This is When I Take a Step Back

I had the great opportunity to attend a lecture and an all-day workshop by Hugo and Nebula award winning author and Distinguished Professor of English at Southern Virginia University, Orson Scott Card on the 23rd and 24th. It was an incredible, rather intensive experience as the workshop covered everything from why you should or should not attempt self-publishing to the correct methods for using point of view. On top of that I had the opportunity to submit a current project for a personal consultation with Professor Card. I brought him the first five pages of Clocker.

It was a real learning experience for me. I won't go into great detail, but Professor Card asked me to write three paragraphs from the point of view of the main character, Hink, and send them to him to critique. Some parts of the critique made me feel a little discouraged, but in talking with a friend afterward I realized that I had received the equivalent of a personalized rejection letter from a publisher. When you receive a personalized rejection (as we were reminded repeatedly over the course of the seminar) it means that you made an impression, but that your work either wasn't ready for publication yet or was not a good fit for that particular publisher. And, honestly, I could have received worse feedback (and probably even expected myself to). It did make me rethink a lot of things about my current method of writing and my current projects and, as a result, I'm taking down the Clocker chapters. Anyone who didn't get a chance to read them while they were up who really wants to should feel free to email me and I can send them to people directly, but I feel like they ought to come down. I'm not sure how much will change about the story--it could continue in exactly the same way or I could totally give it up and take on the next project, but right now I'm just evaluating.

I can't promise anything will take its place, either, but as soon as I have some new writing to offer that I feel confident about I will post it. I am hoping to complete my "assignment" and post the results but, at this point, I'm not making any promises.

And now some music, because that's really one of the few things I've been paying attention to since Saturday.