yes, they are an invasive species here that is destroying the native cat tails. But, man, I can't deny these were pretty spectacular looking.

As great as this walk was, it was better because I'd been to a workshop--and a good one--just a few hours before. How can I not love the technology that made this possible?

Then I got a rejection late in the afternoon. But that's how you know you're working, right?

The Weekend Writer: A Couple Of Words About Workshops

I highly recommend that new writers take any writing workshops and classes that are available, affordable, and of interest to them. Writing is a craft, and very few people can learn it from just writing the same things over and over again without any thought of how the rest of the world reads and comprehends words on a page. 

However, not all workshops/classes are going to be terrific.

A case in point is the workshop (in reality a talk) I took this past week.  I thought the workshop leader was going to explain a method to help with drafting and revising. Instead, the workshop was about...Well, I would be hard put to say. This event makes my list of worst so-called workshops I've attended. 

Another Great Benefit Of Zoom

However, it was a Zoom workshop. Thus:

• It was cheap.
• I didn't have to get dressed up or made up.
• I didn't have to drive hours to and from the workshop site.
• I didn't have to find a place for lunch or decide to go without, which is always an option.
• I hand-drafted part of this blog post while the workshop leader was talking about who knows what.

 A really crappy workshop is nowhere near as big a loss when you're taking it over Zoom versus having to drive somewhere.

What Is A Writing Workshop, Anyway?

The word "work" in "workshop" suggests some kind of "work" is going to happen during it. You're going to do something during the workshop. However, in my experience many writing workshops are in reality talks or lectures. That doesn't mean you can't benefit from them, especially if you're just starting out. Personally, I'm a fan of a good lecture, especially if the lecturer knows how to use PowerPoint.

If you've been around the workshop/conference/retreat track a few times, though, you may get to the point that you've heard a lot and don't want to hear anymore. A member of my writing group once said she was tired of conferences, she wanted to write.

If you're interested in workshops that will do more than just tell you information, look for the word "generative" in the description. The workshop leader expects the workshop to generate work. Even workshop descriptions that suggest participants bring a project they're working on often end up being for workshops that involve very little work. I've had better experiences with workshops that are described as "generative." 

Old Wine In A New Flask

Some writing workshops, as well as writing books, do not provide new ideas or techniques. They're the workshop leader's or book writer's personal application and name for techniques other people have used and written about and that are generally called something else. If you are a new writer and you haven't heard any of this before in any way, shape, or form, you may find this helpful. 

If you have been writing and studying a while and have heard of this before in a different way and perhaps are even using it, you may find this old-wine-in-a-new-flask content confusing. You may end up sitting there searching for something new that just isn't there.

A Final Point

Sometimes you just have to suck it up, because you're in a lousy workshop and move on. I, myself, will be spending some time today continuing to watch a recording of a SCBWI workshop that is good. Okay, it's really a lecture, not a workshop, but so far it's been a good one.

Movin' on.

Here I Am Raving About Zoom Opportunities Again

I go everywhere from here.

This past week, I attended two Zoom events. Within 22 hours, in fact. The lead-up to how I attended them illustrates one of the terrific things about Zoom opportunities.

• Wednesday was a hiking day here. I got back to the house at 5, took a shower, tossed back some dinner, and sat down at 6 to watch children's literature historian Leonard Marcus's lecture on the history of Little Golden Books hosted by the Northern Illinois University art museum. It was excellent. And free, but that's not the point.
• On Thursday morning a family thing for that evening was cancelled. Part way through the day I realized that that freed me up to attend an agent panel on Zoom sponsored by the Society of Children's Book Writers for its members. It was also very good. And free to me, but, again, not the point.

Attending these things was effortless. I didn't even have to preregister for them. I didn't even dry my hair before the Marcus lecture. When my head popped up in a box on my screen, I just ran to the bathroom next door and made a quick braid. There was no getting ready and driving somewhere. There was no having to plan my day around going to a lecture or a panel discussion in the evening. I got the benefit of  all this content at my convenience, tucked into a spot in my day.

What's more, the speakers and panelists clearly were taking part from all over the place. They hadn't had to plan for days that they were going to have to travel somewhere to speak for an hour and then get themselves back home. A 60- or 90-minute event truly was a 60- or 90-minute event for them. 

