Iowa, Land of Writers

I just came back from the 25th Annual Iowa Summer Writing Festival, and it was one of the best weeks ever. I took Sands Hall's class on "Writing the 2nd Draft," and Malinda McCollum's "Writing Beyond Their Years: Child Protagonists." I learned so much.

Sands' new obsession (her words) is SCENE--defining the objectives of a scene, making sure every word in the scene fulfills one of your objectives, and being purposeful in how you begin, end, and transition to the next scene. I can see so clearly that the scene is the building block of the novel, rather than the chapter, which can encompass a dozen scenes or more. I can see that thinking in terms of scene, rather than chapter, will make the revision process less onerous.

We did nightly homework, which was incredibly valuable, and critiqued each other's scenes. Not easy, but great practice in listening critically.

In Malinda's class we talked about using different points of view to present young voices. It was a weekend class, so it went quickly, but we were a very small group (only 4), so everyone got to read and hear their work discussed. I wrote up a true event from my childhood, which has made me think seriously about a series of essays about growing up Jewish (though not very Jewish) in a Christian world. I may just do it.

So my message to writers is this: don't worry so much about agents and editors and getting published. Take classes and become an awesome writer, and the rest will be WAY easier.