Saturday, June 18, 2011

gratitude day 17: WIFYR


Oh man.

How does one sum up the week that I had? Being in Holly Black's fantasy class at WIFYR writing conference was terrifying, enlightening, exhausting, informative, and most importantly...

hysterical.

Holly cracked jokes about herself, about her mistakes as a writer, about the Church of Satan (surprisingly helpful to understanding the villains in my story), and especially about our manuscripts, all while wearing the most fantastic shoes. I wish I'd ignored my inhibitions and snapped pictures of them every day.

I will be a better critique partner because of Holly and the rest of my fantasy class.

And I'm thinking about my manuscript in a whole new way. That's the terrifying part.



I'm so grateful for Olivia, one of my critique partners, for going through this with me, despite being deathly ill. [I hope you don't mind that I posted this adorable picture of you.] Having her with me made the scary bearable. And infinitely more fun!

[And we sorely missed our other partner-in-crime, Meagan. I predict our next writer's group will be an in-depth analysis of the entire week.]

I admit, I had a moment pulling up to my house at the end of the week in which I thought: I never want to look, hear, or think about writing, or books, or agents, or queries, or plots, or EMOTIONAL LOGIC, ever, ever again. It was a hard week, as I had expected it would be, because it put into focus every writing flaw I have.

Overwhelmed. Done with it. That's how I felt by the end of it all.

But guess what I did when I woke up this morning? Pulled out all the critiques and began making plans for another revision. A huge, sweeping, drastic revision.

Because I am crazy. And because I am, in the fleshy tables of my heart, still a writer.

11 comments:

  1. Hurrah! You did it! You were there! You are living the dream! :D Just say the word, whenever you want me to read your book.

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  2. So glad you are still a writer at heart. It would be horrible if you stopped.

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  3. It sounds like such an intense, emotional week. Super high highs and some crappy lows even too maybe. I'm so glad you got to finally go this year and experience all of that.

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  4. Why did all my sisters steal the cool genes?

    Geeze.

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  5. This past week was a such a great experience, and it is nice to know I was not the only one who was intellectually and emotionally exhausted. How about those adverbs?

    You must always be a writer. I want to see that gorgeous book cover of Luma on the beach at The King's English so I can buy it and find out what happens!

    Good luck with your revisions.

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  6. OH, what a lovely picture of me! (I'll get you back for that someday) and I 'AMEN' every one of these comments.

    I'm grateful for the whole experience and the person who made me go!

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  7. You're my hero, Rachel! Thanks for sharing your experiences and feelings. Love you to pieces!!

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  8. I'm so glad you had a good time, even though it was horrifying and hard. And, how fun, scary, exciting, and apprehensive to have Holly look at your manuscript and give you critiques!

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  9. It takes so much courage to put yourself out there like you did that week and i am so proud of you!

    It would be a sad day for this world if you weren't a writer anymore.

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  10. you are an amazing writer. i want to hear more about this day.

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  11. Can't wait to see revised genius. =)

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