First day of workshops.  I tried my best to scare the noobs.  Just kidding.  They seemed to take the whole process rather well.

The afternoon module that I took was on Scene craft.  If I retain nothing else from it, I know that I’ve got to have conflict in every scene.  Right now, the only conflict I have in many of my scenes is that I don’t have any conflict.  Bah!  Lots of reworking to do.

Last night I met with my mentor and got great feedback on how to move forward.  Here are the bullet points:

•  There’s always more research I could be doing regarding the subjects I use in my work.
• I’ve got to work on my self confidence otherwise my writing will suffer.
• My characters have to make stronger choices
• I need to show that I’ve weighed out their choice instead of just having them make choices because I said so.
• Got to rework the injury of my main character so it’s more clear.
• And I’ve got to not be so scared of my own darkness so I can write the tale that needs to be told.

I didn’t sleep much last night.  I don’t sleep very well normally.  I especially don’t sleep well in hotels.  Last night, I had the added problem (which I haven’t had in a long time) of having too many ideas for my thesis running around in my mind to be able to relax and sleep.  That actually felt good.  I’ve been stuck since the last submission in May.  It’s nice to have ideas flowing again.

Friday:

• My short story piece is up in the workshops
• Lunch with critique partners
• Afternoon module “Perk up that Plot”
• Thesis presentations this evening
• My first public book signing :0