Margaret Atwood is speaking at my alma mater in Vermont next month. I'm registered to attend it virtually. Another freebie for me. Later today I'll be registering for my first workshop of the fall. I admit I'll have to pay a modest amount for that. But I'll be signing up for the virtual option, so I won't have to leave Connecticut to go to the Thurber House in Columbus, Ohio to attend.

Digital events, often brought to us on Zoom, have the potential to bring so much into lives. I think some people may feel negatively about them, because they associate Zoom with the pandemic. But they are a positive the pandemic unintentionally brought us. It forced us to truly think outside the box and move forward technologically. 

Still Another On-line Opportunity During The Covid Era

Late yesterday afternoon/early evening, I took part in a virtual literary salon organized by author Patricia Ann McNair in Chicago. Patty (Yes! I can call her Patty!) held the salon for students in two on-line workshops she led this summer through the Connecticut Literary Festival. I took her flash forms workshop, which was wonderful and which I will gush about here sometime in the future. 

Two other writers from Connecticut took part in yesterday's event, but there were also two from Michigan and one from Seattle. Another person may have been from the Chicago area. Never would I have been part of a group this widely dispersed under normal circumstances. For that matter, a salon would have had to be very nearby for me to consider leaving the house for one at all. Because you all know how I am.

Once again, for all the true chaos this flipping pandemic has caused, it continues to create some types of opportunities, opportunities that I hope will continue when we come out of the other side of this thing. 

This salon fell at 5 o'clock in my time zone, so I provided myself with a little charcuterie plate and white wine to create a serious literary experience in my cellar office. Turns out, though, no one else was eating at this thing.

Of course, that didn't stop me.

Taking Advantage Of A Pandemic

My group writing spot

 The Group Write

You may have heard stories about writers getting together somewhere to write. Maybe at a coffee shop. Maybe at a library. Maybe at a little diy retreat at someone's home.

No, I've never done anything like that. I've never seen the point. Why do I want to be with others to write? I am, of course, speaking from the privileged position of someone who doesn't have children at home or a day job to work around. I know some people like to do a group sprint in order to get some control of their time, to force them to take advantage of a small amount of time, and I understand that. In the past, however, when considering a writing get-together I always thought about the time I'd be using to get dressed up enough to be with other people and then drive back and forth to the writing site. How much time will I have to spend on being friendly? And what if everyone works harder and faster than I do? Why would I want to risk experiencing that?

Yesterday, though, I took part in a one-hour noon write-in on Zoom organized by the Greater Hartford SCBWI Meet and Greet Group. Four of us gathered from...wherever...with an image and sound of a fireplace playing on a corner of our computer screens for ambiance... A pseudo-retreat.  We barely saw each other. Chatting was limited to messaging about whether or not we could hear the fireplace and saying good-bye at the end of the hour.

Seriously, this went well for me. I did work the whole hour, beginning writing on a project I've been outlining for weeks. I definitely got something done. I was happy.

This would not have happened if people could get together for real. In a coffee shop or a library or at a diy retreat in someone's home.

A Workshop On My Sun Room Couch

If only I could attend all workshops from here

I wrote here back in April about the digital workshops the SCBWI has been offering for its members during the pandemic. Yesterday afternoon I viewed one that had been originally presented in May, Using Scene To Build Story with Linda Sue Park.

This was an excellent program, especially for those of us who self-identify as organic writers (often referred to as pantsers) and have trouble isolating and working on the elements of a story. Park talked about using character/plot/ setting together.

I probably wouldn't have attended this workshop in a traditional conference setting, mainly because I don't go to that many conferences. And when I do, I look for workshops with "plots" or "plotting" in the titles, hoping that they'll address what I see as my number one writing problem. Given a number of workshops to choose from, I might not have realized that this one would, indeed, address my number one problem.

What Does It All Mean?

Both yesterday's group writing gathering and the workshop were positive experiences for me. And I would never have done them in a pre-pandemic world. I don't know what to make of that. What does it mean for what I'll be doing in a post-pandemic world? Will this type of on-line living still exist?

Well, why speculate about the future, right? I will just live with the more robust on-line life I have now. Omm.