Creative Writing

I just started a Creative Writing class at Olympic College - I was real worried about being 60 and going back to college, but so far it's been a good experience. The teacher is a great guy and has an incredible love of words and language. Which is a good thing in someone teaching creative writing. So far there has been lots of reading and writing which are fairly easy for me. My hardest challenge so far is keeping my word count at whatever the lesson is designated to have. As we all know, I get real wordy - when I'm talking or writing. LOL.

We just get our first assignment back today. He said that my opening sentence was very powerful. The assignment was to write a paragraph of a challenging event in our lives (real or imagined) then after that was done we were to open the page and finish the assignment. Rewrite the same paragraph using only one syllable words. Now that was challenging. But he marked on the rewrite "good job" "very powerful rewrite". That made me feel pretty good.

Maybe I'll be able to get back to writing or working on re-writes of my stories. One of my writer friends has told me that as soon as I get it re written, he has found a couple of markets I can send it to. So, I don't want to take too long to get it polished and ready to mail.

In case you're curious, the story is called "Slippage" and it's about a young woman who has finally broken up with an abusive boyfriend, but not before he sends her on a "Virtual Vacation". She enjoyed the vacation and was able to see the ocean, mountains, desert and a big city all in the hour she was hooked up to the machine. The problems begin after she throws "Edward" out of her house. She 'slips' physically, back into the virtual world where everything seems to be dead. This happens enough times that she begins to think that she is going crazy, except that her dad and brothers - even Edward when he shows up at her office - see here disappear. Anyway, each time she goes to the virtual world it is different and she finds or is given talismans of one sort or another (a feather, dust are just a couple). Each time she is back in her real world, she is a stronger person and more able to deal with Edward causing havoc in her life. I won't tell you how it turns out, because I hope to have it published and then you can read it in a book or magazine. Wouldn't that be so cool?

I'm planning to do NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) again this November - I hope to finish the novel I started last November. I'll let you know how that works out.

My tea kettle is whistling for me, so I've got to go. I'll try not to stay away so long before posting something again. Bye