Structure, Seminars and outright theft.....

[Hillsy]

OK. I may come a bit late to this party but......

After watching the Brandon Sanderson lectures (ok episode 1, section 4 & 6, several times over) I'm putting a feeler out there. As someone who's never workshopped, I found Brandon's insistence to be intruiging at first, then his structure of how it operates to be a revelation. Thus I'm now canvassing for interest.

The concept of a 5-6 person group (rather than a 1-1 or vast online meltingpot) hits a neat sweet spot with my natural anxiety, and so (even though there's a fully dedicated board here that seems to garner little or no activity) I'm interested to see how much attention we can deflect that way - specifically in the form of setting up writing groups in the manner Sanderson suggests. That is: 1000 words a week, critiqued by everyone within that "group", of material that's in the process of, or intended toward, publication. Very structured - very guided - very "go to this website and see how the man lays down da rulez"

Why now? Ok, I fought with constructing a post about a rather nasty revelation I had over the last week: I might actually be good. Not brilliant (hell, I'm reading The Malazan Books of the Fallen at the moment and that proves I know jack about hyper gritty, mega character, epic fantasy) but good enough to show some prose the the world. With that comes a whole raft of pressures, least of all about, you know, story and plot and that, moving towards "If this is the only thing I'm better at than everyone I know - what does that mean if I still can't do jack with it?". But hey: Hubris, navel gazing, self pity, pessimism - the usual muck of psychic baggage we watch through the washing machine glass as it flails wildly and never cleanses......but I digress.

So I'll throw this post out there: viewtopic.php?f=16&t=4818 ......and then hold it out there as some arrogant candle of idealism.

Who's in?

[Mira]

Don't be silly, Hillsy, OF COURSE you're good. Own it.

I'm not a fantasy writer, but sounds like there are some wonderful ones on that thread. Once you have the group, I hope you let us know how it's going.