A Five-Day Writers Workshop by Betsy Ashton

I attended Tinker Mountain Writers Workshop at Hollins University.. I go to improve something I have in process; others go to begin writing. I'm beyond the beginning point but by no means beyond learning new techniques.

I took two short stories, which I hope will become part of a novel-in-stories. One story was nearly at its final version. The other was good in the first half but ran off the rails in the second half. I knew that but had no clue how to fix it.

I was one of eleven in the class, which ranged from very accomplished to "I haven't written anything at all." Not the best mix to get the most of a workshop if you are at a more advanced level. We ended spending a a lot of time helping them understand basics like, "what's a cozy?" or "what do you mean by voice?" Hard to keep your perspective.

We had a collection of nine extremely accomplished writers, all of whom took their work pages away and looked the typing under layers of ink. We all marked everything up and gave the manuscripts back to the writer. We had almost 200 pages to read, reread, and critique. Death march by any other name.

When the group read my first story, they liked the textures I wove in; the voice, which was a ten-year-old boy; the sense of setting, and the plot. The instructor liked the fact that I used sentiment but never lapsed into sentimentality. You guessed it, one of the newbies wanted to know the difference. She'll learn.

As I said, I loved the experience. It was my sixth time, and I will return next year. I always prepare my absolute best work, only to find out it needs a lot of help. Look for me to be working though the suggested changes this weekend.

And now to rest. I'm brain dead. I really can't think about anything beyond dinner in a couple of hours, a glass of wine, and a long summer's nap. See ya on the other side.