So, I am half way through the 2015 Summer Writing Festival sponsored by the University of Iowa. It has been prosperous. I started out with a weekend class taught by Eric Goodman of Miami, Ohio. The class was titled, Write Funny To Me. It was a good class. I learned a great deal. Eric is a super teacher. One thing that I learned though, is that when I try to write funny, I come off being bizarre. That's just what I was told, "Everything that he has read of mine has been bizarre!" I have to agree though. However, it is the good kind of bizarre, the entertaining kind of bizarre! Kind of like back in the 90's, kids went around saying everything is weird, but now its the good kind of weird as opposed to the bad weird of my generation..So now, in the 21st century when something is 'sick', than its cool and everybody wants it. This could get very confusing for me, so I am very happy with the fact that several people approached me at the end of the class to tell me that they liked my story the best. That my twist on the whole thing about the American dream and having 2.5 kids, was hilarious. I mean, hell, who wants to go around with just half a kid, anyway?
This wonderful class was followed up with a weeklong class on Dark Fiction. An excellent class with an excellent teacher, Richard Thomas of Chicago, Illinois (soon to be on his way to Transylvania to teach a class on Horror). If anybody I ever met knew anything about their subject, he did. A great guy too, open, honest and funny when he wanted to be. I learned a lot. Everyday brought something new, and I met a whole bunch of great people who could really write some great stuff. I was impressed and considered myself lucky to be among some of the best 'fledgling' writers in the nation.
Now, I will confess, I am still struggling with my genre. I have written Memoir, Adventure-Romance, General Fiction, Coming of Age, Suspense/Thriller and Horror and I am starting to feel like I need to pick one and stick to it. Some people say, "Oh, no, just do what you are doing! You are such a diverse writer." Then there are the others who say something more in line with the quote: "Its too easy for a writer to be like a prism, scattering a spectrum of light, but not being true to any color,they never find direction." So, I struggle, hoping that by the time my next two classes roll around in July, I will have decided which path to follow. The one that lay before me or the one on my left that diverges into a wood.
This wonderful class was followed up with a weeklong class on Dark Fiction. An excellent class with an excellent teacher, Richard Thomas of Chicago, Illinois (soon to be on his way to Transylvania to teach a class on Horror). If anybody I ever met knew anything about their subject, he did. A great guy too, open, honest and funny when he wanted to be. I learned a lot. Everyday brought something new, and I met a whole bunch of great people who could really write some great stuff. I was impressed and considered myself lucky to be among some of the best 'fledgling' writers in the nation.
Now, I will confess, I am still struggling with my genre. I have written Memoir, Adventure-Romance, General Fiction, Coming of Age, Suspense/Thriller and Horror and I am starting to feel like I need to pick one and stick to it. Some people say, "Oh, no, just do what you are doing! You are such a diverse writer." Then there are the others who say something more in line with the quote: "Its too easy for a writer to be like a prism, scattering a spectrum of light, but not being true to any color,they never find direction." So, I struggle, hoping that by the time my next two classes roll around in July, I will have decided which path to follow. The one that lay before me or the one on my left that diverges into a wood.
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